LED to surpass CCFL in large-area TFT LCD backlights in 2011

AUSTIN, USA: The LED backlight unit market has rapidly emerged in the TFT LCD industry, and momentum for this segment is expected to continue over the next five years.

In the latest DisplaySearch Quarterly LED Backlight Report, the company reports that LED backlight units will surpass CCFL/EEFL backlights in large-area TFT LCD panels in 2011, and achieve 74percent penetration in 2013. Large-area LED backlight demand for all applications will grow from 114 million units in 2009 to 770 million units in 2015.

“Without a doubt, LED backlights will be the dominant light source in all applications in 2011—representing a significant business and technology evolution for the entire backlight and panel supply chain,” noted Kevin Kwak, DisplaySearch Director of LED Backlight Unit Research.

Fig. 1 shows the LED backlight unit penetration including notebook PCs, LCD monitors and LCD TV applications.

Fig. 1: LED Backlight Unit Penetration Rate in 10”+ TFT LCDsSource: Quarterly LED Backlight Report

DisplaySearch forecasts the shipment of LED backlight units for LCD TVs to grow from 36.5 million units (a 20 percent penetration rate) in 2010 to 184.9 million units (a 72 percent penetration rate) in 2015.

“In order for LCD TVs with LED backlight units to gain market share, they must provide attractive performance and cost competitiveness simultaneously,” Kwak added. “Three main components will play a role in reducing costs: LED chips, light guide plates and dual brightness enhancement films.”

Cost and performance remain bottlenecks for panel manufacturers for LED backlight units for monitor panels. Despite this, the Energy Star 5.0 specification will drive growth for this segment. In particular, LCD manufacturers are mass-producing 18.5”W-24”W LCD monitor panels with LED backlight units. DisplaySearch predicts that <26” LCD TVs with LED backlights, mainly using monitor panels, will grow rapidly also, as the cost premium is acceptable.

The notebook PC segment has the highest LED backlight unit penetration rate, as the power-saving benefit justifies the cost premium compared to CCFL BLU. Meanwhile, the prices for side-view, high-intensity (1,900-2,200 mcd) white LEDs continues to fall. As a result, LED backlights will have an 84 percent share of notebook PC shipments in 2010 and will be close to 95 percent in 2011.