With a tried and true business as well as motivated and talented staffs, one may consider its business covers all essentialities for success. However, one critical aspect might be hidden and ruin it all, which is the suppliers. Choosing the right suppliers will improve reputation of a brand while integrate the supply chain and deliver better purchasing experiences. On the contrary, it might damage the business significantly, costing more money and destroying business reputation. Recently, a case of Ken, a buyer from Africa, who won a large-scale lighting project with great pains ...

Driven by the prospering development of autonomous driving technology, LiDAR companies across the world continue to expand their business and present new products. Many LiDAR builders reported their updates in both technology and business progresses in 2019. Following these news, LEDinside would like to share with our readers updates of the LiDAR industry in the past year. (Image: Ouster/NVIDIA) Velodyne Lidar Partners Hyundai Mobis for ADAS and Supports Varied Applications In 2019, the mechanical LiDAR expert has introduced several new ...

Signify introduced an innovative way to product lighting products: 3D print them! The company unveiled its facilities to 3D print light shades and fittings (luminaires) in the Netherlands and announced its plan to establish more 3D printing factories in the US, India and Indonesia. (Supermarket using 3D printed luminaires; image: Signify) By 3D printing luminaires, Signify uses a 100% recyclable polycarbonate material, allowing lighting products to be bespoke designed or tailored to customer’s exact needs and recycled at the end of their life, supporting a circula...

Macroblock announced that its LED driver IC MBI5353Q is certified to AEC-Q100 Grade 1 for automotive use. With a broad operating temperature range from -40°C to +125°C, MBI5353Q is regarded as an ideal solution and offering prominent user experiences for applications of various automotive display and relevant automotive parts. Automotive Electronics Council (AEC) is an organization founded by Chrysler, Ford, and GM, which established a high-quality standard for automotive electrical components to ensure the safety and reliability of vehicle operatio...

Increasing urbanization and the necessity of conserving resources demand intelligent, connected building services in so-called ‘smart buildings’. Once the digital control systems are intelligently interlinked, they can make buildings more economic and more secure, as well as reducing their energy needs. Solutions for this will be on show at the world’s leading trade fair in its field, Light + Building, in Frankfurt am Main from 8 to 13 March 2020. In particular the connection of safety and security systems with each other and with other building services install...

Silvair is providing Bluetooth mesh solutions for Osram’s lighting control system through its new new partnership. Osram’s HubSense® is designed to enable easy and time-efficient retrofitting of existing lighting installations into flexible wireless control systems based on the globally interoperable Bluetooth mesh standard. The system also allows quick and effortless modification of settings and lighting arrangement without bearing the costs of recommissioning. (Image: Silvair/Osram) With Silvair as its Technology Partner, OSRAM gains access to th...

Signify has been proactively expanding its LiFi services via cooperation with partners in different fields to provide reliable, secure and fast connectivity everywhere. The company announced a pilot project with Ellamp Spa, an Italian designer and manufacturer of interior systems and components for public and private transport by road and rail, to provide Trulifi systems to buses. The move follows a recent similar announcement with Latécoère to provide Trulifi for passenger aircraft. (Image: Signify) The pilot with Ellamp will improve passenger connectivity...

Despite that Tesla’s founder Elon Musk said that “Anyone relying on LiDAR is doomed,” the technology using lighting to detect, range, and imaging targeted areas and objects is believed to be critical for autonomous driving technology development. LiDAR uses infrared LED or laser light to deliver light pause and receive the reflected light for measuring distances of objects and constructing the surrounding environment. Advantages of LiDAR include high accuracy, high resolution, and long detecting distance. (Image: Luminar) LiDAR can be d...

The new Apple facility in Taiwan was said to be finished in December 2019 but analyst of LEDinside visited the site and noted that the building may not be completed at the scheduled time. Two weeks ago LEDinside covered that Apple is building a new plant in Taiwan which might be used for developing Micro LED products. The planned complete time was set on December 2, 2019; however, according to analyst of LEDinside who visited the site last week, the facility would take at least two to three months to be able to operate. (The new Apple facility in the front)...

Acuva Technologies announced that it has partnered with WAE, one of India's largest manufacturers of drinking water purification and dispensing equipment, to bring Acuva's proprietary UV-LED water disinfection technology to the Indian market. (Image: Acuva) "Acuva offers a more sustainable and chemical-free water disinfection solution," stated Manoj Singh, President and CEO of Acuva Technologies. "We are pleased to join forces with WAE to not only protect the health and safety of their customers, but also bring mercury-free UV-LED...

