2017-2018 is a pivotal period for the display industry. Companies are scrambling for new display technologies to bring better user experience with devices that sport them. Micro LED display technology is believed to combine the LED and display industries together to create a supply chain rolling out screen products more appealing, power-saving, and refined. This chain is even anticipated to replace a part of the current LCD chain worth USD 30-40 billion in the future (see here). The Korean Institute of Machinery and Materials (KIMM) revealed two months ago a refined roll-transfer technology which enables a successful mass Micro LED transfer onto flexible target substrates.

LED filaments have been gaining popularity as its technology progressed. More new manufacturing equipment is introduced and the market keeps scaling up. A growing number of distributors and end-consumers show interest to want to know more about LED filaments.

Technology progresses, and the way of making it should be smarter, too. With the continuous scaling semiconductor and CMOS technology, the circuitry becomes more intricate, and PCB designs more compact and complicated, possibly leading to more time inefficiently spent on creating and collecting electronic design data with schematic and PCB design tools with a broad range of models and symbols enough to tire out engineers. That had propelled Natasha Baker to derail from her former electronic design product marketing job and found SnapEDA.

Wars in the space of LED lighting technology patent never end and are even growing in numbers in the post oligopoly era. LEDinside did a series of quick Q&As with Tim Lester, CEO of Bridgelux. The CEO articulated his views on the transition of patent landscape and strong confidence to withstand competitions from rivals.

Earlier in May, the world’s highest PPI emissive Micro LED display was announced. The whole industry was left baffled with knowing that it came out from a young Canadian startup- VueReal. When other companies- some of them are major in other application sectors-are still moping over poor yields and technological difficulties during Micro LED’s manufacturing processes, the launch already spoke for the company’s competency.

LEDs have become a ubiquitous part of our lives, finding their way into our big screen HDTV’s, into our cars, on our streets, at work and in our homes. The global LED lighting market is booming now as LED prices have dropped significantly over the past few years. However, we are on the verge of a 2nd revolution in LED lighting. The next generation of LED optics will deliver LED lighting that is more comfortable, safer, very high quality and digitally connected, all at affordable prices. Light Polymers, a San Francisco-based nanochemistry startup, is eyeing the LED lighting industry with its unique and disruptive proprietary lyotropic materials technology.

The China LED chip industry is highly concentrated at this point. It is undergoing an reshuffle and slowly transitioning to a dynamic where LED chip and package behemoths San’an Opto and HC SemiTek pretty much lead and even control the pack. In the face of upcoming capacity expansion from major manufacturers, is there really a way for other SMEs to sail through such turbulent waters?

To shift or not to shift, that is the question. At this point within the LED industry, in terms of business transformation, companies are facing a turning point to shift business focus to new niche markets with high gross margins such as UV and IR LED, or to stay at LED lighting, where they began with; and of course, some chose to embrace all.

From dome optical lens to liquid silicone materials for encapsulation and adhesion, on the booth’s panel, noted LED package material manufacturer Dow Corning, now a wholly owned subsidiary of the Dow Chemical Company, showcased a myriad of advanced silicone products for various package types. At GILE 2017, LEDinside had an interview with Mr. Takuhiro Tsuchiya, Global Segment Leader at Dow Corning, on current trends and the company’s role in the LED package industry.

Within the LED lighting industry, more and more companies shifted their focuses to niche markets and specialty lighting to get away from bitter price wars in the general lighting market. Sectors such as horticultural lighting, healthcare, shipping, and intelligent lighting began to witness the emergence of LED products, and it also seemed a definite trend to replace traditional low-price LED tubes with advanced high efficient ones. As for the decorative lighting market where consumes a massive amount of LEDs, it also experienced a series of changes when LED technology gradually takes hold. In light of the fact that it has earned a favourable reception among traders, distributors, and lighting designers, LED filament soon became considerably desirable to replace conventional low wattage LED bulbs and LED candle bulbs producing high thermal runaway. Accordingly, in recent years, LED filament has been a great hit in the market.

