On May 22, San'an Optoelectronics Co., Ltd announced its wholly owned daughter company, Sanan Optoelectronics Hong Kong Company Limited would set up a subsidiary in the USA with its own funding of USD 10 million. This US-based firm would mostly focus on research, development, manufacture, and distribution of visible light communication (VLC) technology.

Cree, Inc. , a leading LED supplier, announced that it has reached a confidential settlement in its patent infringement lawsuit with E. Mishan and Sons (“Emson”). Emson has agreed to an exclusive supply agreement to purchase market leading Cree® high power LEDs for its high performance tactical flashlights.

Lighting Science, a noted brand in next-generation LED lighting solutions, announces the comprehensive results from a study, "The effects of spectral tuning of evening ambient light on melatonin suppression, alertness and sleep", published today in the medical journal Physiology and Behavior1. The study was conducted by the Division of Sleep and Circadian Disorders, at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, a teaching affiliate of Harvard Medical School, with lighting technology provided by Rhode Island-based Lighting Science, makers of the noted GoodNight™ and Sleepy Baby™ pre-sleep consumer LEDs.

Bridgelux, a leading developer and manufacturer of light emitting diode (LED) lighting technologies, yesterday filed a counter claim against EVERLIGHT in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California seeking past and current damages, and an injunction preventing further sale of certain products in the United States.  Bridgelux asserts that many EVERLIGHT products including EVERLIGHT’s 2835 and chip-on-board (COB) product lines infringe on Bridgelux United States Patent numbers 6,869,812, 8,567,988, 8,256,929 and 8,092,051.

AIXTRON SE, a worldwide leading provider of deposition equipment to the semiconductor industry, announced today that globally leading Chinese optoelectronics manufacturer San’an has successfully completed the qualification of AIXTRON’s novel Close Coupled Showerhead (CCS) process chamber designed for the production of Deep Ultra Violet (DUV) LEDs.

Oversea buyers are often challenged by the dilemma of keeping product packaging cost down and of ensuring sufficient protection for products during transportation. One of the last steps on the manufacturing side, package the final products is often a neglected process by both the buyers and the manufacturers. A well-designed product packaging can not only minimize damage during cross-continental transportation, but also attract end-consumers when they are choosing among various brands of similar product in front of the shopping aisle. Since packaging is such a crucial step, how can oversea buyers ensure their purchased goods received the added-value from the process?

Seoul Semiconductor Co., Ltd., the noted Korean company in LED (light emitting diode) design and manufacturing, announced consolidated second-quarter revenues of KRW 267 billion. The rise in consolidated revenue came from strong sales in general lighting and strengths across all divisions within the company. The year over year rise in automotive lighting sales proved highly profitable for the company.

Philips Lighting announced the company’s 2017 second quarter results. “I am pleased that our LED, Professional and Home businesses posted solid operating margin increases, while Lamps maintained its high level of profitability,” said CEO Eric Rondolat.  “In the first half of the year, our growth profile improved and our profitability continued to increase.  This demonstrates the successful implementation of our strategy and reinforces our confidence that we are on track to achieve our outlook for 2017.”

Philips Lighting, a global leader in lighting, announced that it has signed up its 800th member for its EnabLED Licensing Program for LED luminaires and retrofit bulbs. 

Osram has acquired a strategic 25.1 percent share in LeddarTech Inc., a Canadian company that develops a proprietary LiDAR technology integrated into semiconductors and sensor modules for self-driving cars and driver-assistance systems. LeddarTech specializes in solid-state LiDAR (Light Detection And Ranging) systems that use infrared light to monitor the area around them, and its advanced optical sensing technology is highly complementary with Osram’s semiconductor products. The two companies already work together and Osram has now made an investment in LeddarTech in the mid double-digit million euros.

Foxconn on July 26 announced the initiation of its “Flying Eagle Project” in North America and a US$10 billion investment to build a Gen-10.5 LCD panel fab in Wisconsin. According to WitsView, a division of TrendForce, this proposed plant will be mainly producing panels of 8K resolution. Display technologies behind 8K resolution are well developed and have existed for a while. Nonetheless, Foxconn’s Wisconsin plant represents the first-ever attempt to build LCD manufacturing capacity in North America. As LCD technology matures, having an integrated supply chain for its end products near or within the key regional markets will be crucial to the competitiveness of panel suppliers and consumer electronics brands.

The Korean Institute of Machinery and Materials (KIMM) announced on 24th July that it developed a new technology to possibly facilitate the mass transfer process of Micro LED manufacturing, as Business Korea carried in its report.

"Osram's operating performance continues to be very strong. We are forging ahead with our transformation into a systems provider. By acquiring a stake in LeddarTech, we are paving the way for success in the key future market of autonomous driving," said Olaf Berlien, CEO of OSRAM Licht AG.

The U.S. Department of Energy's CALiPER program has released a new Snapshot report on LED downlights. Among the key findings of the Snapshot, which is based on DOE's LED Lighting Facts® database: The efficacy of LED downlights is lower than for most other product categories, although it's higher than for downlights using conventional light sources. About 50% of the downlights listed have a luminous efficacy greater than 70 lm/W, with only 2% above 100 lm/W. The mean efficacy for downlight luminaires only increased by 1 lm/W...