Everlight, the Taiwan-based LED packager, announced that it will expand its LED capacity in 2020 mainly for automotive LEDs and invisible LEDs such as UV LED and IR LEDs. The LED industry has been through a challenging year in 2019 and is expecting a rebound in 2020 with commercialization of Mini LED and Micro LED. Growth in horticulture lighting contributed by legalized cannabis production in North America is also a momentum for the industry. Seeing the opportunity, Everlight is gearing up for the rising demands. The company reported a reven...

Scottish LiFi company pureLiFi announced that it has completed a US$18 million in its Series B fundraise. The funding round includes Temasek, an investment company headquartered in Singapore, and the Scottish Investment Bank. The investment will allow the company to further develop Gigabit LiFi components and make them available in form factors ready for mobile device integration. (Image: pureLiFi) pureLiFi announced the move from LiFi systems to components at Mobile World Congress in February when the company demonstrated new Gigabit LiFi integrated in...

An enormous LED display was installed in Harvard Business School’s newly opened multipurpose auditorium in the campus. With a pixel pitch of 1.9mm, the curved LED display supplied by SiliconCore is 6 meters high and 18.8 meters wide. The new auditorium in Harvard Business School is named Karman Hall and accommodates up to 1,000 people. The LED display was set in the center, providing viewing distances ranging from 5 to 40 meters. (Image: SiliconCore/Harvard Business School) The digital canvas can connected with devices via HDMI and can be fed ...

Osram reported the financial results of its fiscal 2019 and 4Q19 yesterday in the same press release that backs up AMS’ takeover offer. The company reported a declined revenue in fiscal 2019 hit by the impacts of the weak Chinese automotive industry. For fiscal 4Q19, Osram registered revenues of EUR 924 million (US$ 1.02 billion), with an on-year decline of 5.3% and 9% on a comparable basis. Adjusted EBITDA came to EUR 86 million (US$ 94.72 million), down by 43.1%YoY. For fiscal 2019, the company posted revenues of EUR 3.464 billion (US$ 3.816...

In the list of CES 2020 Innovation Award Honoree, several LiDAR products were named including Cube by Blickfeld, Helius Smart Lidar System by Cepton, Leddar Pixell by LeddarTech and RS-LiDAR-M1 by RoboSense. Blickfeld, LeddarTech and RoboSense were listed in the category of “Vehicle Intelligence & Transportation,” while Cepton was named in two categories, “Smart Cities,” and “Tech for a Better World.” Blickfeld Cube is a solid-state LiDAR targeting the mass market, according to Blickfeld, the Germ...

AMS’ new offer for Osram was approved and published last week with an offer price of EUR 41 per share (US$ 45) and a minimum acceptance threshold of 55%. Osram announced today (November 12) that it has concluded a comprehensive business combination agreement with AMS and recommends its shareholders accept the current takeover offer. With the new offer, AMS lowered the minimum acceptance rate to 55%, providing “more certainty that the offer succeeds,” according to AMS. Currently AMS is the largest shareholder of Osram with its 19.99% of share...

Last week the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office published 59 patents of Apple including one patent named “Lighting Systems of Vehicle Seats,” which is believed to be part of Apple’s autonomous vehicle project “Project Titan,” according to the report of Patently Apple. Apple’s new patent of vehicle lighting systems noted that the lighting system can be integrated into a seat, door panel, dashboard, or other interior portions of a vehicle. These interior parts of car would be illuminated with the light systems for providing icons, text, a...

STMicroelectronics (ST) announced its collaborative efforts with Audi to conceive, design, industrialize, manufacture, and deliver the next generation of innovative automotive exterior OLED lighting. The first demonstration of this effort was the showing of next-generation digital OLED technology presented by Audi at the 2019 International Symposium on Automotive Lighting (ISAL). The parties target to release this new technology in future Audi car models. (Image: ST/Audi) The current cooperation expands the relationship and builds on Audi’s creativ...

Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI), Taiwan's largest and leading high-tech applied research institutions, won two CES 2020 Innovation Awards, including its PECOLA (Personal Companion for Older People Living Alone) in the Smart Home category and iStimUweaR in Wearable Technologies. ITRI President Edwin Liu pointed out that ITRI’s PECOLA robot is able to identify and analyze living conditions for seniors, and employs a video-based fall detection technology, which will send notification for assistance when a person take...

CEO of Signify spoke on this year’s Climate Week in New York calling for action against climate change and underlined that switching conventional lighting into connected LEDs is part of the solutions. Making the change towards energy-efficient lighting can have major positive effects for cities. For example, in 2017 Poland implemented its first large-scale lighting management system and made the switch to connected LED lighting. 2,000 LED luminaires were installed in two Polish cities, Kalisz and Ostrów Wielkopolski, with Interact City lighting asset...

