LED device, LED driver, and driving method

Abstract

An LED device comprises a substrate and a stack of layers defining an LED component and including an electroluminescent layer. A capacitive structure is formed on top of the stack of layers. The area of the defined capacitor encodes information concerning the electrical characteristics of the LED component.

Claims

1. An LED device, comprising: a substrate; a transparent conductive layer on top of the substrate; a stack of layers on top of the transparent conductive layer defining an LED component, which layers comprise an electroluminescent layer, a top electrode layer, and an encapsulation layer over the top electrode layer; where the LED device further comprises a capacitive encoding structure; the capacitive encoding structure comprising a capacitor electrode layer formed on top of the encapsulation layer, the encapsulation layer forming a capacitor dielectric layer between the top electrode layer and capacitor electrode layer; the capacitor electrode layer having an effective area to define a capacitance between the capacitor electrode layer and the top electrode layer of the stack of layers corresponding to an emissive area of the LED component wherein the area of the capacitor electrode determined by capacitance measurements encodes information concerning the electrical characteristics of the LED component.

2. The LED device as claimed in claim 1, wherein the capacitor electrode layer comprises a reference capacitor electrode defining a reference capacitor and a readout capacitor electrode defining a readout capacitance between the reference and readout capacitor electrodes and the top electrode layer of the stack of layers, wherein the relative areas of the reference and readout capacitor electrodes encodes information concerning the electrical characteristics of the LED component.

3. The LED device as claimed in claim 2, wherein the reference capacitor is used to calibrate the capacitance measurements using the readout capacitor electrode.

4. The LED device as claimed in claim 1, wherein the information relates to a desired driving current and/or voltage and/or a required dimming level.

5. The LED device as claimed in claim 1, wherein the capacitor electrode layer comprises a heat spreading layer.

6. The LED device as claimed in claim 1, further comprising a heat spreading layer over the capacitor electrode layer.

7. A set of LED devices as claimed in claim 1, wherein the area of the capacitor electrode layer of each of the LED devices has the same proportion to the area of the electroluminescent layer.

8. An LED lighting apparatus comprising: a LED device as claimed in claim 1 with a capacitive encoding structure further comprising anode and cathode terminals coupled to a power supply and an additional terminal; a PCB, which connects to the terminals of the LED device component; and a driver comprising a connection part for interfacing with the PCB, wherein the driver comprises testing circuitry coupled to the additional terminal for determining the capacitance of the capacitive encoding structure.

9. The LED lighting apparatus as claimed in claim 8, wherein the driver is adapted to drive the LED device in dependence on the encoded information concerning the characteristics of the LED component as determined by the testing circuitry.

10. The LED device as claimed in claim 5 wherein the capacitive encoding structure further comprises a heat spreading adhesive layer wherein the encapsulation layer in combination with the heat spreading adhesive layer define the capacitor dielectric layer.

11. A method of driving an LED device; the LED device comprises a substrate, a stack of layers defining an LED component, which layers include a transparent conductive layer, an electroluminescent layer, a top electrode layer, and an encapsulation layer over the top electrode layer and a capacitor encoding structure where the capacitor encoding structure comprises a capacitor electrode layer formed on top of the encapsulation layer, the encapsulation layer forming a capacitor dielectric layer between the top electrode layer and capacitor electrode layer and where the capacitor electrode layer has an effective area to define a capacitance between the capacitor electrode layer and the top electrode layer of the stack of layers corresponding to an emissive area of the LED component wherein the area of the capacitor electrode to be determined by capacitance measurements encodes information concerning the electrical characteristics of the LED component, the method comprising: providing the LED device in an initial state, where the LED device is unpowered and the capacitor encoding structure is discharged; coupling of a power supply to the LED device; determining a capacitance value of the capacitance encoding structure; converting the capacitance value into a signal proportional to the capacitance; adjusting a current of the power supply depending on the signal proportional to the capacitance value; and feeding the adjusted current into the connected LED device.

12. The method as claimed in claim 11, wherein the capacitor electrode layer comprises a reference capacitor electrode defining a reference capacitor and a readout capacitor electrode defining a readout capacitance between the reference and readout capacitor electrodes and the top electrode layer of the stack of layers, wherein the relative areas of the reference and readout capacitor electrodes encodes information concerning the electrical characteristics of the LED component, where: the step of determining a capacitance value comprises determining a readout capacitance value (Ca) for the readout capacitance and a reference capacitance value (Cb) from the reference capacitor; the step of converting the capacitance value into a signal proportional to the capacitance comprises delivering a signal dependent on a ratio Ca/Cb of readout capacitance value (Ca) and a reference capacitance value (Cb); and the step of adjusting a current of the power supply comprises an adjustment depending on the signal dependent on the capacitance ratio Ca/Cb.

