An OLED Op-Ed

You know how technologies sometimes overlap and coexist, and then the better platform becomes ubiquitous? That's what's happening this year with SSL, as organic LEDs catch up with the more established inorganic kind.

It's my vocation and avocation to chronicle this trend.

I came to be an ardent OLED guy for two reasons. One is an awareness or precognition of what will come to pass (kind of like the guy who took a pass on purchasing a Betamax recorder); the other is an acknowledgment of the "I must have that" factor.

I know that the day of OLED lighting is at hand. I know it because a dozen industry hot-shots are ringing me up or contacting me, looking for these dynamic OLED wares, and I'm not an OLED distributor. The genre's best goods are creating their own consumer demand.

Here are some of the compelling developments we're seeing: much longer lifetimes, more light coming from panels, a growing number of flexible and/or color-tunable panels, new advances in roll-to-roll fabrication, patterning, self-monitoring, and repairing, and even in OLED marketing. OLED fabrication sees a cost reduction with each new production advance. Profit margins improve. An OLED's bill of materials typically shows a single country of origin for all of its components, as opposed to typical SSL where the components hail from all over the globe.

I'm now hearing about OLED fabricators discussing production of a half a million units a month. I can name a half dozen OLED products that are putting out 100 lumens per watt and have a typical CRI of 90. I'm optimistic that these numbers will continue to improve.

There's no question that OLEDs will enjoy a growing profile as elements in the lighting landscape. Their elegance in design and construction are going to be relevant and contemporary for many years to come. Take as an example the wearable segment of electronics: The characteristics of OLEDs make fabricating them into conformable shapes easy and natural.

The expansion in what is possible design-wise is being enabled by designers with the shackles removed. The most remarkable "flatware" is becoming a little more evolved with each passing week.

Natural demographic

The natural demographic for OLDEs is the two younger age brackets. Twenty-somethings want things that they can claim as their own icons of their time. Few teens look at mega-finned SSL wares and covet their clunky look; it's already passé in their eyes.

Now, I do try to be a realist -- OLEDs are hardly a one-size-fits-all solution. There is still a place for those directional, glare-prone LED retrofits. They will be made and sold in healthy numbers. And while the OLED product planners are doing their best, they know that it will be years before they get shelf space at Lowe's.

All part of the realities of being an OLED zealot at this juncture.

The part in the future that will require a little self-restraint will be not telling everybody in 2018, "See, I told you so." A satisfied grin will have to suffice.