Apple’s rumored Mini LED backlight based iPad Pro is said to use display supplied by LG display and chips from Epistar. The LCD module will be assembled by Taiwan’s TSMT and the whole iPad Pro will be completed by Foxconn, reported TheElec, a Korean media. The report also noted that the 12.9-inch Mini LED iPad Pro is in trial production and is scheduled to launch the earliest in 4Q20. (Image: Pixabay) Since Micro LED technology still encounters manufacture difficulties and can hardly commercialize, the progress of Mini LED beco...

Study Shows the Impacts of Lighting in Our Daily Life Many researches have indicated that lighting plays a critical role for human wellbeing and can significantly affect our productivity. The Lighting Research Center at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute published a study in 2018*, demonstrating that circadian-effective lighting installed in office buildings can help workers to reduce sleepiness and increase alertness and energy. “Circadian-effective” lighting describes light source delivering effective photic stimulus that suppress melatonin, which often re...

The City of Jersey City in the U.S. is launching the municipal vertical farming program together with vertical farm technology supplier AeroFarms and World Economic Forum. The program is aim to support healthy diet for people living in area and spark awareness. The initiative will establish 10 vertical farms throughout Jersey City located in senior centers, schools, public housing complexes, and municipal buildings. The 10 sites will grow 19,000 pounds of vegetables annually using water mist and minimal electricity. The food will be free to the public. (Image: AeroF...

New display technologies Mini LED and Micro LED are bringing new opportunities to the industry. Many companies are thus trying to develop new strategies and form alliances with the aim to occupy a leading position in the market. Recently, Taiwan-based LED companies Epistar and Lextar announced their integration for leveraging their expertise to accelerate technology development in Mini LED and Micro LED technologies, hoping to win more business opportunities. Apart from LED manufacturers, panel makers have also geared up to push commercialization of the new di...

Signify announced its partnership with the New York Power Authority (NYPA) to support the Smart Street Lighting NY project of the state. The Smart Street Lighting NY program was launched in 2018 with the aim to replace streetlights in New York State. Signify is going to provide its Interact City IoT lighting system to connect LED luminaires and further help cities of the state to reduce their energy consumption and carbon footprint. To date, more than 50,000 LED streetlights have been installed or are currently being installed under the program. (Im...

Taiwanese LED chip maker Epistar and Lextar are going to form a new holding company, aiming to intensify its growing momentum in next-gen display technologies Mini LED and Micro LED. LEDinside noticed that Apple, who is reportedly launching Mini LED-based products, could be a nudge that lead to the alliance of Epistar and Lextar. Rumors of Apple to release several Mini LED backlight technology adopted products including a 12.9-inch iPad Pro, a 14.1-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro in 2020 and 2021 have been going on since last year. Epistar, the Taiwan com...

Two Taiwan-based LED companies, Epistar and Lextar, announced yesterday (June 18) that they will jointly set up a new holding company via share conversion. Through the collaboration, the two companies aim to integrate their resource and focus on their expertise to speed Mini LED and Micro LED technology development. For the new holding company, Epistar and Lextar will swap one share for 0.5 and 0.275 shares respectively. The share swap is scheduled to be completed on October 20, 2020. Once the new holding company is listed upon the share swap date, both Epistar a...

Micro LED technology supplier PlayNitride said that it aims to reduce production cost of Micro LED chip by 95% in five years to meet the requirement of mass production and is continue to raise funding. Charles Li, CEO of PlayNitride, noted that the two major keys of Micro LEDs are to make them small and cheap, which is the current challenge for commercialization. In order to achieve the goal, it is critical to connect the supply chain from wafer manufacture, chip process, transfer technology, display module, backplane driver and system tuning. Most of the processes ...

With the impacts of COVID-19 outbreak, several companies across the world including Osram had withdrawn their business outlook or guidance earlier this year. As for new, following reopens in many countries, Osram provided an updated business guidance for its fiscal year 2020, starting October 2019 and ending September 2020. Osram reported on June 17, 2020, that it is expecting an on-year revenue decline of -15 to -19%, comparing to its previous guidance of comparable revenue growth between -3% and +3%. The projected adjusted EBITDA margin went down from 9% to 11% to ...

Scientists at the Circadian Light Research Center published their new finding in the Journal of Biological Rhythms pointing out the narrow band of blue light that synchronizes our circadian rhythms during the day and disrupts them at night. The study could help lighting fixtures and LEDs to be further engineered and designed to optimize human health. Blue light exposure at night is a well-established public health hazard. It suppresses melatonin, causes circadian disruption, and is linked to an increased risk of sleep disorders, obesity, diabetes, and breast and prostate can...

