Research on trend of worldwide white LED phosphors technologies and market development

White light emitting diodes (LEDs) have been regarded as the most promising light sources of new lighting technology due to the properties of high efficiency, energy saving, long lifetime and environmentally friendly. As the key materials used in white LED devices, phosphors strongly influence the properties of the white LED devices, such as luminous efficiency, service life, display color gamut and the color rendering. In this review, we introduced the photochromic properties, development actuality and the trend of the widely used yellow aluminate phosphors, red nitrides phosphors and green oxynitride phosphors. The preparation of these classic aluminate phosphors and red nitride phosphors are tending to be mature. Therefore, the performance of phosphors above is promoted slowly. However, along with the progress of semiconductor lighting technology, it's necessary to develop new phosphors which are applicable in high power excitation source containing full spectrum lighting and wide color gamut display. So the study of new phosphors becomes the research hot spot and key development orientation in the world. New yellow nitride phosphors, green oxynitride phosphors and red fluoride phosphors are springing up time to time. But properties of these new phosphors still need to be improved in many aspects, such as composition adjusting and preparation technology. In addition, China has become a big country of phosphors production and application in the world. As the quality of phosphors improving and the market share of China increasing, China will play a more important role in the technical innovation and products supply of LED phosphors in the future.