A new study reveals how outdoor artificial lighting at night links with sleep and mental disorder of adolescents. Researchers of the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) found that teenagers who live in areas that have high levels of artificial light at night tend to get less sleep and are more likely to have a mood disorder comparing to teens who live in areas with low levels of night-time light. The research, titled “Association of Outdoor Artificial Light at Night with Mental Disorders and Sleep Patterns among US Adolescents,” was based on a cro...

GE Current and Pointr announced their partnership to leverage the edge of smart lighting based on IoT technology for safe reopens of large buildings. Especially at the time when COVID-19 still post threat to the communities. The smart lighting technology of GE Current combined with Pointr’s location-based services developed enhanced space management applications for retailers, warehouses and industrial premises. Through mobile devices, owners of buildings and public areas can understand the precise location of employees and visitors. (Image: GE Current) G...

The U.S.-based material supplier Coretec Group who focus on silicon-based materials utilizing Cyclohexasilane (CHS) development announced that it has filed a provisional patent with its CHS derived silicon. The provisional patent notes three LED applications that Coretec believes its CHS technology is suited for. The first application is the ability to create a cost-efficient, high intensity UV LED capable of killing COVID-19 and other microorganisms. As one of the existing challenges of UV LED is the limitation of reaching needed intensity light, C...

Self-driving technology startup Aurora announced its self-developed LiDAR sensor FirstLight LiDAR last week. The LiDAR sensor was tested on Aurora’s test vehicles to help the perception system to see and track objects farther, faster, and with greater precision. (Image: Aurora) Aurora acquired LiDAR company Blackmore last year eyeing the expertise of FMCW (Frequency Modulated Continuous Wave) technology. FMCW LiDAR delivers a constant stream of light and changes the frequency of that light at regular intervals. With the technology, Auro...

Vuzix, who focusing on smart glasses and AR technology, announced the recent granting of a series of patents and patents pending, focused on wearable computer and AR smart glasses. The company said that its patent portfolio has grown from 90 patents and patents pending to 166 over the last 36 months. Vuzix’ patent portfolio encompasses a range of IP including waveguides with holographic optics, laser and Micro LED display integration, fashion forward industrial designs and optics that support low cost single layer waveguides to multilayer large field of view solutions. ...

People usually only know that UV light is viable to kill bacteria and viruses, but they are not aware of the details about wavelength or ililluminance. For the manufacturers who had planned to end production of conventional lighting, this UVC trend for lamps become a big surprise. Take Signify for example, it is magnifying product categories and lines and invested UV lamp producer, GLA, in Netherland, indicating that the heat of UVC conventional lamp will not fade away in short. As a connector supplier, Amphenol LTW Technology has been collaborating with manufactur...

The COVID-19 pandemic has created severe impacts on the global economics. People around the world are getting used to a new lifestyle in response to the crisis as well. In order to prevent infection, UV technology applications are returning to the center of the industry. UVC, with the wavelengths between 200 – 280 nanometers (nm) and can deactivate bacteria and viruses, is gaining unprecedented attention in particular. In the past few months, the effects of UVC light on coronaviruses have been discussed and reported. LED manufactures also hurriedly devoted to UV...

SemiLEDs announced its financial results for the third quarter of its fiscal year 2020, ended May 31, 2020. The company posted revenues of US$1.6 million for the third quarter of FY 2020, which increased by 2% comparing to the previous quarter. GAAP net loss attributable to SemiLEDs stockholders for the third quarter of fiscal 2020 was $513 thousand, compared to a gain of $348 thousand in the second quarter of fiscal 2020, or a net loss of $0.14 per diluted share, compared to a net gain of $0.08 per diluted share for the second quarter of fiscal 2020. GAAP gross...

Researchers at the University of Waterloo in Canada reported that they have created a new method to transfer and bond Micro LEDs onto flexible substrate. The approach is called “paste-and-cut” by the researchers and can selectively transfer GaN Micro LED from sapphire substrate onto flexible platforms. The results were published at Nano Energy in July, 2020. The research team unveiled their achievement of using the novel “paste-and-cut” approach to transfer and bound GaN Micro LEDs onto flexible substrate with demonstrated effectiveness. T...

Taiwan based LED packager Everlight and LED chip manufacturer Epileds announced that they won a patent litigation against Seoul Semiconductor in Germany and the Korean company’s patent was ruled invalid. On March 14, 2018, the patent litigation strategy alliance of Everlight and Epiled filed a nullity action against Seoul Semiconductor in the German Federal Patent Court. The party claimed that Seoul’s Europe patent EP1697983 (German patent DE60341314.5) should be invalid. The patent-in-suit is related to the surface roughness technology of verti...

