OLED ILLUMINATION DEVICE WITH INTEGRATED PROXIMITY SENSOR

• US 20100295604A1
• Filed: 01/27/2009
• Published: 11/25/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 01/29/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: OLEDWorks GMBH
• Original Assignee: Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. (Koninklijke Philips N.V.)
• Inventors: Hente, Dirk
• Granted Patent: US 8,319,434 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 327/517
• CPC Class Codes: H03K 17/955 using a capacitive detector
• CPC Class Codes: H03K 17/962 Capacitive touch switches
• CPC Class Codes: H03K 2217/960795 using organic light emitting devices, e.g. light emitting polymer [OEP] or OLED

Abstract

The invention concerns an OLED device with a cathode 1, an anode 2 and an active stack 3, wherein the anode 1 is segmented into a plurality of anode segments 8 each defining an OLED segment 4. Further, a capacitance measuring unit 12 is provided which is arranged for measuring a plurality of capacitance coefficients between two anode segments 8 and/or between an anode segment 8 and surrounding earth, respectively. This way, an OLED device for illumination purposes with a reliable proximity sensing function is achieved.

Claims

1. An OLED device comprising

a cathode,

an anode segmented into a plurality of anode segments, at least two segments defining OLED segments,

an active stack, and

a capacitance measuring unit for measuring a plurality of capacitance coefficients between at least two anode segments and/or between at least one anode segment and a reference point, respectively.

2. OLED device according to claim 1, wherein the capacitance measuring unit is adapted for measuring current change in a plurality of anode segments, respectively.

3. OLED device according to claim 1, wherein the OLED segments comprise a common cathode, and a driver is provided for supplying the OLED segments with a predefined voltage in parallel connection.

4. OLED device according to claim 1, wherein the OLED segments each comprise a segment cathode, and a driver is provided for supplying the OLED segments with a predefined voltage in series connection.

5. OLED device according to claim 3, wherein the predefined voltage is the same for all OLED segments.

6. OLED device according to claim 5, wherein the driver is a high frequency generator.

7. OLED device according to claim 1, wherein the anode is segmented into a plurality of anode segments, each segment defining an OLED segment.

8. OLED device according to claim 1, wherein the OLED segments comprise shapes and/or relative orientations to each other which allow position sensing by an additional spatial dimension.

10. OLED device according to claim 4, wherein the predefined voltage is the same for all OLED segments.

9. (canceled)