Many major trade fairs and exhibitions for 2020 have been postponed or cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result, worldwide companies operating in different industries have delayed unveiling their new technologies. However, Micro LED technology developers may have a chance to achieve technological breakthroughs during this time of crisis because of opportunities that lie within this field of innovative display solutions. The first half of 2020 also saw noteworthy activities and events related to the R&D of Micro LED. (Image: AUO) The COVID-19 ...

Seoul Semiconductor announced that its SunLike Series natural spectrum LEDs have been adopted for horticulture LED lighting by the Turkey-based lighting solution company Fiberli. While it is well known that natural sunlight is one of the key factors in growth cycle of a plant, most growers cultivating a variety of crops under sunlight have experienced difficulties in regulating their growth cycles due to adverse seasonal conditions. Replacing sunlight with LED lighting that closely matches natural sunlight enables growers to control the growth cycles and development of a...

The LED industry is gaining increasing attention from the market as the largest consumer electronics company is said to launch several products using Mini LED backlight display technology. LED industry players are looking forward to increasing demand created by the innovative display technology and hope to get away from the dark time of oversupply and low-price competition. Nevertheless, LED companies can hardly work on their own to create Mini LED and Micro LED miracles. These miniaturized LEDs are only a hundredth or even thousandth of a conventional LED an...

LeddarTech announced the acquisition of sensor fusion and perception software company VayaVision. Through integration of VayaVision technologies, LeddarTech aims to accelerate time-to-market and reduce customer development costs and risks with a sensor fusion and perception stack that scales from a single sensor to multiple sensor combinations. The Israel-based company, VayaVision, was founded in 2016 by Dr. Nehmadi Youval and Ronny Cohen with expertise in sensor fusion and perception, providing autonomy solutions in the automotive industry addressing use cases from L...

As Micro LED is yet to enter commercialization due to layers of technical difficulties and exorbitant cost, Mini LED has already been successfully incorporated into the application of commercial operation, and has made its presence in the application field of high-end display such as commercial and gaming monitors, including the Mini LED gaming notebook of MSI, as well as the gaming monitors of Asus, Acer, and Lenovo. Now, the industry is anticipating Apple to release multiple iPads and MacBooks adopted with Mini LED backlight technology between 2H20 and 2021 tha...

Velodyne Lidar announced that it has raised US$150 million in a reverse takeover and will be combining with Graf Industrial to go public in the third quarter of the year. It is expected that Velodyne will be listed on the NYSE under the symbol of VLDR. Pursuant to the business combination, Graf will acquire Velodyne through a reverse merger in which Velodyne is ascribed an enterprise value of approximately US$1.6 billion and equity value of approximately US$1.8 billion. Following the transaction and after payment of transaction expenses, Velodyne is expected to...

The arrival of Mini LED in the latest competition of display technology has not only laid down the foundation for the next generation of Micro LED display technology, but also became the new opportunity in breaking through the predicament for the LED industry and panel manufacturers. As invigorated by the aggressive involvement from major brands including Apple, multiple Mini LED backlight products and the application of RGB self-luminous displays are now on the verge of commencement, and the new products for the relevant application are expected to enter substantially i...

Mini LED and Micro LED, the novel display technologies based on LED, have lit up the industry which long suffered from low price competition. As worldwide companies and research institutes pouring resources into technology development in the past years and building up partnerships to formulate new ecosystem, several Micro and Mini LED achievements were revealed. Display products using Mini LED backlight are launched and Micro LED prototypes also continue to achieve breakthroughs. (Image: Pixabay) Apple’s rumor of launching Mini LED backlight techn...

LeddarTech, as a leader in LiDAR technology, has developed the most versatile, scalable, auto and mobility LiDAR platform based on the unique LeddarEngine™. In addition to the platform solution, LeddarTech supports the automotive, mobility, and industrial robot markets with innovative 2D and 3D solid-state LiDAR modules. LEDinside was honored to have a phone call interview with Michael Poulin, Vice President, Strategic Partnerships and Corporate Development of LeddarTech, to share the company’s LiDAR business strategies, collaboration, and ma...

Samsung announced that its outdoor LED products were exclusively used to build SoFi Stadium’s 70,000 square-foot (6503 square meters) dual-sided center-hung videoboard and five levels of fascia display which will be used to elevate the fan experience to unparalleled heights. The state-of-the-art videoboard not only features the most LEDs ever used in a sports or entertainment venue, but also has the first and only 4K end-to-end video production in a stadium. The videoboard used nearly 80 million pixels, achieving the largest LED content playback system ever deployed....

The number of infrared light-based applications has increased rapidly in recent years. Long before infrared LEDs and VCSELs were used as light source for face recognition in smartphones, early manufacturers developed infrared lasers. Osram Opto Semiconductors, who has been working for many years on high-power lasers for special applications, teams up with its partners to present the performance of laser bars from the latest EKOLAS project funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research. In recent years, state-of-the-art laser technology has increasi...

Deployment of UVC LEDs on disinfecting products becomes more and more common as the demand for decontamination remains high with the continuous impact of COVID-19. Cleanbox, who manufactures smart tech hygiene equipment for decontaminating headsets, eyewear, masks, and hardware, has selected Crystal IS’ Klaran UVC LED for its products. Numerous studies have shown that UV light is proven to destroy a wide range of viruses and bacteria, including the pathogen of the world sweeping COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2 virus. However, UV emitting devices such ...

iBeam Materials, the leader in enabling large-area monolithic Micro LED displays using GaNoX technology (including GaN-on-metal and GaN-on-Glass), announced that the company will be presenting its technology updates at two key industry conferences in the coming weeks. These conferences will be held entirely online and our presentations will be readily accessible by viewers unable to travel. These talks will discuss the advent of paper-thin, ultra-flexible Micro LED displays using iBeam’s unique GaNoX technology that will eliminate the traditional restrict...

