June 7, 2013—In a report published June 3, market research firm Electronicast predicts that global consumption of light-emitting diodes (LEDs) used in biophotonic and medical applications will grow from $64.5 million in 2012 to $324.7 million in 2019. That’s a remarkable average annual growth rate of 26 percent, in spite of an expected decline of the average LED price.
In the report, “LEDs Used in Biophotonic and Medical Devices: Global Market Forecast and Analysis 2012-2019,” the application areas of sensing/detection and analytical/monitoring use over 60 percent of the LEDs packaged into biophotonic and medical science devices worldwide in 2013. The next most common application area is photo-therapy/sanitation/cell regeneration/curing. The report includes a third market segment of instrumentation light source and imaging, which is expected to grow annually by 27 percent.
The report also found that red LEDs are the most common color (at 50 percent of the global market in medical and biophotonic devices), a share that is expected to decline over the next six years as use of other color categories increase.