LED (Light Emitting Diode) is an energy-saving, environmentally friendly, long-life and multi-purpose light source. Professional consulting organizations predict that the global high-brightness LED market will reach 9 billion US dollars by 2011, with an average annual compound growth rate of 16.7. With the rapid improvement of LED luminous efficiency, the LED application market has moved towards general lighting. However, LED is also facing development bottlenecks such as high cost and high performance uncertainty. In the current global lighting business opportunities of up to 10 billion US dollars, the high price of LEDs is still the primary factor restricting its development.

High cost cannot be fully commercialized

Since the first commercial LEDs were launched in the 1960s, LEDs have been used in the lighting industry for more than 40 years. Upstream, midstream, and downstream in the industry have formed a relatively complete industrial chain, and LEDs are being used in more and more In the industry, especially in the field of indoor lighting, it is recognized as an important development aspect of LED in the future.

In the field of indoor lighting, the current main application is still traditional light sources, generally including incandescent lamps, halogen lamps, fluorescent lamps, metal halide lamps and so on. This type of light source consumes a large amount of power, has a single color and control method, and has a large heat radiation from the light source, which has been limited in some special places. The LED light source has the advantages of full color, easy control, energy saving and environmental protection, which can create a high-quality light environment that cannot be replaced by other traditional light sources, can fully meet the market demand for high-end indoor decorative atmosphere lighting, and provide new lighting design for indoor space. Ideas. In particular, the emergence of high-power LEDs has found a breakthrough for the application of LED lighting in the field of indoor lighting, accelerating the application of LEDs in the field of indoor lighting.

According to reports, at present, the application of LED in indoor lighting projects is mainly concentrated in the field of commercial lighting, mainly decorative lighting. At this stage, LEDs can already be used to replace traditional light sources in many places, especially the emergence of high-power LEDs, which accelerates the speed at which LEDs replace traditional lighting sources, and makes the large-scale application of LEDs in indoor lighting more realistic. With the continuous maturity of the entire industry and the vertical deepening of LED product development, high-power LEDs will still have large changes in price and light efficiency, coupled with the strong guidance of national policies and the active publicity of public opinion, we have reason to believe that In the next ten years, LEDs will surely fly into ordinary people's homes like fluorescent lamps. However, due to the high production cost of white LED indoor lighting, it is still not fully commercialized in the global market.

In an interview with reporters, Tang Guoqing, secretary-general of the Shanghai Optoelectronics Industry Association and director of the Semiconductor Lighting Professional Committee of the China Lighting Appliance Industry Association, emphasized that LED entry into indoor general lighting is a general trend of development, but because its cost is still relatively high, extensive upgrades to replace incandescent Lamps and fluorescent light sources are still a while away, but in areas such as mood lighting (indoor museums, concert halls, high-end hotels, residences, etc.), office or reception lighting, indoor public places (such as indoor parking lots, commercial venues, etc.) Has been gradually promoted. "The final realization of semiconductor lighting requires the universal application of indoor lighting, which is the keynote of development." Tang Guoqing said.

Peng Wanhua, secretary general of the Optoelectronics Branch of the China Optical Optoelectronics Industry Association, said that the cost of LED lighting products is too high, which is several times that of general lighting, and some are more than ten times. The field of LED product applications is currently in the stage of development and expansion, has not yet formed a large-scale market, and needs to be further developed and expanded.

The problem of light efficiency and heat dissipation has yet to be resolved

In recent years, with the rapid development of white LED technology, people have begun to seriously consider whether LED has entered the field of large-scale indoor white light lighting. Liang Bingwen, general manager of Shanghai Lanbao Optoelectronic Materials Co., Ltd., said that many practical and unpractical solutions All have been mentioned, the application of LED in the field of indoor lighting is still in the exploration stage. "Indoor lighting is a very huge market, and the market development prospect is unquestionable. However, indoor lighting has high requirements for light quality, and there are many areas for improvement in LEDs. In the field of indoor lighting, traditional light sources will not include incandescent in the short term. Lamps, halogen lamps, fluorescent lamps, energy-saving lamps, metal halide lamps, etc. pose a threat." Liang Bingwen emphasized.

Cheng Deshi, Shanghai Sansi Technology Development Co., Ltd. believes that LED has a basic threshold for indoor lighting, that is, the luminous efficiency must reach the level of fluorescent energy-saving lamps. If you consider the price factor again, the luminous efficiency of LED must be at least 1.5 times that of fluorescent energy-saving lamps. At present, LED is far from reaching this level. "There is an easiest way to judge. Touch the heat sink of the LED lamp with your hand. When the temperature of the heat sink is lower than the temperature of the fluorescent lamp housing, the era of LED indoor lighting can really come." Cheng Deshi said.

Fang Zhilie, a professor at Fudan University, believes that indoor lighting is undoubtedly the largest market. "Considering that compared with energy-saving lamps and fluorescent lamps, the luminous efficiency has not exceeded much (laboratory records have more than doubled, but the product efficiency is still similar), plus the cost is much higher, the market launch is still a while away." Fang Zhilie believes.

Peng Wanhua said that the LED industry is still very small at present, with only a market of tens of billions of yuan. "LED technology has yet to be broken through, especially the current industrial level of luminous efficiency is generally 60lm/W ~ 80lm/W, there is no advantage compared with energy-saving lamps, the index should be increased to 150lm/W ~ 200lm/W. In addition, ordinary The requirements for the main parameters of LEDs for lighting are not clear, such as color temperature, color rendering, safety, etc." Peng Wanhua said.

Improve technology transformation platform construction

The potential market for LED products is very large. Peng Wanhua believes that to develop the LED industry, we must seek innovation from LED technology and find breakthroughs. "Using new technologies and new processes for mass production, reducing LED costs, and accelerating the development of LED product applications and expanding market size, from these aspects, you can make the LED industry bigger and stronger." Peng Wanhua said.

Judging from the current technological development at home and abroad, it is an inevitable process for LEDs to enter the indoor lighting of thousands of households. Li Jinmin, director of the Institute of Semiconductors of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, believes that if LED lighting tools are commonly used in home lighting, this market will be huge. The next three to five years are an important period of development. Semiconductor lighting will spring up like mushrooms in the field of general lighting. As the upstream chip R&D technology matures and supplier MOCVD epitaxy