Signify collaborated with the National Emerging Infectious Diseases Laboratories (NEIDL) at Boston University in the US on a research that validates the effectiveness of Signify’s UVC light sources on the inactivation of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. Since the start of the SARS CoV-2 pandemic, Dr. Anthony Griffiths, Associate Professor of Microbiology at Boston University School of Medicine and his team have been working on developing tools to support scientific advancement in this field. During their research they have t...

Otsaw, the robot manufacturer from Singapore announced that it has launched the world first UVC LED based autonomous robot for disinfection. The robot, named “O-RX,” is created in only eight weeks from conceptualization, design, materials procurement, prototype testing to certification. The UVC LED embedded disinfecting robot also passed safety testing and has been certified by TUV SUD. (Image: Otsaw) Unlike other current UV disinfecting robot using mercury UV lamps, the O-RX utilizes the UVC LED technology that emits only UVC ...

A team of researchers from the Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin (HZB) and Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin has succeeded for the first time in producing LEDs from a hybrid perovskite semiconductor material using inkjet printing. This opens the door to broad application of these materials in manufacturing many different kinds of electronic components. The scientists achieved the breakthrough with the help of a trick, which was called "inoculating" (or seeding) the surface with specific crystals. (Image: Claudia Rothkirch/HU Berlin) Scientists at HZB have al...

The Lighting Research Center (LRC) at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute is investigating the impacts of working from home or quarantining indoors due to the COVID-19 pandemic on individual daily light exposures. The results showed that indoor and outdoor light exposure significantly impacted people’s sleep quality and psychological health. LRC conducted a survey on people who had been staying home due to the pandemic in May 2020. The survey collected 600 effective data and found that daily indoor light exposure and time spent outside had a major impact on all sur...

Panasonic Lighting Americas announced a strategic solution partnership with Pointr, a UK-based startup experts in deep location platforms. The new partnership enables an offering of end-to-end connected lighting solutions, paired with real-time location-based services, to address the convergence of physical spaces with the virtual world. The two parties will integrated their expertise in location based services and lighting solutions to provide innovative offering for customers such as digital ceiling embedded with location-based services. The solution aims to improve efficiency,...

Huawei’s subsidiary Hubble recently invested in Vertilite, a semiconductor startup focusing on VCSEL development. The amount of the investment was not revealed. Vertilite has become the VCSEL supply of Huawei after the U.S. banned Lumentum shipment to the China tech giant in May, 2019. Huawei thus turned to Vertilite for the 3D sensing component and further pushed the de-Americanization plan. Hubble is an investment company of Huawei and has invested different China-based semiconductor companies to help strengthening their technology and fortifying i...

A new LED manufacture method which does not require phosphor to make white semipolar LED was published by a research team of UCSB with Shuji Nakamura, Nobel winner and LED pioneer, as a co-author. The result was published in Optics Express. White light emitting LEDs are usually made from blue LEDs combining yellow phosphor. But phosphor converted white LEDs usually suffer energy loss and reduced thermal stability. Phosphor-free LEDs, however, are rather difficult to fabricate but the UCSB team proposed an easier method to achieve efficient and polari...

Daktronics and Beijing Indigo have partnered for a new freeform LED video display in the location's winter garden atrium. The display forms a curtain across six arc-arranged steel columns to form the largest display in the Beijing region. The display is comprised of freeform stick LED elements featuring 25-mm line spacing and measuring 9 meters high by 52 meters wide. It is a transparent display that faces inward to create an engaging atmosphere for visitors while people outside can see through the display. (Image: Daktronics) "It was challenging to ensure t...

LG Electronics said on June 11 that its LED Cinema Display has been installed in Taiwan’s movie theater. It is the first commercialized LED Cinema Display of LG and the first LED theater display in Taiwan. The display is 14 meters wide and seven meters high, supporting 4K resolution and installed in a 300-seat theater that is operated by Taiwan’s local cinema chain Showtime Cinema. LG also works with audio tech company Dolby Laboratories to add surround sound to the display, offering an advanced experience with its LED Cinema Display. ...

Display technologies keep progressing with new solutions coming up to tackle Mini LED and Micro LED production difficulties and new materials using to create OLED display. Now, scientists are using recycled human hair to develop flexible OLED displays. Researchers from Queensland University of Technology (QUT) and Griffith University in Austria have teamed up with a barbershop and develop a method to turn human hair into OLED display. The research was published in Advanced Materials. (Image: Queensland University of Technology) The small hair ...

