LED fluorescent material market two years of civil war fire will ignite again

According to the Nikkei technology online reports, in the last 20 years, the use of LED lighting fluorescent materials (hereinafter referred to as the "LED fluorescent material") has been the key factor of LED light, the first is red and yellow light, then is blue and green, the last is white. If there is no fluorescent material, LED market will never achieve such growth, LED will not be used for the usual lighting purposes.

Times are changing, however, mainly because of the expiration date of some important patents. Many patents are valid for 20 years. These patents expiring for Nichia, OSRAM (OSRAM) and Samsung patent owners of these fluorescent materials, plays an important role in maintaining market leadership.

So what are the changes in the market for LED fluorescent materials?

Sales expanded, but sales growth

Sales, from 2015 to 2020, the size of the LED fluorescent material market is expected to expand to more than 2 times. However, taking into account the LED fluorescent material prices fell significantly, estimated sales will not change (please refer to Yole Developpement in the April 2015 issue of the report "Phosphor and Quantum Dots 2015 Report (quantum dot fluorescent material and related report 2015"). For the production of LED fluorescent materials, if the most commonly used components, the technical threshold is very low. Because of this, the company has always been able to purchase type manufacturing equipment, set foot in the market of LED fluorescent materials. For these new companies, almost no need for quality management and research and development costs. As a result, some new companies can be used to produce 3 LED fluorescent materials with low cost, such as fluorescent lamps. In order to gain market share, new enterprises have launched fierce price competition.

With the main LED fluorescent material - YAG (yttrium aluminum garnet) phosphor patents will expire in 2017, China's large LED manufacturers will be able to enter the overseas market more easily. Beijing Yuji, grirem, Hilde Yantai new material limited company, according to the Jiangxi road Mary luminescent materials Co. Ltd. and Sony light will enterprises to expand the market, make YAG further become popular.

The pursuit of high added value, such as nitride

On the other hand, fluorescent material manufacturers have begun to shift the focus of business and other higher phosphor phosphor material. In the past 20 years, nitride fluorescent materials have also experienced a sharp decline in prices, but still maintain a relatively high profit margin. Emerging suppliers such as the United States and the United States (Intematix), such as the old suppliers will want to strengthen the intellectual property rights in the field of leadership in the field of MITSUBISHI chemical challenge.

The price of high value-added fluorescent materials, the price of some materials fell 3 years ago to the original 1/5, has now dropped to the original 1/10. One reason is the increase in the number of suppliers. There are a lot of fluorescent material suppliers in China, some of which are competitive in the Chinese market.

Although the competitive environment changes, but the fluorescent material is still a special market. Technology and intellectual property rights are a major factor in determining market competitiveness. There are significant differences in the performance and material stability of each manufacturer, only a small number of companies have a strong patent to supply products to the global stability. Large enterprises, has a strong patent MITSUBISHI chemical, Nichia chemical industries and other Japanese companies, and OSRAM, samsung.

Quantum dot worthy of attention

From a technical point of view, although the yellow fluorescent material YAG is still the mainstream, but the added value is high red fluorescent material. Because of the need for high color rendering index of the lighting market requires red fluorescent materials. In addition, a new material composition. Ge Corp (GE) successfully developed potassium fluoride (PFS) fluorescent material (red fluorescent materials, the luminescence) has been provided to SHARP and Nichia chemical industries, are used for a variety of high color gamut LCD tv.

Quantum dot technology is ready, in the field of display, has begun to compete with traditional fluorescent materials. The quantum dot is characterized by an adjustable narrow band emission, which can achieve a color gamut and efficiency with an organic EL display (OLED) equivalent or higher liquid crystal display. Before OLED is ready, quantum dot LCD has ushered in an excellent opportunity to narrow the performance gap with OLED. If the majority of consumers do not know the difference between the two technologies, then the key factor in the purchase of the display is the price.

Intellectual property dispute

For large scale investment in the field of organic EL can not be the size of the LCD panel manufacturers, quantum dots is the need for additional investment in the factory can improve the performance of liquid crystal display opportunities. Due to the characteristics of adjustable narrow band emission, the quantum dot technology can make the display design more freedom. But this is not enough to be a reason for large-scale quantum dots. Quantum dot LCD technology also needs further improvement, such as the realization of cadmium free technology.

On the other hand, the traditional fluorescent material has not yet withdrawn from the stage of history. If the stability and decay time of PFS fluorescent material is improved and the narrow band green fluorescent material is obtained, it can compete in the competition with organic EL.

So, what kind of situation? The flames of war over intellectual property will be rekindled in the next 2 years. With the same