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We report the synthesis of spirobifluorene-based pyrazoloquinolines, spiro-PAQ-Meand spiro-PAQ-Ph, in which two identical luminophores are connected through an sp3-hybridized carbon atom a spiro center and are orthogonally arranged. The incorporation of the rigid spirobifluorene linkage results in significant increases in the glass transition temperatures, which are in the range 246–280 °C. These new materials display the characteristic absorptions of the mono-pyrazoloquinoline i.e.non-spiro derivatives, each with a broad, low-energy absorption at ca. 420 nm, and emit photoluminescence efficiently in the blue region. Electrochemical studies reveal that these compounds exhibit reversible reductions and low-lying LUMO energy levels that originate from the electron-deficient nature of the pyrazoloquinoline ring. Multilayer organic electroluminescent devices constructed using spiro-PAQ-Phas a dopant in the emitting layer produced bright blue emissions with maximum luminescence exceeding 20 000 cd m−2. For the 2.0-doped device, a high external quantum efficiency of 3.6 4.5 cd A−1, 2.02 lm W−1 was achieved at 20 mA cm−2and 7.0 V with color coordinates of 0.14, 0.17.