13. The method as claimed in claim 12, comprising measuring of the readout capacitance value (Ca) and the reference capacitance value (Cb) time-sequentially the capacitance of the first and second capacitors in sequence and deriving the capacitance ratio.

14. The method as claimed in claim 12, further comprising the step of using the reference capacitor to calibrate the capacitance measurements of the readout capacitor.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

(1) Examples of the invention will now be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

(2) FIG. 1 shows an example of an OLED device;

(3) FIG. 2 shows how a PCB can be mounted on the OLED device ledge;

(4) FIG. 3 shows a first example in which a capacitor electrode layer is used to encode electrical characteristic information about the OLED device;

(5) FIG. 4 shows how the capacitor and OLED are electrically connected in the structure of FIG. 3;

(6) FIG. 5 shows a first example of electrode layout used in the example of FIG. 3;

(7) FIG. 6 shows how the design is scaled to different sizes;

(8) FIG. 7 shows a first example of circuit for measuring the capacitance;

(9) FIG. 8 shows a variant of the first example of electrode layout which may be used;

(10) FIG. 9 shows how two capacitor electrodes may be defined in a similar structure to that shown in FIG. 5;

(11) FIG. 10 shows how both capacitors and the OLED are electrically connected in the structure of FIG. 9;

(12) FIG. 11 shows how the design of FIG. 9 is scaled to different sizes;

(13) FIG. 12 shows a first example of circuit for measuring a capacitance ratio; and

(14) FIG. 13 shows a second example of circuit for measuring a capacitance ratio.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENTS

(15) The invention provides an LED device, comprising a substrate and a stack of layers defining an LED component and including an electroluminescent layer. A capacitive structure is formed on top of the stack of layers. The area of the defined capacitor encodes information concerning the electrical characteristics of the LED component.

(16) The encoded information can be electrical information such as driving voltage and/or current and dimming levels. These may correspond directly to the area of the LED device, so that the encoding layer naturally encodes this information by making it scale with the size of the LED component. However, other information such as size, shape, color point, single or tunable LED etc. can also be encoded.

(17) A PCB can be used to interface between the device and a driver. The PCB may already be a required part of the device design, for example a PCB may already be present as part of an LED device design for improved current distribution on substrates with limited conductivity.

(18) FIG. 1 shows in simplified schematic form an example of OLED device to which the invention can be applied.

(19) The OLED comprises a substrate 10 and a transparent conductive layer 12 over the substrate (transparent because this example is a bottom emitting structure). An encapsulated OLED structure is provided over the contact layer 12, comprising OLED layers 11 which are much thinner than the substrate, and an encapsulation 22. An outer ledge 16 of the contact layer 12 extends laterally beyond an outer edge of the encapsulated OLED structure.

(20) The OLED structure has multiple anode and cathode contacts, and these connect to different contact regions of the contact layer 12 in the ledge area to form contact areas for the cathode and anode layers of the OLED structure. The plan view in FIG. 1 shows four cathode contact regions 12c, one at the center of each edge of the OLED structure, and four anode contact regions 12a at the four corners. Separation gaps 18 are provided.

(21) FIG. 1 shows a bottom emitting OLED structure, with light emitted through the substrate. For this reason, the contact layer 12 is transparent, and can for example comprise ITO, ZnO:Al, or other transparent conductors, typically materials from the group of transparent conductive oxides (TCOs). New technologies such as carbon nano-tubes or layer sequences can also be used. The relatively high resistance of some transparent conductors, such as ITO, means that electrical connections with better conductivity are desired to distribute the current along the contact ledges to the anode contact regions and the cathode contact regions to reduce voltage drop and hence improve on homogeneity.

(22) For this purpose, a PCB in a frame shape can be mounted over the contact ledge 16. The structure is shown in more detail in FIG. 2, with the PCB 20 mounted on the contact ledge 16.

(23) Other approaches for forming contacts and to improve lateral current injection are available such as a bonded anisotropic conductive film (ACF) or glued metal wires. These present a simpler and cheaper alternative to a PCB.

