Abstract
Yole Developpement has edited a new report describing the market and technology trends for HB LEDs in general illumination and automotive lighting. In 2007, GaN-based LEDs will reach a higher luminous efficiency than fluorescents. The ramping-up of solid-state lighting business will really start at that time. Companies like Lumileds, Osram, Nichia or Cree are now marketing high brightness white LEDs with more than 40 lumen/watt efficiency) and an ASP less than 5$/part. We forecast that the annual demand for LEDs for general illumination should reach about 3.6 billions units in 2010 and between 4 to 7 billions units after 2020.
HB-LEDs have also really strong market opportunities in the automotive, many reasons for that, among them:
- important reliability (e.g. lifetime much larger than needed 10 000 h while 3 000 h is necessary for low beams)
- use for internal and external lighting,
- low consumption,
The small size of LEDs enables:
- new design possibilities (for external light, they could be very close to the optics)
- increased integration (for internal light, their small size is ideal as little space is available)
In term of security, LEDs have fast reaction time: LEDs light up around 250 milliseconds quicker than bulbs. Therefore, at 100 km/h speed, that means a gain in braking distance of 7 meters.
