DailyTech - Researchers Build OLED Light that Mimics Natural Phases of the Sun

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Science Researchers Build OLED Light that Mimics Natural Phases of the Sun
Shane McGlaun (Blog) - January 14, 2010 11:00 AM

23 comment(s) - last by tmouse.. on Jan 19 at 8:03 AM

Breakthrough may lead to brighter and more natural OLED lighting

OLED is a known technology for many technology enthusiasts and is most common in displays. OLED tech also has other uses, one of which is for lighting indoors that is more energy efficient than the current light sources in wide use today.

Researchers at the National Tsing-Hua University in Taiwan -- J.H. Jou and his graduate students -- have made a significant breakthrough in the design of indoor lighting using OLED panels. The researchers have been able to devise OLED panels that can accurately mimic sunlight and can simulate the phases of the sun from dusk until dawn.

The OLED panels may one day be useful for indoor lighting that is easier on the human eye and saves energy; thereby reducing greenhouse gasses produced from making electricity. The development by the team of researchers enables a white-light OLED panel to emit the same light wavelengths as natural sunlight. This is accomplished by varying the voltage to the panel.

Jou said, "By varying the voltage through the OLED panel from three to nine volts can produce ambient light simulating natural light that changes from dawn to dusk. Truly there is genius in simplicity as this plain driver-IC can automatically modulate the voltage to render any desired color temperature between 2200 and 8000 K anytime."

The OLED panel emits light via electroluminescence. The panel has a voltage applied across the electrodes to motivate the electrons in the semiconducting layer near the panels cathode. The electrons are then released near the anode and leave behind positively charged holes and the electrons can then fill these holes and emit photos that produce light.

LEDs are currently being used for indoor lighting, but the OLED technology promises to be thinner and consume less power. OLED lighting is already available from Lumiotech. The company is the only global supplier of OLED lighting, but its lights produce only one wavelength of light that is akin to sunlight on a cloudy day.

According to the researchers, OLED lighting may be ten times more energy efficient than current incandescent lights and as much as three times more efficient than currently used CCFL lighting. Research on OLEDs for lighting has been underway for years and the lumens of light produced per watt have increased significantly over the years. OLED light panels are expected to produce 50 lumens per watt in 2011. Much research is going into OLED panels for lighting and other uses.

In July of 2008, researchers made a breakthrough that led to brighter OLED panels producing 70 lumens per watt.

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so wait

By tastyratz on 1/14/10, Rating: 0

RE: so wait

By SeeManRun on 1/14/2010 11:42:07 AM , Rating: 4

You think the only difference in light between 7 am and 3 pm in the summer is the brightness? I would say due to the angle that the light enters our atmosphere that the light will likely be a different colour, and your white balance on a camera will have to be adjusted, not just the exposure. I think this light sounds like it would be very pleasant to be under.

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RE: so wait

By docawolff on 1/14/2010 11:59:05 AM , Rating: 3

You are correct. During the early morning and late afternoon hours the shorter wavelength light (blue and near-UV) hits the atmosphere at a shallow angle and is scattered thus allowing only a fraction to reach the surface of the earth. This also happens during the winter months at higher latitudes. The sun is lower in the sky and the UV flux is greatly reduced.

I was unclear--do these OLED's actually emit UV? Can you get a tan when they are cranked up to a (light) temperature of 8,000 K? What does driving them at high voltage do to their projected lifetime?

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RE: so wait

By SeeManRun on 1/14/2010 12:53:39 PM , Rating: 2

Quite sure the lights don't imitate the actual sun, just the visible light it produces.

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RE: so wait

By amanojaku on 1/14/2010 1:14:29 PM , Rating: 4

Nonsense! These lights' coronas produce EM frequencies from radio to gamma radiation. The UV and microwaves generated allow the lights to serve tanning bed and cooking functions. When hung from the ceiling the superheated plasma makes for a beautiful chandelier.

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RE: so wait

By inperfectdarkness on 1/14/2010 1:05:44 PM , Rating: 2

dusk is awesome. fluorescent colors just POP at dusk (and dawn). it's a UV effect--similar to blacklight--but in the daytime. THAT'S what i'd like to see.

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RE: so wait

By Mr Perfect on 1/14/2010 1:30:00 PM , Rating: 2

This is cool tech and all, but dusk and dawn is exactly when I turn artificial lights on. Why would we want artificial light to be more of the same? I'd set those lights to the sunny summer afternoon setting instead!

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RE: so wait

By 91TTZ on 1/14/2010 2:54:19 PM , Rating: 5

"Why won't this damn OLED desk lamp light up?"

"Because it's in night mode"

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RE: so wait

By Keeir on 1/14/2010 4:09:32 PM , Rating: 3

I think your missing some of the potential application here...