(24) The structure of the OLED device can be conventional. A typical OLED according to the state of the art consists of active organic layers, a cathode, an anode, and a substrate. The active organic layers consist of a hole transport layer and a light emitting polymer for a polymer-based OLED (known as p-OLEDs). The small-molecule version of an OLED (known as sm-OLEDs) consists of some additional layers: hole injecting, emitting, hole blocking and electron transport layers. Furthermore functional layers like CGL (charge generation layers) can also be included. The manufacture of the OLED can be based on printed or evaporated OLEDs but also other/future techniques like liquid processing can be used.

(25) In the context of this invention it is sufficient to reduce the complex internal structure of a real OLED device, shown simply as layer 11 in FIG. 1, to a simplified three layer arrangement of the anode layer, the active emission layer and the cathode layer.

(26) Furthermore, additional encapsulation thin film layers 22 are deposited on this stack, as mentioned above, to protect the organic material from e.g. water and oxygen to prevent early degradation of the OLED materials. This protection is called thin film encapsulation (TFE), because the layer or layers have a thickness of about 100 nm. The thin film encapsulation layer can consist of inorganic oxides, such as Al.sub.2O.sub.3 or alternating layers of of Al.sub.2O.sub.3 and ZrO.sub.2, called a nanolaminate structure, deposited for example by atomic layer deposition (ALD).

(27) Also other materials such as other oxides or nitrides can be used. These encapsulation thin film layers are dielectric and insulating.

(28) The OLED active layers are deposited on a substrate which may be coated with, for instance, indium tin oxide (ITO), thereby forming an ITO layer typically of about 150 nm to function as a hole-injecting electrode. The cathode applied on top of the organic layers which provides electron injection is of the order of 100 nm thick.

(29) The OLED layer stack 11 is provided between the anode layer 12 and the encapsulation 22.

(30) The contact layer 12 may itself function as the anode, and the layer stack 11 then comprises the organic layers and a top cathode metal. Alternatively, the layer stack 11 may include the anode layer (in addition to the contact layer).

(31) The substrate 10 is the substrate for the OLED stack. The substrate can be glass for rigid devices or it may be plastic (typically with a barrier layer) for example for flexible devices. Very thin glass substrates can also enable a degree of bending.

(32) In the example shown, the encapsulation 22 overlaps the edge of the OLED layers 11 but terminates before the contact ledge 16, whereas the contact layer 12 extends fully to the outer edge so that the PCB 20 can connect to the contact regions.

(33) An alternative is to extend the encapsulation layers (in case of thin film encapsulation rather than glass encapsulation) to the edge of the device which is then locally removed in regions where contact with the underlying electrodes is desired.

(34) The cathode layer can be sufficiently conductive to provide homogeneous devices of relevant dimensions. However, a metal foil 14 may also be provided over the top for heat distribution/dissipation and mechanical protection of the thin film encapsulation. An adhesive layer 15 bonds the metal foil (if present) to the encapsulation 22.

(35) As one example only, the ledge width can be of the order of 3 mm, the overall device thickness can be approximately 1 mm to 3 mm based on a rigid glass substrate thickness typically in the range 0.7 to 2.0 mm. Thinner devices may be formed using bendable glass substrates or flexible plastics substrates. The overall panel size can have typical linear dimensions in the range 5 cm to 30 cm, although larger or smaller devices are possible.

(36) The PCB 20 is glued to the OLED and hence is part of the module which is generally sold separately from the driver electronics. The PCB is not removable from the device substrate. The driver electronics is then wired to the PCB.

(37) FIG. 2 shows schematically the driver 25 coupled to the PCB 20 by a flat cable 26, although a plug and socket can be used. This interconnection between the LED-PCB module and the driver can be located at a different place to the OLED unit itself, for example set aside in a luminaire housing or in a piece of furniture.

(38) The driver 25 includes testing circuitry 27, described further below. The combination of driver 25 and OLED module may change throughout the lifetime of an OLED, whereas the combination of an OLED and its associated PCB will not.

(39) The printed circuit board 20 has a bottom metallization layer which includes pads for connecting to the anode and cathode regions 12a, 12c. Conductive glue can be used to bond these pads to the cathode and anode contact regions of the connection layer. The PCB has a second metallization layer for providing interconnects between the anode regions and between the cathode regions. It might comprise even more layers in case more complex contacting structures are used, for example as may be required for color tunable devices. Thus, the PCB comprises at least two conducting layers. Vias are used to connect between the layers at desired locations.

