Taiwan International Lighting Show in Taipei Relit after 8-Year Hiatus

Double-digit growth in LED m

The Taiwan International Lighting Show, co-sponsored by the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA) and Taiwan's Lighting Fixture Export Association (TLFMA), after eight years of suspension, was resurrected in March this year. Notwithstanding the gradual but apparently steady economic recovery, this year's lighting show focused on more advanced lighting technologies rather than traditional ones, and the concentration on greener lighting reflects the successful transformation of Taiwan's lighting industry over the past decade, driven by aggressiveness of lighting companies in Taiwan to catch up to global market trends.

As is common with many trade shows today, the TILS also included events to help interested parties, professionals to upgrade know-how and stay current with developments. One notable seminar titled “Next Illumination” centered on the latest in energy-efficient lighting, featuring discussions on the prospects of LED, Cold Cathode Florescent Lamp (CCFL), and AC LED.

“LED illumination is among the few industries whose markets continued to grow without official subsidies during the post-meltdown recession,” said Eileen Huang, researcher of Topology Research Institute. Moreover, its market has the potential to challenge an annual growth of 14% this year, especially when driven by emerging demand in China and Shanghai Expo 2010, an event that is highlighting the eco-correct image of LED illumination, the only kind used at the world exposition that opened on May 1.

Birth of LED Lighting

According to Huang, the LED industry, before being used as lighting, started in early 2000 when the growing mobile phone industry fueled considerable demand for LED screens, with the sector then undergoing high annual growth of over 10% in 2002-2004. The market growth slowed to 6-7% in 2005-2007, then dropping to around 3% after the meltdown, performance that seems modest but is in fact incredible considering many other markets crashed, with many industrial giants in finance and car-making teetering or toppling over the edge.

Huang predicts the LED lighting market might regain double-digit growth this year, to be driven by high demand from emerging countries. “The following decade may be a golden age for the LED illumination sector,” she said.

LEDs are being developed into many types of lighting, despite its current shortcomings related to cooling, while designers are seeing nearly endless application possibilities, one of which being automotive brake lights that are already installed on mostly upscale cars. With LEDs proven energy-saving characteristics and compactness that avail designers of more freedom, these matrix lights, especially after 2012 when many countries will ban incandescent lights due to extremely poor watt-to-lumen ratios, will likely see higher sales.

Bright Future

Believing in the bright future of LED lighting and its predicted high growth in the near future, many Taiwan-based companies have set up new factories or expanded operations, with major ITC groups as Hon Hai Precision, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC), United Microelectronics Corp. (UMC), Delta, Chi Mei, and AU Optronics all having set up new subsidiaries to fully tap its potential.

“First out the starting block, Taiwan began developing LED technologies earlier than other nations and has led the world in production for years,” Huang noted. However, Korean companies, living up to its reputation for aggressiveness, have also been trying to catch up and enlarging production in recent years. Huang warns LED lighting makers of severe-competition-led underselling however.

In fact, Huang already sees this apparently inevitable trend happening: Taiwanese and Korean LED manufacturers are turning capacities to full tilt, which may trigger a price war earlier than expected, perhaps as early as sometime this year. As with other ITC products that tend to fall in price amid excessive competition, the same applies to the LED lighting sector: consumers ultimately stands to gain in cheaper retail prices, with LED bulbs possibly dipping to below US$31.5 soon.

Cold Cathode Florescent Lamp (CCFL)

Cold Cathode Florescent Lamp (CCFL) works similarly to fluorescent tubes, where fluorescent powder inside tubes absorb long-wave UV rays to convent such wavelengths into visible light. “CCFL lighting may cost more but is safer,” said Jih-Feng Huang, secretary general of the CCFL Lighting Association. “CCFL prices are far lower than that of LED lamps and UV rays from CCFLs is only one-tenth of so-called energy-saving bulbs.”