Japan-based medical equipment supplier Nikkiso has collaborated with the University of Miyazaki and announced that its deep UV LED adopted apace disinfecting device can effectively prevent the spread of COVID-19. The two parties conducted trials by exposing SARS-CoV-2 viruses contained liquid under deep UV LED radiation for 30 second and found that virus infectivity decreased by 99.9%. The experiment went on two months and the effectiveness of deep UV LED for preventing COVID-19 infection is confirmed. (Image: Nikkiso) Researchers said that th...

Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation (MCC) and the National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS) announced that they have won in two patent administrative suits and confirm the validity of a patent (No. ZL201110066517.7) for red phosphor. (image: NIMS) MCC filed the patent infringement litigation with the Shenzhen Intermediate People’s Court against Shield on January 23, 2015. Another litigation filing with that court was against Intematix, its American parent Intematix Corporation, and Chinese sales agency GrandLux Optoelectronics (collectivel...

French research institute CEA-Leti announced that its researchers have broken the throughput world record of 5.1 Gbps in visible light communications (VLC) using a single GaN blue Micro LED. Their data transmission rate of 7.7 Gbps achieved with a 10 µm Micro LED marks another step toward commercialization and widespread use of LiFi communication. (Image: CEA-Leti) VLC, or LiFi (light fidelity), is an emerging wireless communication system that offers an alternative or a complementary technology to radio frequency (RF) systems such as WiFi and...

UC Santa Barbara researchers continue to push the boundaries of LED design a little further with a new method that could pave the way toward more efficient and versatile LED display and lighting technology. UCSB electrical and computer engineering professor Jonathan Schuller and collaborators describe this new approach, which could allow a wide variety of LED devices — from virtual reality headsets to automotive lighting — to become more sophisticated and sleeker at the same time. (Image: UCSB) Usually LEDs emit spontaneous light, comparing to...

LED video display company announces the financial results of its fiscal 4Q20 and 2020 ending May 2. 2020. Daktronics reported fiscal year 2020 net sales of US$608.9 million, operating loss of US$0.2 million and net income of US$0.5 million. This compares to net sales of $569.7 million, operating loss of US$4.7 million, and net loss of US$1.0 million for fiscal 2019. Fiscal 2020 orders were US$620.8 million compared to US$608.9 million for fiscal 2019. For fiscal 4Q20, Daktronics registered net sales of US$126.1 million, operating loss of US$3.5 million, and...

LG Display announced that it will be leading Korean national project for developing stretchable displays, aiming to expand display applications in the era of IoT, 5G and self-driving car. Selected by South Korea’s Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy (MOTIE), LG Display will oversee the large-scale R&D project and lead a collective of 21 entities covering related companies, research institutes and universities. Jointly these parties will develop core technologies, materials, component and build up a robust ecosystem for Korea’s display technolog...

Perovskite is one of the focuses of LED research as the material is believed to deliver light with lower production cost. However, the efficiency and stability of perovskite-based LEDs still need to be improved with worldwide research teams continuously working on the material. Helio Display Materials, a spin-off company of Oxford University and Cambridge University, is pushing perovskite LEDs commercialization with the IPs from both universities. (Image: Helio Display Materials) Helio Display Materials aims to leverage its technology to enhance color perform...

In April, Atomic Blue, the U.S. LED company, announced that its high power UVC LED has passed the test by NIH for killing 99.9999% COVID-19 virus. Now, the company’s UVC germicidal light has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). (Image: Atomic Blue) Atomic Blue's ultraviolet light has been registered with the FDA as a Disinfectant – Medical Device with the product code LRJ under device Class 1. The UVC fixture, known for its ability to eradicate the COVID-19 virus, is now approved for com...

Panel research division of TrendForce, WitsView, indicated that issues with notebook computer panel supply chain, such as material shortage, labor shortage, and logistic disruptions, were gradually resolved starting in April. The resolution of these issues, combined with rising WFH and distance education demand brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic, resulted in a strong wave of panel demand in 2Q20. TrendForce projects 2Q20 notebook panel shipment to reach 53.3 million units with a 17.7% increase YoY and 33.6% increase QoQ. (Image: Pixabay) TrendForce Resea...

STMicroelectronics announced the extension of its FlightSense ToF ranging sensors by introducing the VL53L3CX which allow measuring distances to multiple objects and increasing accuracy. Meanwhile, the company also introduced a reference design suited for monitoring social distancing and assuring remote operation to protect human health in all environments in response to global or local pandemic conditions. The ToF sensor VL53L3CX measures object ranges from 2.5 cm to 3 m, allowing designers to introduce features like occupancy detectors or reporting the exact distanc...