OLEDWorks finalizes purchase of Philips' OLED plant lines

03 Nov 2015

Rochester, NY, firm buys into center of excellence in Aachen, Germany, with OLED market ambitions.

OLEDWorks, a US OLED light engine and panel manufacturer, has completed the acquisition of key OLED assets and relevant intellectual property from Royal Philips. Manufacturing will continue in the existing facility in Aachen, Germany, with the establishment of OLEDWorks GmbH. The acquisition commenced in April, 2015; financial terms of the deal were not released

The long-planned change of ownership will see OLEDWorks granted a license by Philips to market its OLED light source components under the Philips brand. Philips will remain a distributor of the panels through its established OEM sales channels.

OLEDWorks, based in the rapidly revitalizing hub of Rochester, NY, which will also be home to the AIM Photonics, this week stated, “OLEDWorks brings a novel approach to manufacturing OLED lighting panels. Philips’ Lumiblade OLED group fostered a complementary entrepreneurial OLED lighting innovation with its FL300 series platform, the brightest panel on the market. The synergy between the two groups provides a foundation for aggressively expanding the product portfolio.”

'Technology partnerships'
Company chairman David DeJoy, said, “OLEDWorks is dedicated to developing technology partnerships that emphasize our commitment to producing low-cost, high performance OLED solutions for integration into lighting products. We are confident this strategic acquisition will enable the continued development of OLEDWorks’ innovative technology to meet the unique needs of our customers.”

Mahesh Iyer, Philips CEO Business Group, LED, commented, “With the change of ownership of our OLED components development and production business, Philips Lighting has completed another piece of its strategy to focus on lighting products, systems, and services. We strongly believe that with this activity under the ownership of OLEDWorks, they will continue to be a leading player in this emerging market and a highly valued supplier to Philips Lighting.”

OLEDWorks launches FL300L light panel
As a consequence of the Philips division acquisition, OLEDWorks also announced the addition of the rectangular FL300L OLED-based light source to its Lumiblade OLED family. The FL300L’s new format is said to provide end-users with a “wider range of design options”.

Giana Phelan, OLEDWorks’ Director of Business Development, commented, “The Lumiblade FL300 platform is built on challenging the paradigm of limiting OLED for low glare by offering functionally bright capability. The FL300 more than doubles the light output of competing OLED light panels."

The rectangular FL300L provides the same performance and wide illumination range of the FL300 with additional inspiration for creating beautiful fixtures that provide efficient, high quality functional lighting. A warm white panel, at 2900K, the FL300L provides 300 lumens with long lifetime, excellent color stability and efficacies approaching 50 lumens per watt. The FL300L panel is available in two finishing levels to give designers more flexibility for a wider range of design offerings.

About the Author

Matthew Peach is a contributing editor to optics.org