Diverse Applications to Expand Global IR LED Market to US$792 Million in 2021, Says TrendForce

The value of the infrared (IR) LED market worldwide continues to grow due to rising demand in various applications markets, according to the 2016~2021 Global LED Industry Demand and Supply Database Report by LEDinside, a division of TrendForce. Applications such as security surveillance systems , virtual reality (VR) devices and facial and iris recognition solutions will push up the value of the global IR LED market from about $300 million in 2016 to US$792 million in 2021. Note this estimation excludes revenue from the optical sensor market.

“Surveillance systems currently makes up the largest mainstream application market for IR LEDs,” said Joanne Wu, assistant research manager of LEDinside. “Demand for surveillance cameras with night vision ability has been rising on a yearly basis as countries across the globe invest more in their anti-terrorism capabilities and security infrastructures. This in turn help boost the value of the entire IR LED market.”

However, the market value of IR LEDs for the surveillance application has only increased slightly this year mainly because the competition among LED suppliers has led to a significant decline in prices. At the same time, more suppliers are reducing costs by shrinking the size of LED chips and switching to lower-cost packages. Based on LEDinside’s projection, the total market value of IR LEDs used surveillance systems for 2016 will reach US$109 million.

Iris and facial recognition solutions are also a major emerging application market IR LEDs. “To meet the growing demand for mobile payment services, Samsung’s latest flagship smartphone Galaxy Note 7 features iris recognition,” Wu pointed out. “Other smartphone brands are expected to follow Samsung’s footsteps and incorporate similar biometric solutions , thus starting a new round of hardware competition.”

IR LEDs for the iris and facial recognition application have higher average sales prices, and the widespread promotion of mobile payment services means that devices such as smartphones and notebooks are going to have user authentication mechanisms based on the IR LED technology.  Thus, this application will likely become the primary growth driver of the global IR LED market . 

Currently, IR LEDs for iris recognition  are mainly supplied by international LED manufacturers. Taiwanese LED manufacturers offer products for facial recognition. LEDinside forecast that IR LEDs for iris and facial recognition systems worldwide will have a total market value of US$359 million in 2021.

The market releases of VR devices are giving additional growth spurt to the market value of IR LEDs. LEDinside estimates that the market value of IR LEDs for the VR application will arrive around US$14 million in 2016. Future growth in this market is expected. 

Motion sensing solutions for the VR devices that are currently on the market can be generally divided into inside-out tracking and outside-in tracking. The former is used by HTC Vive while Oculus Rift is an example of the latter. Both solutions use cameras equipped with IR LEDs and related components for tracking and positioning.

Nonetheless, VR devices are still a nascent stage in development. Designs of a device’s motion sensing feature vary.  It will take time and effort for LED suppliers to develop products for this application and build up manufacturing capacities for them.  These issues create uncertainty over the exact market demand of IR LEDs  for the VR application.