Mid-power LEDs have become a mainstream product in the LED package sector, showing strong growth in the market over the past few years. The global lighting market scale is estimated to reach US $3.74 billion by 2020, and it is projected mid-power LEDs will comprise the majority stake in the market due to its high reliability and performance, estimated LEDinside. Taiwanese LED package manufacturers have released mid-power LED products including 3030 LED, 5630 LED, and other major LED package products, EVERLIGHT for instance has been shipping large volumes of these products.  In an exclusive interview with LEDinside, Ewing Liu, Technical Marketing Manager at EVERLIGHT, talked about the company’s outlook for mid-power LED market and latest market trend developments.

Lumileds today revealed its FreshFocus Technology for produce, LEDs to showcase fruit and vegetables in their freshest and most appealing state. FreshFocus Technology is part of the LUXEON Stylist Series, Lumileds transformative line of LEDs designed to provide the perfect lighting environment to sell products in fashion retail stores, fresh food markets and restaurants.

Prices of LED chips and packages in China rose again during the final week of this August mainly on account of the strong demand from the fine-pitch LED display market, reports LEDinside, a division of TrendForce.    According to LEDinside, major China-based chip supplier San’an Opto and LED display package supplier Xinda Opto announced price hikes of 10% and 5%, respectively, around the same time in August. LEDinside’s analysis furthermore finds that the average LED usage volume for all indoor LED displays will increase from 60,000 in 2015 to 270,000 per square meter over the next two years. With surface areas of mainstream indoor LED display systems remain constant, the usage volume of LED packages for this application will more than triple during this two-year period.

According to the 2016 Chinese LED Chip and Package Industry Market Report by LEDinside, a division of TrendForce, the market scale of China’s LED package reaches 2% year on year (YoY) growth at US $8.8 billion in 2015. The COB LED market has witnessed rapid growth over the past few years. An apparent example is that COB LEDs are gaining higher penetration rate in high-end commercial lighting applications. Meanwhile, outdoor illumination market also finds COB LED packages’ growing penetration rate. Therefore, more and more manufacturers enter the COB LED market. Aside from international manufacturers that entered the market in the early stage, including Citizen, Sharp, Bridgelux and Luminus Devices, leading manufacturers like CREE, Lumileds and Nichia also tapped into the market of COB LEDs. The number of Chinese manufacturers that entered COB LED package market is even higher, including Sunpu Opto, Guangzhou LEDteen Optoelectronics Co., Shenzhen Crescent Optoelectronic Co. and Shenzhen Tongyifang Optoelectronic Technology co. With more players entering the industry, the market has also witnessed huge change. Overall, international manufacturers are still dominant in China’s COB market.

According to the 2016 Global Lighting Market Report by LEDinside, a division of TrendForce, four LED specialty lighting applications that are attracting growing interests include horticultural lighting, surgical lighting, marine/harbor lighting and smart lighting. The combined market scale of these four applications is estimated to grow from US$4.36 billion in 2016 to US$16.4 billion in 2020, with the CAGR during this forecast period reaching 30%.

In response to the rising demand for mobile payment, Samsung’s latest flagship smartphone Galaxy Note 7 includes iris recognition as a standard feature that assists in user authentication. The arrival of Galaxy Note 7 is expected to trigger a new round of hardware competition among smartphone brands as they will also likely to incorporate iris recognition into their flagship devices. According to the latest analysis from LEDinside, a division of TrendForce, iris and facial recognition features will gradually become prevalent in mobile devices. LEDinside further estimates that in 2020, global shipments of mobile devices with iris and facial recognition features will reach 400 million units. By that time, the market value of infrared LEDs (IR LEDs) for iris and facial recognition will total around US$250 million. Thus, biometric recognition has become one of the most potentially profitable applications for IR LEDs.

