UV LED market 2012 survey

DUBLIN, IRELAND: Research and Markets has announced the addition of the "UV LED Market 2012" report to its offering.

Curing application fuels the UV LED market with an increasing number of chip suppliers in Asia and the emergence of Chinese players. UV LEDs should represent -28 percent of the total UV lamp market by 2016.

Thanks to its compactness, lower cost of ownership and environmental friendly composition, UV LEDs continue replacing traditional UV lamps in incumbent applications, but will also create new applications, especially portable ones.

Hence, UV LED business is expected to grow from $32.5 million in 2011 to more than $150 million in 2016: within this period, UV LED market will grow by a factor x5 whereas the traditional UV lamps market will only grow by a factor x1.5.

UVA (400-315nm) business is currently the main UV LED market and will remain so for at least the next five years:
- -90 percent of the market (M$) in 2010.
- -85 percent of the market (M$) in 2016.

The report details market metrics of traditional UV lamps and UV LEDs market within the period 2011-2016, presenting: the split by application for each technology (volume and market size), the penetration rate of UV LEDs.

The booming UV LED market has attracted several new players from different backgrounds over the past years: traditional mercury lamp supplier, traditional UV curing systems suppliers, pure UV LED curing system suppliers, visible LED suppliers, substrate suppliers Each player addressing different strategy to capture the maximum of value created by this disruptive technology.

At the device level, Asian companies, especially Japanese and Taiwanese ones, have taken the lead on the UV LED market but recently, some Chinese companies have also entered the playground: this should increase competition, reduce prices and enable mass applications at middle/long term.

Beyond that, as for visible LEDs few years ago, the value chain is consolidating with the arrival of pure players at the packaging and system level mainly, allowing:
- To increase performance of UV LEDs with specific package developments.
- To easier technological transition with traditional UV system manufacturers.

The report shows the UV LED industry: the main players and associated strategies/ business models, the industrial value and supply chains in 2011 for UVA/B and UVC, the revenues and market shares of key players.

Key applications for UVA are UV curing, counterfeit detection and photocatalyst air purifier. Among those, the most dynamic and important market is clearly the UV curing business where UV LEDs definitely compete with traditional mercury lamps and offer significant advantages in terms of cost of ownership, system miniaturization:

- Two professional associations dedicated to UV LED curing have been formed in 2012, showing the robustness and the credibility of the UV LED technology.
- Recent improvements have greatly increased the power output available at window surface of UV LEDs to 16W/cm in 2011.

The report details all UVA applications (with a deep analysis of UV curing), presenting: UV working principle, market structure, UV LEDs market drivers/challenges and characteristics required, Total Accessible Market (TAM) for UV LEDs.

Water and air purification are the potential next high volume applications for UVC LEDs. And, in 2011, the UVC LED industry achieved a new milestone of structuration:
- Crystal IS has been acquired by Asahi Kasei (large Japanese group).
- Dot Metrics, the first pure UV LED water purification company, announced they (in partnership with Aquionics) will launch a first commercial product in 2012.
- SETi announced the increase of its production capacity by a factor x6 with $20 million investment.

The report details all UVC applications (with a deep analysis of purification), presenting: UV working principle, market structure, UV LEDs market drivers/challenges and characteristics required, time to market & Total Accessible Market (TAM) for UV LEDs

Several players are also targeting to commercialize two bulk AlN wafers by the end 2012. Therefore, the time to market for UVC applications based on bulk AlN would probably be in 2013-2015. However, as no research have clearly demonstrated the effect of bulk AlN substrate on UV LEDs performance, future commercial success of such substrate for UVC purification applications is still under debate.

The report details UV LED roadmap, presenting: performance and price roadmap, main specifications to enable UVC applications Substrate industry is also analyzed: competition AlN template vs. bulk AlN, key companies.