The invention of the blue light diode (LED), which won the 2014 Nobel Prize in Physics, has commercialized lighting fixtures that consume less power and have a longer lifespan than incandescent bulbs and fluorescent lamps. It is also used in backlights for flat-panel TVs and mobile phones, and has played an important role in the popularization of digital home appliances. The invention of 3 Japanese scientists created a huge new market.
With the appearance of blue LED, the first thing that has drastically changed our lives is lighting fixtures. The life of LED lighting is about 40,000 to 60,000 hours, which is 20 to 30 times that of bulb-type incandescent lamps and 3 to 5 times that of fluorescent lamps. The power consumption is about one-sixth of that of incandescent lamps. Because it helps save energy, it quickly became popular in Japan after the Great East Japan Earthquake. According to statistics from Japanese research company Fuji Economics (Chuo-ku, Tokyo), the global market size of LED lighting in 2013 was 1,765 billion yen. It is expected to expand to 3.8 times that of 2013 by 2020, reaching 6.8 trillion yen.
LED was used in car headlights in 2007. Toyota Motor was the first to equip its premium car brand "Lexus" with products developed by Koito Manufacturing. Subsequently, it was also promoted and applied in mass-produced models. The proportion of LEDs in headlights was only about 10% (in terms of money) in 2012, and it is predicted that it will reach 75% by 2022.
The invention of blue LED also opened the way for the popularization of digital home appliances. A representative example is LCD TV. The LCD TV commercialized by Sharp in 1986 initially used fluorescent tubes as the light source for the backlight. However, after the invention of blue LED, the use of LED as the light source promoted the low power consumption and thinning of TVs. Blu-ray disc equipment that can realize high-definition images and high-quality music has also benefited from blue-ray LEDs.
In the future, LED is expected to be used as an artificial sun and promoted in plant factories. As plants grow, the light color that is effective for the plants will change, but LEDs can be used to create light colors that suit each growth stage. Vegetables can also be grown efficiently.
According to statistics from the American research company IHS, the global market size of LED in 2013 was approximately 2.3 times that of 2008 five years ago, reaching US$15.99 billion. After the launch of LED embedded products, the market size will further increase significantly.
ANNA