February 14 news Osram (Osram) spokesman leaked to the public, can be expected in the near future, the demand for infrared LED components will be a big increase in demand, including the combination of iris recognition applications in mobile devices, such as the market hot infrared LED applications, so the plant in Regensburg, Germany, is expected to recruit about 1,000 new employees. Therefore, about 1,000 new employees are expected to be recruited at the Regensburg plant in Germany. Although OSRAM has sold its lighting business, it continues to expand its R&D staff in IR LEDs. How big is the infrared LED market, and why is OSRAM investing so much in it?
IR LED compound annual growth rate of 24%
IR LED that infrared LED, is a kind of electrical energy into light energy conversion of near-infrared light-emitting devices, it has a small size, low power consumption, pointing and a series of advantages.
Based on the characteristics of the IR LED chip, infrared LED products of different wavelengths can be applied to different fields, such as: remote control, medical devices, space optical communications, infrared lighting, solid-state laser pump source, high-speed road automatic swipe card system, cameras, monitoring, building intercom, burglar alarm and so on. With the acceleration of high-power infrared development and application, IR LED manufacturer's R & D focus tendency is also from the remote control, mouse, communications and other low value-added applications market, to cell phones, automotive, security control products infrared surveillance, infrared medical and other high value-added market applications.
For the field of security monitoring, in addition to the use of IR 850 nm, 940 nm band LED network surveillance cameras, there are also set up in the car headlights in the night vision (Night Vision) system, which can make the driving field of vision up to 150 to 200 meters, but also more clear. The demand for IR LEDs in night-vision systems is among the largest, and OSRAM has been an industry leader in this area.
Besides the surveillance field, there is a wide range of applications in the sensor field. In addition to the Proximity Sensor module for smartphones and wearable devices, it also includes Bio-Sensor applications, which have a promising future.
For example, IR 530 nm, 660 nm, and 940 nm LEDs are used for heartbeat and blood oxygen detection, while IR 660 nm and 940 nm LEDs are used for the latter, and IR 810 nm LEDs are used for iris recognition applications that require special wavelengths, which gives the device an edge over competitors.
With the rise of the modern Internet of Things, biometrics, and wearable devices, a variety of sensors and image recognition technologies are becoming more and more important, and IRLEDs are becoming an important auxiliary light source due to their application characteristics. And through the combination of sensing devices and recognition technology, it can be used in iris recognition, face recognition and other special applications. It can also be used in biosensors for wearable devices, which can quantify the physiological state of the human body and become a new tool for health management. Given the surge in infrared LED penetration in smartphones, automobiles, surveillance systems and other applications, Asia Pacific is set to become the world's largest infrared LED market segment.
Global output value of IR LEDs from 2015 to 2020
According to relevant data, the market size of infrared LEDs applied to security monitoring was $94 million in 2014, and has grown to $120 million in 2015. However, due to the fierce price competition among LED manufacturers, coupled with more and more manufacturers began to reduce the chip size and change the form of packaging to reduce costs, making the output value of infrared LEDs in security monitoring applications grew slightly in 2016. Roots of the latest report 2017 infrared LED / infrared laser and sensing element applications market report, infrared product applications will continue to develop. It is estimated that by 2020 IR LED output value (excluding sensors) will reach 7.1 billion U.S. dollars (about 4.71 billion yuan), with a compound annual growth rate of 24%, becoming a new blue ocean for LED manufacturers.