High brightness LED market trends

LED (Light Emitting Diode) is made of semiconductor light emitting element, element has two electrode terminals, the voltage applied between terminal and pass into the tiny current through the combination of electron hole of the remaining light energy to stimulate the release form, the basic principle of light LED. Different from the ordinary incandescent bulbs, LED is cold light, with low power consumption, long service life, no element advantages of warm light time, fast reaction speed, coupled with its small size, high shock resistance, suitable for mass production, easy to fit the need of application made minimal or array elements, the LED has been widely used for information, communication and consumer electronic products and the indicator on the display device, has become an indispensable important component in daily life. LED is divided into two categories according to the wavelength of the visible light LED (wavelength of 450 ~ 680nm) and invisible LED (wavelength from 850 to 1550nm). In the epitaxial layer material can be further divided into two element compound (such as GaAs, GaSb, GaN etc.), three yuan compound (such as AlxGa1-xAs, AlxGa1-xP, In1-xGaxAs etc.), four yuan compound (such as AlInGaP, InAlGaAs, AlxGa1-xAsyP1-y) and GaN compounds in four categories. High brightness LED is made of four compounds and GaN compounds LED. If further according to the drive current size, can be divided into standard (Standard), high current (High-current) and high power (High power) three categories, as shown in figure 1. Source: Strategies Unlimited (2007) Figure 1 high brightness LED product type standard products refers to the driving current less than 20mA high brightness LED, encapsulation type is SMD or Lamp, mainly used in portable products such as small volume application market; high current products refers to the driving current in the 50 ~ 150mA high brightness LED. Many package types for the piranha type or PLCC type, mainly used in cars, lighting requirements of high luminous flux output market; high power products refers to the driving current is more than 150mA high brightness LED, with 350mA as the main driving current. Because of the high power LED high input power, derived from the "heat" problem is more serious, the use of packaging structure and traditional LED have obvious differences, there is no consistent product type, mainly used in automobile, lighting, large size LCD display backlight required high luminous flux output market; polycrystalline products in a single package, contains more than two different color grains to achieve multi color performance, mainly used in mobile phone, light color billboards, car lighting and other fields, such as in table 1.

Table 1 high brightness LED market and product type data sources using IEK (2008): ITRI

2007 an overview of the development of global market in 2007 to maintain steady growth in 2005 high brightness LED mobile phone with high brightness LED market is saturated, high brightness LED market has been the lack of new killer, although have developed mobile phone flash, digital photo frame and small size backlight should be new, but the market demand does not scale with the mobile phone market. Coupled with the Asian countries to expand production capacity competition, the average unit price continued to decline, making the global high brightness LED market to maintain a slow growth trend. 2007 global high brightness LED market is still unable to break through the growth bottleneck, the overall market size of $4 billion 600 million, compared with a slight increase of 10% in 2006, as shown in figure 2. Source: ITRI IEK (2008) Figure 2 global high brightness LED market size

Portable products for the current mainstream applications, but the market share has declined year by year

High brightness LED application market can be broadly divided into portable products, billboards / monitors, cars, traffic signals, lighting, electronics / other six areas. Portable products market, due to the huge demand for mobile phone market, becoming the largest application market of high brightness LED. However, since 2005 due to the slowdown in the growth of the mobile phone market, coupled with the saturation of the LED in the mobile phone application market reached nearly 100%, so that the market share since 2006 and showed a downward trend. In 2007 NB began to display backlight applications of high brightness LED, with a new wave of market demand, but the market penetration is still low, unable to compensate for the mobile phone market downturn, leading to the 2007 portable product market share, from 48% in 2006 fell further to 44%. Kanban and display and lighting applications market, due to China, Olympic construction and economic growth, driven by the display board and architectural lighting demand growth, a substantial increase in the demand for high brightness LED, making the two application market is showing a significant growth trend, in 2007 the market share were 17% and 7%, as shown in figure 3.

Source: ITRI IEK (2008); Strategies Unlimited (2008) in Figure 3 high brightness LED market in 2007

Small changes in product mix, only high power LED market share increased significantly

On the other hand, the use of color analysis, white LED is widely used in portable product screen backlight, car interior light source, traffic signal (pedestrian and part of the road signal), the lighting market. Red light and yellow light high brightness LED are mainly used in the automotive, traffic signal and monochrome signage market. Blue light and green light high brightness LED main application traffic signal and portable products. Multi grain LED is mainly used in Kanban and portable products market. 2007 White LED market showed a stable state. Although the portable product backlight market, because the product price decline, making the market demand for a slight decline, but due to the increased demand for lighting market, which makes the market share remained at 48%, in 2006. As for other light color high brightness LED, because the market is stable, the market share distribution has not changed obviously compared with 2006. Source: ITRI