The importance of LED lighting applications in the horticultural industry is increasing with the on-going trend of indoor and vertical farming applications. With controllable spectrum and illuminance, LED lighting is widely used in cultivation for various kinds of crops including tomatoes, cucumbers, herbs, greens and cannabis. LEDinside notices that many LED and lighting companies have increased their product portfolio for horticulture lighting and pushed related technology development. According to the report of LEDinside, titled “2019 Light LED and LED ...

The way fireflies light up their lanterns has become an inspiration to increase the efficiency of LED. Researchers at the Pennsylvania State University (Penn State) found out that LEDs made with firefly-mimicking structures could improve lighting efficiency. Enhancing luminous efficiency of LED has been a research field for many scientists. Stuart (Shizhuo) Yin, professor of electrical engineering at Penn State, noted, "Overall commercial LED efficiency is currently only about 50 percent. One of the major concerns is how to improve the so-called light extra...

Signify announced that its EnabLED Licensing Prgram for LED luminaires and retrofit bulbs has included more than 1000 members and is providing more than 400 inventions and over 2800 granted patents for them. Signify reported in May 2018 that it has signed 900 licensees with the program covering 2600 patents. The program has added 150 more innovations to its portfolio early in 2018 and increased the licensing members to 1000. (Image: Signify) The new innovations added to the program are related to filament-based LED products, warm dimming incandescent emulation, om...

Chinese panel producer BOE will become a supplier of OLED panels to Apple for iPhone aside from Samsung and LGD, reported Etnews, a South Korean media. According to the report, BOE might be providing flexible OLED panel for the folding iPhone scheduled for 2020. However, currently the flexible OLED panels of BOE have not passed Apple’s final validation yet. For officially supplying its OLED products to Apple, BOE has to provide further sample products and go through the demanding process of quality control. As a result, it might take more...

Fujitsu Network Communications, announced an expansion of its Internet of Things (IoT) technology platform which will enable the rapid development and deployment of smart utility applications. With the addition of new ecosystem partners ClearWorld and GreenStar, this powerful platform of tools and technologies includes solutions for integrated smart lighting and smart energy resilience. Fujitsu is empowering utilities and communities to leverage advanced technologies with an integrated ecosystem of technology vendors, offering simplicity, cost savings and convenience with bes...

A research team at the University of Seville, Spain, announced that it has developed a predictive method for quantifying the potential energy and economic saving that using smart lighting control systems brings. According to their estimation, smart controlled lighting system can save about EUR 4000 (US$ 4526) over ten years for 80-square-meters space. Supported by the project Dynalight, from the competitive bidding process Retos 2017 and promoted by the Spanish Ministry of Education, the research team developed “daily performance metrics” that include climati...

Osram provided its advanced LED lighting technology to the famous winter sport event, Red Bull Crashed Ice, which was held in Fenway Park in Boston as the event’s exclusive lighting partner. During the event, Osram embedded its fully DMX controllable LED lighting in the ice to create a vivid feature in the track to guide the riders downhill and over jumps and other obstacles. In addition, the company also provided its LED-embedded gear to a rider. (image: Red Bull Crashed Ice) Osram has been an active supporter of the event. In early 2018, it equip...

The Trump administration proposed to exempt some light bulbs from new efficiency standards that passed by Obama in January 2017 and many believe the plan will result in extra electricity costs for the U.S. citizen while increase greenhouse gas emission. The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) planned to revise definitions of general service lamp (GSL) and general service incandescent lamp (GSIL) and other supplemental definition that adopt the green standards published by Obama. The revised definition will then remove three-way bulbs, candle-shaped bulbs used in chandel...

Osram has continued its company profile sharpening and appointed Dieter May, who has served as Senior Vice President of the Digital Services and Business Models unit for the BMW Group, as the new CEO of OSRAM Opto Semiconductors business unit. May will begin its position to lead the LED division of Osram since May 1, 2019, taking over the management from Aldo Kamper, the previous CEO of Osarm Opto Semiconductors who became CEO of Germany’s Leoni AG after he left Osram in August 2018. (Image: BMW/OSRAM) The intensive expe...

Point Engineering (PEC) is a UV LED package manufacturer based in South Korea who specialized in its vertical insulator aluminum metal frame for UV LED package. According to the analysis of LEDinside, the UV LED market is expected to increase to US$ 1.224 billion in 2022, with a CAGR of 33% during 2017-2022. Apart from the steady curing market growth, surface sterilization, static water sterilization, and flowing water sterilization are the market momentums to drive the growth of UV LED during 2018 to 2022. The development for LED chips becom...

