From this post, you can find the most frequently asked questions related to OLED panels. The post will be updated in the future if new questions arise.
Q: What is OLED? Does it work in the same way as LED?
A: OLED means Organic Light Emitting Diode. It works in similar way than (semiconductor) LED. Both need positive and negative charge carriers to generate electrical current and finally generate light.
Structure
You can read about the structure and tehnology of OLED from my other blog post.
Q: How OLED panel is attached on the surface/profile that is used in the luminaire?
A: The panel can be attached in many ways, but most common way is to use adhesives. The screw connection is not recommended for panels.
Every panel manufacturer should have a list of adhesives that are not allowed with their products.
Q: How the to handle OLED panels?
A: You must handle them with care. At the moment most panels use glass substrates and because the panels are very thin, they break very easily. In the future, plastic substrates will replace the glass substrates. This will obviously decrease the risk of breaking the panel.
You can find more exact instructions on handling the panel from the datasheet of the panel.
Q: Can you bend the OLED panel because it is so thin?
Bendable Panel in Luminaire
A: You can’t bend the glass substrate panels.
Plastic panels are ok to bend. There is a limited bending radius that can be found from the datasheet. Within that limit, you can bend the plastic panels almost endlessly.
Q: How you connect the OLED panels if you want to light many panels at time?
A: You can drive many panels by connecting them electrically in series. So you have the same current going through each panel and you get the same luminous output for each panel if they are the same products. Thus you can drive for example 4-panel luminaire with one driver as long as the voltage range of the driver allows you to do so.
Q: Which temperature range is allowed for OLED panels?
A: Basically, OLED lighting can be used only in indoor lighting at the moment. For example, LG Display informs in the datasheets of their panels, that operating temperature has to be over zero degrees of Celsius, and this applies also to storage temperature. Only transport temperature can be lower than zero degrees of Celsius, but only for a limited time.
Typical recommended operating temperature range is 0..40°C.
Q: What kind of new application can be done with OLED?
A: One interesting application is so-called transparent connection. In this case the panel is attached inside a glass plate. The current/power is then provided to the panel through metal mesh transparent conductive film.
Transparent Connection
You can find and download ideas about OLED lighting from our website.
