LG Innotek, electronic parts affiliate of LG Group, announced Wednesday the firm has developed flexible three-dimensional lighting for premium cars with a plan to aggressively enter the high-end vehicle market.

Dubbed Nexlide-HD, it is a module for cars’ front and rear external lighting that emits bright and uniform light.

The lighting module consists of a number of specialized LED packages attached to a thin substrate, which helps spread the light around 180 degrees. Previous lighting modules use ordinary LED packages that emit light with a limited angle of 100 degrees. 

With the ability to gently curve like rubber, the Nexlide-HD enables carmakers to create unique lighting with various designs such as straight lines, curved lines, waves and three-dimensional figures. The module can also be cut into thin pieces and combined into blocks to create floral patterns and more.

LG Innotek has raised the module’s maximum brightness fivefold to 400 candela by applying a five-sided stereoscopic lighting technology.

That means the Nexlide-HD module can be applied to the tail lights as well as daytime running lights that require 400 candela in brightness on the front of the vehicle.

“The company plans to accelerate moves into the global automotive lighting market with the Nexlide-HD,” an LG Innotek official said. “The unique and high-class design will meet needs of premium car makers.”

According to market researcher Yole Development, the automotive lighting market is forecast to grow from $28.9 billion in 2018 to $37.3 billion by .
2023. 

LG Innotek’s major customer LG Electronics acquired Austria-based car lighting company ZKW in 2018 as part of the tech giant’s growth strategy in the vehicle component market.

“The latest development is too early to be discussed in line with the ZKW business,” said the official. “But companies like ZKW can be one of our customers.”

By Song Su-hyun (song@heraldcorp.com)