Polymers Alive and Well in OLED Lighting
March 06, 2017


Sumitomo has struggled to produce commercial ready polymer material to compete with small molecule material since it purchased Cambridge Display Technology.  While polymers had a much simpler OLED stack than small molecule material and appear in a natural soluble state, they fell behind in terms of efficacy and lifetime. Sumitomo seems to have shifted its target from displays to lighting and the material was used by SOU Design and Kishima, a Japanese interior & lighting brand, on a project called RE-EL, which produced OLED luminaires.  SOU introduced “Layer Light” and “Halfull Light” luminaires.  
 
Sumitomo claims that PLED lighting offers more cost-effective lighting panels than small molecule solutions because of its simpler production process.  The company explains that the production process requires a single printing process, which will drive down the production cost.   Sumitomo is focusing on applying PLEDs to lighting production formed on plastic substrates in order to deliver low cost, lightweight, and flexibility.
 
These new OLED luminaires will be seen at Lighting Fair 2017 in Tokyo Bigsight beginning on March 7.

​Figure 1 Layer Light on the Top and Halfull Light on the Bottom

Source: Kishima, OLED-A

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