LED industry players have accelerated their development in niche products including Mini LED and sensing components IR LED and VCSEL.

Taiwan-based LED company Lexter began mass producing Mini LED products since the third quarter of 2018. Apart from the initial applications in gaming monitor and notebook, Mini LED backlight has also been adopted in automotive display. The company estimates that Mini LED products will account for five percent or more of its 2019 revenue.

Lextar also strengthened red LED business and pushes development in IR LED and VCSEL after slashing the general lighting business. The company said its IR LED products have been adopted for security monitoring with stable shipment. Meanwhile, Lextar is also cooperating with clients to development VCSEL applications for smartphone and autonomous smart factory.

On the other hand, LED chip maker Epistar reported order rebound for blue LED in March 2019 and is looking forward to greater market momentum in the third quarter as most of the companies will launch new products by then.

Epistar has released Mini LED product since last year and expects to expand Mini LED products shipment after 2Q19 for high-end display applications. The company also targets smartphone applications with its  VCSEL products.  

The first quarter is usually the off-season for the LED industry and 2018 was a challenging year with market uncertainties caused by the trade war. The LED market is expecting that LED price and demand will rebound in 2019. And delay of the 25 percent tariff announced by the U.S. might bring impacts on the market.