The legalization of medical and recreational use of cannabis in North America has opened a wide door for LED lighting in horticulture application for cannabis cultivation. An increasing number of cannabis growers and cannabis grow light suppliers are joining the market. ecofarm from Massachusetts, U.S., announced the launch of the largest indoor cultivation sites in the country at Marijuana Business Conference (MJBizCon), the cannabis industry's most respected global trade show. (Image: ecofarm) ecofarm will operate as a Tier 11 marijuana cultivator and produc...

Chinese companies proactively joined Micro LED development and production to catch up with the competitors in Taiwan and South Korea. LED chip producer Sanan Optoeletronics and panel manufacturer BOE both reported that they are putting focus on Mini LED and Micro LED production. Other China-based industry players also revealed their progress in the past year. Refond Refond completed a Mini LED autonomous production line and will expand its capacity if once the demands grow. The company has supplied its Mini LED products to several display producers ...

AIXTRON announced that PlayNitride has qualified its AIX G5+ C MOCVD system for the manufacturing of GaN-based (gallium nitride) Micro LEDs, concluding the joint collaboration agreement signed in January. The German equipment provider and Micro LED specialist PlayNitride reported their partnership in January 2019 to speed up Micro LED mass production with AIXTRON’s AIX G5+ C platform. According to AIXTRON, PlayNitride ordered another tool for expanding its capacities for high-volume production of Micro LEDs. The M...

A study led by researchers of the University of Exeter and Peruvian conservation organization ProDelphius proved that placing LED lights on fishing nets can reduce the chances of sea turtles and dolphins being caught by accident. The research result was published in the journal Biological Conservation, titled "An illuminating idea to reduce bycatch in the Peruvian small-scale gillnet fishery." The research group have conducted experiment by attaching LED lights on fishing nets with small-scale vessels departing from three ports in Peru between 2015 and 2018. T...

When arriving a new place, Google Maps usually helps to locate our destinations and lead us there. However, some of the route might include streets and roads that are too dark or narrow which we would avoid when traveling at night but we could not find out until reaching there. To enhance travel safety, Google Maps is reportedly working on a new layer of “lighting,” which marks brightly lit streets on the maps, reported XDA Developer. (Image: Tridonic) XDA Developer found codes in Google Maps v10.31.0 beta indicating that Google is adding a new feature t...

Smart glasses are expected to replace smartphones in the coming three to five years. Global big names pushing their development in smart wearable applications particularly headset or glasses combining AR technology with the ultimate goal to make them function like smartphones. In the past 10 years, the invention and usage of smartphones have changed the ecosystem of the technology industry as well as our daily life. But as new developments in smartphones become limited, the smartphone market shows tepidity recently. Trendforce analysis pointed out that market demand of smartphone i...

Samsung has provided its LED displays for MSC Cruises and its collaboration in the indoor LED installation was awarded by Daily DOOH for the prize of Best Overall Customer Experience. Samsung provided interactive touchscreens, digital signage and over 2,400 in-cabin TVs throughout MSC Grandiosa, the latest and largest flagship of MSC Cruises, as part of its longstanding partnership with the company. MSC Cruises had launched the MSC for Me digital ecosystem in 2017 to bring the latest connected cruise experience to its guests. (Image: Samsung) ...

The National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA) published “American National Standard for Roadway and Area Lighting Equipment - Luminaire Four-Pin Extension Module and Receptacle—Physical and Electrical Interchangeability and Testing.” This new Standard provides mechanical and electrical specifications for interfacing street and area lighting with controls and sensor accessories. (Image: Pixabay) According to NEMA, the standard was developed for use by roadway and area lighting manufacturers, municipalities, and utilities. T...

Austrian sensor company AMS has successfully takeover Osram with its EUR 4.6 billion (US$5.9 billion) bid in the second attempt by achieving the acceptance threshold of 55% of share. Both AMS and Osram published the final result on December 6, 2019. AMS first offered Osram a bid at EUR 38.5 per share (US$ 42.6) in July, 2019 and raised the price to EUR 41 per share later in October to compete with other bidder. However, the first takeover failed as AMS did not achieve the minimum acceptance threshold of 62.5%. The sensor specialist soon launched new...

SiLC Technologies, the provider of integrated single-chip FMCW LiDAR solutions, and vehicle lighting supplier Varroc Lighting Systems announced that they will join force to demonstrate a LiDAR integration into a production automotive headlamp at CES 2020. The Varroc Lighting Systems headlamp combines its LED design and four of SiLC's silicon photonics FMCW vision chips providing a full 20 x 80-degree field of view (FOV) per headlamp. (Image: Varroc Lighting System/SiLC) According to SiLC, its compact LiDAR chip architecture c...

