From fire to electricity, the human civilization continues to unfold through advances in science and technology. All of this progress has been built on the acquisition and harnessing of different forms of energies. Likewise, the great technological innovations of the recent century or so are made possible by evolutionary changes in the delivery of electricity to end-users. Since the rivalry between Thomas Edison and Nikola Tesla more than a hundred years ago, DC and AC have been competing for supremacy in an ever-expanding range of power applications. The course of the rivalry i...

Since LED technology became mature enough for lighting applications, it has soon entered a plateau period and attracted players across the globe. The industry then turned into a battlefield with low price products and flat profit. Several leading lighting companies including GE, Osram, Cree and others, enlarged their focus into other special lighting applications. Horticulture lighting is one of their targets. (Image: Osram) Adding artificial light sources to help crops to grow has a long history in horticulture but the use of LEDs for such applications offers complete...

Featuring high resolution, high contrast and high brightness, Micro LED is regarded as the “ultimate display technology.” However, due to production difficulties, the technology has not yet entered the commercial market despite that the first prototypes were revealed back in 2012. Recently, driven by leading brands including Apple and Samsung, we have seen more and more Micro LED displays presented. But industry experts forecasted that it would take at least three years for the technology to truly enter the consumer market. Mass transfer is a notorious challenge...

Nitride Semiconductors, established by the collaboration with Tokushima University, is a company taking the initiative to develop high brightness UV LED and provide products to the customers all over the world. Nitride Semiconductors cooperates with Seoul Viosys and SETi on UVC LED manufacturing and production by using Nitride Semiconductors’ patents. LEDinside had an opportunity to interview Yoshihiko Muramoto, President & CEO of Nitride Semiconductors to learn more about the updated progress of Nitride Semiconductors in UV LED business. ...

After years of investment on UV LED R&D, Seoul Viosys has become one of the leading UV LED companies in the world. The company covers products with full range of wavelengths and its UVA LED and UVC LED products are taking leading positions in the industry. As COVID-19 epidemic keep sweeping the world, awareness of public health and health management has increased significantly. Many consumers and branding vendors have also begun to pay much attention to UVC LED-related products with disinfecting functions. According to “TrendForce 2020...

Nichia, the Japan-based leading LED manufacturer, has been dedicated to innovation of LED technology for a wide range of applications. LEDinside had an opportunity to interview Yoshihiko Naito, Deputy General Manager of Nichia’s Hong Kong subsidiary to learn more about the upgraded technology progress of Nichia in UVC LED. Naito indicated that the wavelength of mercury lamp is concentrated at 254nm, but it will only produce up to 70% UVC. However, UVC LED is designed for a single wavelength emission, which produces 100% UVC without wasting pow...

In the past few years, Micro LED has proven to be a very promising display technology. At this point, the industry is preparing to transition from the prototype stage to mass production. Therefore, the focus is shifting to the two major challenges that slow down Micro LED display technology commercialization: the low yield and the high cost. How to optimize the production process efficiently in order to increase yield, while simultaneously reducing cost, is the most essential challenge for Micro LED technology developers at the moment. As improving yield is a primary goal...

According to the analysis of LEDinside, demands of the European and the US horticultural lighting market grew steadily in 2019. Compared with other lighting applications, the horticultural lighting market demand in 2020 is still increasing in a stably. To learn more about the market, LEDinside had a talk with Paul Scheidt, Leader of Product Marketing at Cree, one of the leading industry suppliers of the market to learn how innovative LED technology supports current horticultural lighting applications. (Paul Scheidt, Leader of Product Marketing at Cree; image: C...

The LED industry is gaining increasing attention from the market as the largest consumer electronics company is said to launch several products using Mini LED backlight display technology. LED industry players are looking forward to increasing demand created by the innovative display technology and hope to get away from the dark time of oversupply and low-price competition. Nevertheless, LED companies can hardly work on their own to create Mini LED and Micro LED miracles. These miniaturized LEDs are only a hundredth or even thousandth of a conventional LED an...

LeddarTech, as a leader in LiDAR technology, has developed the most versatile, scalable, auto and mobility LiDAR platform based on the unique LeddarEngine™. In addition to the platform solution, LeddarTech supports the automotive, mobility, and industrial robot markets with innovative 2D and 3D solid-state LiDAR modules. LEDinside was honored to have a phone call interview with Michael Poulin, Vice President, Strategic Partnerships and Corporate Development of LeddarTech, to share the company’s LiDAR business strategies, collaboration, and ma...