In the ever-growing LED market, automotive LEDs are witnessing a rapid development. This is driven by various regulations enforced by governments around the world for fuel-efficient gasoline vehicles. In addition, manufacturers of hybrid vehicles and electric vehicles have increasingly embraced new technologies. Also, with substantial development in automotive electronics, many LED manufacturers are now trying to gain their positions in this market.

The world LED lighting market has passed into the maturity stage, of which the saturation makes a few segments struggle. According to stats from LEDinside, a division of market research company TrendForce, the world LED lighting market reached a value of USD 29.6 billion in 2016 and by 2017 the number will have possibly amounted to USD 33.1 billion, suggesting more room for the penetration rate of LED lighting, currently at 52% and continually to grow. However, price wars and technology competitions that run in the low-end market rankle international LED manufacturers. Hence, as part of Tier 1 companies, fairly competitive in finance and technology, tend to focus on high efficient LED lighting and other niche markets.

The Swiss semiconductor equipment provider Evatec is renowned for its state-of-the-art solutions used for advanced packaging, power semiconductor manufacture, wireless communication, MEMS, and optoelectronic semiconductor manufacture. In 2009, Evatec started gaining popularity by introducing to the LED industry RADIANCE, an automated sputter tool offering thin-film deposition with ITO damage free quality. Evatec mainly partners with Tier 1 LED manufacturers from a multitude of regions including Europe, China, Taiwan, Korea, and the United States. LEDinside was hounored to have an interview with Henfy Su, Evatec’s General Manager for Greater China.

Automotive LED has been one of the LED applications whose market scales are huge and still rapidly growing. According to LEDinside, The trend that global auto lighting has shifted from traditional light bulbs to LED light sources has accelerated in 2016. More matured markets have steadily migrated into high portion of LED light sources. Emerging countries have stably followed the trend. LEDinside's research data showed that 2016 exterior LED lighting market value reached US $1.57 billion. This sector's compound annual growth rate (CAGR) is projected to hit 6% from 2016 to 2020.

With sensors being a critical component for mushrooming smart Internet-based devices amid the IoT current, optical sensors have emerged as the mainstream item, boasting widespread applications, in smart mobile devices, wearables, and security equipment, among others.

Color conversion is a challenge for micro-LEDs where pixels can approach sizes smaller than 5 microns, particularly in micro-displayapplications for mobile devices where overall size, as well as efficiency are all important. Traditional phosphors and even quantum dots (QDs) are not applicable to the micron sized LEDs, principally because of the thickness of material needed.

Founded three years ago, Idaho-based Rohinni is eyeing different segments in the micro-LED application sector with a LED die based manufacturing process: the first industries they have targeted will be keyboard backlight, logo and the automotive lighting sector.

Following the expansion of LED chips and packaging industry, pattern sapphire substrate (PSS) manufacturer  Sinopatt Technology successfully scales up production capacity by offering stable technology, improvement in equipment and superior inventory turnover for costs control and operating competence. Currently, Sinopatt is the largest PSS manufacturer in the market. LEDinside interviewed with Kai Kang, President of Sinopatt about the opportunities and challenges in LED and sapphire industries.

The value of the global market for disinfection reaches US $ 500 billion with applications across residential market, medical and industrial areas. The emergence of energy-efficient products and policy of mercury prohibition contribute to the high value of disinfection industry, enabling deep UV LED products one of market strategy in entering niche markets. Epileds, an UV and IR LED chip and High Power Lighting, manufacturer of LED packages and modules are optimistic about the potential DUV LEDs hold. The two companies reached agreement to actively develop and deploy a Taiwan-based DUV LED supply chain. Epileds and High Power Lighting announced at a product conference at the end of 2016 the joint venture company named Bioraytron. The joint company will enable vertical integration of DUV LED applications, starting from epitaxy to LED chip manufacturing while focusing on the sales of UV-C LED packages and modules.

When companies of the LED lighting industry are busy with integration, merger and expansion nowadays, an enterprise is acting in a diametrically opposite way, concentrating its development in a strategically selected field. In the era where companies are chasing for quick success, how does this enterprise keep its originality in the competitive market? What is the company’s counter-strategy for industry price war and oversea competitions?