Apart from the buyout talk confirmation, Osram also announced that it has purchased shares of Beaconinside, a German company developing IoT solutions, for expanding its digital business in location-based services. Osram aims to integrate Beaconinside’s IoT solution for retails, smart city and logistics with its sensor technology to extend product portfolio such as beacon. Stefan Kampmann, CTO of OSRAM, noted, "Beaconinside's innovative solutions enable sales-supporting advertising campaigns, detailed customer analyses and intelligent logistics monitorin...

Researchers found a new method of photonic cooling by running LED with electrodes reversed. Researchers believe that this approach could improve cooling technology for future microprocessors, which will include various transistors in a small space that current methods cannot remove heat quickly enough. The finding was published on Nature on February 13 by a research team at the University of Michigan. Linxiao Zhu, the lead author on the research article, explained, “Usually for thermal radiation, the intensity only depends on temperature, but we actually have an additio...

Taiwanese LED companies announced their revenue of January 2019. Epistar and Lextar posted on-month revenue increase while Lite-On reported growth in LED products. Epistar registered a revenue of NT$ 1.27 billion (US$ 41.16 million) for January which increased by 6.56% MoM but dropped by 32.4% YoY. Impacted by the trade dispute and political uncertainty, business growth in the global LED market is not expected by the industry players. To cope with the sluggish market, Epistar has focused on Mini LED backlight products targeting high-end display applicatio...

U.S.-based instrument manufacturer Veeco announced its financial results for the fourth quarter and fiscal 2018. For 4Q18, the company registered a revenue of US$99 million, which dropped by 29.1% YoY. Veeco also reported a GAAP net loss of US$144.7 million, in comparison with US$8.5 loss in 4Q17. The non-GAAP loss was US$7.5 million. According to the company, the declined revenue and profit in the fourth quarter of 2018 was due to "Commoditization of the MOCVD market for LEDs in China.” In 2Q18, the revenue from China accounted for 45...

Osram announced a confirmation about the possible buyout by Bain Capital and Carlyle Group and revealed that it is engaged in detailed discussions with the interested parties. After Osram reported its declined business performance in the first quarter of fiscal 2019 and said it has “taken a number of measures to improve revenue and returns,” the Germany company confirmed the market rumors that Bain Capital and Carlyle Group are eyeing the buyout of Osram. In November 2018, Bloomberg reported that the U.S.-based Bain Capital has been considering acquiri...

Signify has been increasing its investment in fast-growing areas including horticulture, solar, and LiFi as they go in line with the company’s sustainability principle. LiFi was particularly addressed as Signify has recently acquired Firefly LiFi, a LiFi company with offices in the U.S. and Germany. According to the news covered by LiFiReport, Signify has bought FireFly LiFi with the transaction completed in December 2018. The lighting company has also acquired a French LiFi company by the end of 2016 and started a trial in Paris with a French real esta...

Austrian sensing solution provider ams announced that it will showcase several industry-first technologies for mobile devices at Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2019 in Barcelona during February 25 -28. ams will demonstrate state-of-the-art sensor solutions for mobile, computing and consumers including 3D sensing technology, behind screen solution color sensors and medical-level wearable devices. The industrial and automotive applications of these technologies will also be presented by ams. (image: ams) The 3D sensing technologies for mobile devices include active stereo ca...

Dublin, the capital of Ireland, is planning to convert its public street lights into LED lighting, aiming to initiate smart city applications. The project proposed by Dublin City Council will replace up to 40000 city lights with LED and install smart city applications as well as restore 120 columns with heritage luminaires to original design. The cost is estimated to be EUR 80 million (US$ 90 million) and the project is currently at tendering stage. The city is famous for its ornate historical street light with Georgian style decoration including shamrocks and crest...

Seoul Semiconductor announced that its SunLike Series natural spectrum LEDs have been adopted for horticulture LED lighting by Rofianda, a Netherlands-based lighting solution company. According to Seoul Semiconductor, its SunLike Series natural spectrum LEDs produce light that closely matches the spectrum of natural sunlight. Adopting the SunLike LEDs, the horticulture LED lighting by Rofianda achieved a full spectrum of light wavelengths from 380nm to 740nm which is similar to the spectral curve of natural sunlight. In co-operation with Rofianda, Seoul ...

In the modern society, the majority of people spend about 90 percent of their time indoor, leading to the issue of lacking explosion to natural sunlight. This further causes disruption of people’s circadian system, which connects to sleep disorder and depressed moods that would negatively affect productivity for work and study. In order to solve the problem, human centric lighting (HCL) applications have attracted more attention. HCL mimics natural light with adjusted colors that shift from bright blue-rich white during the day time to keep people alert and focus to relaxin...

