Verbatim unveils color-tunable OLED lighting

Verbatim, a subsidiary of Mitsubishi Chemical, plans to reveal the world’s first commercially-available OLED lighting panels that are color tunable, white-tone tunable and dimmable.

The OLED panels, named Velve, will be demonstrated during the Fuori Salone show in Milan, Italy from April 12-17.

The company’s OLED display will be created in partnership with lighting designer Satoshi Uchihara, who has designed World Heritage Site installations, such as Kinkakuji, in Kyoto, Japan. The display will incorporate what Verbatim believes is one of the world’s largest OLED panels, measuring 14 x 14 cm.

Verbatim OLEDs The OLEDs are based on materials technology developed by Mitsubishi Chemical. In March 2010, Mitsubishi Chemical formed an OLED alliance with Pioneer, and discussed the printable hole-injecting material (HIM) technology used in its OLED products. Verbatin says it will reveal further details of the tecnology at the Fuori Salone show.

Verbatim says that its OLEDs enable lighting designers to express their creativity in many different physical forms, including walls of light. “By tuning the colour and intensity of light, the emotional impact of the lighting scheme can be changed to reflect the mood required for the environment,” says the company. For example, bright, white light may be desirable in the morning but more subdued, relaxing lighting with muted colours may be preferable towards the end of the day.

Design competition

In partnership with the Roman design school ISIA, Verbatim will be announcing the results of a design competition during Fuori Salone. The “6th Sense” project was set up in September 2010 to help Italian design students think about lighting in new ways and to help them understand the emotional, as well as the technical, possibilities that OLED lighting is going to bring to the world of interior design.

The winning 6th Sense design will form part of the Verbatim display at the Fuori Salone event and the winner will be announced on April 13.

LED lamps and modules

Verbatim has already introduced a series of LED lamps as direct replacements for conventional lighting in residential and commercial applications. Bases include E27, E14, GU5.3 and GU10, and the focus is on warm-white, dimmable products. The lamps are equipped with a Temperature Control System to keep the lamp electronics from overheating.

Verbatim LED lamps and modules Verbatim’s parent company, Mitsubishi Chemical, has developed white LEDs based on violet-emitting LED chips, as discussed by the company at Light+Building 2010. Violet (405 nm) light is combined with red, green and blue phosphors to produce white LED light with a color-rendering index (CRI) that is typically over 90 and can be as high as 98.

Verbatim says that it is working on LED lamps based on violet-chip technology, as well as a series of LED modules, and these products are expected to be available during 2011.