The U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science has awarded four Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grants targeting advances in OLED lighting technology. The FY13 Release 2 Phase I awards will explore the technical merit or feasibility of an innovative concept or technology.
The SBIR Release 2 Phase I awards related to OLED Lighting are:
InnoSys Inc |
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| Project value: | US$225,000 |
| Title: | Highly Efficient and Smart Power Supplies to Drive Phosphorescent OLED Lighting Panels |
| Summary: | This project will develop and commercialise drivers and power supplies specifically designed for high efficiency phosphorescent organic light emitting diodes (PHOLEDs) lighting panels, for a variety of indoor and outdoor lighting applications so as to increase and enhance the market and adoption for OLED lighting products. The drivers will be more energy efficient than currently available, and will allow fixture manufacturers to readily design OLED lighting products by combining these drivers with commercially available lighting panels |
Universal Display Corp |
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| Project value: | US$224,866 |
| Title: | Novel Energy Saving Phosephorecent OLED Lighting Products |
| Summary: | This project aims to develop an energy saving shelf utility light for aircraft interiors that outperforms all other current lighting technologies, saving both electrical energy and aviation fuel. OLED lighting is expected to become a new environmentally friendly energy saving green lighting technology, to replace current energy inefficient lighting, with the potential for up to 6,000 new green jobs by 2018. |
Plextronics Inc |
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| Project value: | US$221,717 |
| Title: | Low cost printed electrodes for OLED lighting |
| Summary: | This project aims to develop a novel printable OLED lighting structure that will significantly reduce the manufacturing cost that is ultimately required for market adoption while at the same time enabling larger lighting panel size. |
Litecontrol Corp |
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| Project value: | US$166,608 |
| Title: | A Novel OLED Luminaire System for Circadian Lighting Applications |
| Summary: | This project aims to develop OLED lighting systems with controlled wavelengths, which can yield substantial energy savings while avoiding known negative effects of broad-spectrum fluorescent lighting. |
In a separate announcement Plextronics said they will partner with Electroninks, a spin-off of the University of Illinois and provider of printable metal inks.
Robert Kumpf, Chief Operating Officer of Plextronics, said, "The Department of Energy’s Solid State Lighting Roadmap estimates that over 50 percent of the cost of OLED technology relates to the anode fabrication." Robert added, "This SBIR grant allows Plextronics to develop new process integration schemes incorporating its conductive polymer inks with proprietary printable metal inks from Electroninks to address this substantial industry need."
