Power Paper, GE to develop self-powered OLED lighting

TEL AVIV, ISRAEL & NISKAYUNA, USA: Power Paper, an Infinity Group portfolio company, and GE Global Research, the technology development arm for the General Electric Company (NYSE: GE), announced that the companies have signed an agreement to jointly develop self-powered OLED lighting devices.

Using low-cost, high volume manufacturing processes, these devices could be deployed in a wide variety of environments from military ships to night-time jogging vests. The collaboration is supported by an Israel-US Binational Industrial Research and Development Foundation (BIRD Foundation) program.

GE is globally recognized as a pioneer in the electric lighting industry and continues to lead the way in bringing new, innovative lighting technologies to market. Power Paper develops and licenses micro-power clean technology based on an innovative paper-thin, flexible, safe, environment-friendly, printable battery.

John Ouseph, GE Commercial & Industrial Business Programs Manager at GE said: “Our goal is to design lighting products that are less intrusive, have greater flexibility and can be easily installed or modified based on changes in the application. We will build a product that costs less, consumes less energy with improved reliability and resists vibration and shock. Mobile, remote-powered light strips are a natural extension of GE’s lighting portfolio, and Power Paper is uniquely positioned to supply thin film, flexible batteries for this application.”

Under the terms of the agreement, the collaboration will combine Power Paper’s novel thin film batteries and GE’s industry leading Organic Light Emitting Diode (OLED) technology. The goal of the GE-Power Paper-BIRD project is to develop a first generation of self-powered OLED lighting products and identify next generation technologies with enhanced capabilities. The length of the program is 12 months. The general illumination market is estimated at $2.5 billion.

“It is a fabulous opportunity to work with GE and the BIRD Foundation and we are enthusiastic about the project at hand,” said Zvika Nitzan, chief technology officer of Power Paper. “It is important to note that Power Paper batteries do not contain caustic chemicals, and cannot overheat, explode, or cause burns or electrical shock. They are non-toxic and non-flammable and can therefore be freely shipped, stored, and disposed of after use.

“The batteries contain no heavy metals such as mercury, lead or cadmium, commonly found in conventional batteries, making them suitable for disposable applications. Power Paper design and printing processes allows the ability to control shape and size of the battery according to the device needs. The bottom line: our batteries help to prevent accidents, reduce shipping costs and enable our partners to create differentiated products.”

The potential applications for lighting devices that are thin, flexible, lightweight and mobile are virtually unlimited. When the lights go out from a power outage, imagine strips of light that illuminate hallways and emergency pathways and even light a whole room in a house. Another example: military and camping enthusiasts could stick strips of OLED lighting inside their tents without the need for bulky and noisy generators.