Osram continues its transformation by establishing state-of-the-art technology at its German sites, based on the key points set out in the ‘Zukunftskonzept OSRAM’ (“Future Concept OSRAM”) agreed to by the company and the employee representatives. The aim is to sustain the company’s growth path, which began two years ago with the launch of Osram’s ‘Diamond’ innovation and growth initiative. The transformation will also lead to changes in the employment structure in Germany. Overall, the number of jobs in Germany is set to increase over the coming years.

1H17 has been a hectic time for the LED industry, especially for Chinese up- and midstream manufacturers. The recouping demand lightened up the market sentiment and many A-list companies reported their large investments which LEDinside would like to share with you here.

For a long time, Nichia, Osram Opto., Cree, Toyota Gosei and Lumileds have jointly shaped an enormous and powerful patent shield with cross-license agreements within the world LED industry and the five lighting goliaths have been charging, more or less, whoever tried to sell LED products abroad. However, as those patents are about to expire, Taiwan- and Korea-based Companies rise with their new patents and the expansion of Chinese businesses is posing threats, the industry is slowing transitioning away from the old oligopoly.

The LED industry had quite a peaceful time in 1H17. Apart from a few M&As, the most-discussed technology would be Micro LED. Lots of high-tech giants worldwide have already started a series of R&D and the number of participants is getting bigger. The supply chain of Micro LED, although of limited mature technologies, is slowly shaping up. Here, LEDinside lists out major events and milestones made on the path of developing Micro LED in the first half of 2017.

Kyulux, Inc., expertizing in next generation organic light emitting diode (OLED) technology, and WiseChip, a noted manufacturer of organic light emitting diode (OLED) products, announced that the two companies plan to release a commercial product utilizing 4th generation Hyperfluorescence OLED light emission technology. This will be the first commercial product using this new generation of organic compounds in a commercial display product.

Samsung Electronics announced it has installed its first ever commercial Cinema LED Screen at Lotte Cinema World Tower in Korea. Designed as a High Dynamic Range (HDR) LED theater display, the Cinema LED Screen creates a more captivating and vibrant viewing experience through next-generation picture quality and true-to-life audio thanks to collaboration with HARMAN Professional Solutions.

Philips Lighting announced a new report jointly produced by Philips Lighting and the World Council on City Data (WCCD) which reveals that cities could make energy savings and CO2 emission reductions of almost two-thirds through the introduction of smart LED street lighting.

The Merivaara Q-Flow surgical light improves the working environment in operating rooms, and also offers a new way to reduce the risk of infections.

Osram is planning on establishing a joint venture with Continental, a German automotive manufacturing company, to develop products for automotive lighting, reported Reuters.

SemiLEDs Corporation, “SemiLEDs” or the “Company,” a developer and manufacturer of LED chips and LED components, announced its financial results for the third quarter of fiscal year 2017, ended May 31, 2017.

Nichia, the noted Japan-based LED firm, on 29th June filed a lawsuit with the Düsseldorf District Court in Germany against Taiwanese smartphone manufacturer HTC Corp. and e-commerce solution provider Digital River Ireland Ltd., accusing them of the infringement of its LED patent.

The court rendered the judgment in favor of Nichia's claims for permanent injunction, also rendering of accounts and damages. Furthermore, the court confirmed Nichia's claim for recall of the accused products from the commercial customers and destruction of the accused products being owned or in possession by WOFI. The judgment is not final and can be appealed.

In early August 2017, the most technically sophisticated, robotic LED display in the world will be formally launched. Radius Displays International, in collaboration with our client, has spent over 4 years leading the design, engineering, testing and fabrication of the 2,600 square foot display.

It has been spreading like crazy that in 2H17 three iPhone models- the high-end iPhone 8 featuring an OLED display, iPhone 7s and iPhone 7s Plus that continue to use LCD displays- will hit the shelves. Latest sources leaked Apple might increase OLED display use in its products and all the three new iPhones to roll out in 2018 are likely to sport OLED displays. That possibly implies orders Apple places with LCD display providers Sharp and Japan Display Inc. (JDI) would plummet. It will be much of a shock to JDI which earns over 50% of its revenue from Apple’s phone screen demand.

 Curable Phosphor PSA Films designed for CSP LED high-volume manufacturing were successfully developed and mass-produced by FLORY Optoelectronic Materials Company in Suzhou of China after years of innovation and optimization. The pressure-sensitive nature of this Phosphor Film (PF) eliminates the usage of an extra-layer of PSA in between the phosphor sheet and the CSP chip （Figure 1). The use of Curable Phosphor PSA Films can significantly simplify the CSP packaging process, enhance reliability, improve yields and productivity, and reduce the cost of ownership. In addition, curable and thermally conductive silicone pastes T02-01 with excellent gap filling and high conductivity were successfully developed as well at FLORY Materials.  

Lumileds announced that funds affiliated with Apollo Global Management, LLC (together with its subsidiaries, “Apollo”), and Royal Philips completed their previously disclosed transaction, resulting in Lumileds operating as an independent company. Lumileds develops lighting solutions for the automotive, mobile, IoT and illumination segments, enabling customers to push the boundaries of light.