Improvements in white LED performance and price will attract the attention of larger lighting companies, LED-based fixture designs will become more efficient, and solid-state lighting products will greatly increase their penetration of the mainstream general illumination market, predict Robert Steele and Vrinda Bhandarkar of Strategies Unlimited.

The use of high-brightness (HB) LEDs for lighting applications is receiving increased attention, particularly as the performance (lumen output, efficiency) of HB LEDs has progressed dramatically in the past year, enabling a wider variety of lighting applications to be addressed.

In recent years, the phrase “solid-state lighting” has become a generally accepted description for the use of LEDs for lighting, and this is the definition that will be used here (rather than the broader definition which is sometimes used to encompass all HB LED applications).

In the late 1990s, LED technology began to penetrate limited lighting applications, including a few that required white light. In the period 2001–2006, a wider variety of niche lighting applications became accessible, in part due to the development of high-power LEDs that provide much higher lumen output than LEDs in standard (e.g. 5 mm, SMD) packages.

In the coming years, much larger lighting market penetration, buoyed by the dramatic progress that has been made and continues to be made in LED technology, is envisioned. LEDs will begin to penetrate the general illumination market, including home and retail lighting, outdoor area lighting, and off-grid lighting.

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Fig. 1. Currently, the largest lighting application for HB LEDs is architectural lighting, where the ability of LEDs to provide colors and color-changing effects is a major market driver.

The use of white LED lighting at present is mainly limited to applications where low lumen output is required, and where reliability and low maintenance are important.

(Top) LEDs illuminate buildings along the Pearl River in China

(Bottom) White LEDs in a pedestrian subway in Gateshead, UK

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