Lighting accounts for approximately 22 percent of the electricity consumed in buildings in the United States, with 40 percent of that amount consumed by inefficient incandescent lamps. This has generated increased interest in the use of white electroluminescent organic light-emitting devices（WOLEDS）as the next generation solid-state lighting source, owing to their potential for significantly improved efficiency over incandescent sources, combined with low-cost, high-throughput manufacturability. The research and application of the devices have witnessed great progress. WOLEDS have incomparable advantages for its special characteristics. This progress report sketched the principle of WOLEDS and provided some common structures, and further investigation of the mechanism of different structures was made. Meanwhile, the key technologies of WOLEDS were summarized. Finally, the latest research progress of WOLEDS was reviewed.