PMOLED specialist RiTdisplay announced that the company plans to launch Micro LED and Mini LED products in 2020 with volume production and expects profit boom in the coming year. On top of its PMOLED technology, RiTdisplay has extended its business to automotive OLED lighting and Mini/Micro LED. The company established joint venture with Luminit for OLED based automotive lighting in December 2018. Its products have been verified by six automobile companies in Japan, Europe and the U.S. As for Mini/Micro LED, RiTdisplay collaborated ...

The British Micro LED technology developer Plessey reported that it has successfully developed the world’s first GaN on Silicon-based red LED. (Image: Plessey) Whilst InGaN-based blue and green LEDs are commercially available, red LEDs are typically based on AlInGaP material or color converted red. For AR, achieving high efficiency ultra-fine pitch red pixels (< 5 µm) remains elusive due to severe edge effects from AlInGaP material and cavity losses from color conversion processes. InGaN-based red is attractive as it offers lower...

Global leading display producers are shifting the production focus from LCD display, cutting down manufacture facility or even quitting the business, majorly due to the fierce price competition and market transformation. The new display technologies, OLED, Mini LED are now competing to take over the role of leading display technology. Micro LED might also join the competition in the near future. (Image: Lextar) According to WitsView, a division of TrendForce, TV panel prices generally have been lower than the cash costs leading to business loss for global pane...

UV LED product developer Sensor Electronic Technology, Inc. (SETi) announced that it successfully obtained a permanent injunction in a patent infringement lawsuit against Bolb and Quantum Egg (Q-Egg). SETi filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Bolb and Q-Egg in the U.S. District Court in California in September 2018, accusing the two companies of selling UV LED sterilizing devices that infringe six LED patents of SETi. The asserted patents in this litigation cover fundamental UV LED technology, encompassing UV LED sterilizer structu...

The South Korean equipment manufacturer Charm Engineering is extending its business towards Micro LED display and built partnership with Korea Photonics to develop related technologies. (Image: Pixabay) According to Charm Engineering, the company is expanding its display repairing business from OLED display to Micro LED display with its newly developed TFT array defective wiring repair equipment, reported ETnews, an online media in South Korea. The equipment provider also reported that it has signed a MOU with Korea Photonics Technology Institu...

KAIST research team has invented “transformative electronics systems” which can change shapes and stretch flexibly, enabling novel design for wearable products. The new study was published in Science Advance in November. According to KAIST, the transformative electronics consist of a special gallium metal structure, hermetically encapsulated and sealed within a soft silicone material, combined with electronics that are designed to be flexible and stretchable. The mechanical transformation of the electronic systems is specifically triggered by temperature change...

Rumors of Apple’s Mini LED products have been going on since April 2019 and the latest news is that the company will begin mass production of iPad and MacBook Pro with Mini LED backlight display in 2020. Other Mini LED-based products will come in two to three years. (Image: Apple) Apple’s new Mini LED products, including a 12.9-inch iPad Pro and a 16-inch Macbook which are said to be launched the soonest in the third and fourth quarter in 2020, will benefit the company’s supply chain covering chip makers, display producer and assembly com...

The Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI), Taiwan's largest and one of the world's leading high-tech applied research institutions, is going to showcase its latest developments at CES 2020 starring January 7, 2020, in Las Vegas Convention and World Trade Center. (Image: ITRI) ITRI will present a wide range of innovative applications integrating AI, robotics and digital health technology, as well as its Micro LED technology. ITRI’s Micro LED display features its "pixel area release" technology, integrating sens...

Kubos Semiconductors from the UK and the UK Compound Semiconductor Centre (CSC) announced that their partnership to commercialize cubic GaN epitaxy for the manufacture of high efficiency green and amber LEDs. Hexagonal GaN crystals have been widely used to fabricate blue LEDs, but achieving efficient operation in green devices is a problem. Large polarization fields in the active regions of these longer-wavelength structures reduce radiative recombination rates and limit LED efficiency. Targeting the issue, Kubos Semiconductors develops process based on gr...

Vertical farming breaks the limitation of growing crops and creates possibilities for food production everywhere. Supporting by LED tunable lighting and hydroponics system, vertical farms leverage their strengths to shrink the distance between growers and consumers, attracting strategic partners to launch innovative services. Singapore Airline, for example, collaborated AeroFarms, a U.S.-based vertical farm startup, for realize the Airline’s “From Farm to Plane” concept. AeroFarms has begun to supply fresh produce for Singapore Airline’s flight s...

