LEDforum China 2010: Analyzing future challenges in LED industry

TAIWAN: 'LEDforum China 2010', held by research institution LEDinside, debuted today. World-class speakers are invited to share professional points of view, analyze trends and challenges of the LED industry, and introduce the latest lighting technology. Over 1000 participants from the industry, government, and academia circles have all gathered at the forum.

Roger Chu, LEDinside’s Research Director, indicated that traditional light sources have competitive advantages in both luminous efficacy and cost. Therefore, government subsidies are crucial for LED lighting to be adopted as general lighting, and vendors who are capable of achieving high quality at low costs will be profitable.

Looking at the global LED market, Chu noted that in special application market, new demand in lighting market may be developed through enhancing the LED characteristics. LED-based companies are currently expanding their business with vertical integration, while the traditional lighting companies and new enterprises have also joined the competition. Leading global lighting manufacturers, such Philips, OSRAM, Panasonic, have a complete vertical integration, from chip to light source system, in order to flourish in the market.

Bernd Kammerer, Everlight’s General Manager, Sales and Marketing Business Group, gave a brief statement in the development of outdoor lighting market, noting that compared to traditional lighting, LED lights are more energy efficient, and they are the future trend of the lighting market.

In 2009, the total installation of LED streetlights is 610,000 lamps globally and the figure is estimated to grow by 42 percent in 2010, reaching 870,000 units. He said LED will gradually become more environmental-friendly and energy-efficient in the future. At the same time, to replace traditional lighting, the price of LED streetlights will decline further, the luminous efficacy will enhance, and the product design will be more diversified.

Jun Ruan, Vice Secretary-General of China Solid State Lighting Alliance said that China's semiconductor industry lacks core technologies. Also, the cooperation with the central and local governments needs to improve. The government needs to give an impetus to the solid state lighting industry through the national policies such as accelerating the subsidies and increasing government procurement to support the industry development. The goal is to manufacture over 70 percent of the chips locally by 2015, with total output value at RMB 500 billion.

Justin K. Yang, Veeco Instruments’ General Manager for Greater China, said the new generation of MOCVD will accelerate the mass production of LED. It improves its yield rate and productivity to achieve cost reduction. Demand for MOCVD is estimated to reach 700 to 800 units. Moreover, as LED TV market penetration rate is estimated to reach 85 percent in 2012, LED manufacturers have purchased equipment to expand their production capacity.

George Craford, Phillips Lumileds’ CTO, said LED industry outlook is bright, with more improvement and development in the future. Current challenges in the industry include brightness, efficacy, and stability.

James, Mu-Tao Chu, Director of Opto-Electronics Device and System Applications Division at Taiwan’s Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI), explains that, if all lighting fixtures in Taiwan were replaced by LEDs, it would save about NTD 30 billion (~$ 923 million at $1 = NT 32.48) in energy spending, which equals a considerable reduction of about 3 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions, or the annual capacity of a nuclear power plant.

Yet, LED is operated by direct current (DC), but most of the power systems use alternating current (AC). Therefore, a solution which can be compatible for both traditional light sources and LED lighting is needed.

He says that among Taiwan companies, Epistar launched 1W standard chip, and the target efficacy in 2010 is >80 lm/W; some products have already been used by Philips. Tyntek provides AC LED Chips, its 0.3W/0.5W / 1W products with efficacy of 30lm-60lm can provide the needs of different application development.

Forward Electronics has shipped 5W and 10W AC LED module, completed certification for AC LED components UL / CE / TUV; its products include E26/E27 light bulbs, tube light, projection light, and officially produced AC LED 10W/1200 Lux lamps. Lite-on launches the AC LED 1W 60lm and 4W 200lm modules, and its application target is to replace the low brightness tungsten light bulbs and down lights with AC LEDs.

Dr. Carson Hsieh, Epistar’s Vice President of R & D, introduced the trend of LED chip development. He pointed out that indoor LED lamps with the high power efficiency, high brightness, and high degree of thermal dissipation should have low cost, low maintenance cost, and low power consumption, and should be compatible with existing power supply facilities.

He also presented HVLED (high-voltage-LED), which is expected narrow the gap between cold white-light and warm white-light technology. The target luminous efficacy is 130lm/W in 2010 and 150lm/W by 2015.

Looking at the US market, Mark McClear, Applications Engineering and New Business Development Director of Cree LED Components, said the United States policies are highly favorable for the development of the LED industry. The technology in the future is expected to enhance the LED luminous efficacy, lower costs, while promoting the standardization of products, and enabling the design of more diverse products.

Donald Leo, Director of sales China/Hong Kong at OSRAM Opto Semiconductors, gave a speech focusing on the present and future developments of solid-state lighting. He said high brightness LED has been used in medical equipment; not only does it improve the safety of the operation process, it also helps the patients’ rehabilitation process.

Gradually, LEDs are becoming more widely used in the designs of large architectural constructions. In addition, Leo is very optimistic about the shift of OLED products from high-end market towards mass application.