Another revolutionary illuminant under research is the organic LED (OLED). Today OLEDs are used in displays of electric household appliances and mobile phones, but the research is fairly advanced and in a few years OLEDs could be used for another generation of innovative lighting solutions.
Usually organic LEDs are built onto glass substrates. Further components are the luminiferous layer, the electric contacting and the casing.
Operable prototypes show that it is possible to create a flexible light source based on ductile transparent substrates.
Research on materials brought forward a number of organic material systems, in which light can be generated. These systems are classified into two groups, organic LEDs with small molecule chains (sm-OLEDs) and LEDs with large molecule chains, so-called polymers (pOLEDs). The two groups differ in the number of materials which are needed to create the luminiferous layer. The organic part of sm-OLEDs consists of four layers; p-OLEDs can reach the same functionality with only two layers.

With established organic materials, each color of the visible spectrum can be created, including white light. The advantage of OLEDs is the possibility to generate white light already in the organic layer by light interference. Using this method of light interference, white and colored OLEDs can be created, which are completely lucent when switched off.
Manufacturing these lucent OLEDs is very simple, but it is not possible to change the color of their light; the light can only be dimmed. The interference to white light allows the adjustment of the color temperature, which offers the opportunity to create color gradients.
White light can be created alternatively by mixing blue light of the organic layer and yellow light of the conversion luminescent material. OLEDs offer a maximum flexibility in coloring and dimming, but currently the cost is still high.