Colorful LEDs can be applied in specialty lighting sectors, such as stage lighting, plant grow lights and landscape lighting markets. Regional markets in China, U.S., Europe and Southeast Asia have especially benefited from emerging applications in the local market and witnessed increased procurements for color LEDs. Demands for different color RGBW LED components have emerged as a result from this trend, and is accelerating in related specialty lighting market applications. The popular LED grow light market has grown to US $575 million in 2016, and LEDinside estimates it will reach US $1.42 billion by 2020. LEDinside has also observed LEDs for stage light market value reached US $500 million, and is projected to further escalate.

Mid-power LEDs have become a mainstream product in the LED package sector, showing strong growth in the market over the past few years. The global lighting market scale is estimated to reach US $3.74 billion by 2020, and it is projected mid-power LEDs will comprise the majority stake in the market due to its high reliability and performance, estimated LEDinside. Taiwanese LED package manufacturers have released mid-power LED products including 3030 LED, 5630 LED, and other major LED package products, EVERLIGHT for instance has been shipping large volumes of these products.  In an exclusive interview with LEDinside, Ewing Liu, Technical Marketing Manager at EVERLIGHT, talked about the company’s outlook for mid-power LED market and latest market trend developments.

Ivan-Christophe Robin, Strategic Marketing Manager at Leti, spoke to LEDinside recently about the French research institute’s outlook for micro-LEDs in various end-market applications, especially the wearable sector.

The global LED industry benefited from emerging lighting market demands, but the LED backlight industry has entered a mature plateau phase. Price wars intensified in mainstream LED chip and application sectors, turning into an overtly competitive red sea market. In 2015, global LED market value declined for the first time by 3% to US $14.33 billion, according to statistics compiled by LEDinside, a research division of Taipei-based market research institute TrendForce.

Product development in the LED industry has changed significantly over the past years, shifting from boosting lumen efficiency to prioritizing light quality. Lumileds latest LUXEON Stylist Series, designed to meet different commercial and retail lighting demands, especially emphasizes CoB LED color performance. Compared to the company’s older generation products, the new LEDs are incorporating TM-30 color parameter measurements into the design process.

Diminishing size of the annual Guangzhou International Lighting Fair in China was first observed in June 2015, but the extent of the shrinking fair accelerated in 2016. Despite fewer international companies displaying their products at the annual show this year, it still attracted a large number of visitors. In the LED industry where large manufacturers are constantly switching businesses, staying or leaving the industry are all market strategies to embrace market changes. LEDinside had the opportunity to interview Pang Yen Liu, General Manager Production Business Group Sales and Marketing Greater China of EVERLIGHT at the show recently.

Mobile World Congress Shanghai, which is held from 28 June to 1 July 2016, features two “Connected Lifestyle” halls that showcase up-to-date products and services. Bodo Ischebeck, Vice President Infrared Components at Osram Opto Semiconductors delivered a speech titled “Optical Sensors Advancing Mobile Technology.” Bodo Ischebeck introduced optical sensors’ applications and outlook of biometrics, biosensor, VR/AR and 3D sensor applications.

How can LED and OLED manufacturers improve light extraction efficiency? Advanced materials specialist Pixelligent CEO Craig Bandes recently spoke to LEDinside about the company’s zirconia nanocrystal technology, and its applications in different end markets encompassing LED packages, OLED technology, optical components and panel displays.

Top LED material manufacturer Dow Corning showcased a variety of new silicone-based materials for LED packaging, industrial and street lighting applications at the Guangzhou International Lighting Exhibition 2016 (GILE 2016). This is LEDinside pleasure to have a chance to have an interview with marketing director of Dow Corning Lighting and Electronics, Rogier Reinders, to share the product features and market perspectives. 

Kaynam Hedayat, VP Marketing and Product Management at Digital Lumens recently spoke to LEDinside about the company’s partnership with Schneider Electric and its advantages in smart lighting operation system.