Researchers from Tokyo University of Science reported an achievement of developing transparent films that can tune the emitting color. This innovation of color tunable transparent films may provide a wide range of application potential for LED displays and illumination. Published in The Royal Society of Chemistry's Materials Advances, the research team described the mechanism it has developed to tune the photoemission of a solid polymeric film. The method is to control the flow of protons in it by applying a voltage. The study provided insights into the creation of mo...

Vuzix announced that it is developing next generation product line of smart glasses powered by Micro LED technology that are expected to become available in 2021. (Image: Vuzix) The smart glasses maker said that the Micro LED-based product line will include middle-end consumer-facing product and a higher end enterprise version with built-in cellular connectivity. (Image: Vuzix) Micro LED will be used as projectors for the smart glasses to deliver high density pixel arrays with both monochrome and full color solution. The glasses will also feature a larger field...

Mini LED backlight display technology is going to be adopted by Apple and Samsung for tablets and TVs launching next year. Meanwhile, we have seen several Micro LED technology breakthroughs recently with AUO, PlayNitride and ITRI showcasing their prototypes for innovative applications. To speed up Micro/Mini LED display technology, integration within the supply chain is a major strategy recognized by industry players. Epistar and Lextar, the two Taiwan-based LED chip manufacturers, are merging with the aim to leverage their expertise and avoid duplicated ...

Signify and ScaleAQ join forces in a global strategic partnership for sustainable Aquaculture solutions, to optimize feed conversion in the most efficient way and contribute to the food challenges the world is facing. Together the two companies will improve fish welfare, production and yield for fish farmers by providing an optimal light spectrum, light distribution and control system so farmers can customize the light recipes to their specific needs. Optimal lighting improves fish welfare and results in a better feed conversion ratio and lower maturation rate. It also protects fi...

Osram announced the expansion of its automotive LED portfolio, launching a new generation of 1 to 4-chip versions in the Oslon Compact PL product family. The company also reported settlement with its contract manufacturer Lextar. The new version of the Oslon Compact PL products feature ceramic components with an electrically insulated pad that makes it much easier to dissipate heat from the package. The design enables a higher current to allow the 1-chip version to achieve an outstanding brightness value of 395 lumens at 1A with a chip area of 1mm². Sized small as 1...

A new deal announced by Heliospectra, a Sweden based horticulture lighting technology provider, unveiled a new approach for achieving urban farming with LED grow lights. (Image: Heliospectra) Heliospectra reported that it has received an order from BBL Construction, who operates as a general contractor in the fields of commercial and institutional construction. According to Heliospectra, the two business partners are going to apply their expertise for several projects. The partnership might indicate that LED grow light and vertical farming facilities are now consi...

University of Texas at Dallas researchers and their international colleagues have developed a method to create Micro LEDs that can be folded, twisted, cut and stuck to different surfaces. The research, published online in the journal Science Advances, helps pave the way for the next generation of flexible, wearable technology. The research team created a detachable Micro LED with flexibility, aiming to fulfill the growing demand for bendable, wearable electronics. Researchers develop the flexible LED through a technique called remote epitaxy. To make it detachable, res...

Accelerating the development of new display technologies is the goal for worldwide display manufacturers and some of them have decided to sell or buy new facilities as a move to approach their target. Samsung Display has sold its LCD factory in China to Chinese display maker CSOT, a company under TCL group, to further cut down its LCD capacity, which goes in line with Samsung’s plan to quit LCD business. By ending its LCD panel production, Samsung aims to expand its development in QD displays and OLED displays. The Korean giant has also reportedly t...

The pandemic urged many countries to face the issue of food security as the lockdowns have posed threats to areas replying heavily on food import. Food production based on agri-tech demonstrates a feasible solution for the problem. For example, a new vertical farm in Abu Dhabi is going to launch in September to supply fresh veggies for the UAE. The vertical farm company, Smart Acres, has set the vertical farming facilities based on LED lighting and IoT technology in Abu Dhabi at the Armed Forces Officers Club. The company collaborated with a Korean company “...

As the launch of iPhone 12 is approaching, more rumors about the new Apple product were unveiled. Las week, a new Apple leak said that LiDAR sensor is “confirmed” for iPhone 12 Pro Max. Apple predictor Jon Prosser uploaded a video and share a few alleged screenshot of iPhone 12. One of the picture demonstrate the option of “Enable LiDAR CA,” indicating that LiDAR will be featured for the new iPhone. (Image: Jon Prosser's Twitter post) This will not be the first time Apple adopting the sensor component in its product. Th...

