Phillips, a global corporation pursuing OLED panel business for lighting, is expected to start mass production by 2010. According to a recent well-informed source, it is known that Phillips is contacting major Korean equipment companies to purchase equipment for mass production of OLED lighting.

Although specifics of the order is not yet known, if the equipment order is realized, it is expected that Phillips will be able to achieve mass production in 2010, which, in turn, will lead to the global OLED lighting industry gaining great momentum.

                                    [Lighting development roadmap of Phillips OLED]

Beside Phillips, GE of the U.S., and Japan's Lumiotec are also expediting efforts, but in Korea, such movement is not yet significant. Currently, LG CHEM has started business preparation, and Modistech, a venture company, is preparing mass production. However, compared to foreign companies, investment is quite late.

The PMOLED industry, which is closely related to OLED lighting panel business, is recently showing a sizable decline. According to a recent survey, the sales of PMOLED in the fourth quarter of 2008 have decreased 1.9 million dollars from the previous quarter to 56.6 million dollars. This is a 3.2% drop from the previous quarter, and a 19.8% decline year-on-year.

With the overall decrease of the PMOLED industry, LG display has withdrawn from the industry a long time ago, and even SMD, the largest PMOLED mass production company in Korea, is seriously considering withdrawal. Against this backdrop, OLED lighting panel business can be good news to PMOLED companies since OLED panels for lighting have many similarities with PMOLED process, meaning advantages for the existing PMOLED companies in newly entering the market.

In 2009, the slowly heating up OLED lighting industry is increasingly gaining attention.