GE Announces OLED Manufacturing Breakthrough

bughunter writes "Today GE announced the successful demonstration of the world's first roll-to-roll manufactured organic light-emitting diode (OLED) lighting devices (press release). This demonstration is a key step toward making OLEDs and other high-performance organic electronics products at dramatically lower costs than what is possible today. The green crowd is thrilled as well. Personally, as the parent of a 3-year-old technophile, I'm dreading the animated cereal boxes." Now can I get my Optimus Keyboard for less than $1,299?

Comments

Re:What Was the Cost?

[Dr. Eggman]

From the release:

The demonstration of a low-cost, roll-to-roll process for OLED lighting represents the successful completion of a four-year, $13 million research collaboration among GE Global Research, Energy Conversion Devices, Inc. (NASDAQ:ENER) and the U.S. Commerce Department's National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). The goal of the collaboration was to demonstrate a cost-effective system for the mass production of organic electronics products such as flexible electronic paper displays, portable TV screens the size of posters, solar powered cells and high-efficiency lighting devices. ECD Senior Vice President Nancy Bacon said, "This program was a major step in developing high volume roll-to-roll manufacturing for OLEDs and other organic semiconductor devices. The success of this program is testimony to the effectiveness of NIST's advanced technology program model, and our 20-year history of pioneering research in roll-to-roll technology. We currently are utilizing this technology to mass produce our flexible, durable and lightweight UNI-SOLAR brand solar laminates. ECD looks forward to continuing collaboration with GE to further develop this technology for future commercialization." The success is in the creation of a manufacturing process, the strip was the demonstration of its success.

GE is up nearly 5%

[Bryansix]

I wish I was a stock holder again. Those dividends were nice too. I hope they blow Sony out of the water with OLED stuff.

Re:What Was the Cost?

[Animats]

I would be excited ... if there were more details convincing me this is a 'breakthrough.' That word gets thrown around a lot these days.

If the announcement came out of some startup, it would be questionable, but it came from General Electric Research in Schenectady, NY. That's an organization over a century old, and a big chunk of the electrical industry was invented there. If they say they have a production process for making something in quantity, they probably do.

Organic != 'Green'

[RingDev]

Organic, before the marketing hype took over it, means 'carbon based'. That is not to say that any pesticides or insecticides were not used in the production of this OLED. But the Organic in OLED means that the base of the LED is a polymer with a carbon based composite deposited on it. The purpose 4-year project appears to have been to find a significantly more efficient (roll to roll) way of printing the organic compound to the polymer. So while the creation of the tool took four years, it could mean the ability to greatly increase production and reduce costs significantly.

What makes OLED's 'green' is that they don't require back lighting like LCD displays. Which means you can generate images for a fraction of the electrical draw.

-Rick

Re:Organic != 'Green'

[MightyYar]

I think greenies are excited because OLEDs could replace some forms of more traditional, less efficient lighting if their cost could be brought down, which is what this process promises. I don't think the "organic" part has much to do with it, though along with being more efficient it also contains no mercury.

Re:Organic != 'Green'

[Compuser]

Uh, hate replying to myself but that was supposed to be:
Hemlock tea exists and is OK for you so long it is made from the tree and NOT from the ground plant (that's the version that killed Socrates).

A quick google search turns up a company named TerraVita which sells its hemlock tea for $14 per 25 bags box. So the GP already has competitors.

Re:Organic != 'Green'

[ppanon]

No, the main thing that makes organics LEDs "green" is that they aren't made from semiconductors like silicon or gallium arsenide. So they don't need some of the more toxic dopants and cleaning solutions that semiconductor manufacturing uses, and OLEDs should be easier to break down and recycle than the latter. Of course, since OLEDs tend to wear out faster than semiconductor LEDs, that's even more important. There's probably still some contaminants used in the manufacturing of OLEDs, but the overall (toxic) waste production should be much lower.

As somebody else said, 1/2 the efficiency of an incandescent lightbulb isn't exactly amazing. A 12 watt compact fluorescent puts out what, about as much light as a 40 watt incandescent? So these OLEDs are probably only about half as efficient as a compact fluorescent. Then again, the LCD layer and light piping attenuates the light of the fluorescent backlighting in an LCD panel. Also an OLED won't use as much power for dark-displaying pixels whereas lit and "dark" backlit LCD pixels consume the same amount of energy. So it would probably average out to being about the same efficiency for OLED and backlight LCD for a laptop power budget - a good thing or these will have a much more restricted market.

