An OLED Taillight Revolution: From Point Light Sources to Segmented Area Light Sources

Abstract

OLEDs have been applied in automotive taillamp applications since 2016, and as they overcome their biggest obstacles—including reliability and cost—they are ready for a larger rollout.

8‐1: Invited Paper: Development of High‐Temperature Stable Red OLEDs for Automotive Lighting

“…[2] Audi sees OLED as a unique light source perfectly suited for taillamps due to its very high uniformity, 'clean' design with sharp boundaries and high contrast, segmentation for dynamic application, shape freedom (including bendable) and mirror-finish in off-state. [3] This vision is supported by customer feedback showing that the percentage of customers who ordered OLED taillights was 3X higher than planned. OLED taillamp was one of the top points highlighted in Audi A8 customer clinics.…”

“…OLED taillamp was one of the top points highlighted in Audi A8 customer clinics. [3] Reduction of component count simplifies taillight manufacturing while segmentation supports Audi's vision of personalized design and communication through light. OLED panels deliver homogenous illumination with less than 1 mm thickness which is not possible with an LED package.…”

“…The following performance is required for the taillight application: 1000-2000 cd/m 2 brightness with deep red color CIEx,y of (0.7, 0.3) and dominant wavelength > 625 nm. [3] In addition to these initial performance requirements, the automotive industry has very demanding reliability standards. Technology development follows certain milestones with proof of concept and validation testing from the component level to system integration.…”

8‐3: Invited Paper: OLED Lighting Design and Roll‐to‐Roll Manufacturing

“…Automobile designers are more and more discovering OLED technology as design elements to make their automobile brand design recognizable and unmistakable [1]. The most important OLED feature employed in commercial taillights so far is segmentation.…”

Stress simulation of a foldable active matrix organic light‐emitting diode panel with opening thin film transistor structures based on a finite element unit‐cell model

“…Compared with previous devices, organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) have been widely applied in the display industry due to their attractive features including ultrathin, fast response, excellent contrast, and better color saturation. [1][2][3][4][5] The emergence of OLEDs perfectly makes up for the shortcomings of previous devices, especially the flexible OLED screens with polyimide (PI) as the cover. The screens are expected to meet the long-standing demand for foldable display devices.…”