(40) The second layer can be at the top or within the PCB structure.

(41) In one example, the PCB has a frame shape mounted over the outer ledge 16. In addition to interconnecting the cathode and anode regions, it provides the external contacts for electrical connection of the driver to the OLED as shown in FIG. 2. Other shapes of the PCB can be used, or a number of smaller more local PCBs can be used to contact the cathode/anode layers if the device design allows for it.

(42) FIG. 2 also shows a light diffusing foil 24 at the light output face of the OLED package. This may or may not be desired depending on the lighting application.

(43) The invention makes use of a capacitive encoding structure formed within, or on top of, the stack of layers which define the OLED.

(44) The capacitor arrangement makes use of existing layers within the structure of the OLED. For example, the capacitor arrangement may make use of the thin film encapsulation 22, for example deposited on the cathode side of the OLED. The anode side is then protected by the carrier material directly in the case of a glass substrate or via further layers in the case of a plastic substrate.

(45) The addition of a capacitor electrode, for example as part of an extended thin film encapsulation, implements a dedicated integrated capacitor structure to provide information about the size and type of the OLED device.

(46) FIG. 3 shows the structure used to form a capacitance. The OLED structure is shown as the active layer structure 34 and a top cathode 36. The contact layer 12 functions as the anode.

(47) On top of the thin film encapsulation 22 there is a capacitor electrode layer 40. The encapsulation layer 22 typically has a thickness of about 100 nm. The capacitor electrode layer 40 may consist of any metal or transparent conducting oxide. The deposition process can be vacuum evaporation, sputtering, plasma enhanced laser deposition (PLD), or ALD. The cathode 36 couples down to a cathode contact portion 37 of the metal layer which forms the anode 12.

(48) The capacitor electrode may be formed by the heat spreader 14 shown in FIG. 2 if it is an electrically conducting layer. This, in this case, the capacitor can be formed with no additional layers. The encapsulation layer 22 and the adhesive layer 15 then together function as the capacitor dielectric.

(49) Thus, the layer 40 in FIG. 3 may be an additional metal layer over the encapsulation when there is no conductive heat spreader layer present, or else the layer 40 may comprise (or perform the additional function of) a heat spreader layer.

(50) As a further alternative, an additional heat spreading layer may be provided over the top of the structure shown in FIG. 3. The use of separate heat spreading and capacitor electrode layers enables them to be optimized for their respective functions (i.e. thermal conductivity vs. electrical conductivity).

(51) The conductive layer 40 forms a top capacitor electrode pad and defines the second electrode of a capacitor having its first electrode formed by the underlying cathode layer 36.

(52) As shown in FIG. 4, the capacitor and OLED are in series between the anode contact 32 and the capacitor electrode 40.

(53) The capacitor electrode 40 is formed so that it can be electrically contacted on the same side of the substrate as the anode and cathode areas 12,36 of the OLED device.

(54) As shown in the plan view of FIG. 5, the capacitor electrode 40 may be deposited over the complete OLED area (although leaving exposed contact areas for the anode and cathode 12,36). The effective area of the capacitor formed is shown by shape 42 which corresponds to the emission area. In this way, the capacitor has a capacitance which is proportional to the emission area C=?*Aeff/th; where ? denotes the effective permittivity of all dielectric layers located between the electrodes 36,40, th denotes the thickness of all dielectric layers and Aeff denotes the effective area, comprising the common area of the two electrodes and dielectric layers.

(55) The capacitive value C is indicative of the area of the OLED device. This is schematically indicated in FIG. 6 for various OLED sizes. Each of the three examples is based on the structure of FIG. 5, but scaled to a different size and shape.

(56) Assuming a constant current density Sd resulting in a constant OLED brightness the driving current can be adjusted by making it dependent on the capacitive value C, i.e. Id=ki*C (where ki is a proportionality constant).

(57) A circuit arrangement to realize this automatic current adaption is shown in FIG. 7. This figure shows the OLED device 70 with anode and cathode terminals 12, 36 and an additional terminal 72 for the capacitive structure 74. A power supply 76 is coupled to the OLED device via the terminals 12,36. Additional circuitry 78 is coupled to the additional terminal 72. This additional circuit is used to determine the capacitive value of the structure 74 and generates an output signal which determines the operating current of power source fed into the OLED device.