I hope they can take this to production soon though. The 20" Sony Trinitron tube I use as a second monitor at home is showing signs of being on its last legs and probably only has a year or two left in it at most. It's lasted me over ten years and I got it used/refurbished, so I don't feel bad about replacing it because I've certainly gotten a lot of use out of it. However I would like to replace it with an OLED panel if possible to keep the environmental impact down. I have also been holding out for these to replace my TV set but, with the only recently-ended HD format wars, the lack of region-free BR format players, and a still-going-strong 27" picture tube, I'm in less of a rush for that.

Re:Is this for lighting or displays?

[MLCT]

For OLEDs refresh rates aren't a problem, patterning is. I presume this roll to roll technique is for lighting, as lighting panels don't require high precision deposition, just fire on the layers in a big mixture and go. When you move towards displays then you want very precise RGB pixels, patterned in a specific way, and a resolution of HD. For evaporation deposition that requires a shadow mask and 3 separate events for each colour. Shadow masks are a pain.

The reason Sony have only managed an 11" OLED display (and at $1500 they are still making a loss) is due to the difficulties of pattering it all (and getting good consistency). For GE and white light it is much much more straight forward. Whack on the layers, connect it up and go - they don't need to worry about any patterns. In the longer term solution processable OLEDs would substantially improve things. Solution processable means inkjet deposition (just like home printers), which means fine control of deposition and the ability to run with a roll to roll techniques. Solution processability is a few years away, however.

Re:Why does it have to glow?

[Conspiracy_Of_Doves]

OLED = organic LIGHT EMITTING diode

Re:Is this for lighting or displays?

[tgatliff]

The key advantage of OLED is that it does not require a backlight. Meaning, since they are technically stamped emitting diodes, their backlight is "built-in" so to speak. The main issue with OLED's is that their life has never been real good, at about 10K hours in most applications which is real low... They also suffer from problems just like their cousin LED's where their luminance decreases pretty dramatically over time depending on usage and heat buildup. Think of this like bleaching of colors in the areas of the screen that get used the most. Refresh rates really have never been an issue with OLED's from my understanding. In short, a number of additional technology issues will still need to be worked out for OLED's to get widespread application usage...

Re:Why does it have to glow?

[leoc]

So called "interferometric modulator" displays (IMOD for short) would be what you are looking for. It'll be a while before they are printed onto cereal boxes, but the potential is there.

OLED = 'Green'

[overshoot]

What makes OLED's 'green' is that they don't require back lighting like LCD displays. Which means you can generate images for a fraction of the electrical draw.

Well, that and they're pretty danged efficient light emitters. As in, finally, efficient and long-lasting solid-state room lighting.

THAT is going to save more than a few barrels of oil. After all, even /. posters burn more power on lighting than on backlighting, monitor tans notwithstanding.

Re:Ok, so how about this idea...

[hoggoth]

> Speaks the guy with no kids.
> ... you'll either have to buy 'em or deal with the crazed screaming/whining/sulking that will ensue...
> you can fight that fight, but you have to fight it often enough already for crap that actually matters more than a box of cereal. Lot of people will give in just to avoid the inevitable scene.

No, you just have to fight it a couple of times, be consistent, and don't give in occasionally. My three kids, all under 6 years old, never whine and scream for stuff because they know it is not a strategy that will ever work. We say no to junk. If they whine and scream we say no to everything. We never make exceptions. People cannot believe how "well behaved" our kids are. We cannot believe how badly behaved most other kids are.

Remember, partial reinforcement is more powerful than continuous reinforcement, so giving in once in a while will guarantee maximum screaming and whining.

Re:What Was the Cost?

[EaglemanBSA]

Exactly. In mechanical engineering terms, this is what we call the beta prototype - the prototype created with the real-world manufacturing process described in the manufacturing plan. The expensive one-of-a kind stuff is an alpha (like concept cars, etc.), which are usually hand-made. I would expect they'll have these mass produced quite soon, and at an affordable price for many applications.

Remember, if their plan didn't show expectations of profit (i.e.: a sellable product), they wouldn't be researching it. They're a company, they're out to make money. Luckily, in this case, they're trying to do it by developing a responsible technology.

Re:Ok, so how about this idea...

[mapsjanhere]

Simple solution - don't take your kids out if he's being a shit.
So, you leave your kids at home just like your computer. Have you got any idea what a 2 year old can do to your home while you're away? Add the legal aspect of child endangerment, and leaving your kids at home while shopping is usually NOT an option. Unless you still haven't moved out of the basement and can pawn off the little sunshines on your mom upstairs.
No, I will punish the behavior
Oh, and I don't suggest punishing your kid in a store nowadays, nine times out of ten some do-gooder will call CPS on you. And punishing later doesn't work until they are past the age of screaming fits anyway.