Leuven, Belgium--Imec and its project partners have launched its Intelligent light Management for OLED on foil Applications (IMOLA) project, which falls under the EU’s 7th framework program for ICT (FP7). The project’s goal is to make large-area, OLED-based lighting modules with built-in intelligent light management. These systems will be used in future energy-efficient wall, ceiling, and car dome lighting, where light intensity can be adjusted according to the time of the day or weather conditions.
OLEDs are paper-thin, flexible, and lightweight electronic devices that consist of organic materials that emit light in response to an electric current. OLEDs consume up to 70% less energy compared to conventional light sources, but more R&D is needed to solve some outstanding challenges before flexible large-area OLED lighting can be commercialized. The IMOLA project will tackle these challenges, which include the driving electronics, power distribution, integration, miniaturization, and sensors and application intelligence.
Along with imec, partners involved in the IMOLA consortium are TNO/Holst Centre (The Netherlands), Philips Technologies (Germany), NXP Semiconductors (The Netherlands and Belgium), Hanita Coatings RCA (Israel), Henkel Electronic Materials (Belgium), Centro Ricerche Plast-optica (Italy), and the FER department of the University of Zagreb (Croatia).
IMOLA’s application demonstrators in the areas of car and wall lighting will raise public awareness and acceptance for environmentally friendly OLED lighting. In addition, IMOLA will help create a common OLED infrastructure on a European scale. IMOLA’s R&D results will help to boost Europe in OLED fabrication, especially in the automotive lighting field.
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