Europe’s technology leaders in the development of flexible organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) for lighting and signage applications have joined together in a consortium to develop an open access pilot line that will accelerate the commercial adoption of this promising new technology. The project titled ‘PI-SCALE’ is creating a European-wide pilot line which will enable companies of all sizes to quickly and cost effectively test and scale up their flexible OLED lighting and signage concepts and bring them to a level where they are ready to be transferred to a mass production facility. The intention is that by increasing the availability of, and knowledge about, flexible OLED technology for companies that are interested in using it in their products, the pilot line will accelerate the uptake of this new technology and help to build a sustainable industry in Europe around flexible OLEDs. The project is supported by the European Commission through the Photonics Public Private Partnership with a contribution of €14 million. Flexible OLEDs have the potential to be integrated into formed parts or seamlessly bonded onto curved surfaces, and the commercialisation of this technology will open up a host of exciting design opportunities to create new value adding lighting products in many different application areas, such as architecture, automotive, aerospace, packaging, sports, retail, and consumer electronics. The technology allows for ultra-thin (<0.2 mm), highly bendable, very lightweight, and even transparent, energy efficient lighting solutions that can be made or cut to any shape or size. PI-SCALE will offer world class capability and services in the pilot production of customised flexible OLED product prototypes. The first prototypes to be made on the pilot line are focused in the areas of automotive, designer luminaires and aeronautics applications. Coordinated by Holst Centre, PI-SCALE brings together thirteen expert partners from five European countries and includes AUDI AG, Centre for Process Innovation (CPI), VTT, Fraunhofer FEP, M-Solv, FlexEnable, DuPont Teijin Films, REHAU, EMDE development of light, Pilkington, Coatema Coating Machinery and AMIRES. The PI-SCALE consortium combines and utilises existing capability from each of the partners to create a self-standing, open access European flexible OLED pilot line. The pilot line will be available during and after the lifetime of the project to companies on an open access basis, and the specialist infrastructure includes all the steps required to turn OLED lighting concepts into advanced product prototypes. Specialist flexible substrates, moisture barrier and electrode films, and sheet-to-sheet and roll-to-roll OLED devices are all included, as well as all the system-level integration steps to incorporate the flexible OLED films and the other flexible electronics needed into a product form. The pilot line is positioned to bridge the gap between R&D and mass production, offering small-to-medium scale pre-production runs of customised flexible OLED devices with a volume of up to 5000 m2 of OLEDs/year. By working with the pilot line, companies should be able to make important decisions about their final product design, test their concepts in up-scaled manufacturing processes, and have large numbers of product prototypes for testing (TRL7). They will also gain the required flexible OLED technology knowhow and supply chain links to transfer the product they have developed using the pilot line to a mass production facility.