IR LEDs have a long history of development and are used in a wide range of applications on a daily basis. Following the introduction of biometric sensors and biometric identification to smartphones and wearable devices, IR LED can also be used in Internet of Things (IoT) applications. Varied applications of IR LEDs hold great potential in the future. LEDinside estimates that the market value of IR LED (excluding sensors) will reach US $710 million at 24% CAGR by 2020, making it the new blue sea for LED manufacturers.

LEDinside, a division of TrendForce, reports the global average sales prices of 40-watt and 60-watt equivalent LED light bulbs in July fell 0.7% and 0.6% versus the prior month, respectively, to US$9.5 and US$12.9.   “July was the start of the traditional off season for the LED industry,” said LEDinside analyst Allen Yu. “Furthermore, the economic conditions in Europe and the U.S. remained weak, so the demand rebound that occurred in the lighting market was limited to just the second quarter. Retail prices of LED light bulbs slid entering the third quarter, and some products suffered larger price drops on account of promotional activities.”

India’s lighting sector has enjoyed accelerated development recently. The scale of the country’s LED lighting market in particular is projected to expand 47.1% year on year in 2016 to US$1.14 billion, according to the 2016 Indian Lighting Market Report by LEDinside, a division of TrendForce. The government of India intends to turn itself into hub of lighting products across East Asia and countries along the coast. International firms include Osram and Toshiba have taken India as their manufacturing base of global market. India’s domestic and foreign LED lighting demands are both high. It’s expected that the market will see explosive growth over the next two to three years. By 2020, the Indian LED lighting market is forecast to grow to US$1.715 billion. In the current LED industry, although China market is a big cake, developing new markets is still necessary, due to overcapacity and price competition. As a market with great potential, India attracts international enterprise to take it as the next manufacturing base. Aside from low tariff policies based on the Preferred Market Access Policy, other advantages of Indian market also attract investors.   The India LED lighting market is still in its early phase, with opportunities include growing internal demand, promotion of Make in India, zero tariff in Indian market, lighting manufacturers see business potential in Indian lighting market. Meanwhile, product specification improvement can be seen in the market. Moreover, diverse and unique market channels, and differences between the environments of each segment in the lighting industry should be considered carefully when entering the market.

Nobel Prize in Physics laureate Shuji Nakamura, who was lauded by The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences as the Edison of 21st Century, recently noted laser diodes would eventually replace LEDs in lighting applications within the next decade at a fair in China last month, reported China’s LED Patent Alliance (LPA).

Following LCD and AMOLED, micro-LED has emerged as the next-generation display technology that is expected to be deployed widely in various applications. Increasing interests from electronics giants Apple and Sony during the recent period have encouraged further investments in micro-LED and accelerated the timetable for its commercialization. The latest analysis from LEDinside, a division of TrendForce, forecasts that micro-LED displays for smart wearable devices will enter the mass production stage in 2018. The technology will become available for smartphones later in 2020.   “Compared with the existing technologies, micro-LED offers significant improvements in many areas, including brightness/contrast, energy efficiency and response time,” said LEDinside analyst Philip Chang. “It also satisfies the demand for higher pixel density (expressed as pixels per inch or PPI) and other product design requirements, such as flexible and transparent screens. In sum, micro-LED overcomes the limitations of both LCD and AMOLED, and the mass production of displays based on this technology is foreseeable in the near future despite many unresolved technical issues.” Chang added: “Currently, the most significant technical hurdle that prevents the mass production of micro-LED displays is finding the best balance in the trade-off between pixel density and pixel volume. In this matter, Apple and Sony diverge in their strategies to commercialize the technology.”

German-based lighting manufacturer OSRAM has agreed to sell its lamp business unit LEDVANCE to a Chinese consortium that is led by IDG Capital Partners and includes LED manufacturer MLS and Yiwu State-Owned Assets Operation Center. The sale was announced on July 26 and represents a landmark deal in which Chinese LED manufacturer successfully acquires an oversea target with the help of an international investment group. “The sale of LEDVANCE shows major international lighting companies are exiting the LED lighting business due to its unprofitable outlook,” said Roger Chu, research director of LEDinside, a division of TrendForce. “On the other hand, Chinese LED lighting companies have an overall cost advantage and are assisted by the government, so they can take this opportunity to expand their market shares.” 

