By Marie Freebody from optics.org

Key players in the LED lighting market say that they have experienced 20% growth in their business over the past six months according to a recent survey. The majority of those surveyed also predicted that this growth will continue, with 63% forecasting that LED lighting will comprise more than 50% of their sales or installations by 2009.

The survey, carried out by Mindwave Research of the US, indicates that outdoor lighting such as street parking will be one of the key applications to drive future growth.

"The survey shows an increasing demand for high quality, energy-efficient LEDs," said Greg Merritt, director of corporate marketing at US-based LED manufacturer, Cree. "The general illumination market is at a tipping point."

Future growth is expected to come from applications such as street parking (20%), residential indoor (17%) and office (15%). "From the survey, outdoor lighting is the first major application for LED lighting, followed closely by specialized indoor retail/ display and residential/ commercial indoor applications," Michelle Murray, corporate communications at Cree, told optics.org. "It also shows strong demand for general illumination."

Cree hopes to make the most of this predicted growth with its XLamp packaged LED range and has added packaging capacity at its Taiwan site in anticipation. The company expects its revenue to increase slightly for quarter one of 2008 with growth in the XLamp range but predicts sales from other products to remain steady for this year. "Cree's XLamp family of high-performance cool- and warm-white LEDs is uniquely positioned to serve the needs of lighting manufacturers who are ready to capitalize on this growth," commented Merritt.