Corona, California, May 16, 2008 -- The just-released First Edition of "LED Driver ICs: Worldwide Forecasts" provides a detailed roadmap of the successive application segments that will push growth for solid state lighting between now and 2013.
The market for high-brightness LED driver ICs is increasingly diverse and presents significant growth opportunities. For example, in 2008, LEDs will be the most-used lighting source in channel letter signs. Neon lighting, long dominant in that segment, will slip to second place in terms of market share.
Overall, the dollar market for LED driver ICs is projected to grow significantly faster than unit sales. The higher dollar growth rate is a reflection of high growth rates for higher-cost LED driver ICs such as those used in LCD backlighting, signs, and automotive applications, compared with lower growth rates for lower-cost driver ICs used in mobile phone handsets and other portable applications.
"Among other important and surprising results, the report finds that 2008 will be the first year that the use of LED lighting exceeds the use of neon in general-purpose channel letter signs in North America," stated Jeff Shepard, President of Darnell. "The single largest opportunity for growth in the next five years will be in the various applications within the Signals, Signs and Billboards segment. A typical video sign includes well over 10,000 LEDs per square meter," Shepard concluded.
These forecasts are based on a detailed analysis of 53 application sub-segments in the following areas: small LED backlight units (BLUs), (<7"); medium LCD BLUs, (7" to 15"); large LCD BLUs, (>15"); automobiles; light trucks; commercial trucks and buses; signs, signals and billboards; illumination; projection displays; and photographic lighting. In addition to developing the detailed unit sales forecasts, this analysis provides a detailed projection of average selling prices for LED driver ICs in each of the 53 application sub-segments. Those pricing forecasts, combined with the unit sales analysis, produce a detailed forecast of dollar sales trends in each of these sub-segments.
Automotive applications are also projected to grow rapidly during the forecast period. While applications such as headlights will present fairly modest potential, brake lights and other applications will drive high volumes of LED driver IC sales. This analysis reviews trends in 21 automotive application sub-segments across the major application categories of Automobiles, Light Trucks and Commercial Trucks and Buses. Following the analysis of trends in specific application sub-segments, the report details trends in battery-powered applications versus ac-line powered applications. Today, battery-powered applications such as cell phone handsets, digital still cameras, and so on, dominate unit sales. Their lower average selling prices puts battery-powered applications in second-place behind higher-priced ac-powered applications in terms of dollar sales. Ac-line powered applications are currently the largest segment in terms of dollar sales, and they are the fastest-growing. By the end of the forecast period, unit sales of ac-powered applications will rival unit sales of battery-powered applications for LED driver ICs. As a result, ac-powered applications such as signals, signs and billboards, illumination, and so on will increase their already dominant dollar market share between 2008 and 2013. At that time, LED technology will be poised to begin accelerating growth in General Illumination applications.
