In 2007, GaN-based LEDs will reach a higher luminous efficiency than fluores-cents.
The ramping-up of solid-state light-ing business will really start at that time.Companies like Lumileds, Osram, Nichia or Cree are now marketing high brightness white LEDs with more than 40 lumen/watt efficiency) and an ASP less than 5$/part.We forecast that the annual demand for LEDs for general illumination should reach about 3.6 billions units in 2010 and be-tween 4 to 7 billions units after 2020.
HB-LEDs have also really strong market opportunities in the automotive, many rea-sons for that, among them:
• important reliability (e.g.
lifetime much larger than needed 10 000 h while 3 000 h is necessary for low beams)
• use for internal and external lighting,
• low consumption,
• …The small size of LEDs enables:
• new design possibilities (for exter-nal light, they could be very close to the optics)
• increased integration (for internal light, their small size is ideal as lit-tle space is available)In term of security, LEDs have fast reac-tion time: LEDs light up around 250 milli-seconds quicker than bulbs.
Therefore, at 100 km/h speed, that means a gain in braking distance of 7 meters.