As an important part that influences the reliability of LED lighting fixtures, LED driver’s quality and stability are pivotal to the lifespan of the whole lamp. In recent years, as the LED lighting industry entered a mature period of stability, LED driver manufacturers started to seek breakthroughs and innovation. Rising of niche markets has brought new business opportunities to the LED driver industry, leading to another round of competition. Meanwhile, ever-changing market environment has presented new difficulties and challenges to the industry, making manufacture...

Leading LED manufacturer Nichia has been dedicated in innovation of LED technology for a wide range of applications. LEDinside had an opportunity to interview Yoshihiko Naito, Deputy General Manager of Nichia’s Hong Kong subsidiary to learn more about the technology progress of Nichia in horticulture lighting and the current market trend. (Image: Nichia) LEDinside: From Nichia’s perspective, how is the global horticultural lighting market in 2019~2020? Affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, whether the horticultural lighting market will see in a...

According to the research of LEDinside, the global LED horticultural lighting market saw a growth of 25% to 30% to US$ 369 million in 2019, with an increase of 31% year-on-year. Currently, LEDinside was fortunate to have an exclusive interview with OSRAM, a global leader in LED horticultural lighting, to learn how the future development of the horticultural lighting market is and how OSRAM’s LED technology supports various horticultural lighting applications. Chi Guangwei, Senior Application Engineer of ILLUmination Department at OSRAM, sh...

Featuring high definition, saturation and reliability, Micro LED as the next-gen display technology continues to progress. Leading brands such as Samsung and Sony have released large size Micro LED TV products and the rumors of Apple to reveal Micro LED based wearable products like Apple Watch or AR smart glasses never stopped. PlayNitride, the Micro LED technology provider based in Taiwan, is one of the key players of the supply chain. It has teamed up with leading display makers to present Micro LED innovation in CES and SID in the past few years...

As LED technology advances, lighting applications have evolved from general lighting to commercial and architectural lighting, realizing more possibilities with energy saving and other requirements. Architectural lighting is a field which many LED companies have been engaged. LEDinside interviewed CREE, one of the leading industry suppliers of the market to learn how innovative LED technology supports current architectural lighting applications. Paul Scheidt, Leader of Product Marketing at CREE, shared his insights and prospective towards the field. (Paul S...

Stanley Electric is a Japanese automotive LED and UV/IR LED company, whose high-power Deep UV LEDs have attracted a great deal of attention, especially in the field of public health and disinfection. The exclusive AlN-based UV-C LED patent allows Stanley to engage in extremely high-power UV LED technologies and applications. With a production range from semiconductor substrate, chips, UV LED packages, UV LED lighting source modules and UV LED water disinfection reactors, Stanley Electric is dedicated to providing full-services for water dis...

Based in the heart of Silicon Valley, Violumas, the UV division of Flip Chip Opto under Cofan Group, is known as a supplier for full-service UV LED products and solutions. Their patented 3-Pad Flip Chip technology allows them to engage in UV technologies and applications with more powerful and reliable solutions. With a product range featuring epis, chips, UV LED packages, UV LED modules, and cooling solutions, Violumas is dedicated to providing full-service UV solutions from UV-A, UV-B and UV-C range (405 to 265nm). LEDinside was very honor...

Chipone Technology is a semiconductor chip design house in China. Its products include touch sensor ICs, fingerprint recognition ICs, video wall (display) driver ICs, and power management ICs. LEDinside has an honor to interview Charles Lin, Vice President of Chipone Technology, whose shipment ranks the top one in video wall (display) driver ICs to share the product roadmap and business strategy in video wall (display) ICs for 2019-2020. In 2019, total revenue of Chipone Technology came to RMB 1.5 billion (US$ 213.13 million). Amongst, LED driver IC...

On November 26, 2019, Seoul Semiconductor announced to auction its radio frequency (RF) semiconductor patent portfolio and a high-power LED package patent portfolio. In the first auction, Seoul Semiconductor is seeking the top bidder for 80 patent assets related to power amplifiers and gallium nitride (GaN) RF semiconductors, including 54 U.S. patents. Three of the patents are licensed to the U.S. Air Force or the U.S. Army. In the second auction, Seoul Semiconductor will auction more than 100 patents, including US, European, Chinese, Japanese, and Ko...

As the novel coronavirus is spreading across the world and is highly contagious, people are getting more and more alert in environment disinfection. UVC LED technology providing disinfection function thus draws consumers’ attention. UVC LED technology, which can be integrated with different applications for water, air and surface disinfection, is becoming a hit in the LED industry and the consumer market since the outbreak of coronavirus. Companies with UVC LED technology are now working on various applications to help people combat the virus. High Power ...

