UV LEDs should represent ~28% of the total UV lamp market (M$) by 2016

 Thanks to its compactness, lower cost of ownership and environmental friendly composition, UV LEDs continue replacing traditional UV lamps in incumbent applications, but will also create new applications, especially portable ones.

Hence, UV LED business is expected to grow from $32.5M in 2011 to more than $150M in 2016: within this period, UV LED market (M$) will grow by a factor x5 whereas the traditional UV lamps market will only grow by a factor x1.5 (Figure 1).

In 2011, LEDs keep on being sold mostly in the UVA/B spectrum (especially in upper wavelengths, between 365 to 400 nm). More than 90% of the UV LED market (outside of R&D) was still covered by UV curing, counterfeit detection and medical & instrumentation applications requiring UVA/B sources. Concerning UVC LEDs, they were still mainly sold for R&D and scientific instrumentation purpose, but 2012 should see the commercialization of the first UV LED based purification system.

UVA (400-315nm) business is currently the main UV LED market and will remain so for at least the next 5 years:

•~90 % of the market (M$) in 2010
•~85 % of the market (M$) in 2016

The report details market metrics of traditional UV lamps and UV LEDs market within the period 2011-2016, presenting: the split by application for each technology (volume & market size), the penetration rate of UV LEDs.

UV LEDs are totally changing the value & supply chains

The booming UV LED market has attracted several new players from different backgrounds over the past years: traditional mercury lamp supplier, traditional UV curing systems suppliers, pure UV LED curing system suppliers, visible LED suppliers, substrate suppliers… Each player addressing different strategy to capture the maximum of value created by this disruptive technology (Figure 2).

At the device level, Asian companies, especially Japanese and Taiwanese ones, have taken the lead on the UV LED market but recently, some Chinese companies have also entered the playground: this should increase competition, reduce prices and enable mass applications at middle/long term.

Beyond that, as for visible LEDs few years ago, the value chain is consolidating with the arrival of pure players at the packaging and system level mainly, allowing:

• To increase performance of UV LEDs with specific package developments.
• To easier technological transition with traditional UV system manufacturers.

The report shows the UV LED industry: the main players & associated strategies/ business models, the industrial value & supply chains in 2011 for UVA/B and UVC, the revenues and market shares of key players.

UVA LEDs still dominate thanks to UV curing business boom

Key applications for UVA are UV curing, counterfeit detection and photocatalyst air purifier. Among those, the most dynamic and important market is clearly the UV curing business where UV LEDs definitely compete with traditional mercury lamps and offer significant advantages in terms of cost of ownership, system miniaturization:

• 2 professional associations dedicated to UV LED curing have been formed in 2012, showing the robustness and the credibility of the UV LED technology.
• Recent improvements have greatly increased the power output available at window surface of UV LEDs to 16W/cm² in 2011.

The report details all UVA applications (with a deep analysis of UV curing), presenting: UV working principle, market structure, UV LEDs market drivers/challenges and characteristics required, Total Accessible Market (TAM) for UV LEDs.

UVC LEDs are still in development but commercialization should be earlier than expected

Water & Air purification are the potential next high volume applications for UVC LEDs.  And in 2011, the UVC LED industry achieved a new milestone of structuration:

• Crystal IS has been acquired by Asahi Kasei (large Japanese group).
• Dot Metrics, the first pure UV LED water purification company, announced they (in partnership with Aquionics) will launch a first commercial product in 2012.
• SETi announced the increase of its production capacity by a factor x6 with $20M investment.

In parallel, numerous research results published in 2011 have demonstrated an impressive improvement of the optical power output of UV LEDs: up to x10 compared to 2010. Hence, we expect that UVC LEDs should penetrate those key applications in 2014 after having completely solved the efficiency, lifetime and cost challenges. Growth of the UVC market will also be connected to the availability of bulk AlN substrates that could improve the performance of the devices.