Have you ever heard of Seasonal Affected(?) Despression? UV light levels, although not visible, do affect human mode and stress levels. I happen to live in a very cloudy and overcast area (with large influxes of immigrants who are especially sensitive). The ability to set a room in my house to the perfect 16 hour sunny day would be very valuable. I would also think an Employer with a floor of customer service people (etc) would enjoy significant productivity gains by creating the UV effects of 16 hour summer days in winter. Just having it be noon for 8 hours would be very stressful on a human and potentially have the opposite effect.

Also consider the extreme enviroments. Alaska, Artic/Antartic Circles, Space Station, etc.

But just the ability to treat SAD disorder better would be helpful. Current treatments are typically high doses of "Noon" type radiation over 1-2 hours.

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RE: so wait

By tmouse on 1/15/2010 8:16:09 AM , Rating: 2

Full spectrum bulbs have been out for a long time. If you suffer from SAD just Google "full spectrum light ". That is not new application.

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RE: so wait

By Keeir on 1/16/2010 6:03:36 AM , Rating: 2

I suggest you read what I wrote more carefully.

Full Spectrum Lighting is indeed already used to treat SAD. But a light designed to emulate a daily cycle might be more effective treatment than all "Full Spectrum" Lighting I know off... this by the way is a silly marketing term. The SAD light boxes are not even typical of natural light for example, but are rather high on the scale of typically missing noon frequencies. Having an artifical light source that is capable of varying across a day and "sinking" up with the right time schedule might be significantly more effective than the current treatment. Certainily it would be possible to do this already with say 3 or 4 dimmable full spectrum light sources in the same "light box", yet I haven't seen such a thing....

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RE: so wait

By tmouse on 1/19/2010 8:03:05 AM , Rating: 2

And you really believe research has not been done to see if longer or "more natural" exposure to wouldn't help in the treatment of SAD even more? Of course it's been done, these things have been out for several decades, These lights will not be primarily marketed for SAD treatment but rather for energy savings. So provided your office has adequate light you do not have to keep the energy at full throttle all day. By the way its blue light NOT the UV frequencies that have shown some effects and even then the clinical data is very noisy, probably due to the condition being arising from multiple causes. It's believed some may be circadian in which case a short exposure would be all that's needed, others may require melatonin supplementation. Many cases are believed to be due to changes in diet and exercise patterns which effect sleep patterns.

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RE: so wait

By rmulder74 on 1/14/2010 4:40:51 PM , Rating: 3

[mimmick the natural phases of the sun]
So i guess it will grow to many times its orginal size near the end of its life and then go supernova or blackhole when it dies ;-)

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Enjoy a brighter future...

By scrapsma54 on 1/14/2010 11:15:28 AM , Rating: 5

tomorrow-Underground.
Reserve your vault today!

RE: Enjoy a brighter future...

By Smilin on 1/14/2010 12:27:17 PM , Rating: 2

Yeah they used these stupid LEDs in that one vault where everyone went insane.

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RE: Enjoy a brighter future...

By Flail on 1/14/2010 11:59:21 PM , Rating: 2

IIRC ingame somewhere it talks about how the lights in the vaults were designed to mimic sunlight. Possibly the museum place with the tour, in the downtown area methinks.

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Sign me up!

By LeviBeckerson

(blog) on 1/14/2010 4:38:27 PM , Rating: 2

Even though I'd probably leave it on full blast all the time.

RE: Sign me up!

By BruceLeet on 1/14/2010 8:07:49 PM , Rating: 3

I suppose this 'tech' would be highly favored by movie studios and the photography industry.

But I would like to have 'natural light' in my apartment it would sure make it look/feel a lot better.

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RE: Sign me up!

By tmouse on 1/15/2010 8:24:55 AM , Rating: 3

These bulbs simply do not have the power to be useful in either of those industries. They have had full spectrum lighting for true color reproduction for decades. I got the impression they were selling the ability of the bulbs to change intensity and color temperature using voltage. While that's cute it really is limited to windowless rooms that a person wants to be lit in a changing manner. Of course they could use the opposite temporal order and use it to light rooms more when it gets dark and less when it is brighter, which is probably how it will be marketed to save energy.

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Aquarium Lighting

By Ammohunt on 1/14/2010 1:51:33 PM , Rating: 1

If its cheaper that Metal Halide lights and closer to the sunlight these would make great aquarium Lights for natural aquariums.

RE: Aquarium Lighting

By Expunged on 1/14/2010 2:23:11 PM , Rating: 2

If you've followed aquarium lighting much you'll know that the chances of this being either cheap or marketed at aquariums is remote. Almost everything that's ever been utilized in the aquarium market has been something that was first adapted from another market.

Cost will be the last thing that comes down, right now you'll spend several thousand to light an aquarium with LEDs, so I doubt more advanced LED technologies will be any cheaper. Nice thought though, I'd love an alternative to watching my electric meter fly apart running MH or ODNO lights.

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