Chinese LED manufacturer Honglitronic Optoelectronics announced it had rebranded itself as Honglizhihui Group, and is in the process of acquiring  connected car technology assets.

Lighting LEDs accounted for US$3.9 billion of the US$8.8 billion Chinese LED package industry in 2015, according to the 2016 Chinese LED Chip and Package Industry Market Report by LEDinside, a division of TrendForce. Lighting LEDs’ share in the total scale of the Chinese LED package industry in 2015 also grew 15% year on year to reach 44%. MLS and Honglitronic, the two major Chinese package suppliers, have steadily expanded their market shares in the LED lighting application due to booming demand in Southeast Asia, India and other emerging markets. Consequently, their standings in the industry have gradually risen as well.

India’s lighting sector has enjoyed accelerated development recently. The scale of the country’s LED lighting market in particular is projected to expand 47.1% year on year in 2016 to US$1.14 billion, according to the 2016 Indian Lighting Market Report by LEDinside, a division of TrendForce. By 2020, the Indian LED lighting market is forecast to grow to US$1.715 billion. Joanne Wu, assistant research manager for LEDinside, said the Indian government plans to make their country the export hub for lighting products going to East Asia. At the same time, major international lighting vendors such as OSRAM and Toshiba have also set up production bases in India for supplying the global market. Driven by domestic and overseas demand, the Indian LED lighting market is expected to witness soaring growth in the near future.

The global average sales price (ASP) of 40-watt equivalent LED light bulbs in June fell 0.2% compared with the prior month to US$9.5, says the latest price report from LEDinside, a division of TrendForce. The global ASP of 60-watt equivalent light bulb also dropped 0.1% monthly to US$12.9. 

Want to know more about the different lighting options available? Check out our Energy Saver lighting topic page to learn about lighting choices that will save you money, when to turn off your lights and more.

How can LED and OLED manufacturers improve light extraction efficiency? Advanced materials specialist Pixelligent CEO Craig Bandes recently spoke to LEDinside about the company’s zirconia nanocrystal technology, and its applications in different end markets encompassing LED packages, OLED technology, optical components and panel displays.

China has become a major battleground for local and international LED package suppliers as the competition in the global LED market continues to intensify. The 2016 Chinese LED Chip and Package Industry Market Report by LEDinside, a division of TrendForce, finds Nichia held on to its position as the revenue leader in the Chinese package market for 2015, while Lumileds rose to second place and MLS followed at third. The top 10 LED package suppliers in the 2015 global revenue ranking generated a total of US$3.3 billion, down 15% from 2014. Together they contr...

Projecting images on curved screens poses a dilemma. The sharper the image, the darker it is. A novel optical approach brings brightness and sharpness together for the first time on screens of any curvature – and additionally allows about 10,000-times faster projection rates. Researchers will be presenting their technology November 4-6 at Vision 2014 in Stuttgart. (Hall 1, Booth G42)

The scale of China’s LED package industry grew just 2% annually to US$8.8 billion in 2015, according to the 2016 Chinese LED Chip and Package Industry Report by LEDinside, a division of TrendForce. The weak performance of the Chinese LED industry last year was mainly attributed to the global economic slowdown.   LEDinside analyst Allen Yu said the market is showing some signs of rebound this year as branded lighting vendors have been restocking their inventories, thereby generating demand and boosting the capacity utilization of LED chip suppli...