The report details all UVC applications (with a deep analysis of purification), presenting: UV working principle, market structure, UV LEDs market drivers/challenges and characteristics required, time to market and Total Accessible Market (TAM) for UV LEDs.

More than 50% performance improvement for bulk AlN based UV LEDs in 2011

Templates (AlN on Sapphire) are definitively the substrate of choice for UVA/B applications due to their lower cost and sufficient performance. But for UVC applications, the competition with bulk AlN is increasing as such substrate could offer improvement of lifetime and power output of the UV LEDs: for example, in 2011, Crystal IS has improved its bulk AlN based UV LED results by a factor x20.

Several players are also targeting to commercialize 2” bulk AlN wafers by the end 2012. Therefore, the time to market for UVC applications based on bulk AlN would probably be in 2013-2015. However, as no research have clearly demonstrated the effect of bulk AlN substrate on UV LEDs performance, future commercial success of such substrate for UVC purification applications is still under debate.

The report details all UVC applications (with a deep analysis of purification), presenting: UV working principle, market structure, UV LEDs market drivers/challenges and characteristics required, time to market & Total Accessible Market (TAM) for UV LEDs.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Glossary
Definitions, limitations and boundaries
Executive Summary
What we saw and we missed: Comparison with 2009 previous report
Report evolution
Noteworthy News 2011 & 2010
UV LED and AlN material companies recent known funding
Traditional UV lamp business

• UV wavelengths classification
• Main applications for UV lamps : Split by wavelength
• Traditional UV lamps: 2011 market segmentation and size
• Traditional UV lamps: Performance
• Traditional UV lamps: Technical positioning (output power as  function of wavelength)
• UV power requirement by application and current (UV LED best results)
• Target price for UV lamps and current LED (commercial products in $/W)
• UV LED and UV lamp performance (comparison table)
• UV lamps applications: Characteristics, market price and accessibility for UV LED
• 2011 UV lamp market volume and size: Split by application
• Market  analysis: Traditional  low power mercury lamps manufacturers
• Market  analysis: High power mercury lamps manufacturers
• Traditional UV systems and lamp business relationship
• Conclusion

UV LED market analysis

• UV lamp to UV LED substitution: A different design approach
• UV lamp systems pricing
• UV lamp vs. UV LED : A different strategy and business model needed
• UV LED supply chain new entrants in 2010 and 2011: Entry at different levels
• UV LED systems based companies profiles
• UVA/UVB applications

UVA/UVB: Main applications and niche markets
UVA/UVB: Main applications  comparison
UVA/UVB applications: As a function of the optical power output and wavelength
UVA/UVB applications: UV curing

• Introduction
• Traditional UV curing systems market (Attractive growth perspective / Segmentation / Geographical sales breakdown / Main manufacturers)
• Traditional UV curing system and lamp business relationship
• UV LED market
• Many new UV LED curing systems launching
• Optical power increase: Latest performances from some key players
• Heat management and light emission: How are they optimized by the industry?
• UV curing supply chain
• UV curing system players adoption
• Main UV curing systems and lamp manufacturers
• UV curing applications field and main players position
• UV LED curing (Supply chain / Main market parameters & metrics)

UVA/UVB applications: Counterfeit banknote detection
UVA/UVB applications: Photocatalytic purification
UVA/UVB applications: Medical phototherapy
UVC applications

• UVC: Main applications and niche markets
• UVC: Main applications comparison
• UVC applications: As a function of the optical power output and wavelength
• UVC application: Purification

Patents research (over 421 patents): A booming interest!
# of patents per country of origin: Asia dominates
Dynamics by country over the time: Acceleration in Korea and China
# of patents per assignee: Asia dominates
UV LED application patent: Analysis

• UVC LEDs: Main market drivers
• UVC LEDs: Main challenges
• UVC applications: Purification

