August 3, 2005 – Universal Display Corp. has announced the demonstration of a white OLED lighting panel with a record power efficiency of 30 lumens per watt (lm/W) using the company’s PHOLED phosphorescent OLED technology at The International Society for Optical Engineering (SPIE) Symposia and Exhibition held in San Diego, CA.

The company’s white OLED performance is based on a novel panel design that consists of an array of red, green, and blue colored stripes. Adjusting the intensity of each primary color generates infinite shades of white color, typically characterized by color temperature and color rendering index.

Power efficiencies of this 6″ x 6″ prototype panel were measured at color temperatures between 2,900 and 5700K. The 30 lm/W white OLED power efficiency was achieved at a color temperature of 4000K, which is comparable to the color temperature and power efficiency of a cool fluorescent lamp. By comparison, typical incandescent light bulbs emit light at around 15-20 lm/W with a color temperature of 2900K.

This panel can also operate very brightly. For example, this 6″ x 6″ panel produced 150 lumens of optical power, at an efficiency of 15 lm/W and 3700K color temperature.

Increasing the efficiency of lighting by a small amount has the potential to generate tremendous savings in both cost and energy use.

This advance was reported in a paper, “Phosphorescent organic light-emitting devices for solid-state lighting,” presented at the SPIE Optics and Photonics 2005 Symposia, on Monday by Dr. Brian D’Andrade, senior scientist at Universal Display, at the San Diego Convention Center. This work was partially funded by a US Department of Energy Small Business Innovation Research grant.