Followed the notice released by the end of January, Osram announced the results of its first quarter of fiscal 2019. The company posted a revenue of EUR 828 million (US$ 934.65 million) which declined by 15% YoY with revenue dropped in three of Osram’s business segments. The Opto Semiconductors division recorded an on-year decline in revenue of 17% and its revenue of automotive segment decreased by 11 % YoY. In the Digital segment, revenue fell by around 17% YoY due to weak market development in the general lighting segment. Olaf Berlien, CEO of Osram...

Last week at Integrated Systems Europe (ISE) 2019 in Amsterdam, Korean electronics producers LG and Samsung both introduced their latest LED and OLED technologies for signage applications. Samsung presented a range of 8K digital signage products including QLED displays and the 2019 version of The Wall display while LG demonstrate a transparent and curving OLED signage as well as a full lineup of LED products. Samsung showcased a new 82-inch QLED 8K signage, a 292-inch The Wall display in 8K, Multi-Link LED HDR technology and semi-outdoo...

Signify, the largest lighting company in the world, reported its financial results for the fourth quarter and the fiscal year of 2018. With increased LED-based sales, the company announced improved adjusted EBITA margin for the fourth quarter of 2018. For the fourth quarter of 2018, Signify posted a revenue of EUR 1.73 billion (US$ 1.96 billion), dropped by 8.8% YoY. The adjusted gross margin was EUR 647 million (US$731.93 million) which declined 11.6% YoY. However, the adjusted EBITA of 4Q18 grew by 3.2% YoY at 214 million. For full year of 2018, the ...

Velodyne LiDAR announced that it has provided LiDAR sensors for a new autonomous driving technology from HoloMatic to provide autonomous parking service to free travelers from the burden of time-consuming searches for parking spots. The HoloMatic system, called HoloParking, is China’s first smart valet parking solution that operates 24/7 and in all weather conditions. Unlike parking assistance systems, HoloParking does not require the vehicle to be driven next to a parking spot. Rather, it allows a driver to leave a vehicle at the entrance of the parking lot. U...

Researchers at the Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST) and the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) have achieved new technology developments including foldable flexible perovskite LEDs and a core chip for 3D image sensors respectively, reported BusinessKorea. The research team at UNIST announced that it has developed foldable perovskite LEDs (PeLED) with a transparent material as electrode of the device. PeLED uses perovskite material as light emitting layer through electricity. In the study, resear...

Samsung Electronics announced its financial results for the fourth quarter and the fiscal year of 2018. The revenue and profit of 4Q18 declined due to global market uncertainty but Samsung still reached its annual goal in fiscal 2018. For 4Q18, Samsung posted a KRW 59.27 trillion (US$ 53.22 billion) quarterly revenue, which decreased by 10 percent YoY. The quarterly operating profit was KRW 10.8 trillion (US$9.7 billion), with an on-year decline of 29 percent. The yearly revenue for fiscal 2018 was KRW 243.77 trillion (US$ 218.9 billion) and operating profit cam...

Cree announced its financial results for the second quarter of fiscal 2019, ended December 30, 2018. Revenue for the second quarter of fiscal 2019 was US$413 million, up by 12% YoY. GAAP net loss for the second quarter of fiscal 2019 was US$2 million, or $0.02 per diluted share. This compares to a GAAP net income of $14 million, or $0.14 per diluted share, for the second quarter of fiscal 2018. On a non-GAAP basis, net income for the second quarter of fiscal 2019 was $23 million, or $0.23 per diluted share, compared to non-GAAP net loss for the second quarter of...

After revealing its sluggish business performance, Osram announced that it will strengthen its automotive business by acquiring aftermarket specialist Ring Automotive. With the acquisition, Osram plans to expand its aftermarket portfolio and reach end customers via the distribution channels of Ring Automotive in the UK. In addition, Ring's specialization in electronic car accessories complements Osram’s product range. Moreover, Osram will give the ring portfolio access to the US market via the established Osram Sylvania channels and opens up new sales pote...

A research team consists of scholars from Taiwan and China has developed a microscopic imaging system for inspecting Micro LED display surface luminance. Currently the major luminance measurement systems focus on inspecting the total luminance of LEDs which do not meet the requirement of Micro LED as the luminance of each individual Micro LED chips need to be evaluated. To solve the issue, researchers from Xiamen University in China and National Chiao Tung University in Taiwan proposed a method to accurately inspect the luminance of a whole micro-LED array a...

Seoul Semiconductor reported its 2018 fiscal year consolidated revenue of KRW 1194.2 billion (US$1.07 billion) with an operating profit of KRW 99 billion (US$ 88.6 million), as well as a net income of KRW 65.4 billion (US$ 58.53 million) to report two year consecutive sales growth. As a result of stabilization of Seoul Semiconductor’s new manufacturing plant in Vietnam and improved product mix, the consolidated fourth quarter revenue increased by 6% YoY to KRW 300.6 billion (US$ 269.04 million), while operating profit amounted to KRW 36.2 billion (US...