GE Global Research has reached a milestone in next-generation lighting, demonstrating the world's first roll-to-roll manufactured organic light emitting diodes.

The research group said the newspaper printing-like process is key to making the next-generation lighting technology low-cost and commercially viable.

Based in Niskayuna, N.Y., the division of General Electric (NYSE: GE) said it's aiming to introduce OLED lighting products to market by the year 2010.

"Our long-term goal is just to light everybody's house with this stuff," Anil Duggal, head of GE's Advanced Technology Program in Organic Electronics, told Cleantech.com.

"But that's not going to happen in 2010. We have to get the performance way better than it is now and the cost way down even more to do that."

He said in the 2010 timescale, they're looking at niche, high-end applications, like in architectural designs.

The successful printing of the organic light emitting diodes, or OLEDs, was the culmination of a four-year, $13 million research collaboration among GE Global Research, Auburn Hills, Mich.-based Energy Conversion Devices (Nasdaq: ENER) and the U.S. Commerce Department's National Institute of Standards and Technology.

Energy Conversion Devices is the parent company of United Solar Ovonic, which uses roll-to-roll technology to mass produce its flexible solar laminates (see United Solar Ovonic to supply PV laminates to Enfinity).

"The reason they were a great partner is they had a lot of experience developing roll-to-roll processes for a very unique application, not just for making a newspaper or standard things, but for a device," said Duggal.

Energy Conversion Devices built the roll-to-roll equipment and GE developed the manufacturing process and provided the organic electronics technology.

Check out the printed OLEDs here >>

Todd Alhart, spokesman for GE Global Research, said that while there were "8 feet of OLEDs in that picture, we actually rolled out about 20 feet."

OLEDs are made up of thin, organic material sandwiched between two electrodes, which illuminates when an electrical charge is applied.

Earlier this year, Tokyo-based Sony (NYSE: SNE) announced plans to pour a large amount of cash into OLED technology (see Sony to put over $200M into OLED production).

The company released its first OLED television in December, but it only has an 11-inch screen, and the consumer electronics giant wants to move up to medium and large OLED panels.

"For high-performance organic electronics, the processes that are out there today to make these types of devices, such as OLEDs, are very high in cost," said Alhart.

GE said the organic electronics products on the market today are made with more conventional batch processes.

"If you want to have a commercial application in lighting, you've got to get the cost down. We think producing these things in a roll-to-roll fashion is a way to enable that low-cost manufacturing process."

Alhart said that right now the efficiency of OLEDS runs about double of what you get out of an incandescent bulb.

"We want to increase the efficiency," he said.

"They require a very low amount of power, so the potential for efficiency gains is pretty big with these devices."

But the production milestone could have broader impact beyond lighting.

Duggal said, "The actual roll-to-roll technology could be used to make other kinds of devices, what people call organic electronic devices. Could be something like organic photovoltaics."

"It could be organic transistor arrays, a kind of thing for a display."

Pittsburgh-based Plextronics, a spinout from Carnegie Mellon University, is already a player in the printed electronics game, and has said its organic solar cell technology would be cheaper and easier to produce than traditional photovoltaics (see Solar goes organic).

Plextronics' ink technology, which allows for flexible printed circuitry, is already being used commercially in radio-frequency identification, or RFID, tags.

GE doesn't have any OLED products out yet, but in the short-term, it's looking at the architectural design market for the OLED lights.

"Something where people are willing to pay for the unique features," said Duggal. "These can be very thin and flexible."