For years, OLED lighting has been one of the markets that have drawn interest on the flexible and printed electronics field. There have been numerous companies researching raw materials, as well as manufacturers and researchers looking at ways to improve manufacturing of OLED lighting.
 
Back in 2013, IDTechEx estimated that the OLED lighting market would grow to $1.3 billion by 2023, which would represent 1.3% of the actual lighting market. That is a sizable business, to be sure, but it is not a major share of the overall market.
 
Consolidation in recent years has changed the outlook for OLED lighting considerably. In April 2015, Royal Philips sold its Aachen, Germany OLED operations as well as its IP to Rochester, NY-based OLEDWorks.
 
OLEDWorks will be granted a license by Philips to market its OLED light source components under the Philips brand, and Philips will remain a distributor of the panels through its OEM sales channels. OLEDWorks also has a technology license agreement with Universal Display to manufacture and sell phosphorescent OLED lighting, paying Universal Display an upfront license fee and running royalties on its sales.
 
“The acquisition of strategic elements of Philips OLED lighting technology, manufacturing and OEM sales channels significantly broadens our mission to deliver high performance OLED light engines to a wide range of lighting applications,” said OLEDWorks CEO David DeJoy.
 
Royal Philips’ decision to sell its OLED operations is part of its plan to refocus its business on its core segments.
 
“In pursuance of our strategic focus we have decided to divest our OLED components development and production to a specialized partner,” said Philips Lighting CEO Eric Rondolat. “Philips sees the merit of OLED as a light source for specific applications in its systems and services portfolio and will continue to apply OLEDWorks’ panels in its finished products.”
 
Philips isn’t the only company to pull out of OLED lighting. Last year, Panasonic withdrew from the OLED lighting market and ended its Panasonic Idemitsu OLED Lighting operation. Panasonic reportedly cited concerns over earnings for its decision.
 
As a result, the OLED lighting field has few remaining major players. LG Chem and Konica Minolta have both reportedly committed more than $100 million to their respective projects. IDTechEx has recently reduced its estimates for the OLED lighting market to $840 million for 2022, with sales at $80 million by 2017.
 
OLEDWorks is an interesting company. Founded in 2010, two of its co-founders – Dr. Michael Boroson and Dr. John Hamer – came out of Eastman Kodak’s OLED operations. The company reportedly has created a low-cost production process for its OLEDs, and will invest more than $70 million in the new production line.
 
On the surface, the advantages of OLED lighting, once it is fully developed, compared to other lighting technologies such as LED are fairly clear. They are lighter, and can be produced on plastic or other flexible displays. As a result, OLEDs can be produced in larger sheets.
 
However, LED lighting has had a huge head start. LEDs efficiency remains far ahead of OLED, and its lifetime is also much greater. LED lighting is also far more affordable, and leading lighting suppliers are continuing to improve performance.. Taken together, LED lighting is a much greater value to customers.
 
Flexible OLEDs remain an attractive possibility, opening up design opportunities. However, there remain technical hurdles, such as encapsulation to protect against moisture and water damage, to be overcome.
 
Aside from LG Chem, Konica Minolta and OLEDWorks, there are other companies working on OLED lighting, and there is always the potential for new development. Still, the news that major companies such as Philips and Panasonic have left the segment does raise some concerns over the ultimate potential for OLED to become more than a niche technology.