REVOLUTIONARY FEATURES

FOLED technology offers novel performance features that may enable a variety of new product opportunities in displays, lighting and beyond. View a video.

• Thinner and lighter weight – Built on very thin plastic or metallic foil, FOLEDs can be much thinner and lighter than backlit LCDs and other displays in the market today. So cell phones, portable computers, wall-mounted televisions and other products with displays, can also be lighter and smaller. Plus, FOLED technology may allow easier installation of white OLED lighting tiles in more settings, and create novel uses in architecture that are not possible with today’s fluorescent and incandescent lights.
• More durable, safer and impact resistant - Glass breakage is a major cause of display-containing products and a key safety concern in the lighting field. Plastic and metal-based FOLEDs would essentially eliminate these issues, creating obvious advantages in both displays and lighting.
• Flexible – Depending on the thickness and intrinsic properties of the flexible substrate, FOLEDs can be made to bend around or conform to another surface. With continued development, FOLEDs can be made to flex routinely for use in such product concepts as the UCD. Further work in this field may someday lead to FOLEDs that are foldable and three-dimensionally conformable.
• Cost-effective – Today, OLEDs typically use production techniques that rely on the sequential processing of discrete glass panels. With flexible substrates that typically originate in a roll-stock format (like paper rolls), it is envisioned that FOLED production may evolve to higher throughput, roll-to-roll processes, as commonly used in the printing industry. This may provide the basis for truly low-cost mass production.