Major advances in LED technology over the past few years have led to brighter LED devices that are less expensive to produce. However, this has also led to an over-supply situation as LED count in devices is falling fast and unit prices are falling even faster. While this is having a major impact in high volume consumer applications, it will lead to greater growth in applications using low and mid power LEDs for solid state lighting and displays.
Specifically, demand for LED backlight unit (BLU) display systems is still growing; however, consumption of LED chips is having great difficulty in keeping up, as fewer LEDs are needed to realize a BLU than in previous generations. This is thanks to high-brightness (HB) LEDs and LED configurations, such as new ¡°edge-lit¡± displays. In the mobile market LED backlights are now often being replaced by OLEDs and the automotive market is also reducing the number of LEDs used in headlights. Even so, it is expected that the general LED industry will see very strong growth over the next few years as governments and businesses alike look for ways to reduce their energy consumption and increasingly turn to solid-state lighting for their needs.