Both conventional and DFLX lamps can be produced in an almost infinite palette of colors. EL phosphor is limited to green, green-blue, sky blue, deep blue and orange. Phosphors can be blended to produce variations of these colors including white. A much wider range of colors can be produced using Rogers' cascading overprint technology. A cascading overprint absorbs light rays from these basic phosphors and re-emits them at a different wavelength, resulting in a shift in color. In this way, specific customer colors can usually be achieved. Customers may also choose from an array of pre-formulated colors to reduce development time.

A PROTOLIGHT® lamp is an electroluminescent panel with multiple sets of leads around the edge, which provides the panel with broad design flexibility. It can be "cut to fit" to an infinite number of configurations (including holes and cutouts). A PROTOLIGHT is a fast and low-cost technique for lighting mock-ups of a design concept.
 

PROTOLIGHTS come in five colors: Blue, Green, Blue-Green, Yellow, and "WOPO" White-on/Pink-off. The standard size of a PROTOLIGHT is 5”x 8”. Each PROTOLIGHT, with slide-on connector and instructions, costs $50. Orders are limited to quantities of ten.

 

Power from an AC source is required to light the PROTOLIGHT. A DC battery connected to a DC/AC inverter circuit can be used as well. Durel supplies a miniature power supply (a push-button inverter) for this use, which is available at a cost of $20 each.

 

To request PROTOLIGHTS and/or the miniature power supply, email us at durelcustomerservice@rogerscorporation.com or call Customer Service at 480-917-6000.  We need your full name, company name, mailing address, item name, color(s) of PROTOLIGHTS, payment method and quantity. We accept Visa and Master Card as payment up to a total of $5,000 USD. For sales greater than $5,000 USD, a 3% service fee will be added. 

Please state which product, what quantity and the delivery requirements.

Please send a drawing or sketch, quantity needed, drive conditions, color and delivery requirements.

Traditional EL lamps range from 0.20 to 0.26mm (.008 to .010 inches). DFLX™ lamps range from 0.10mm for 2-electrode (.004 inches) and 0.12mm for 3-electrode (.005 inches) lamps. Three electrode lamps can be used to reduce both electrical and audible noise.

EL lamps offer significant advantages over point light sources such as discrete light emitting diodes (LEDs), which are not as efficient. For example, the high LED count that is required to evenly light large liquid crystal displays (LCDs) consumes more current than an alternative EL backlight system. In addition, LED solutions normally require a complex light guide design to distribute the light more uniformly across the viewing area of a display. This combination of LEDs and light guide is generally three to four times thicker than an EL lamp solution.

Additional advantages of EL over LEDs include:

 

Rogers' 3P technology has lower EMI and audible noise features through shared common ground. This gives you the option to reverse lamp lead connections so that the side closest to the most noise sensitive components in the application is grounded. Additionally, when a three-electrode lamp is used, the first and third electrodes can be grounded, creating the equivalent of a Faraday Cage.

Rogers is the first EL driver supplier to offer low-noise "stealth" discharge technology, which is now available in the D365, D371, D372, D381, D305, D306, and D388. A wave-shaping feature is available in the D371, D372, D381, D305, D306, and D388. This allows the user to tune the discharge slope of the output waveform for the lowest audible noise with the use of different resistor values. The low-noise wave-shape can vary depending on size of the EL lamp and input supply voltage to the IC.

Rogers' DUREL® IC driver modules provide you with a turnkey solution, ease of design and the convenience of a single source versus multiple suppliers for various components

OLED is a display technology and EL is a lighting technology.

As electronic devices continue to get thinner and thinner, components need to get thinner as well. Designers choose EL to meet thinness requirements. Additionally, the thin form of Rogers DUREL DFLX™ lamps enables light to be placed right underneath each key on a keypad without sacrificing tactile feel.

Rogers' lamps, themselves, are RoHS compliant. Since the lamps are custom-made and subject to the interconnect requirements of the customer, compliance of the total product must be evaluated on a case-by-case basis. For example, if the customer requires an interconnect method that has tin lead plating, we can offer alternatives. To determine the best design, we review this with each customer during the quality planning process.

Rogers' drivers with part number designation of "NL" or "QFS", as well as all modules or any ICs in bare wafer form are RoHS compliant.