(58) The operating current for the OLED is determined according to a sequence as set out below:

(59) In a first step, the power supply is coupled to the OLED. This assumes an initial state in which the OLED device is unpowered and the capacitive structure is discharged.

(60) In a second step, the power supply is turned on which triggers the capacitance detector to determine the capacitance value of the capacitive structure 74 as a third step.

(61) In a fourth step, the capacitance value is converted into a signal proportional to the capacitance.

(62) In a fifth step, the current of the power source is adjusted depending on the signal proportional to the capacitance. The adjusted current is fed into the connected OLED device.

(63) FIG. 8 shows an alternative in which the capacitor electrode layer 40 only covers a portion of the emission layer. The layer has a strip shape with length L and width W. The effective length Leff is the length which overlaps with the cathode area 36. By adjusting Leff and W the capacitance value can be made dependent on the type of OLED.

(64) The examples above are used to explain how a capacitance may be formed as an integrated part of the the OLED stack and how its capacitance may be read out.

(65) One possible drawback associated with the measurement of the capacitance is that this capacitance value will vary in dependence on the nature of the encapsulation layer, in particular the thickness of the layer. This thickness may vary between different OLED designs. For example if a design is scaled up in size, the encapsulation may be scaled in thickness as well as in overall area. These differences in the nature of the encapsulation can be taken into account by the driver, by providing additional information to the driver concerning the nature of the encapsulation used in the particular OLED design.

(66) An alternative approach is to make use of an additional reference capacitor of fixed size. For this purpose, a pair of capacitor electrodes may be used. One electrode defines a readout capacitor and another electrode defines a reference capacitor. The reference capacitor has a fixed size, whereas the readout capacitor scales with the OLED design. The relative area of the reference and readout capacitor is used to encodes information concerning the electrical characteristics of the LED component.

(67) As an example, 1 cm.sup.2 of the OLED area may be used as the reference capacitor, and a fixed proportion (90% or 50% for example) of the remaining area is used to for the readout capacitor. In this way, one of the capacitors scales if the design is scaled, whereas the other stays a constant size. The ratio of the areas between the two capacitors is then used to encode the required driver current.

(68) Thus, instead of using an absolute value of capacitance as an indication for the forward current, the ratio between the capacitance values associated with the electrodes 90a and 90b is used.

(69) This requires a modification to the structure, as shown in FIG. 9.

(70) The capacitor electrode is formed as two portions comprising a variable size portion 40a which has an area which is a fixed proportion of the area of the OLED stack and a fixed size portion 40b. Each has its own respective readout terminal 100, 102.

(71) The capacitive structure is now divided into two parts. Two capacitors are defined in parallel, formed by separating he capacitor layer into two the portions 40a, 40b. The area 40a is proportion to the active area 42 of the OLED while the area 40b is constant.

(72) The two capacitors define capacitance values Ca=Aa/(eps*th) and Cb=Ab/(eps*th), where Aa and Ab are the areas of electrodes 40a and 40b, and Ca and Cb are the resulting capacitances.

(73) The capacitance ratio rC is given by:
rC=Ca/Cb=Aa/Ab.

(74) The area Aa is proportional to the emission area whereas Ab is constant, so that the ratio rC is proportional to the emission area. This ratio can thus be used to adjust the driving current for example to achieve a constant brightness for a range of OLED devices having different areas.

(75) FIG. 10 shows the electrical circuit formed by the two capacitors, which are formed in parallel with the OLED.

(76) FIG. 11 shows how the design of FIG. 9 is scaled to different OLED sizes. The electrode 40a scales whereas the electrode 40b does not. In fact, the size of the two portions of the electrode layer may be freely chosen as long as the required proportionality between the capacitance ratio and the emission area size is maintained for the whole range of differently sized OLEDs. Thus, it is not essential that the reference capacitor has a constant size for all OLED designs.

(77) For example, a range of OLEDs of a certain design type may be designed with emission areas of 1.0, 1.5 . . . 9.5, 10 times a reference area A.sub.0.

(78) The smallest design may choose:
Aa=0.5A.sub.0 and Ab=0.1A.sub.0.

(79) The largest design may choose:
Aa=5A.sub.0 and Ab=0.1A.sub.0.

(80) The corresponding ratios are rC=5 and rC=50 for the smallest and largest OLED. These designs all have the same size reference area.

