The optoelectronic component market has been dominated by a number of applications in recent years. For LEDs, backlighting and the emergence of solid state lighting are the main applications. In the optocoupler and photo relay markets focus has been on the industrial segment, while the infrared component and sensor markets are dominated by the consumer and telecommunications segments. With car ownership increasing in less economically developed regions and vehicles becoming more technologically advanced, the automotive segment is playing an increasingly important role across all the major opotoelectronic component product types, according to IHS.
Following a new European Union Directive 2008/89/EC, which required after 2011 all new models of car to be fitted with DRL (daylight running lamps), adoption of LEDs in automotive exteriors has significantly increased. Due to the long lifetime and energy efficient nature of LEDs, penetration in this area of the market was high and has helped drive adoption of LEDs.
Penetration of LEDs in headlamp units is still relatively low, with only 2% of car headlamps using LEDs in 2013. As their popularity, performance and efficiency grow, this set to increase to 17% in 2019. This will bring significant growth to the LED market, with packaged LEDs for automotive exterior lighting set to grow at a CAGR of over 8%.
With the spread of technological advancements in the automotive industry, the adoption of infrared components has increased, with a wide range of automotive applications including auto head lamps, automatic windscreen wipers, gesture control, and night vision displays. A number of vendors are putting increasing emphasis on this segment due to the relatively low competition in comparison to the consumer sector. Infrared revenues in this sector are forecast to increase from US$118 million in 2013 to US$207 million in 2019. It is unlikely these technologies will become standard features in lower cost models; however, their penetration in mid-tier models is constantly increasing, said IHS.
The increase in sales of hybrid electric vehicles (HEV) and full electric vehicles (EV) is also promoting growth in the optocoupler market. Optocouplers are used in HEV's to isolate the onboard chargers and other high-voltage systems. With HEV shipments growing at a CAGR of 18% through to 2019 and little price erosion due to the significant barriers to entry, this market is a lucrative one for those vendors that can operate here. The market is forecast to nearly double from US$74 million in 2013 to US$146 million 2019, IHS added.
