Varroc Lighting Systems on OLED Technology

In the lead-up to the upcoming Intelligent Automotive Lighting Conference 2016 we are pleased to introduce our speaker Mr. Tomas Gloss, R&D Signal Lighting Team Leader at Varroc Lighting Systems in the Czech Republic. Mr. Gloss will be presenting the advantages, challenges and motivation for different optical concepts with OLED lighting. Mr. Gloss, what is your role at Varroc and where do you set your focus in work these days?

I’m responsible for R&D signal lighting activities in VLS CZ. We are working on innovative technologies that could bring advantages and could be implemented into the automotive signal lighting in future.

What is your fascination with lighting?

To explore new things and optical concepts that will bring real advantage for customers.

Why is personalization through lighting design important? And what are the most promising design features/tools for that?

The personalization could be perceived as something for the luxury cars and because of that it can be considered as something for differentiation. On the other hand the possibilities of the implemented functionality (animations, different scenarios of lighting functions, etc.) have potential to be also safer or more comfortable for the drivers. For example during a panic braking the stop function could be switched easily in shape and intensity to be better visible as warning signal. In different situation – a traffic jam – the stop function can be lowered to the legal minimum to be not annoying for the driver behind.

Currently there are different OLED types available up to the next step in automotive lighting: Matrix OLED technology. How to OLED types contribute to the design possibilities?

The OLEDs look is quite different (mirror look, transparent, segmented). They have also this very thin package so there is a lot of space for the designers to play with shapes and 3D configuration. Currently we see limits with brightness and planarity. I think, we will have much better possibilities once the flexible OLEDs will be ready for serial production. Does it make sense to combine LED and OLED systems and what would be challenges? Since one of the current disadvantages is the brightness it is something that really needs to be considered as a reasonable concept. The OLED is bright enough for the tail function or side marker but for the stop or direction indicator function we need to have a very large area to fulfil the optical requirements. Therefore the combination with LEDs is a logical step how to implement the OLEDs to the lamp. The challenge here will be to develop the concept to be efficient with LEDs and in the same time showing the differentiation of the OLED. In your opinion, how will new lighting technology support emerging technologies in tomorrow’s cars? (e.g. car-to-x technologies, integrated camera systems) The Lighting itself supports the complete traffic industry, especially with improving safety and comfort for the driver. With new car-to-x technologies and autonomous cars, there will be new ways of using vehicles and new lighting functions. Future Lighting will be based on these new technologies. It will be more efficient in design and come with low power consumption. What are you presenting at the conference and why is this significant to the industry? I will present the current OLED concepts developed at Varroc and some of our latest LED/OLED concepts. The OLED technology is new for the automotive industry and there are many open questions not only for engineers but also for the designers. Thank you for your time.