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Apr 13, 2023

Maturing Market Means LED Makers Must Offer More

So how will the LED landscape shape up in the years to come in terms of

So how will the LED landscape shape up in the years to come in terms of technology and applications? Technical experts emphasize the importance of building a diverse product portfolio, while market analysts predict a surge in smart lighting and, of course, more market consolidation. But the question remains – will changes occur at the LED die, device, module or luminaire level? In 2005, the average efficiency of an LED stood at around 50 lm/W. Today's commercially available LEDs now regularly top 100 lm/W, and laboratory developments are creeping closer to 200 lm/W. "Lumen per watt has doubled in the past five years," said Ulrich vom Bauer, senior manager of product marketing at leading semiconductor manufacturer Infineon Technologies AG of Neubiberg, Germany. "Today 150 lumens per watt is mainstream; 170 lumens per watt can be commercially found. The theoretical maximum is 208 lumens per watt." Initial growth of the LED industry came from small display applications, driven forward by the demand for LCD displays. But in 2012, general lighting topped the list of applications for the first time, reaching nearly 39 percent of total revenue of packaged LEDs. Yole Développement, the More-than-Moore market research and strategy consulting company, estimates packaged LEDs reached a market size of $14.5 billion in 2013 and will grow to more than $18 billion by 2020.

New devices must be developed to address several challenges that are facing LED makers. Source: LED Packaging Technology & Market Trends report, September 2014, Yole Développement.