LG Chemical (Seoul / South Korea; www.lgchem.com), a unit of South Korea's largest chemical producer, is planning a November launch in Europe and North America for what it says is a super-efficient OLED light panel capable of matching the performance of current LED products on the market. The automotive industry, where OLED panels are seeing increasing use in headlamps and taillamps, is a promising market, the company believes. Ahead of the North American launch, the Korean company has partnered with more than 50 lighting companies

The new OLED panels are claimed to have an efficacy of 100 lumens per watt and a life of 40,000 hours. This compares favourably with LED panels now on the market, which currently can reach 100 lumens per watt and 50,000 hours of usage. The technology is regarded as a major breakthrough, as up to now OLED light panels have only been able to achieve an efficacy of 60 lumens per watt.

Although the more efficient OLEDs are expected to cost about 10 times as much as their LED equivalents, LG Chem said it hopes to be able to lower the cost, adding that unit costs could ultimately decrease by five-fold or more as the technology progresses.