It’s reported that Microsharp Corporation, a privately owned UK company focused on the development of specialist optical films, has joined the EU funded, OLED-100.eu R&D project as the only UK participant.
The three-year, €20m project, which follows on from the OLLA project which sought to develop OLED technology for lighting purposes, is viewed as critical to the long term development of the European OLED industry. The goal of OLED100.eu is to develop all the necessary technologies needed to produce efficient OLED products for exploitation by the European lighting industry. Targets set by the project include achieving 100 lumens per watt power efficiency, over 100,000 ‘lifetime hours’, a unit area of 100cm by 100cm, and costs of €100 per square meter or less.
According to Microsharp, artificial lighting consumes between 20 per cent and 50 per cent of electrical energy in homes and offices and OLEDs are said to be promising candidates to substitute conventional light sources like incandescent bulbs and fluorescent tubes. And the company's contribution will be to the project that will be to develop optical film structures to enhance efficiency and increase potential lifetimes through improved light outcoplings.
Microsharp also assert that the rate of OLED development is such that soon they will be more efficient than cold cathode fluorescent lamps (CCFL) and they offer many advantages in ease of manufacture and in providing a variety of light form factors.