Hitachi Vantara, the Silicon Valley-based digital infrastructure and solutions subsidiary of Hitachi, announced the application of an artificial intelligence (AI) based solution for airlines and airports to solve the challenges of crowd during the busy holiday season. The company’s technology aims to eliminate travel delays caused by congestion at check-in, security, retail and aircraft boarding areas. Hitachi Vantara has developed solutions that combine computer vision with video analytics using LiDAR and machine learning to help airline and airport staff identify whe...

Smart wearables including watches, glasses, headphones and others are considered rising stars in the consumer market with more and more big names launching products combining different functions for medical use, health care, entertainment and more. According to Trendforce, the global shipments of smart watches in 2019 are estimated to reach 62.63 million units. The requirements of wearable products include small size, light weight, low power consumption and environmental resistance. The progressing Micro LED technologies thus become critical for the development of smart wearables...

Samsung reported that two of the company’s research fellows have proved the potential of QLEDs for commercial purposes in a new study, which was published in ‘Nature’ on November 27, 2019. The research team managed to hugely improve quantum efficiency, as well as extend the lifetime of the QLED element by improving the structure of quantum dots. With the thick shell structure proposed by the research team, oxidation of the core and energy leak could be prevented. The study concluded that the method had improved quantum efficiency by 21.4% and increased the ...

Since the initial production began in the second half of 2018, Mini LED products including backlit panel and RGB displays are gaining more and more visibility in the industry with a wide range of applications launched in 2019 and the coming 2020. The LED industry players in Taiwan and China see the rising market of Mini LED and are putting their strength into product development and capacity increase. Epistar, as a Mini LED pioneer, has already shipped backlight product for high-end monitors, notebooks, automotive displays and smartphones. The company is going t...

Apple’s autonomous vehicle development, also known as “Project Titan,” seems to go on progressing with more and more related patents published. Patently Apple and appleinsider both covered that the company has won new patents of automotive applications. One of the new Apple patents is titled “Systems with Synchronized Windows,” describing a LCD integrated car window with adjustable transparency which enhance privacy. Apple noted in the patent that the vehicle window would include a light modulator layer such as a liquid crystal layer with polari...

Japan Display (JDI) announced the development of a Micro LED display. The prototype Micro LED display will be presented at “FINTECH JAPAN 2019,” which is taking place in Makuhari Messe from December 4 to 6, 2019. The 1.6-inch Micro LED display of JDI is based on LTPS backplane developed by the company and Micro LED chips from glō, a Micro LED technology provider. The display achieves a resolution of 265 ppi with a pixel number of 300*300. (Image: JDI) JDI also noted that the Micro LED display has a wide viewin...

In order to push the development of autonomous driving technology, worldwide LiDAR developers continue to release new products and build partnerships with different industry players. Apart from the mechanical LiDAR suppliers and US-based solid-state LiDAR makers, LEDinside also tracks the progresses of solid-state LiDAR makers around the world and the following is their update in the past year. Related reading:  Global LiDAR Companies 2019 Progresses: Solid-State LiDAR Manufacturers in the U.S. Global LiDAR Companies and Their Lates...

MaxLite has filed petitions for inter partes review (IPR) before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) of the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) seeking to invalidate U.S. Patent No. 9,897,265 and 9,723,662 owned by Jiaxing Super Lighting Electric Appliance, a Chinese contract manufacturer. (Image: MaxLite) MaxLite reported that the patents that are the subjects of these petitions are part of Jiaxing Super Lighting’s recently-announced patent licensing program for LED tube lamps. According to the petitions, these pate...

UV-C LED water disinfection solution provider AquiSense Technologies announced its partnership with SUEZ to provide the UV-C LED Water Treatment Technology for water disinfection directly at the point of use in critical laboratory applications. AquiSense and SUEZ have been engaged in close co-operation for over a year in a detailed joint development effort to deliver a laboratory water purification unit equipped with advanced UV-C LED technology. The new laboratory product offers a high-level microbial disinfection barrier directly at the point of use. T...

Canada-based automotive component provider Magna announced the acquisition of Wipac Czech, an automotive lighting engineering firm located in Czech Republic. The transaction was closed last week and will expand Magna’s engineering capabilities globally. Wipac Czech’s engineering team designs and develops automotive forward lighting, primarily for European exotic and luxury brand including Aston Martin, Bentley, Rolls Royce, McLaren, Lamborghini, Bugatti, Audi, Daimler, BMW and Porsche. (Image: Magna) “We see Wipac Czech playing an imp...