Energy is the lifeblood of our economy and a critical building block for global peace and security. Its generation incurs huge economic and environmental costs (i.e., emissions, acid rain, global warming, waste disposal). The economic costs will only increase as concern heightens over how to reduce the environmental costs. As a consequence, there is great benefit to enhance the efficiency with which energy is used -- virtually all major energy consumers from transportation to heating to electrical equipment are constantly being examined for energy saving opportunities.
Among the most widespread, important, and growing uses of energy is electricity used for lighting. In the U.S.A., about 20% of all electricity, and about 7.2% of all energy, is consumed by lighting. Worldwide, the percentages are similar. As a consequence, improvements in lighting efficiency would have major consequences on worldwide energy consumption.
Canonical red and green light-emitting diodes (LEDs) used as power on/off indicators in almost every electronic device today are manufactured in billions-per-month quantities. Super-brightness or academically, high-brightness LEDs (HB LEDs) are the "indicator light on steroids" and the first truly innovative type of lamp invented in 3-decades-plus. Beginning in very niche applications, HB LEDs continue to penetrate traditional markets including traffic lights and signage, handheld electronic market- consisting of mobile phones, which grew from 400 million units shipped in 2001 to 420 million units in 2002 and estimated to 500 millions units in 2003, PDAs (projected to grow 20% to 13.9 million units in 2003 up from 11 million units in 2002), TV/PC/notebook displays, cell phone/camera combinations, and portable entertainment devices- promises the largest growth potential in the short run and already claims 40% of the total LEDs sales. Also the market for HB LEDs as backlights in LCD monitors, which grew 105% to 32.2 million units in 2002, is another large potential market.
In 2001 and 2002, HB LEDs saw total revenues of about $1.2 and $1.4 billion U.S. dollars, respectively, compared with a market growth rate of around 46% between 1999 and 2000. The HB LEDs market is estimated to grow by 20-30% in 2003 and thereafter.
The previous projected market forecast of $3 billion U.S. dollars by 2006 appears to have been too cautious with the growth of worldwide mobile handset sales accelerating at a much larger rate than expected. However, if the HB LEDs dominated mobile handset market begins to experience strong competition from organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs)- which boast lower power consumption, better viewing angle and flexibility, and are stating to be produced on a mass scale- LCDs with HB LEDs backlights may not be able to remain competitive in the mobile arena.
Still, the "Holy Grail" of the HB LEDs industry- the $15
billion U.S. dollars general illumination market- remains out of reach
despite better longevity, energy efficiency, durability, low maintenance
cost, and compact size that HB LEDs claim over traditional incandescent
and compact fluorescent lamps. And until manufactures can provide an
effective white light, this market will remain mostly untapped except as a
niche market in designer applications, architectural and contour lighting
and "architainment". Perhaps, more notable are the automotive
and aviation markets, which are experiencing strong growth as the list of
automobile manufactures enlisting HB LEDs as interior and exterior light
sources continues to grow. Yet another market that has been getting more
publicity in recent years includes the medical and dental industries.
However, while the HB LEDs can now exceed the luminous efficiencies of
incandescent light bulbs (> 15-30 lumens/watt), they must improve both
total light output and cost per lumen output to be competitive with
existing lighting technologies. Then HB LEDs are to evolve into the era of
high power LEDs and Solid-State Lighting (SSL).