Ubiquitously sold as easy plug-in energy-saving lighting, CCFL can also be shaped into various shapes like fluorescent tubes or energy-saving bulbs, including U-shaped, L-shaped, or O-shaped. But according to Huang, CCFLs are about twice as energy-efficient as traditional fluorescent tubes, as well as being 2-3 times longer lasting. Also revealing a bit of technological insider that may be beyond comprehension of laymen, Huang says that “lightweight steel fixtures have been launched recently for CCFL lighting that works under low temperature, which can help raise energy-efficiency.”

In addition, Huang says that CCFL lighting has another advantage—with CCFL tubes able to be made into much wider diameters to lend themselves to much greater application possibilities. CCFLs have been widely used as neon lighting, garden lighting, and aquarium lighting.

With well-developed CCFL technologies, Taiwan now dominates the global CCFL lighting market to supply about one-third of the global CCFL lighting, followed by Japan and Korea, with the three major players in Taiwan being Chunghwa Picture Tube, AU Optronics, and Chi Mei Electronics. “If the makers in Taiwan partner with Japanese and Korean counterparts, the CCFL sector in Taiwan would likely be better poised to set industry standards and global specifications,” Huang said.

Players in Taiwan

Welly Power, a subsidiary of AU Optronics, is involved in the lighting business with technological support from China Electric Mfg. Corporation, focusing on street-lighting and backlighting products. GIO Optoelectronics, under the Chi Mei group, has been developing lighting for years, with such business a major moneymaker since 2009, with the focus on design of lighting for commercial and office buildings. Sintronic Technology, under Chunghwa Picture Tube, works with Tatung Co., who handles distribution of illumination products.

Fortunately for Taiwan makers, “major lighting makers as Philips, GE, and OSRAM have stayed out of CCFL production, leaving the island ample opportunity to lead the world in this field,” Huang said. Taiwan's three major CCFL groups have jointly organized the CCFL Lighting Association, whose membership includes nearly 30 contract parts suppliers, with such establishment to help consolidate the sector as well as set global product specifications and safety standards. “Taiwanese companies and their leading brand names have good opportunity to tap business potential in the CCFL field,” Huang said.

The CCFL Lighting Association, with support of the Small and Medium Enterprise Administration, Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA), was formed on February 27, 2009, and has since held several meetings to map out plans. One of the CCFL's most ambitious goals may be to set national CCFL lighting standards this year, paving the way to set globally-recognized standards.

AC LED Lighting

Another speaker at the seminar was Elton Lin, project manager of the AC LED R&D Alliance, who pointed out that On-chip AC LED is among the world's top-100 innovative key technologies to determine the future development of LED lighting. A critical door was opened for Taiwan's LED lighting sector by Industrial Technology Research Institute's establishment of Epistar Corporation and subcontractors in 1996, enabling Taiwan to produce epitaxy, a key component of LED lighting, according to Lin.

Ten years later, the AC LED project, under Lin's leadership, developed the On-chip AC LED technology, a major breakthrough that enables direct AC triggering of LED chip without a transformer. Such technology made possible the launch of the world's first AC LED, cited by the American R&D Magazine among the 100 most promising technologies worldwide in 2008, with such honor generally regarded as winning the scientific Nobel. “The honor makes Taiwan a leader in LED achievement,” Lin said.

Merlin of AC LED

Literally the Merlin of LED advancement, where prior to 2004 LED lighting was only possible with DC 4V/2V transformers, Lin's AC LED project has turned the dream of AC LED into reality.

As with AC LEDs in general, size of AC LEDs can also be miniaturized as well as highly energy-efficient, characteristics of which make such lighting suitable for commercial and industrial applications. According to Lin, Philips launched a 2.5W AC LED lamp in July, 2008 with a life cycle of over 10 years. Several Taiwanese companies have the technologies to build AC LEDs, including Forward Electronics, with technological support from the ITRI, who has started mass production of AC LEDs in February this year, which will likely reach over 10 million units monthly. Meanwhile, Lustrous Technology and Tyntek Corporation have launched AC LED products. “Driven by such active participation, Taiwan is well poised to lead the global AC LED market,” Lin commented.