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LG to Exit OLED Lighting Business
April 08, 2019

An LG Display lighting supplier reported that LG was reducing or closing its OLED lighting lines and while the company has not commented, if LGD implements this change, it would put the OLED lighting industry in jeopardy as the only panel makers left are small companies with limited capital. LG Display purchased the OLED lighting business of sister company LG Chemfor $135m in October 2015, converted a Gen 5 fab with 15K capacity and created the Luflex™ brand for its OLED lighting products, which moved from rigid to flexible when the Gen 5 line began production at the end of 2017. LG has shown many commercial and designer-based OLED lighting products on its website www.lgoledlight.com. That website is no longer active, leading to the conclusion that LG may be exiting the OLED lighting business. The company does maintain a page on its display website. LG has never provided any insight into their production or shipment volume and it has been a subject of much concern in the industry. The company had promised costs as low as $5.00 for a 4”x4” panel and luminous efficacy of over 100 lm/W, which never materialized. Company’s like Acuity Brands, which had several orders with LG grew skeptical of the poor overall performance and shifted orders to OLEDWorks. 

If LG is exiting the OLED lighting business, it would signal termination to the relevance of OLEDs in lighting, since LG was the only entity with the capital and largess to produce significant volumes. Samsung long ago evaluated using an idle Gen 4.5 PMOLED fab for lighting and came to the conclusion that OLEDs could not compete with LED technology. Konica Minolta, Pioneer, Panasonic, Showa Denko, Lumiotec, Philips and Osram have all exited the market, leaving only OLEDWorks, Kaneka, First O-Light and Yeolight remaining. Each of these companies operate small Gen 2/2.5 fabs and lack the capital for major expansion.
 
Figure 1: Luflex Flexible OLED Lighting Panel – “The Last Stand”

Source: Company