Instrument Systems of the Konica Minolta Group introduces a camera-based measurement solution for Micro LED wafer testing that generates 2-dimensional, pixel-resolved optical analyses within given cycle times. The LumiTop 4000 has a resolution of 12 MP and can detect the smallest of defects and inhomogeneities on the wafer. Thanks to a 100 mm macro lens, the camera enables fast parallel inline analysis of all Micro LEDs on a wafer at a single test station. Micro LEDs are renowned for being an exacting new display technology. According to the latest definition of L...

Samsung plans to debut its Micro LED TV, The Wall, in the second half of 2020. However, TheElec, a Korea electronics industry media, reported that Samsung might not be able to follow its schedule as it has yet begun production necessary component by now. Samsung revealed its Micro LED TV lineup at CES 2020, among which, the 75-inch, 88-inch, 93-inch and 110-inch TVs were anticipated to launch in the market of Europe, North America and the Middle East in 2020. (Image: Samsung) TheElec quoted information from its sources that, at the moment in July,...

A research team from South Korea developed a new method to power medical implants using active photonic wireless system incorporating Micro LED that can be attached on skin and a photovoltaic device that integrated with medical implant. Medical implants such as pacemakers help to monitor and regulate physical condition of people to support efficient medical treatment. These devices usually need a constant source of energy to operate, resulting in issues of power supply. Batteries and wired power also create limitation for applications. For example, when battery power gets exhau...

Epistar and Lextar, the two LED companies in Taiwan said that they are forming a new holding company via share conversion with the aim to strengthen Micro LED and Mini LED display technology and business. The new holding company is now named ENNOSTAR, revealed Epistar in its announcement following the agreement of both companies. The share conversion ratios of two companies are set at one share of Epistar for 0.5 ordinary share of ENNOSTAR, and one share of Lextar for 0.275 ordinary share. An extra ordinary shareholders meeting and the promoter’...

US-based LED video display supplier Daktronics announced that it has provided 80 LED display units to a Jordan media service company Seagulls for their city-wide project in Amman, the capital city of Jordan. Of the 80 LED displays provided for this project, 50 featured 2 square meters and 30 featured 8 square meters of digital space. All 80 units employed 3.9 mm line spacing for up-close viewing distances. These units are installed across the city of Amman to share digital advertising messages to passersby. The installation took place between 2019 and 2020. (Imag...

Fluence by Osram, the horticulture LED lighting solution provider, announced the expansion of its global photobiology research program, which encompasses studies on multiple vine crops, leafy greens and medical cannabis in the United States, Canada, Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands. Fluence leverages a network of leading research institutions and partners for its program, including Wageningen University & Research (WUR) for tomatoes; Proefstation voor de Groenteteelt (Proefstation) to study cucumbers; Harrow Research and Development Centre for peppers; Th...

GaN-on-Si epiwafer expert ALLOS Semiconductor announced that its high power electronics and RF business have been sold to AZUR SPACE, a provider of III-V epitaxy for solar cells. AZUR SPACE will use the acquired technology to expand its III-V epi business into the booming market for GaN-on-Si high power electronics and RF epiwafers. ALLOS Semiconductors will continue its optoelectronics business with the focus on the emerging Micro LED display market. (200 mm GaN-on-Si epiwafer example for HPE application; image: ALLOS) Si...

Micro LED Forum is going online this year to keep worldwide industry experts updated with the latest developments and market trend of the innovative display technologies Micro LED and Mini LED. Despite that the COVID-19 pandemic has led to suspension and cancellation of many major global business fairs and events, the progresses within the industry and the market never stopped. At the moment of difficulty, LEDinside of TrendForce still integrated the latest technology developments and will share the critical information with the industry online without time and ge...

Since the Austrian sensing company AMS won the bid of Osram in December 2019, it has been a long journey for it to complete the acquisition of the German company. Finally, on July 6, AMS announced that it has received unconditional regulatory approval from the EU commission for the acquisition of Osram and is going to close the takeover on July 9, 2020. As the acquisition announced last year, it was stated that the merger would be subject to antitrust and foreign trade approvals by the EU. In the press release of the EU Commission, the Commission concluded that ...

For LED industry players in Taiwan who have been facing stiff competition from China’s supply chain and South Korea’s monopoly on OLED technologies, creating new business opportunities in Mini LED and Micro LED could be a solution. However, Chinese companies are also rushing into the Mini LED and Micro LED markets with recognition of the growth potential there. At the moment when Micro LED has yet to reach technological maturity, and Mini LED sets to enter a phase of explosive market growth. What are the roles of Chinese companies in the L...

