UV LED market eruption 5 years, an increase of more than $400 million

According to the Nikkei BP news agency reported that ultraviolet LED (UV LED) in the past 5 years in the use of UV hardening, drying, bonding, namely UV curing field established the market. UV LED has the advantages of large output power, small size and low power consumption. It has brought great value to the UV system market and the users of these systems.

Equipped with UV LED equipment due to the small size and low operating costs, so quickly began to replace the original technology using mercury lamp, so that the UV business in the field of UV LED market continues to expand. 2008 UV LED market, the largest but $20 million, while in 2014 the largest expansion to $90 million, with an average annual growth rate (CAGR) of up to 28.5%.

The new era is about to begin

French research firm Yole Developpement (hereinafter referred to as Yole), said the use of disinfection and purification in the next 3 years to become the key to achieve growth in the UV LED market.

With the use of UV LED UV curing technology to the ink, adhesives and coating industry expansion, estimated UV LED market will further expand. In addition, there are new uses such as disinfection and purification. The performance of UV LED is not sufficient for disinfection and purification purposes. However, with the improvement of performance in the future, it is estimated that before 2018 UV LED market will have some revenue from the use of UVC (UV-C band) disinfection and purification purposes.

UV LED market size in 2019 is expected to expand from the maximum $90 million in 2014 to $500 million. But the scale of UV LED to replace the standard application of UV lamp as a prerequisite. If UV LED is also beginning to be used for general lighting, plant cultivation lighting, biomedical devices and hospital infection and other areas of the game, UV LED market is likely to achieve greater growth in the future. And from the possibility of the UV LED, lighting and medical purposes, but only a small part of it. Although the new application area of UV LED has not brought a big impact on the market size, but Yole is expected in 2019, the share of these new applications will likely account for about 10% of the entire UV LED market.

Large companies involved in the UV LED Market

In 2008, only about 10 companies in the development, manufacture UV LED. After the more than and 50 companies involved in the UV LED market (of which there are 30 in 2012 to get involved during the period of 2014). The vast majority of these companies are involved in high-yield UV LED market. At that time, the LED TV crisis led to visible light LED industry overcapacity and price decline is becoming increasingly prominent, so that the industry has been hit hard, which set the opportunity for the companies involved in the UV LED market.

Most of the new companies involved in small and medium enterprises LED. But the recent concern is that in the visible light LED industry has a number of large enterprises (U.S. PHILPS Lumileds lighting company and South Korea LG Innotek Club) began to get involved in UV LED business. The two large companies involved in the UV LED industry, the market and even technological progress will have a huge impact. PHILPS Lumileds lighting company and LG Innotek company has a high level of expertise through visual light LED cultivate.

PHILPS Lumileds lighting company and LG Innotek basic LED production process fully transition to a 6 inch sapphire substrate. Compared with the 2 inch process, the production efficiency can be increased by at least 30%. This will further reduce manufacturing costs. In addition, by virtue of the previous process and packaging related knowledge, the two companies can also improve the performance of UV LED, reduce the price of unit input power ($/W).

High efficiency is the key to market growth

The external quantum efficiency of UV LED is a few percentage points of UVC to UVA (UV-A band) and near UV 40 ~ 50%, aimed at the development of high efficiency chip development or will become the key to achieve growth in the UV LED market. In fact, the efficiency of UV LED will directly affect the penetration rate of UV LED. In the future is expected to promote UV LED market growth in the field of purification and disinfection, UV LED has not yet popular reason lies in the use of the UVC is recognized as less than adequate efficiency.

In order to improve the external quantum efficiency, LED manufacturers have to improve a number of parameters related to efficiency, to promote technology development. Specifically, it is necessary to improve the internal quantum efficiency, quantum injection efficiency and light extraction efficiency. At this time can be visible light LED industry has experienced more than 10 years of cultivation, flip chip structure and optoelectronic technology, such as improving the efficiency of the direct use of UV LED. However, the existence of UV LED derived from the inherent problems of the In/AlGaN epitaxial layer, the need to promote the development of the substrate and crystal growth level, specifically to address this issue.

In addition to low optical output power, due to the low efficiency of the reasons, UV LED in the packaging level there are still further problems. This is most of the input power will become hot. Therefore, the thermal management of UV LED is the key to improve the reliability of equipment and related systems.

In this regard, the visual light industry expertise can also play a role in LED industry. For UV LED related technologies, Yole in the latest report summarizes the development blueprint, through the introduction of these technologies, UV LED is expected to open up new uses. UV LED technology is now entering a very strong growth areas.

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