Due to the thin construction depth of OLED displays the integration of other components into the steering-wheel will not be influenced, in particular for the airbag enough installation space will be remaining, e.g. under the display. In addition OLEDs have the advantage that they potentially could be completely built on the basis of plastics. Already by opening the car doors the OLED could be activated and light up the emblem of the car manufacturer. Is the ignition switched on the emblem will be dimmed or completely switched off. Furthermore the display could be used to show warning instructions during the drive or take over further functions of today’s instrument clusters.
Part of the CARO project partners, namely Optrex Europe GmbH, Fraunhofer IPMS, Chair of Microelectronics (Saarland University), and Novaled AG, recently developed a 160 x 80 pixel PM OLED display, based on a high temperature stable and long-living Novaled PIN OLED® layer stack and driven by a new and worldwide unique OLED driver.
