LG is planning to start mass producing the world’s first flexible OLED lighting panels by July 2013 and have also successfully developed high efficiency OLED lighting panels – 80 lm/W rigid panels. These will be the world’s most efficient OLED panels.
The type 1 panel, or the LG-OLED-041 is a 100×100 mm square panel that features 4,000K, CRI>80, 45 lm/W and 10,000 hours lifetime (LT70) at 3,000 nits. The active emitting panel is 90×90 mm, and the whole panel is 2.44 mm thick. LG says that these panels will have a surface temperature of 26 degrees – roughly around room temperature.
LG’s flexible panels are only 0.2 mm thick and weigh just 0.6 grams – which not only allows new design possibilities but is also useful in energy saving for applications sensitive to weight.
LG used their unique stacked structure (combination of phosphorescent + fluorescent emitters) and the advanced OLED materials and light extraction technology called Face Seal to achieve the new level of efficiency.
LG plans to start producing two more OLED panels in 2013, besides the new 80 lm/W ones. They are the 140×140 mm panels (60 lm/W, 3500K) and 55×55 mm ones (45 lm/W, 4000K) which will come in three different options: one square, two square scribed together and four squares together.
LG is also working on a small 53×53 mm square transparent OLED lighting panels. LG was also selected by the Korean government to lead a project that aims to produce 60″ flexible and transparent UHD OLED panels by 2017.