HB-LED makers face tough challenges

14 Nov 2005

Makers of high-brightness LEDs should develop more appropriate standards claims a new report.

From Compound Semiconductor magazine

Mistrust between manufacturers of high-brightness (HB) LEDs and their customers is just one of a number of issues that the solid-state lighting (SSL) industry must address to become successful.

That’s according to an analysis of the global market for HB-LEDs compiled by NanoMarkets, an offshoot of Communications Industry Researchers (CIR).

In their report, NanoMarkets analysts Lawrence Gasman and Robert Nolan predict rapid growth in the market for LEDs in general, and for the highest-brightness devices in particular. However, they stress that the industry must address a range of problems for SSL to penetrate mainstream lighting applications.

These include more transparency and co-operation between different levels of the industry supply chain, a greater marketing emphasis on the consumer benefits of LEDs, and new characterization standards.

“NanoMarkets believes that it has become absolutely necessary to develop a new set of standards for measuring the characteristics of HB-LEDs,” declares the report.

In particular, say the analysts, the use of the traditional color rendering index (CRI) as a measure of white-light quality is “unconvincing”, since the index was developed for the incandescent lamp.

Human perception
“Some experiments have indicated that human perception and liking for shades of white does not conform to the CRI,” says the report. “In fact, an experiment suggests that our liking for warm or cold white light varies according to the time of day and the ambient conditions.”

A standard definition of HB-LED lifetime is also needed, say Gasman and Nolan, who add that packaging and drive electronics must also be standardized.

The report also urges the HB-LED and SSL industries to be mindful of the experience of previous “disruptive” lighting technologies such as the compact fluorescent lamp (CFL).

CFLs, though regarded as technologically superior to incandescent lighting, have endured a slow rate of adoption. The NanoMarkets report suggests that this was largely because the technological advantages of CFLs were not adequately translated into simple benefits that could compel customers to switch to the new solution.

”NanoMarkets believes that the HB-LED industry should take the CFL story as the ‘lesson learned’,” say the analysts.

They add that a mass-awareness campaign by the SSL industry should be triggered, so that in five years, when HB-LEDs are expected to penetrate the general illumination market, they arrive as an awaited technology, rather than one that takes the consumer by surprise.

Estimating the market for HB-LEDs (defined as those emitting more than 50 lumens) to be worth just over $4.1 billion in 2005, the report projects that the introduction of LEDs emitting over 250 lumens next year will drive the HB-LED market to around $10.8 billion in 2010, by which time SSL is expected to emerge as a commercial reality.

Further details about The Global Market for HB-LEDs can be accessed via the Nanomarkets and CIR links.