Suppliers Brace for Looming LED Demand

Despite a cost hurdle, demand for light-emitting diodes (LEDs) is soaring in applications ranging from automotive interiors to architectural lighting, experts said at the recent Design & Manufacturing Midwest held in Rosemont, IL.

Vendors at a "Designing with LEDs" session at the show said they are ramping up manufacturing of LED bulbs and associated hardware, while experts flatly predicted that the semiconductor-based lighting would overtake incandescent bulbs in the next decade.

"Ten years from now, we could see 50 percent to 60 percent of the lighting go to LED," said Rick Zarr, a technologist for National Semiconductor, who spoke at the sessions. "Incandescent will be in the Smithsonian. In some case, it may even be outlawed."

National Semiconductor joined Allied Electronics, Avnet, The Bergquist Co., Coilcraft, Everlight, International Rectifier, Osram Opto Semiconductors and STMicroelectronics at the event to demonstrate products and talk about the future of LEDs.

Suppliers repeatedly said that adoption has grown, not only in established LED applications, but in new areas, as well. Osram Opto Semiconductors showed off an LED-based headlight from an Audi A8 vehicle, and said that LEDs are starting to dominate in vehicle interiors, as well as for daytime running lamps. "Some European countries are actually mandating use of LEDs for daytime running lamps," said Mike Godwin, director of visible LED products for Osram Opto. "And virtually all new interiors are being done with LEDs." Godwin added that luxury vehicles are increasingly employing the new technology because designers like the flexibility it gives them to create headlights of unusual shapes. He cited the Cadillac Escalade, along with the Audi A8, as examples of that trend.

Similarly, Avnet Inc. teamed with Everlight Electronics to demonstrate an LED-based flashlight, and with STMicroelectronics to show off a high-brightness LED light powered by a solar panel. A STMicro engineer said that the solar-powered LED could be employed in street lighting or for aircraft collision avoidance systems.

Avnet representatives added that customers are increasingly asking for LEDs in applications ranging from display lighting to zone lighting to under-cabinet lighting. The company said that those requests are a reflection of a larger trend. "Three years ago, about 10 percent to 15 percent of the vendors at Lightfair International were showing LEDs," said Heather Robertson, technology director for Avnet. "This year, about 80 percent of the vendors were showing LEDs."

As LEDs migrate to high brightness and higher power, suppliers of thermal management systems said they've also seen a boost in business. The Bergquist Co., which makes a thermal management product known as T-Clad, said that the rising adoption of LEDs has changed that product's fortunes. "It was initially being used in automobiles, motor control and power applications," said John Borell of The Bergquist Co. "In the beginning, it was slow going. But now, with LEDs, the demand has risen and we're reaching the edge of our capacity, so we've begun construction of an additional manufacturing facility that will triple our output of T-Clad by the third quarter of 2011."

Suppliers at the session agreed that the high cost of LEDs is still holding the technology back, but new laws and better manufacturing are expected to have a major effect over the next few years.

"Cost is a killer for this technology," said Zarr of National Semiconductor. "But as we improve the manufacturing and squeeze the cost out of the electronics that will change."