Audi says it is presenting its next step OLED automotive lighting technology for the first time at the IAA in Frankfurt.

It says the new Matrix OLED lights enable a “previously unattainable level of lighting homogeneity, opening up further creative opportunities for design”.

OLED is an English acronym for ‘organic light emitting diode.’ In each OLED unit, two electrodes – of which at least one must be transparent – incorporate numerous thin layers of organic semiconductor materials. A low DC voltage – between three and four volts – activates the layers, each of which is less than one-thousandth of a millimetre thick, to light them. The colour is based on the molecular composition of the light source.

In contrast to point light sources – such as LEDs – which are made of semiconductor crystals, OLEDs are flat light sources. Their light attains a new level of homogeneity, and its dimming is continuously variable. The lights do not cast any shadows and do not require any reflectors, light guides or similar optical components – and this makes the OLED units efficient and lightweight. In addition, they hardly need any cooling.

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