Segmentation & 2011 world market size
UVC purification applications accessible to UV LEDs
UVC purification lamps market accessible to UV LEDs
What is the best wavelength for UV LEDs?
Focus on water purification
UV water purification segments, technologies,  systems price and players positioning
Main water UV purification systems and lamp manufacturers
Price & Power of traditional UVC purification lamp
Focus on some applications
Focus on air/surface purification
UV air/surface purification segments
UV air/surface purification: Professional applications
UV surface purification: Food industry
UV air purification: Consumer residential
UVC low power lamp 2011 market in power output (MW)
UVC LEDs challenges to reach purification applications
UVC applications: Analytical instruments
UV LED market

• UV LEDs: Estimated accessible markets, growth rate and time to market
• UV LED applications roadmap: Time to market
• UV LED market size (M$): Split by application (excluding lighting)
• UV LED applications: Relative market shares
• UV LED and traditional UV lamp business comparison

UV LED industry outlook

• UV LED chip manufacturers: Main industrial initiatives
• Key industrial UVA chip market players positioning
• Key industrial UVB/UVC chip market players positioning
• Main UV LED players
• Major UV LED chip manufacturer locations (industrial production or R&D)
• UVA LED Industrial supply chain in 2011
• UVB/UVC LED Industrial supply chain in 2011
• Business model of players already in production
• Zoom in Asia: Visible LEDs players start to invest in the UV LED field
• UV LED manufacturers: Estimation of 2011 revenues and market shares
• Some known M&A and business agreements
• Spin-offs from universities
• Conclusion

UV LED performance roadmap

• UV lamp power: Some definitions (from wall-plug power to sample irradiation)
• Main specifications of UVA, UVB and UVC LEDs
• UV LED: Main players
• External Quantum Efficiency: Evolution with wavelength (Comparison 2010 - 2011)
• Optical power vs. chip size and wavelength dependency (Comparison 2010 - 2011)
• UV LED technical roadmap: Past & Present
• UVC LED Technical Roadmap  outlook: Many new players in the starting blocks!
• Price and lifetime evolution with wavelength
• UVC LED optical power/price outlook (for a 280 nm wavelength)
• 2011 cost breakdown model projection: From 2” AlN wafer to UVC packaged LED
• Conclusion

Single crystal AlN and AlN epiwafer industry outlook

• Why use Bulk AlN to make UV LEDs?
• UV emission wavelength depends on the Al content in the AlGaN alloy
• Major AlN bulk substrate manufacturer locations (industrial production or R&D)
• AlN Bulk crystal: Main companies
• AlN Bulk crystal: Main R&D labs
• AlN epiwafers and templates: Main players
• AlN substrates: Example of current available offers (as of 2011)
• Bulk AlN roadmap: Mass production availability outlook (many new players in the starting blocks!)
• Conclusion

General Conclusion
UV industry: Company profiles of major actors

• UV LED manufacturers

Nichia (J), SemiLEDs (USA), Nitride Semiconductors (J), Tekcore (TW), Crystal IS (USA), UV Craftory (J), Dowa (J), Aurora UV (USA), Nitek (USA), QingDao Jason Electric (CN), LED Engin (USA), Luminus (USA), Seoul Optodevice (KOR), Sensor ElectronicsTechnology Inc. (USA), Dot Metrics (USA), YesLED (CN), elumix (GE), Lumex (USA), PhotonStar LED (UK), RayVio (USA)

• UV LED manufacturing companies exit : Fox group (USA), Cree (USA)
• AIN substrate manufacturers
  HexaTech Inc. (USA), Nitride Solutions (USA), Fairfield Crystal Technology (USA), Nitride Crystals (USA), CrystAL-N (GE), Acerde (FR), Kyma Technologies (USA)

Appendix

• Bulk AlN substrates manufacturing by PVT: Crucible is a key component
• HT-CVD : From gases to bulk AlN epi-ready wafers
• Average UV dose required: Selected UV inactivation of pathogens
• Doping of AlN Material at NTT (J)
• WideBaSe program for UVA technologies
• DARPA program for UVC technologies