The lawsuit between LED filament bulb developer Liquidleds and lighting company GIRARD SUDRON, filed in December 2018, has come to an end. Liquidleds started collecting evidence and filed a patent lawsuit against GIRARD SUDRON in December 2018. The Mannheim Court of Germany found the European light seller guilty of infringing Liquidleds’ patents and ruled that it should refrain from offering, placing on the market, and/or importing patent-infringing products. As it was also demanded to pay back the loss to Liquidleds, both parties are finalizi...

Taiwan’s Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) showcased its ultra small pitch size Micro LED display module at CES this year. The Micro LED display was the world first display manufactured by directly transfer micron size RGB chips on to PCB backplane. LEDinside interviewed Chih-I Wu, General Director of Eletronics and Optoelectronic System Research Laboratories at ITRI, to learn ITRI’s technology progresses in Micro LED and its goal for the next stage. (Chih-I Wu, General Director of Eletronics and Optoele...

After receiving $15 million investment from Google, the Lund University spin-out glō has been proactively presenting its Micro LED technology in the past two years by participating in various international events and expanding partnerships with worldwide display manufacturers. LEDinside interviewed Saket Chadda, CEO of glō USA, at CES 2020 to further understand the company’s progresses on Micro LED technology. During CES 2020, glō presented Micro LED displays that were built with different technologies including a 1.6-inch and a 1.8-inch ful...

The law of ‘survival of the fittest’ applies to almost all fields in the world. But, it evolves even more dramatically in the commerce field. Take the lighting industry for an example; in recent years with large investment flocking in and technology revolution, the industry has been undergoing a fast reshuffle. During the upheaval, many large-scale enterprises which boast their major advantage in capital to extend industrial chains end up selling out their business, while some small or medium-sized ones survived and became industry leaders. Shanghai Wellmax Lighting (W...

This year at CES, Seoul Semiconductor finally revealed its Micro LED series products for the first time ever since the Korean LED maker announced that it has been working on the technology. LEDinside was honored to be invited to Seoul’s private show room at CES and had an interview with Sam Ryu, executive vice president of IT sales at Seoul Semiconductor to learn more about the company’s Micro LED development progress. Seoul Semiconductor is a discreet company, according to Ryu, as a result, the company only unveiled its Micro LED products...

Currently the major LED application in the agriculture industry is horticulture lighting. The combination of LED fixture and hydroponic not only breakthroughs the limitation of environment and weather for growers but also optimizes crop quality by adjusting light spectrum. Horticulture lighting with LEDs is a niche application in recent years that attracts many global LED manufacturers. Taiwan’s leading LED packager EVERLIGHT, who has developed various LEDs for horticulture lighting, is leveraging its LED technologies to other agriculture applicatio...

Excelitas Technologies Corp., a global technology leader delivering innovative, customized photonic solutions, announced that the company is developing LiDAR Lasers for the automotive industry. LEDinside had the honor to have a phone call interview with Dr. Jürgen Schilz, Vice President Detection / Managing Director of Excelitas, to share his perspective towards the LiDAR market and the company’s current progress of LiDAR Laser products as well as the company’s future plans.

Velodyne, a leading LiDAR company and 3D sensor solution for autonomous vehicles and industrial robots, is going to showcase the latest product at CES 2020. LEDinside was honored to have a phone call interview with Rick Tewell, COO of Velodyne, to understand how the company’s fully rotation LiDAR system ushers in a new and incredible era of advanced 3D imaging technology in autonomous vehicles. (Rick Tewell, COO of Velodyne) Velodyne was established in San Jose, California in 1983, by founder and CEO David Hall. In 2005, Velodyne released H...

As China's largest foreign trade promotion platform, the China Import and Export Fair (Canton Fair) has made important contributions to the world’s economic growth. Every year, the fair brings orders from all over the world to Chinese manufacturers, kicking out the peak purchase season. The 126th Canton fair, with over 25,000 exhibitors, concluded last Saturday on October 19. As the most long-standing participant of the fair, Shanghai Wellmax Lighting (WELLMAX) made a great hit again by presenting its innovative lighting solutions. WELLMAX&rsq...

According to the report of LEDinside, 2019 Global Lighting Market Report, MLS, who took over LEDVANCE from Osarm, became the fourth largest lighting company in the world. The company currently focuses on smart LED lighting and is planning to expand its business in smart home and human centric lighting. Seeing the future of smart lighting application, Lawrence Lin, CEO of LEDVANCE, shared his insight towards the market of smart lighting in 2020. (Image: LEDVANCE) Global Smart Home Lighting Trend Lin said that the development of sma...