Neo Lamp 

for Universal Display Corporation 

2014

Background

Several years after the development of UDC's first six inch lighting panel we began work on an updated version. The primary advancement of this panel were the individually fused subpixels. In the original panel each quadrant was externally fused; if a short developed in any portion of the panel an entire quadrant would go dark. This allowed the panel to remain useful for research but caused it to become unsuitable for use in a lamp. 

In the event of a short on the new panel, dubbed the Neo Panel, only a 1mm square would go dark. This finally allowed the development of lamps using multiple lighting panels, which had always been in short supply. 

Although it never came to pass, around this time UDC was exploring of creation a pilot manufacturing facility to fabricate hundreds or thousands of panels a year, rather than the dozens we could produce in our research labs. 

Design Brief

Building on the 2010 Desk Lamp, design a family of lamps that would use multiple six inch Neo Panels, again highlighting the thinness and lightness of the panels. Design for the high-end lighting market with the hope that a limited edition run would be produced if the pilot manufacturing facility came on-line. 

Process

I started by designing a family of floor and table lamps with gridded arrays of panels that rotate similarly to the Desk Lamp. After paring the family down to a singe table lamp, I developed a series of study models, and then worked with a prototyping shop, Paramount Industries, to develop a fully working version. 

Resolution

The final design had three panels on each side, with each side individually controllable using the same rotary knobs as the Desk Lamp. The knobs helped define the shape of the base, a concrete cone that branched at the top to present the knobs. The cone also concealed a transformer and allowed the lamp to be solidly anchored without a large footprint. 

  Prototyping Hinge and Base    

Wiring Final Prototype