The European Union have set up higher standards of food safety and food quality. In order to meet the requirements especially in the dairy industry, researchers in the EU are working on developing a new optoplasmonic sensor which enable fast, on-site milk quality analysis. In the EU-funded project MOLOKO (Multiplex phOtonic sensor for pLasmonic-based Online detection of contaminants in milK), Fraunhofer researchers have teamed up with partners from seven countries to develop a fast and inexpensive test for identifying quality factors in milk. In the five-minute te...

Seoul Semiconductor announced that its SunLike Series natural spectrum LEDs have been adopted for lighting brand “REMEZ” by RemiLicht GmbH for the lighting market in Russia. The LED light bulbs feature a human-centric lighting design enabled by the SunLike Series LEDs. The SunLike Series LEDs adopted by RemiLicht GmbH for LED light bulb used for residential lighting and desk lamp achieved color temperatures of warm white (3000K) and cold white (5700K), optimized to natural light spectra by reaching lower blue light peak similar to su...

Cree reported its strategic partnership with German’s ZF Friedrichshafen for highly efficient electric drivelines development. With this strategic partnership, ZF and Cree are intensifying their existing cooperation. “We're delighted that we're building on our cooperation with Cree using their Wolfspeed silicon carbide technology and are absolutely convinced that combining our strengths will further improve efficiency and competitive edge for our components and systems,” said Jörg Grotendorst, Head of the ZF E-Mobility Division. (Ima...

Environmental Groups in the U.S. filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) for challenging the recent rollback of energy-saving light bulb standard. In September 2019, the Trump’s administration withdrew the Obama’s decision in 2017 which added additional light bulb types to the lighting efficiency standard. By doing so, it is analyzed by American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE) that the U.S. consumer will spend US$ 15 billion on electricity annually and the environmental impact will be intensified with more carbo...

Excelitas Technologies Corp., a global technology leader delivering innovative, customized photonic solutions, announced that the company is developing LiDAR Lasers for the automotive industry. LEDinside had the honor to have a phone call interview with Dr. Jürgen Schilz, Vice President Detection / Managing Director of Excelitas, to share his perspective towards the LiDAR market and the company’s current progress of LiDAR Laser products as well as the company’s future plans.

James E. Wagner Cultivation (JWC) announced that it has entered into a mutually collaborative product trial and evaluation agreement with Fluence Bioengineering, a Osram subsidiary, to test and provide feedback regarding the performance, functionality and suitability of Fluence’s VYPR 2p Broad Spectrum LED lighting solution. Analysis will be conducted under the Agreement for a term of eight months to assess whether JWC can further improve its high level of energy efficiency by using lighting equipment provided by Fluence to help optimize cultivation perform...

UV LED technology has come closer to our daily life for diminishing bacteria and enhancing hygiene. One way to apply the technology could be integrating UV LEDs with public door handles. Two graduate students of the Chinese University in Hong Kong designed the self-sanitizing door handle and was selected as the top 20 in the James Dyson Award in 2019. Sum Ming Wong and Kin Pong Li, the inventors of the self-sanitizing door handle, were inspired by the SARS outbreak in 2003 when the infection spread out via contact. The door handle was created to prevent conta...

LED lighting combining hydroponics system enables people to cultivate food anytime anywhere. In France, a startup company has turned an underground garage in Paris into a vertical farm to grow mushroom and greens, providing fresh food for local people. The government built several parking spaces under the city of Paris during 1960’s to 1970’s and these spaces become abandoned as the driving population declined. La Caverne, a French startup, thus decided to grow vegetables via urban agriculture project in a garage under the city. (Image: La Caverne) Fou...

Earlier this year, the largest LED chip provider in China, Sanan Optoelectronics announced that its Micro LED and Mini LED chip production lines are under construction. And now the company reportedly begins the production of 6-inch Micro LED wafer in the four quarter of 2019, according to Digitimes. Sanan was said to have developed Micro LED chips of 10*20 µm and is aiming to further shrink the chip size in 2020, providing testing data and samples to its clients. Production of 6-inch wafer is a critical move for Micro LED cost reduction as currently ...

Getac, a rugged tablet and PC manufacturer announced its partnership with pureLiFi for integrating LiFi technology into ruggedized wireless devices. For military, automotive, and manufacturing customers, security, safety and reliability are paramount to their operations. As LiFi enables data transmission via light rather than radio waves, the technology features secure and reliable high speed internet connection, supporting Getac the latest technologies to provide customers with solutions to overcome challenges and safeguard and improve productivity. "Getac's pa...