Micro LED technology developers from Taiwan unveiled their latest progress in quantum dots (QD) color conversion and wafer production. Lextar introduced its progresses in reliable QD development to realize full color Micro LED displays while PlayNitride shared its achievement of 6-inch Micro LED epitaxial wafers with advanced uniformity. (Image: screenshot from PlayNitride video) Lextar, a vertical integrated LED company based in Taiwan, shared that the company has been working on deploying QD color conversion technology on Micro LED display. Since M...

The ultimate display technology Micro LED has improved significantly in wafer technology, full color performance and mass transferring recently. Taiwan-based industry players have shared their insights of the technology at an industry gathering last week. Jennifer Y-C Lin, Senior Associate Vice President of AUO, indicated that Micro LED will be a key technology to drive innovative applications in the era of 5G connection and IoT, especially as the world heavily impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. She explained that in addition to excellent display performance,...

Japan Display (JDI) is going to sell its LCD plant in Hakusan, Japan, to Sharp and Apple, so that the Japanese display maker can pay off its debt to Apple. The total transfer price is estimated to be JPY 71 billion (US$ 672 million). (Image: JDI) The plant will be transferred to Sharp, who is also a display supplier of Apple, by the end of September. With the transaction, Sharp will take over most of the debt of JDI which JDI borrowed from Apple when building the plant. The plant was originally built for supplying LCD panels for iPhone. But S...

In addition to support autonomous driving technology, LiDAR is also adopted for scientists to reach deeper into the underwater world. A research published in Applied Optics presented an approach to detect algae and measure key properties using LiDAR, which reached deeper than has been typically possible using satellites. (Image: Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences) "The LiDAR approach has the potential to fill some important gaps in our ability to measure ocean biology from space," said Collister, a PhD student at Old Dominion University. "T...

Daktronics announced fiscal 2021 first quarter results. The company registered net sales of US$143.6 million, operating income of $9.5 million, and net income of $7.5 million, and earnings per diluted share of $0.17. Net sales decreased by 20.3% in the first quarter of fiscal 2021 as compared to the first quarter of fiscal 2020. Net sales decreased in all business units. The change in sales primarily relates to fluctuations and related conversion to sales. Some shipping and on-site delays continue to be caused by COVID-19 related work restrictions or customer delays in readin...

As the COVID-19 pandemic is still posing a threat to worldwide communities, UVC light incorporated products for disinfection are becoming more and more popular. Common applications include upper-room UVC disinfection integrated with lighting fixtures or air cleaners, UVC light embedded robots, UVC light boxes and other portable disinfecting products. These UVC light disinfecting products usually deploy either mercury lamps or LEDs as light source. Currently, mercury lamps are more widely adopted for disinfecting products given its lower production cost and highe...

The Singapore company OTSAW who launched UVC LED based disinfecting robot announced that the product’s efficacy has been tested using high concentrations of live samples of human Coronavirus flown from the United States. Based on results and tests carried out by A*STAR completed on August 21st, the robot demonstrated a 99.9% efficacy for disinfection within 5 minutes at a working distance of 2.5 meters. . (Image: OTSAW) The robot O-RX was built in-house by OTSAW and is equipped with a 360-degree camera and LiDAR sensors integrating AI...

2021 is expected to be the year that Mini LED will illuminate the display market. Apple is getting ready to launch the new iPad Pro featuring Mini LED backlight display and Samsung will probably debut new high end TV portfolio based on the technology. Recently a Korean media added that Samsung might produce about 2 million units of Mini LED backlit TV next year. With all the upcoming Mini LED display applications, the supply chain in Taiwan covering LED manufacturers and panel makers who have been dedicating to improving the display technology based on mini...

Innolux hosted 2020 new product premiere yesterday and presented a 55-inch rollable Mini LED emissive display featuring active matrix (AM) driving technology. The panel maker also introduced new display products targeting health and entertaining applications. The rollable display adopts flexible PCB backplane and features high curvature, brightness, contrast and saturation. However, Innolux did not reveal further details such as resolution for the product. Comparing to the rollable OLED panel LG demonstrated before, Innolux claimed that direct emissive Mini LE...

Sharp’s mass production plan for Micro LED displays marked a progress of the Foxconn Group in next-gen display technology development. Incorporates LED chip production, packaging technology, panel manufacture and TV brands, the Foxconn Group is known for its ambition to set up an internal Micro LED supply chain. The Micro LED displays developed by Sharp, a 0.38-inch full color panel featuring 1053 PPI and a 0.13-inch blue display with 3000 PPI, were designed by the semiconductor group under Foxconn and manufactured by Sharp Fukuyama Semiconductor. ...

