Bright future awaits green photonics market

"Green" photonic component revenues could reach $100 billion by 20015, nearly one-third of a $345 billion base, according to the president of the Optoelectronics Industry Development Association (OIDA) at the green photonics forum. Michael Lebby, CEO of OIDA, said that designers of full PV modules or thin films for solar cells can learn strategies on power reduction from those working on optical backplanes or interconnect.

OIDA is finding a common interest in reducing power consumption in such diverse markets as optical communication components, LEDs, solid-state lighting and solar photovoltaic cells. The Denver forum is the prelude to a May 2009 conference in Santa Clara called "Optomism."

Jay Shuler, director of regional marketing for Philips Lumileds group, said that LED development for outdoor applications often can have different implications for overall power use for a nation or region. Replacing incandescent displays for outdoor signage and similar applications can have profound impacts on power consumption, but the flexibility of LEDs allows their use in new areas, such as pressure-sensitive floor lighting, that will drive power use back up again.

"Because we will see light in places we have never seen artificial light before, there could be an overall increase in light pollution issues, maybe even a net gain in power use," Shuler said. "There may have to be some regulatory implications of where and how to use high-brightness LEDs."

Shuler said that the high-brightness sector of the OLED market has a 17 percent CAGR, with today's $5.2 billion market growing to $7.4 billion by 2010. Some 39 percent of the market is in mobile applications, though illumination is beginning to grow significantly.

Shuler said that Philips' Luxeon Rebel family is seeing significant gains in efficiency, with typical 140 lumens per watt at 350mA, or 112lumens/W at 1A.

- Loring Wirbel
EE Times