The Organic Light Emitting Diode (OLED) is one of the newer lighting technologies which promises to revolutionize the lighting world. There are many different types of OLEDs in everyday devices from cell phones and media players to backlighting applications. At the moment, bright white OLED for general lighting applications are hindered by the weak performance of blue OLED processes. Intensity and longevity are two properties which are already well represented in red and green OLEDs but not in blue OLEDs. New breakthroughs in blue OLED technology were announced recently by Pacific Northwest National Laboratories wherein their blue OLEDs have 25% improved power efficiency over current levels. The lighting world is excited to have better blue OLEDs for white displays but we can see the potential for these to be used as a source of supplemental blue light over smaller tanks. Of course the tech has a long way to go to get from the lab to consumer ready products but we’ll wait. We’re still waiting for our blue LED actinic light strip.
