UV LEDs: Market Analysis and Forecast 2015

While visible-spectrum LEDs have penetrated into TV and mobile backlighting, auto, general lighting, signage and other markets, UV LEDs are just beginning to replace incumbent UV sources in a diverse arrays of markets, including curing, counterfeit detection, medical, sensing, printing, bio analysis and water/air disinfection markets. 

To date, the curing industry has had the greatest usage and penetration of UV LEDs. This report will show that other applications are beginning to increase their usage of UV LEDs as the technology evolves. This growth is expected to continue through the report’s forecast period, so while the global UV LED market is expected to be worth approximately $200 Million in 2015, it is forecasted to grow significantly in the next five years to approximately $1.5 billion, with a CAGR of 50%. 

From our research, we found the major markets to be in North America and Japan. However, while their usage is relatively limited in countries such as China and other emerging markets, it is expected that these regions are poised to undergo significant growth in the next 5 years as well. 

Interestingly, the industry’s leading suppliers of UV-B and UV-C LEDs are not the main global LED suppliers, due mainly to the customized tools and materials needed to produce them. As a result, most global LED leaders are mainly in the UV-A market, which helps explain their higher presence in this market. However, as the demand for UV-B and UV-C products increases and as their prices decrease, we expect to see more competition and product options. This will further expand the market for these goods, as is the case with UV-A LEDs.