Pixelligent, the leader in high-index advanced materials, announced today its 2016 predictions for high refractive index applications in the electronics markets that it serves.

“Pixelligent has been developing high refractive index zirconia nanocrystals for the solid state lighting and display markets for the past 5 years. From our perspective, 2015 was a tipping-point year with wide spread adoptions of our next generation light management technology in the markets we serve. We saw a substantial uptick in all of our core markets from solid state lighting, to displays to touch sensors and lenses,” said Craig Bandes, president and CEO of Pixelligent. “As we start the New Year, we wanted to offer our predictions for the leading electronics material markets for 2016.”

Prediction #1: LED lighting will become the lighting standard, and all incumbent technologies will be legacy. In the near future, retro-fluorescent tubes will be available for consumers, and compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) will be nothing more than novelty gag gifts. Acuity Brands said its LED lighting product shares have increased to more than 50 percent of its revenue in the past few quarters, up from single digit shares in 2012. Other players with legacy lighting portfolios are seeing similar shifts. Over the next few years, the long tail of legacy lighting systems will have run their course. High refractive index additives will accelerate this trend by offering even greater efficiencies from LED packages. 

Prediction #2: OLED display, in all of its forms, will have a transformative year. OLED TV will push hard for market growth by leveraging high production volumes, higher yields and lower costs, and will compete more effectively against LCD TVs. High refractive index additives will begin to be integrated into OLED displays for improved light extraction and enhanced performance, and will be part of a broader shift to solution-based processing. LCD will counter with quantum dots for higher color gamut, and end up defending the traditional TV markets but will remain unprofitable, and will lose support as investment shifts increasingly to OLED display. OLED will break through with thinner, flexible, mirrored and transparent features that take the market in new directions. Medium screen OLEDs will test customer acceptance of a higher-quality display at a higher price point. Apple will go big on OLED display building on the success of the Apple Watch. Foldable and bendable displays will become actual consumer products. 

Prediction #3: OLED lighting will continue to gain traction in the leading automotive and architectural lighting markets and will seek to co-exist with LED lighting in a number of other niche and high-value markets, where quality of light is a key factor. 

OLED lighting’s unique capabilities as a diffused and high-quality light source will enable it to develop an emerging customer base. The sophistication of the OLED display supply chain will drive cost and quality improvements for OLED lighting to support the larger market share. High refractive-index light extraction layers will be critical to raising efficiency and lowering cost per lumen. Automotive OLED taillights will start a trend, bringing OLED from the outside of the automobile to the inside. Consumers will begin to realize OLED is a more appealing, more efficient, and quite simply the best available lighting technology.

Prediction #4: The Internet of Things (IoT) will remain a hot and growing market. Modest adoption in 2016 will drive efficiency in production for specialized, small, flexible and bendable sensors, making wearable connected devices more prominent in growing niche markets. Mass adoption of IoT will continue to gain momentum and will lead to a new phase: the Internet of “the right” Things, including connected automobiles. Rising interest in connected automobiles will amplify growth and adoption of connected communication devices, which will increase the need for smarter, higher quality and more efficient displays. The development in these areas will lead to next generation products unlike anything on the market today.