August 11, 2003— GE Global Research, the centralized research organization of General Electric, recently announced a major breakthrough in a new lighting technology that has the potential to be more energy efficient and revolutionize lighting design, while producing the same high quality white light as traditional light sources.
GE’s new technology is based on Organic Light-Emitting Diodes (OLEDs), which are thin sheets of plastic-like material that emit light when powered by electricity. While the technology is still five to ten years away from commercialization, the GE research team recently overcame one of the significant technical hurdles—fault tolerance (short circuiting) for large area devices.
OLEDs are a form of solid-state lighting, an alternative to traditional LEDs composed of inorganic materials. OLEDs have the potential to be made in an inexpensive, roll-to-roll manufacturing process. The vision of the GE program is to create sheets of paper-thin lighting devices that can be applied to surfaces similar to wallpapering.
Says Anil Duggal, manager of GE’s light energy conversion program, “In only three or four years, OLEDs could be used for specialty applications, such as lights within a car, and, in about 10 years, it could compete with fluorescent lighting.”
