A successor project to a UK polymer LED (PLED) lighting R&D initiative is being planned that will test if the work is scalable for commercial applications.
The Organic Polymeric Light Emitting Semiconducting Surfaces (TOPLESS) project, which is a collaboration between Durham University, Zumtobel subsidiary Thorn Lighting and Cambridge Display Technology (CDT), ends in February 2010.
The team is putting together a proposal for a follow-up project.
The equipment at the Printed Electronic Technology Centre (PETEC), in north-east England, may be used to fabricate and pilot produce PLED lighting panels.
TOPLESS was a three-year project that began in March 2007 with £3.3 million in funding, with half provided by the UK government.
The aim of the project is to product a high quality white light generating single polymer, and efficient large area single pixel device architectures with an efficacy of 40 lm/watt.
The follow-up project will focus on pilot producing size Gen 2 panels (370mm x 470mm) as these can plug into existing tile fixtures.
Today, lighting accounts for some 40% of global energy use. OLED and PLED lighting has the potential to be much more energy-efficient, even allowing for lighting to be powered off-grid, by solar cells and other renewable energy sources in the future.
Documents and links
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OLED-A
Global association for OLED lighting
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Thorn Lighting
The UK subsidairy of Zumtobel Lighting is involved in the development of polymer LED (PLED) lighting through the government-funded TOPLESS project
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Cambridge Display Technology (CDT)
CDT is providing the core PLED IP for the TOPLESS project and is a partner along with Durham University and Thorn Lighting
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OLED-Info
An online news source for OLED lighting and display technologies
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The Future of Energy Efficient Lighting
Click here to find out more about IntertechPira's market report on energy efficient lighting including forecasts for organic and inorganic LEDs
External Link