The OLLA Project Receives OSIA Award 2008 for Research & Development
At the Organic Semiconductor Conference (OSC-08) from 30th September until 1st October 2008 in Frankfurt (Germany), the European OLLA project received the 2008 Organic Semiconductor Industry Award (OSIA) in the Research and Development category.
One of the 24 consortium partners – industrial companies and universities as well as research institutes – out of 8 EU countries is OSRAM Opto Semiconductors.
The OSIA judges selected the OLLA project because it had demonstrated pioneering commitment to the continual promotion of OLED technology for lighting applications, and it has acted as a catalyst for global research and development of OLED lighting. Additionally, the OLLA project provided innovative solutions to a range of challenging problems for development of large area white OLEDs panels, and demonstrated that it is possible to successfully deliver results within a multi-partner project.
“I'm very proud that we as OLLA received this award on top of all technical results we achieved in the last 4 years,” says Peter Visser, OLLA project manager from Philips Lighting. “And it's a clear recognition for all the work we did together, both within Philips, and within a large group of European OLLA partners in an open innovation environment, to make this project a great success. OLLA was the first and largest European research project on OLED lighting. It has initiated global momentum for research on OLED lighting. Now, several similar research projects on OLED lighting have started in Japan, Korea, China, the UK, Germany and in the US.“
The aim of the OLLA project, which was funded by the IST program of the European Commission's 6th Framework that started in October 2004, was to research and develop high brightness, high-efficient white OLEDs (Organic Light-Emitting Diodes) and demonstrate their use in general lighting applications. At the end of the project in June 2008, the OLLA project consortium presented its final milestone: the basic technology for a white OLED light source with an efficacy of 50.7 lumens per Watt at an initial brightness of 1000 cd/m² and a lifetime far over 10.000 hours.
“OSRAM Opto Semiconductors was involved in the OLLA project in processes for specification and systems integration of OLEDs. Furthermore, we investigated the application possibilities of OLED Lighting. The application possibilities worked out in OLLA project impressively show the potential for further applications”, says Karsten Diekmann, leader at OSRAM Opto Semiconductors of the OLLA project.
About the OLLA project:
OLLA was a joint research project dedicated to the development of white OLEDs for general lighting applications. The consortium consists of 24 entities in 8 European countries. OLLA is partially funded under the IST priority (Information Society Technologies) of the European Union’s 6th Framework Programme (FP6).
Goal of the OLLA project was to demonstrate a long-life and highly efficient white OLED light tiles with the following specifications: efficacy of 50 lm/W, lifetime of 10.000 hours from an initial brightness of 1.000 cd/m2, with an individual tile size of 15x15 cm2.
The development of OLED lighting technology will be continued in OLED100.eu, a new European project aiming at further increasing the efficiency, lifetime and size of OLEDs. The project will be again led by Philips, partners are OSRAM Opto Semiconductors, Siemens, Novaled and Fraunhofer Institute.
„OLEDs as new Solid State Ligthing technology will contribute in future applications explicitly for energy saving. Therefore at OLED100, the OLLA-follow-up project, the development of up to 100 lumens per watt stands in the focus. Another topic is the scalability towards large areas”, says Karsten Heuser, Head of OLED Lighting Technology at OSRAM Opto Semiconductors. Karsten Diekmann coordinates the activities concerning cognition and application studies as well as standardisation of measuring methods.
About OLEDs:
Organic LEDs offer all the familiar benefits of LEDs such as high energy efficiency, low operating voltage and mercury-free design, and have some impressive properties of their own. The light source is not a collection of individual light points but a uniform light-generating surface. Initial laboratory prototypes from OSRAM showed last year the property of transparent light in a usable tile size. Thanks to the layer structure, it is possible to produce not only very thin OLEDs but also scalable ones. Furthermore, as a highly efficient light source, the technology has the potential of achieving substantial energy and CO2 savings, without compromising color rendering or switching speed.
Exclusive light with OSRAM OLEDs:
The renowned lighting designer Ingo Maurer is the first to use organic LEDs (OLEDs) from OSRAM in a function table light. The luminaire, known as “Early Future”, is being produced as a limited edition. It works with tiles straight from the laboratory and demonstrates the enormous potential of OLEDs for future applications as eye-catching illumination and design elements.
At the Light&Building fair 2008, OSRAM Opto Semiconductors and Ingo Maurer unveiled besides the revolutionary table light “Early Future” the pendant light “Flying Future”. The innovative luminaire designed by Ingo Maurer uses about 100 organic LEDs (OLEDs) from OSRAM and was showcased at Ingo Maurer’s fair booth.
(text source: www.olla-project.org, image source: OSRAM)