(81) However, instead, the reference area may not be constant. For example, the smallest design may choose:
Aa=0.5A.sub.0 and Ab=0.1A.sub.0.

(82) The largest design may choose:
Aa=2.5A.sub.0 and Ab=0.05A.sub.0.

(83) The corresponding ratios are again rC=5 and rC=50 for the smallest and largest OLED but the reference area Ab is not constant. In this case, when a device becomes particularly large, the larger capacitor may reach a maximum size after which the reference electrode is reduced in size to achieve the desired ratio.

(84) The advantage of the capacitance ratio approach is that the ratio is independent of the thickness th and permittivity eps, so that variations, for example due to production tolerances, are cancelled out.

(85) The circuit arrangement has to be modified so that two capacitive values can be measured and a controlling signal has to be generated which is proportional to the ratio of the two capacitance values Ca and Cb. This can for example be achieved by using a basic capacitive detector and carrying out the measurements time-sequentially to determine both capacitive values.

(86) As shown in FIG. 12, this requires only a slight modification to the circuit of FIG. 7. The additional circuitry 78 is coupled to the two additional terminals 100, 102 in time sequential manner.

(87) The operating current for the OLED is determined according to a sequence as set out below:

(88) In a first step, the power supply is coupled to the OLED. This assumes an initial state in which the OLED device is unpowered and the capacitive structure is discharged.

(89) In a second step, the power supply is turned on. This triggers the capacitance detector to determine the readout capacitance value Ca in a third step and to determine the reference capacitance Cb as fourth step.

(90) In a fifth step, the circuit delivers a signal dependent on the ratio Ca/Cb.

(91) In a sixth step, the current of the power source is adjusted depending on the signal dependent on the capacitance ratio. The adjusted current is fed into the connected OLED device.

(92) A detection circuit may instead be used which measures the capacitance ratio directly a shown in FIG. 13.

(93) The readout circuit 140 comprises a current source 142 which drives a reference current Iref through the reference capacitor Cb. The resulting voltage is fed by a buffer 144 with gain g to one input of a differential measurement amplifier 146. The other input of the differential measurement amplifier is provided with the voltage on the readout capacitor Ca, and the difference between them is defined in FIG. 13 as Vin. This voltage is applied across a shunt resistor 148 with resistance RSH.

(94) The capacitor current is given by i.sub.C=C*dU.sub.C/dt for a capacitor voltage U.sub.C, a capacitor current i.sub.C, and a capacitance C.

(95) Thus,
i.sub.Cb=Cb*dU.sub.Cb/dt(1)
i.sub.Ca=Ca*dU.sub.Ca/dt(2)

(96) The measurement amplifier 146 fixes the voltages at its inputs to be the same, namely:
U.sub.ca=g*U.sub.Cb(3)

(97) Combining these equations (substituting 3 into 1 and the result into 2) gives:
i.sub.Ca=Ca/Cb*g*i.sub.Cb

(98) This is the same current that flows through the shunt resistor 148, Hence:
I.sub.Ca=I.sub.RSH and Vin=I.sub.RSH*RSH=I.sub.Ca*RSH.

(99) I.sub.Cb is set by the circuit as Iref.

(100) For example if the gain of the amplifier 146 is unity then Vout=Vin.
Thus Vout=RSH*Ca/Cb*g*Iref

(101) This output voltage Vout is the circuit output and is proportional to the capacitance ratio (and this remains the case if the amplifier 146 has a non-unity gain).

(102) A set of devices of different sizes can be made to the same but scaled design. The scaling automatically alters the capacitance value as a result of the change in layer area. Again, the scaling does not alter the layer thicknesses, so it is in two dimensions.

(103) The capacitance can be measured utilizing other circuits will will be well known to those skilled in the art.

(104) The invention can be applied to all types of LED devices which generate output over an area of a layer, in particular OLED devices. It is of particular interest for general lighting applications and OLED based luminaires. For example the encoded information can relate to a light output panel with a single output area which has controllable brightness and/or color.

(105) Other variations to the disclosed embodiments can be understood and effected by those skilled in the art in practicing the claimed invention, from a study of the drawings, the disclosure, and the appended claims. In the claims, the word comprising does not exclude other elements or steps, and the indefinite article a or an does not exclude a plurality. The mere fact that certain measures are recited in mutually different dependent claims does not indicate that a combination of these measured cannot be used to advantage. Any reference signs in the claims should not be construed as limiting the scope.