The ongoing improvement of efficacy, competence of SDCM control and color rendering index in LEDs accelerate high-end commercial lighting market’s development that demands higher light quality. High-end commercial lighting market mainly include museum, galleries and other exhibition lighting applications that primarily use downlights, projectors and reflectors.   LEDinside, a division of TrendForce, reports in its “High-end commercial and track lighting market” that the market scale of two frequently used luminaires for high-end commercial lighting, namely Downlight and Projectors and Reflectors (Par& Rs.) separately reaches US $1.88 billion and US $1.54 billion in 2016. It’s projected that the market scale of Downlight is to reach US $2.01 billion and Projector and Reflectors at US $1.59 billion in 2017.

A new study has found brief periods of exposure to blue light could increase subsequent activation in brain regions important to successful working memory performance and improve response times, according to an article by Medscape Multispecialty.

Perovskite materials have shown great promise for use in next-generation solar cells, LEDs, sensors, and other applications, but their instability remains a critical limitation.

DOE has published the 2016 edition of the Solid-State Lighting R&D Plan. It was developed in conjunction with community experts through input received at roundtable meetings held in September and October 2015 and at the DOE SSL R&D Workshop held in February 2016 in Raleigh, NC. The discussions covered R&D needs for LED and OLED technologies, ranging from core technology research and product development through manufacturing R&D.

China Chinese automotive light’s development is still price-oriented when adopting LEDs. Current spec for interior automotive lights and RCL are similar with lighting LEDs and even backlight LEDs, the LED penetration rate is relatively high and similar to international level. As DRL is closely linked to the recognition of vehicles, it has seen rapid development in Chinese market over the past few years. Moreover, some Chinese automotive makers turn to low-power LEDs for DRL applications. Therefore, the market penetration of DRL in China rose to 47% in 2016.   Slow mid and high-power LED in Chinese automotive market: Due to the high technical requirement of high-power LED product segments, such as high / low beam and fog light. These light sources are mainly from international source and have low penetration rate.   US Car Market Supply Chain US automotive makers mainly adopt automotive lamps from Visteon and Hella. As North America is notorious for its tariff protection, automotive lamp factories and modules are constructed relatively close to each other, focusing on market opportunities and the reduction of assembly costs. Mexico is a popular location of such plants over the past few years.  As the suppliers of headlamps and tail lamps are not necessarily the same, the main concern lie in design and mass production ability. Meanwhile, the suppliers of tail light and interior lights are usually the same as the technical difficulties is relatively low and can be potentially purchased together.

Bathing a patient in LED light may someday offer a new way to locate tumors, according to Rice University researchers.

In November 2015, Osram Opto Semiconductors (Osram Opto) announced general lighting will be an integral part of its long term strategic development plan, and that it would be investing EUR 1 billion (US$1.14 billion) in Malaysia to construct a 6-inch LED production site. The news surprised the entire LED industry. Recently, Osram Opto hosted a series of innovative SSL technology forums to unveil its new product line across Asia.

Exposure to bright light could affect your metabolism, reports a new Northwestern Medicine study.  

Projected penetration rate for small size OLED: As Samsung started to adopt OLED in all models of its own brand and the exportation to Chinese labels, the strategies has pushed the penetration rate to 20% in 2016. Samsung has reached full production capacity while other display manufacturers are unable to satisfy the specification of high-end mobile models, OLED’s penetration rate will only rise to approximately 25% from 2017 to 2018. As Taiwanese, Japanese and Chinese manufacturers all strive to catch up and the expansion of Samsung and LG Display, it’s expected that OLED could take over one third of the smartphone display market, providing that Apple didn’t enter the OLED market.   Large size OLEDs cannot pose threat to LEDs: The main obstacle of small size OLED lies in the demand of high pixels per inch (ppi) while in large size it’s limited by yield rate and price. Though LG Display strived to lower the price of OLED TV and adopted the same strategy in selling its display panels to other manufacturers, prices of OLED TVs that are twice higher than LED ones still saw slow progress. It’s projected that OLED TVs will only account for 0.5% in the TV market and rise to 5% as of 2020.