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OLEDs for lighting applications are gaining increasing attention due to the possibility to produce large area, 2-dimensional light sources. In contrast to the existing technology e.g. based on white inorganic LEDs this offers a completely new freedom in design for applications of next generation lighting. Today, different approaches to achieve white broadband emission for organic lighting solutions are investigated ranging from devices with blue emission in combination with conversion layers to RGB-color by lateral patterning with the support of active color tunability. Within this contribution we present results of broadband emitting copolymers to achieve white emission. New requirements arising from the shift of OLEDs in a display configuration to those for lighting applications are discussed with focus on the electro-optical behavior. Furthermore, we describe challenges that result from using large active areas and investigate ways to improve large area lighting tiles

OLEDs gain more and more interest in the field of lighting applications. The OLED technology provides striking advantages and covers completely new application fields offering a new freedom in design for next generation lighting. Large area OLEDs might act as a 2-dimensional light source which is thin, flat and lightweight generating diffuse, non glaring illumination. In the first part of our report we investigate small scale inhomogeneities of polymer based OLEDs. Devices were monitored during operation by taking pictures of the active area at constant periods of time. These pictures were analyzed by a software tool with respect to the occurrence and evolution of defects. Initially induced inhomogeneities are growing and dominate the performance with increasing operation time. Within the error margin of the setup no additional spots are generated during operation. The voltage drop inside the ITO anode due to a high resistivity plays an important role for the brightness homogeneity of large area devices. The voltage drop causes a brightness fall-off towards the center of the device. It is maintaining with increasing average current density and luminance, respectively. At a brightness of 1000cd/m 2 the deviation at the center exceeds 30%. The homogeneity of luminance is improved by incorporation of additional metal lines on the anode layer. The best results were achieved with 200nm thick aluminum structures with a pitch of 1mm and a width of 60µm of each line. At an average current density of 45mA/cm 2 the decay towards the center of the device is only half of the decrease without any additional metallization.