How artificial lighting could provide full spectrum for plants has been an issue addressed by agri-tech experts. Apart from LEDs, a new study of ITMO University provide a new approach by creating light with ceramics. Scientists from ITMO in collaboration with their colleagues from Tomsk Polytechnic University came up with an idea to create light sources from ceramics with the addition of chrome that deliver not only red but also infrared (IR) light to enhance growth of plants. The results were published in Optical Materials. (Image: Anastasiia Babkina/ITMO...

Aiming to reduce the risk of COVID-19 infection and diminish coronavirus, UVC radiation has been widely promoted and applied in disinfection. But UVC radiation exposure could also lead to damage on skin and eye for human and animals. Finding a way to safely deploy UVC light has thus become a target for researchers all over the world. Far-UVC with a wavelength of 222 nm is considered a safe alternative in UVC disinfection as many researchers found that the light can effectively deactivate germs and viruses without causing harm for people. A new study led by researc...

Berlin-based Ferdinand-Braun-Institut (FBH) and its spin-off UVphotonics have designed and developed a versatile irradiation system for surface treatment. The modular system can be flexibly equipped with its in-house developed UV LEDs and commercially available UV, visible and infrared LEDs, meeting the demands for different targeted emission spectrum. (Image: FBH) For disinfection purposes it can be equipped with LEDs emitting at 265 nm to eliminate germs on surfaces of daily objects such as mobile phones and reusable masks as well as menu cards in restaura...

A research led by researchers of UCL (University College London) revealed that staring at a deep red light for three minutes a day can significantly improve declining eyesight. Based on the result of the study, scientists believe that new affordable home-based eye therapies could be develop, helping the millions of people globally with naturally declining vision. Lead author, Professor Glen Jeffery (UCL Institute of Ophthalmology) indicated that people’s visual system declines significantly once over 40 as cells in the eye's retina begin to age. Cell’s mi...

Macroblock launched the concept of “NEW BASICS” in March. Until now, we have received a lot of feedbacks worldwide. New BASICS consists of “Image Quality,” “Minimum Gray,” “HDR-Optimized,” “64 scans,” “Low power,” and “Highly-integrated.” Some elements of NEW BASICS are brand new to the industry. Thus, Macroblock would like to take the opportunity to share the updated experimental data and technology through LIVE streaming on June 17th. In the opening, Macrob...

As Apple’s upcoming release of products featuring Mini LED backlight generates a growth in Mini LED demand, the company has also stimulated actors in the Mini LED supply chain to increase their production capacities. According to the latest investigations by the LEDinside research division of TrendForce, in 1Q21 Apple is expected to not only release its 12.9-inch, Mini LED backlight-equipped iPad Pro, but also open contract bids for its 14-inch and 16-inch MacBooks. Apple has currently chosen Taiwanese manufacturers of display-related components to suppl...

According to the latest report by LEDinside, the research division of TrendForce, “2020 Global Automotive LED Product Trend and Regional Market Analysis,” automotive LED market demand steadily increase by advanced technologies, such as intelligent headlamp, central tunnel taillights, HDR automotive display, ambient light, etc. TrendForce analyze automotive LED market development by five directions, including automotive lighting and display product trend, automotive lamp player revenue and development strategies, LED player revenue performance and pro...

Velodyne Lidar announced two new business partners and is going to leverage its LiDAR sensing technologies for people flow monitoring and automation at one of the busiest seaport. Velodyne signed a multi-year partnership agreement with Outsight, who offers solutions of Smart Cities monitoring. Outsight uses Velodyne Lidar sensing technology in its 3D Semantic Camera system that helps businesses and governments improve the analysis and management of people flow and assets in large crowded environments. LiDAR sensors enable 3D capture and tracking of people and object...

The Illuminating Engineering Society (IES) and the International Ultraviolet Association (IUVA) have partnered to develop American National Standards for the measurement and characterization of UV-C device performance in disinfection. Through this partnership IES and IUVA aim to cooperatively promote awareness of and improve the application of UV disinfection technology in the healthcare system by establish measuring standard for UV disinfecting products including light sources of UV lamps and UV LEDs. (Image: Pixabay) Since UVC radiation...

Korea researchers announced that they have developed a GaN Micro LED that can be folded and cut by scissors. The team demonstrate a method of creating a deformable LED based on remote heteroepitaxy of GaN. The research, titled “Remote heteroepitaxy of GaN microrod heterostructures for deformable light-emitting diodes and wafer recycle,” was published in Science Advances on June 3, 2020. The research was jointly conducted by professor from Sejong University and the University of Texas. The team manufactured Micro LEDs on a graphene-coated wafer ...

Via photoplethysmography (PPG), red light and infrared LEDs can receive date from the environment and measure biometric data including heart rate, blood oxygen, blood pressure and blood sugar level. Adopting the sensing components to wearable devices enables a wider range of applications with many leading brands working on launching related products. (Image: Pixabay) A patent Apple received earlier this year describes how Apple Watch could analyze composition of water and determine the pH level of user’s sweat through the sensing components like short-wave infrared...

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...

Several researchers have proved the effectiveness of UVC radiation from both LEDs and lamps on deactivating coronavirus for preventing the spread of COVID-19. Seoul Viosys, who experts in UV LED technology, announced a new application of installing UV LEDs in air conditioners. Seoul Viosys partnered with Gree Electric Appliances, a Chinese air conditioner maker, to launch a new series of air conditioner products adopting Violeds UV LED technology. (Image: Seoul Viosys) The UV LED embedded air conditioners will provide disinfection on the ...