According to the 2019 Deep UV LED Application Market Report: Sterilization, purification, and water treatment market released by LEDinside recently, due to the global economic downturn, LED manufacturers’ revenue in 2018 failed to achieve the expected explosive growth, but still increased stably. Looking into the future demand of the application market, in addition to the stable growth of the curing market, surface/air sterilization, static water sterilization, and mobile water sterilization will be the main momentum. It is estimated that the output value of the UV LED market will reach 991 million US dollars in 2023.

According to the analysis of Wu Yingjie, research manager of LEDInside, the top five UV LED manufacturers in 2017 were Seoul Viosys, LG Innotek, Nitride Semiconductors, Nichia, and Epitop. In 2018, under the efforts of Japanese and Korean manufacturers in the UV LED market, the revenue ranking was reshuffled, with an order of Nitride Semiconductors, Seoul Viosys, LG Innotek, Nichia, and Epitop. At present, UV-C LED external quantum efficiency EQE averages 1-4%. The UV-C market leader is LG Innotek, whose external quantum efficiency can reach 4.33%. However, Stanley, DOWA, Nitride Semiconductors, and Seoul Viosys also keep improving their product efficiency.

According to the observation of LEDInside, in 2019, many LED manufacturers such as Nichia, OSRAM OS, UVphotonics, and Violumas will actively develop UV-C LED products, which will add new impetus to the development of the UV market.

 The three driving forces of the UV-C LED application market are surface/air sterilization, static water sterilization, and flowing water sterilization.

Static water sterilization and surface sterilization (air purification, home appliances, etc.) are not time-critical. The demand side introduces UV LED products to bring additional value. Its market application is quite extensive, creating a number of emerging markets, including highly cared infant products, mobile phones and escalators in everyday use, and household products such as toothbrushes, toilets, cabinets, sports water bottles, and thermos     

Flowing water sterilization requires short sterilization time and has high requirements on product power. According to LEDInisde’s analysis, the main domestic water purification market includes the following opportunities: water dispensers, kitchen hot and cold water devices, whole house water purification, and infant products (milk dispenser machines).       

 In terms of the commercial and industrial markets, the global water treatment market is worth about 20 billion US dollars. The market growth momentum is mainly water scarcity and sustainability of water resources. The water treatment application markets include aquaculture, commercial buildings, food beverage industry, pools and leisure, life sciences, pharma and biopharma, municipal water and wastewater, and oil and gas. Three sterilization methods are used most commonly, including gravity purifier, RO purifier, and UV purifier. RO purifier is a widely used water purification technology, which still requires UV sterilization to remove bacteria and viruses from water and degrade TOC concentrations. The water treatment market has become the most promising target market for UV-C LED.    

 In response to the market demand for water treatment, Japanese and Korean manufacturers are actively moving towards high-power LED and entering the flowing water module application market. In the future, the UV-C LED market will be polarized, where some manufacturers will enter the general consumer market, while others will enter the high-end commercial/industrial market.

Source：LEDinside