Japanese company Konica mass production OLED lighting panel monthly production of 1 million pieces
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Konica Minolta's OLED lighting panels use resin substrates, so the thickness is only about one-fifth of the original glass substrate products. The weight is also very light, and a 150mm x 60mm panel weighs only about 5g. It can also be bent by using a soft resin substrate.
With this feature, it is possible to develop new uses that are difficult to achieve with traditional lighting, such as car accessories that can be attached to the roof of a car.
However, Konica Minolta's mass production of OLED lighting using resin substrates is not a smooth road.
Konica Minolta's OLED development began in the mid-1990s. Originally aimed at both display and lighting applications. However, in addition to Japanese companies, Korean companies such as Samsung Electronics are also accelerating their development. Therefore, Konica Minolta's research institute developed a policy focused on the development of OLED lighting in the early 2000s.
Use of the film because of technical experience <br> <br> OLED lighting using light, thin, together with the entire surface of the LED light emission of different characteristics, is expected to achieve high growth. In addition, Konica Minolta's technical experience in film production can be fully utilized.
That is the "roll-to-roll" technique: a thin resin substrate wound on a roll like a food wrap film is thinly coated with a material or the like to form a light-emitting organic layer, a protective film, a circuit, and the like. Since the manufacturing process can be simplified, the OLED lighting panel can be manufactured at low cost.
Therefore, Konica Minolta has accelerated the development of blue phosphorescent materials using technologies such as photosensitive materials accumulated on film. In 2006, it achieved the highest luminous efficiency in the world at the time - 64 lm / W. This has attracted the attention of the United States General Electric, a multinational lighting manufacturer. In 2007, the two companies decided to cooperate to jointly develop OLED lighting panels.
However, various problems continue to emerge and the yield of production processes cannot be improved. Moreover, technology development that increases luminous efficiency and extends panel life takes time. In this case, Konica Minolta decided in 2010 to cancel the cooperation with GE.
There are three major obstacles to mass production of OLED lighting panels using resin substrates.
The first is to improve the luminous efficiency. The principle of OLED illumination is simple. It is to apply a voltage to the organic matter, and to inject positively charged "holes" and negatively charged "electrons" from the two electrodes. When the two are in the light-emitting laminate, the organic matter of the light-emitting layer reaches a high energy state (excited state). When returning from this state to the original low-energy state (ground state), the organic layer (light-emitting layer) releases energy as light. 
The other is to extend the life. In order to illuminate OLED illumination, in addition to the luminescent material (guest material), it is also necessary to transport electrons and holes to the host material on the luminescent material. The host material contains traces of luminescent material that interact with the guest material.
Konica Minolta has extended the life of blue luminescent materials by a factor of five by continuously simulating the design of the main material. The lifetime of OLED lighting panels has been extended from 20,000 hours in 2010 to 100,000 hours in 2012.
To produce one million <br> <br> last storm barrier film is developed. The luminescent layer of OLED is not resistant to water and oxygen, so a high performance barrier film is required. Moreover, in order to transmit light, transparency is required, and technical development is difficult, and the performance is 100,000 times that of the barrier film for food packaging.
Konica Minolta's development team gave the answer to a barrier film that was laminated with an inorganic layer and a polymer without a single inorganic film. If only a single layer of inorganic layer is thickened, in the event of a defect, the opening is easily permeable to water vapor. The inorganic layer and the organic layer are overlapped as many layers as a sandwich, and even if a certain portion is defective, the other layers can be blocked.
Kawagawa of Minakda Minolta said that "by adopting a laminated structure, the performance of the barrier film has been greatly improved."
After crossing three obstacles, the mass production road finally came out. The Konica Minolta plant in Yamanashi Prefecture, Japan, has been manufacturing OLED lighting panels using resin substrates for customers since the fall of 2014.
The plant has an investment of 10 billion yen and a monthly capacity of 1 million pieces. Although it is still unknown whether it will open up new markets in the future, the company is preparing to sell panels for lighting applications in offices, automobiles and airplanes. 