Many major trade fairs and exhibitions for 2020 have been postponed or cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result, worldwide companies operating in different industries have delayed unveiling their new technologies. However, Micro LED technology developers may have a chance to achieve technological breakthroughs during this time of crisis because of opportunities that lie within this field of innovative display solutions. The first half of 2020 also saw noteworthy activities and events related to the R&D of Micro LED. (Image: AUO) The COVID-19 ...

LeddarTech announced the acquisition of sensor fusion and perception software company VayaVision. Through integration of VayaVision technologies, LeddarTech aims to accelerate time-to-market and reduce customer development costs and risks with a sensor fusion and perception stack that scales from a single sensor to multiple sensor combinations. The Israel-based company, VayaVision, was founded in 2016 by Dr. Nehmadi Youval and Ronny Cohen with expertise in sensor fusion and perception, providing autonomy solutions in the automotive industry addressing use cases from L...

As Micro LED is yet to enter commercialization due to layers of technical difficulties and exorbitant cost, Mini LED has already been successfully incorporated into the application of commercial operation, and has made its presence in the application field of high-end display such as commercial and gaming monitors, including the Mini LED gaming notebook of MSI, as well as the gaming monitors of Asus, Acer, and Lenovo. Now, the industry is anticipating Apple to release multiple iPads and MacBooks adopted with Mini LED backlight technology between 2H20 and 2021 tha...

Velodyne Lidar announced that it has raised US$150 million in a reverse takeover and will be combining with Graf Industrial to go public in the third quarter of the year. It is expected that Velodyne will be listed on the NYSE under the symbol of VLDR. Pursuant to the business combination, Graf will acquire Velodyne through a reverse merger in which Velodyne is ascribed an enterprise value of approximately US$1.6 billion and equity value of approximately US$1.8 billion. Following the transaction and after payment of transaction expenses, Velodyne is expected to...

The arrival of Mini LED in the latest competition of display technology has not only laid down the foundation for the next generation of Micro LED display technology, but also became the new opportunity in breaking through the predicament for the LED industry and panel manufacturers. As invigorated by the aggressive involvement from major brands including Apple, multiple Mini LED backlight products and the application of RGB self-luminous displays are now on the verge of commencement, and the new products for the relevant application are expected to enter substantially i...

Mini LED and Micro LED, the novel display technologies based on LED, have lit up the industry which long suffered from low price competition. As worldwide companies and research institutes pouring resources into technology development in the past years and building up partnerships to formulate new ecosystem, several Micro and Mini LED achievements were revealed. Display products using Mini LED backlight are launched and Micro LED prototypes also continue to achieve breakthroughs. (Image: Pixabay) Apple’s rumor of launching Mini LED backlight techn...

Samsung announced that its outdoor LED products were exclusively used to build SoFi Stadium’s 70,000 square-foot (6503 square meters) dual-sided center-hung videoboard and five levels of fascia display which will be used to elevate the fan experience to unparalleled heights. The state-of-the-art videoboard not only features the most LEDs ever used in a sports or entertainment venue, but also has the first and only 4K end-to-end video production in a stadium. The videoboard used nearly 80 million pixels, achieving the largest LED content playback system ever deployed....

How artificial lighting could provide full spectrum for plants has been an issue addressed by agri-tech experts. Apart from LEDs, a new study of ITMO University provide a new approach by creating light with ceramics. Scientists from ITMO in collaboration with their colleagues from Tomsk Polytechnic University came up with an idea to create light sources from ceramics with the addition of chrome that deliver not only red but also infrared (IR) light to enhance growth of plants. The results were published in Optical Materials. (Image: Anastasiia Babkina/ITMO...

Aiming to reduce the risk of COVID-19 infection and diminish coronavirus, UVC radiation has been widely promoted and applied in disinfection. But UVC radiation exposure could also lead to damage on skin and eye for human and animals. Finding a way to safely deploy UVC light has thus become a target for researchers all over the world. Far-UVC with a wavelength of 222 nm is considered a safe alternative in UVC disinfection as many researchers found that the light can effectively deactivate germs and viruses without causing harm for people. A new study led by researc...

A research led by researchers of UCL (University College London) revealed that staring at a deep red light for three minutes a day can significantly improve declining eyesight. Based on the result of the study, scientists believe that new affordable home-based eye therapies could be develop, helping the millions of people globally with naturally declining vision. Lead author, Professor Glen Jeffery (UCL Institute of Ophthalmology) indicated that people’s visual system declines significantly once over 40 as cells in the eye's retina begin to age. Cell’s mi...