Audi Lights the Way with OLED Concept

Volkswagen AG's Audi unit will unveil a new concept car featuring the company's latest organic light-emitting-diode technology at the Frankfurt auto show in September. The taillight package integrates OLEDs into Audi's matrix lighting design to improve performance and efficiency while providing greater design flexibility, according to the luxury carmaker.

Audi has shown several other concept cars with OLED lights in recent years and plans on commercializing the technology in the near term. Rival BMW AG says it will be first to market with OLED lights when it applies the technology next year.

OLEDs are flatter and thinner than traditional LEDs. They also are more formable and can be subdivided into small groupings, which Audi says can be controlled at different brightness levels.

Audi says the technology eliminates the need for reflectors, light guides and other optical components. Another benefit: OLEDs don't require much cooling.

Each OLED contains two electrodes at least one of which must be transparent composed of several layers of organic semiconductor materials. Low DC voltage is used to light the layers in different colors based on their molecular composition.

The carmaker's matrix headlight system uses clusters of LEDs to more precisely control where light is aimed and prevent blinding oncoming vehicles. The matrix headlight system in the European version of Audi's A8 flagship sedan has 50 LED clusters.

Matrix OLED lights enable greater functionality and customization, Audi says. The company plans to swap the concept's glass layer with plastic sheets.