OLED lighting -: light where it never has been before

Optical Technologies have conquered the world - their economic key data showed an impressive growth in the past,2 couple of years, and the predictions for the up-coming years keep the expectations high(1,2). In the case of OLED (Organic Light Emitting Diode) lighting, e.g. IDTechEx is predicting a worldwide market growth from 50 million USD in 2009 to 3.3 billion USD in 2012(3). LED and OLED technology, although both being referred to as solid state lighting, are rather complementary in their characteristics. Whereas LEDs are high efficient point light sources, OLEDs cover large area, diffuse lighting applications which can follow the increased awareness for creation of personalized atmosphere. Ambience and mood lighting can be perfectly realized by the means of OLED large area illumination which will pave the way for applications that up to now could not have been realized. OLED lighting technology rests on three pillars at the same time, the basic performance like efficiency and lifetime, the unique features, and costs. These key challenges and their impact on various applications will be discussed.