In association with Osram, Automotive Lighting’s Competence Center for Rear Lighting in Tolmezzo (Italy) has developed prototypes of rear lamps deploying organic LEDs (OLEDs). The contrast and the light intensity of OLEDs are constant irrespective the angle of view.
The rear lamps designed by Automotive Lighting use red-and-yellow OLEDs with transparent areas. The red OLEDs (tail function) light up in a double-ring-structure. The yellow ones (turn signal) are designed as broader mono-rings. Each of the rings can be individually addressed. This allows for functions like progressive turn signal or adaptive tail functions.
The centres of both OLED types are transparent and enable the emission of either a red stop light or a white reverse light thanks to an optical system based on LED and light guides. A red background light is used to emphasize the presence of the 'suspended' OLEDs.
Organic light emitting diodes can be deployed not only in the interior but also in the rear lamps of vehicles. The flat modules emit light using their entire surface, don’t heat up and save energy. The deployment in the vehicle lighting is still under development and rather experimental yet.
Though the OLEDs are not yet deployed in the series products, the prototypes of Automotive Lighting show the possibilities of this relatively new technology in vehicle lighting.