SAN JOSE, CA-Strategies Unlimited (Mountain View, CA) set record attendance at Strategies in Light, its eighth annual business conference and exhibition on high-brightness (HB) light-emitting diodes (LEDs) held February 12-14, 2007 at the San Jose McEnery Convention Center. “The increased attendance at Strategies in Light reflects the continuing growth in interest in the technology and applications of high-brightness LEDs, especially in regard to the emerging solid-state lighting (SSL) market, and the potential for LEDs to have a major impact on the development of high-efficiency lighting,” said Robert Steele, director, Optoelectronics, at Strategies Unlimited.
This year’s event attracted 627 participants from the U.S., Canada, Europe, the Middle East, Asia, Africa, and New Zealand. In addition, 49 sponsors and exhibitors supported the conference, with exhibitions ranging from equipment and materials suppliers to LED manufacturers to trade publications and associations.
Strategies in Light 2007, whose theme was “LEDs-Pushing the Boundaries of Lighting,” provided insight into the rapidly developing market for LED lighting, backlights for LED displays, and automotive headlamps, as well as other major trends in applications, markets, products, and technologies that will affect the industry’s future.
Featured speakers included: Neal Hunter from LED Lighting Fixtures; Ruedi Hug from LEDON Lighting; Bob Karlicek from Luminus Devices; Michael Siminovitch from California Lighting Center; and Cary Eskow from LightSpeed Avnet Electronics.
Also, senior level executives from Color Kinetics, Cree, Formosa Epitaxy, International Finance Corporation, Lynk Labs, Nichia, Osram Opto Semiconductors, Luminous Devices, PerkinElmer, Philips Lumileds Lighting, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Schefenacker Vision Systems, Underwriters Laboratories, and the U.S. Department of Energy presented.
The array of topics included: HB LED markets; the requirements for growth in LED lighting applications; LED backlighting for small and large LCD displays; the potential for LED lighting in developing countries; emerging high-performance LED technologies, standards development for solid-state lighting; industry financing; and more.
Conference Chair Robert Steele began the conference with his annual overview and forecast of the HB LED market, noting that the market grew by 6% to $4.2 billion in 2006, continuing the slowdown that began in 2005. He pointed out that the slowdown was due to the maturing of the mobile-phone handset market and associated pricing pressure due to overcapacity in Asia. However, Steele also noted that while the HB LED market has been heavily influenced by the growth of the mobile-phone market in recent years, all other applications together have grown at a very healthy average annual rate of 22% since 2001. The market is forecast to grow to $9.9 billion in 2011, due to major growth drivers such as lighting, automobile headlamps, and LCD display backlights.
A provocative panel discussion addressed technology roadmaps for HB LEDs, centered on performance projections made by the U.S. Department of Energy. Leading LED manufacturers gave updates on current performance achievements and likely performance trends in the future.
Next year, Strategies in Light will be held February 11-13, 2008 at the Santa Clara Convention Center, Santa Clara, CA. For further information on Strategies in Light, please contact Luba Hrynyk at [email protected], or go to www.strategiesinlight.com. For more information on Strategies Unlimited market research and strategic consulting services for the photonics industry, please contact Tim Carli at 650-941-3438, or email [email protected].