Luminar announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to merge with Gores Metropoulos and once the transaction finished, the combined company will be listed on Nasdaq under “LAZR.” Luminar is set to power the introduction of highway self-driving and next-generation safety systems and is partnered with 7 of the top 10 global automakers including Volvo and Audi. Starting in 2022, Luminar’s hardware and software will be integrated into Volvo’s global vehicle platform, the foundation for their next generation of consumer vehicles. (Image:...

A new research by Stanford scientist demonstrate a new approach to slow down light so that photons have more chances to interact with other materials, opening a door for new applications such as LiDAR, LiFi and AR/VR. The research paper was published in Nature Nanotechnology on August 17, 2020. To slow down light, the Stanford researchers structured ultrathin silicon chips into nanoscale bars to resonantly trap light and then release or redirect it later. The approach is like creating an echo chamber to hold onto sound and direct it. These "high-quality-factor&quo...

A Finland-based vertical farming company iFarm announced that it has raised US$ 4 million funding led by Gagarin Capital, who previously invested in the project. Other investors include Matrix Capital, Impulse VC, IMI.VC and more. With the funding, iFarm said it will deepen its automated indoor farming technology and extend cultivation experiments. (Image: iFarm) iFarm offers vertical farming solutions for growing greens, berries and vegetables. It aims to develop its iFarm Growtune tech platform that enables operations of multiple varieties of vertical farms ...

Researchers from Taiwan’s National Tshing Hua University (NTHU) developed a method of adding salt water to quantum dots to make the materials more stable and easier for inkjet printing for optimized Micro LED display manufacture. Their results were published in ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, titled “Inkjet-Printed Salt-Encapsulated Quantum Dot Film for UV-Based RGB Color-Converted Micro-Light Emitting Diode Displays.” (Image: NTHU) Full color Micro LED display fabrication is challenging due to poor performanc...

LED testing and sorting equipment manufacturer FitTech held investor conference yesterday (August 20, 2020) and announced that in order to meet the demand of Mini LED chip process from its clients, the company will expand its capacity in 4Q20. The expansion is expected to finish in the second quarter of 2021 and will be a major growing momentum for FitTech. (Image: FitTech) Being part of the Mini LED backlight technology supply chain, FitTech provides LED testing equipment for Epistar, who is known for the major Mini LED chip supplier for Apple’s ...

Nitride Semiconductors announced that it has filed an amended complaint against Digi-key in the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota, asserting infringement of Nitride’s UV LED patent. (Image: Pixabay) According to the amended complaint, Nitride Semiconductor claimed that UV LED products being supplied by various LED companies including Lite-On Semiconductor, Luminus Devices, and Vishay Intertechnology are infringing Nitride’s UV LED patent. To protect its UV LED patented technology, Nitride initiated its paten...

Micro LED display technology based on self-emitting pixels delivers advanced contract ratio, high brightness and wide color gamut. Many believe that the technology is bringing revolutions to the display industry and can be widely adopted in different forms of applications. However, after years of development with more and more players joining the ecosystem, the fundamental issues for mass production are yet to be tackled. The most well-known difficulty of Micro LED display manufacture is mass transferring as most of the LED companies do not have equipment capable of process ...

Perovskite LED promises higher color quality and ease of manufacture, so it is oven considered a solution to breakthrough LED applications. However, it has been known to fail when subjected to the kind of electrical current typically needed for practical uses. A research team from Princeton University has demonstrated improvement of perovskite LED in stability and performance by better managing the thermal dissipation. (Photo by Sameer A. Khan/Fotobuddy; image source: Princeton) The research, published in Advanced Materials, is titled “Thermal Management ...

Sharp, one of the panel providers of Apple, is reportedly developing small size Micro LED displays and will mass produce the products by 2023 for eye-wear smart devices, reported Nikkan Kogyo Shimbun. According to the report, Sharp Fukuyama Semiconductor, a subsidiary of Sharp, has developed Micro LED prototypes including a 0.38-inch full color panel featuring 1053 PPI and a 0.13-inch blue display with 3000 PPI. The company deploys its proprietary color conversion technology to achieve full color display and aims to mass produce the products in 2023 to 2024 for A...

Cree announced financial results for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2020 ended June 28, 2020. The company posted revenues of US$205.7 million, representing an on-year drop of 18% compared to FY4Q19 and a 5% decrease compared to FY3Q20. The company also reported GAAP net loss of $39.5 million, or $0.36 per diluted share. On a non-GAAP basis, net loss was $20.0 million, or $0.18 per diluted share. For fiscal year 2020, Cree reported revenue of $903.9 million, down by 16%YoY and GAAP net loss of $191.7 million, or $1.78 per diluted share. On a non-GAAP ...