A low level of audible noise can be produced by EL at higher-level drive conditions. In most applications, this noise level is undetectable by the user. In those applications that are more sensitive to audible noise, it can be reduced or eliminated through a combination of EL lamp design, Rogers' low-noise drivers and mechanical methods.

The light from an EL lamp does not fail catastrophically (i.e., the way a light bulb burns out). Instead, it very gradually becomes dimmer over time. Since it never burns out, there is no end of life to an EL lamp. The best way to evaluate EL life is to consider its "useful" life. This is the time that the EL is providing enough light to effectively backlight the application. Another way to evaluate life is to consider the Time to Half Luminance (THL), or the time it takes the luminance to decay to one-half its original value. An alternate, but less commonly used method to measure life is Time to Quarter Luminance (TQL), or the time it takes the luminance to decay to one-fourth its original value.

Rogers is the only EL manufacturer in the world to develop and manufacture phosphors and phosphor coatings as well as provide a complete system solution for EL backlighting. Rogers engineers have a thorough knowledge of EL lamps and drivers and can provide you with a matched EL system ideal for your application. In a matched EL system, the EL lamp is designed for optimum performance with the driving conditions used in the application and vice versa (the driving circuit is also configured to perform with the EL lamp used in the application). Rogers' DUREL® EL lamps and drivers are used by major cell phone and automotive OEMs throughout the world because of their quality and reliability. Rogers provides you with a "one stop shop" for all your EL needs. Rather than merely providing a single "commodity," Rogers' goal is to be your strategic partner - to provide you with the complete product line and complete product knowledge. Our competency in thick-film EL technology enables Rogers to tailor products to meet your specific needs.

Not necessarily. A power supply provides "unlimited" power and can hide a lamp's inefficiency. This inefficiency will often become apparent through lower luminance output when driven on a "power limited" driver IC. Rogers develops our lamps to provide optimum luminance on the appropriate EL driver. Our experienced engineers will recommend the appropriate matched system to meet your application requirements.

Yes, an increase in brightness results in a decrease in THL, and vice versa. The THL of a lamp depends greatly on the lamp's color, the ambient environment (temperature, humidity) and the initial luminance intensity and associated drive conditions (voltage and frequency). Longer THL can be achieved by starting with a lower initial luminance level. Higher operating temperatures and humidity will result in lower THL. Bluer phosphor colors will have lower THL compared to green and orange.

The standards and principals regarding Green can vary between countries and regions due to differences in legislation and infrastructure. Our custom-made lamps are generally considered green, but because certain interconnect options are required by customers, each lamp must be evaluated on a case-by-case basis to determine compliance. Rogers' IC drivers (NL, QFS, modules, and bare wafer form) are not only RoHS compliant, but considered Green as well.

An Electroluminescent (EL) lamp is a solid state, low power, uniform area light source with a thin profile. It is, basically, a flat luminescent capacitor. By applying alternating voltage to the electrodes, phosphor particles that are dispersed in dielectric get excited and emit light through a transparent electrode.

Currently, Rogers provides two types of EL lamps: Conventional (traditional) DUREL® EL lamps and flexible "DUREL DFLX™" lamps. Both are used in transflective transmissive devices to light displays and keypads. Traditional EL lamps are comprised of various ink layers printed on a polyester carrier and are 0.25mm thick. Traditional EL lamps provide uniform lighting and low power consumption. A DFLX™ EL lamp is substrate free and is even thinner than our conventional EL lamps with thickness ranging from 0.10mm to 0.12mm thick. The DFLX EL lamp is designed to peel away from its carrier sheet leaving just the thin and very flexible cured ink layers as the finished product. DFLX lamps also have low power consumption and can be bent, folded, shaped and formed, providing bright uniform light across an area without interfering with some actuation or other mechanical events.

RoHS (Reduction of the use of Hazardous Substances) is a term used for European environmental standards. Under these standards, there are three types of materials. (1) materials that are not acceptable; (2) materials that are acceptable in trace amounts; and (3) materials that will be put on the "acceptable in trace amounts" list. Hazardous materials include lead and mercury. For specific information, go to http://www.dti.gov.uk/sustainability for the Directive 2002/95/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 January 2003 on the restriction of the use of certain hazardous substances in electrical and electronic components.

Rogers provides complete technical assistance from early development, into design and then throughout the production life cycle. Our global staff of engineers focuses on satisfying your needs.