Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Holst Centre, Eindhoven Researchers Create New Form of Lighting Made With Thin Flexible Sheets of Organic Light-Emitting Diodes (OLEDs) Using Newspaper-Style "Roll-to-Roll" Printing Process


""These bendable materials could oust the conventional light bulb and revolutionize the way we illuminate our surroundings, being used for everything from lighting tiles and strips in homes and offices to windows that can simulate sunrise and sunset.

Rather than the traditional solid, "inorganic" LEDs that we are used to seeing in display signs, traffic lights and car indicators, OLEDs can be easily dissolved in a solvent and so sprayed onto a roll of thin, flexible, plastic foil in the same way that newspapers are printed.

"Many companies recognize the potential of OLEDs and are investing heavily in research and development in the hope that when this technology finally takes off, they will be in pole position to take advantage," Blom and Van Mol write.

The bottom layer of an OLED, which acts as a support, is a flexible material such as a polymer foil that has the electrodes and the light-emitting layer sandwiched on top to make up the complete device. Each layer is between 5 and 200 nanometres thick.

Traditional LEDs have so far failed to become a viable alternative to light bulbs because, despite being highly efficient, they have to be fabricated in clean rooms and so are expensive to make.""


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