Technavio analysts forecast the global automotive organic light-emitting diode (OLED) marketto post a CAGR of more than 14% by 2019, according to their latest report.

Global automotive organic light-emitting diode market to post a CAGR of more than 14% by 2019.

The research study covers the present scenario and growth prospects of the global automotive OLED market for 2015-2019. Geographically, the market is well-diversified between EMEA with a 35.75% market share, followed by the Americas with 33.28% and APAC with 30.97% as of 2014.

Technavio automotive industry analysts have highlighted the following three factors that are contributing to the growth of the global automotive OLED market:

• Design flexibility
• Inherent advantages
• Structural advantage

Design flexibility

Technavio analysts state that OLED lighting panels have reshaped the lighting panel market. Products fitted with OLED technology have superior attributes such as design flexibility, low power consumption, enhanced light source, and thinner size. Design flexibility is one of the major driving attributes in the growing OLED lighting panel market. Flexible ultra-thin OLEDs enable manufacturers to integrate the lighting elements into the interior of the automotive. In fact, there is less challenge from harsh environments, and thereby OLEDs for dashboards, digital rear-view internal mirrors, and internal mood lighting are expected to evolve faster in the forecast period than external automobile lighting.

“The demand for flexible organic light-emitting diodes is also expected to increase over the years, resulting in a surge in the sales of automotive OLED panels. Customers are becoming more attracted toward OLEDs, as they help to cater to the functional and aesthetic needs of a car, which is helping to increase the demand for OLED panels,” says Faizan Akhtar, a lead automotive electronics research analyst from Technavio.

Inherent advantages

OLEDs are comprised of organic components, whereas LEDs constitute inorganic components that result in less efficient lighting. This makes the OLED lighting products more favorable in terms of efficiency and durability compared to LEDs. Furthermore, OLEDs do not require thermal management systems, unlike that of LEDs. OLED lighting products produce soft and natural light with a broad color range, high sustainability, transparency, and easy implementation, which makes their scope much wider in automotive applications.

“Several countries are playing a major role in encouraging the use of energy-efficient lighting in vehicles. For example, many countries in Europe have plans to remove all incandescent lamps and low-efficiency halogen lamps from the market by the end of 2017. Restrictions were also introduced under the Energy-using Products Directive and began to take effect in 2009,” says Faizan.

Structural advantage

The production of an OLED includes the use of organic layers and metallic diodes. OLEDs are easier to produce and can be made to any size according to the requirement. The plastic nature of OLEDs makes it easy for the developer to design and structure accordingly. The layers of OLEDs are much thinner compared to the inorganic crystal layers of LEDs. The emissive and conductive layers of an OLED can also be multi-layered. During the manufacturing process, an LED requires glass for support, which absorbs the light but an OLED does not require glass, resulting in zero absorption of light. This structural advantage makes OLEDs more flexible to manufacture and increases their usage in various application areas.

With the development in the encapsulation methods of manufacturing automotive OLEDs, OEMs like BMW has revealed plans for OLED lighting in its luxury sedan and sees OLED lighting systems as the next feasible advancement in automotive lighting. The company also has plans to possibly incorporate OLEDs into BMW motorcycles within 2-3 years.