OLED has been widely used in display markets such as TVs, smartphones, and automotive displays, and also has a place in the lighting field, but it can do much more than that. What is less known is that OLED also has a place in the field of optical medicine. With the characteristics of two-dimensional bending and wearability, flexible OLED light sources can be used as light patches for wound care or skin care, as well as health monitoring sensors to measure human signals such as heartbeat and blood oxygen levels.
Currently, the measurement of cardiovascular circulation is limited to in-hospital care, but it is rapidly expanding to the field of mobile or personal health care. Among cardiovascular monitoring methods, photoplethysmography (PPG) signals and blood oxygen saturation (SpO2) levels are measured non-invasively by light using light-emitting devices and light detectors.
Due to the good compatibility of OLED technology with wearable or body-attachable form factors, it is natural to think that organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) and organic photodiodes (OPDs) can be used as light sources and detectors for wearable PPG and SpO2 sensors. At present, some research groups at home and abroad have proved that OLED technology is a viable and promising wearable health monitoring technology.
With the construction of big data and medical cloud platforms, there is a large potential demand for medical accessories related to personal health monitoring and health care in the field of smart health. OLED will have a relatively good development prospect in this field.
