Being an important component in display technology, LEDs have been continuing the improvement in power-saving and display capabilities. Mini LED backlights, Mini LED RGB and Micro LED also appear on the stage to meet various requirements of products targeting different applications. Mini LED backlights, which have been officially introduced into the market in 2H18, will be facing off OLEDs soon and become a new opportunity in the panel industry, according to LEDinside’s 2019 Mini LED and HDR High-Class Display Market Report. EPISTA...

Osram announced that its Managing Board and Supervisory Board have waived the existing standstill agreement with AMS and signed a cooperation agreement. This clears the way for a voluntary public takeover offer by AMS. The offer, which is expected to be valid until the beginning of October, amounts to EUR 38.50 (US$ 42.70 ) in cash per share, with a minimum acceptance level of 70 percent. Olaf Berlien, CEO of OSRAM, commented, “Our shareholders now have two offers on the table, allowing them to choose between the different business concepts.” ...

LED manufacturers all over the world have suffered from low profit and market uncertainty due to continuous price competition and on-going trade dispute. Besides cutting off lighting business, LEDinside observed the strategies developed by worldwide LED companies under the difficult circumstance to alleviate impacts on their business. Micro LED and Mini LED: the Turning Point for Taiwan LED Manufacturers Taiwan-based LED companies were challenged by Chinese competitors with their low price strategies in the past few years. However, Mini LED and Micro...

The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Next Generation Lighting Systems (NGLS) program announced the launch of the next phase of evaluations of indoor connected lighting systems. The new phase will include the upgrade of existing systems as well as the addition of new systems that are also marketed as easy to install and configure. The systems will be evaluated over a two-year period for installation, configuration, control operation, lighting quality, energy savings, and user satisfaction. The initial phase began in 2017 which evaluated 12 systems installed in wor...

Crop One, the US-based vertical farm company, announced that it has teamed up with Sino-Science North America Photobiotech (SNAP), a vertical farm technology providers, to jointly develop future vertical farm projects. SNAP is the owner of SANANBIO, which is affiliated and supported by LED wafers and chips manufacturer Sanan Optoelectronics. According to Crop One, it will provide its plant science and controls technology in future projects while SNAP will supply LED lighting and its modular growing systems as well as fully automated vertical farm sy...

Cree posted financial results of its fourth quarter of fiscal 2019 and the whole fiscal year. For fiscal 4Q19 which ends on June 30, 2019, Cree registered a revenue of US$251.2 million for its fourth quarter of fiscal 2019, down by 5% YoY and 8% QoQ. GAAP net loss from continuing operations for the fourth quarter was US$34.6 million, or US$0.33 per diluted share. On a non-GAAP basis, net income from continuing operations for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2019 was US$11.5 million, or US$0.11 per diluted share, compared to non-GAAP net income from continuing o...

The 8th Touch Taiwan will begin next week on August 28 at Taipei Nangang Exhibition Hall. This year, with the expanding exhibition zone of Micro LED and Mini LED Product and Solution, many expect to see innovative technologies and applications at the show. There will be 37 exhibitors including Epistar, Lextar, Macroblock, ASM Pacific Technology, Tory, Topcon showcasing their latest development of Micro LED and Mini LED at Touch Taiwan 2019. Exhibitors of the supply chain will present their technology related to Micro/Mini LED from upstream ...

Many LED producers have turned their focus to automotive applications for higher profit. The ongoing development of autonomous driving technology and next generation automobile also creates new requirements for automotive lighting as well as automotive displays, leading to new opportunities for LED makers. Exterior lighting becomes even more important for driverless cars, as they need to pass information and communicate with each other as well as remind pedestrians of their movement. Deployment of advanced LED technology enables cars to provide details when they are about to ...

Velodyne Lidar announced that it has filed a patent infringement complaint with the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) against Hesai Photonics Technology and Suteng Innovation Technology, which is also known as RoboSense. (Image: Velodyne Lidar) Velodyne Lidar accused the Hesai and RoboSense of violating of section 337 of the Tariff Act of 1930 which makes unfair methods of competition and importation of certain products into the United States unlawful. Earlier this week, Velodyne also filed patent infringement complaints against Hesai and RoboS...

Signify announced its partnership with AppHarvest, a controlled-environment growing facilities builder to help the company increase efficiency and boost yields using fewer resources in their 25 hectare greenhouse in Kentucky, USA. With the partnership, the greenhouse will be fitted with a hybrid LED lighting system, utilizing Signify’s Philips GreenPower LED toplighting compact and Agrolux high pressure sodium lighting. AppHarvest will grow tomatoes and cucumbers in its facility, which will be completed in the second half of 2020. The facility uses a unique ...

Belo Horizonte, one of Brazil’s largest cities, is realizing 50% electricity cost savings by upgrading 182,000 streetlights with new LEDs. The new LED lights also improve the safety of the citizens on the streets of Belo Horizonte. The LED upgrade project is part of Brazil's first major public lighting public-private partnership between Belo Horizonte Iluminaçao Publica (BHIP) and Signify. The project started in 2017 with a survey of all the public light points, providing information of each street and scheduling their timely delivery and instal...

3D LiDAR provider Cepton Technologies announced a partnership with ThinkReps, a physical security manufacturers' representative. As part of this strategic collaboration, Cepton’s sales and marketing efforts will be supported by ThinkReps’ area team to drive sales of Cepton’s Smart Lidar solutions for the physical security, smart cities and IoT industries. Through the partnership, ThinkReps’ security partners will have the opportunity to integrate Cepton’s LiDAR technology into a wide variety of security solutions. (Image: Cept...

US-based architectural LED lighting manufacturer Luminii announced the acquisition of its competitor Optic Arts, based in Los Angeles. With the acquisition, Luminii will include Optic Arts’ product lines into its portfolio, reinforcing its commitment of growing, according to the company’s CEO, Jeff Parker. (Image: Luminii) Parker noted that the distribution strategies of Luminii and Optic Arts are complementary and will remain in place after the Optic Arts acquisition. The team from Luminii remains agent focused, calling on the specification ...

Automotive component supplier Magna announced the opening of a new electronics manufacturing facility in Grand Blanc Township, Michigan, USA. The facility consolidates three nearby locations into a single site which occupies 21,367.7 square meters (230,000 square foot). (Image: Magna) With nearly US$ 50 million investment, Magna expects the new facility to accelerate large-scale deployment of future technologies such as advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS), advanced robotics and Micro LED lighting. Magna built partnership with Micro LED technology p...

UV LEDs are recently replacing mercury light as UV light source for disinfection applications. German researchers have developed a UV LED based disinfection system to purify brewing water and clean the caps for bottled beer and soft drinks. Researchers at the Advanced System Technology (AST) branch of the Fraunhofer Institute for Optronics, System Technologies and Image Exploitation IOSB in Ilmenau, Germany, have cooperated in collaboration with PURION, a UV technology solution provider, to create UV LED based purifying module to destroy germs...

Plessey, the British optoelectronic technologies developer who currently focuses on Micro LED technology for AR/MR display applications, announced the appointment of Dr. Edward H. Frank to its Micro LED advisory board. Dr. Frank joins Plessey’s advisory board as part of the rapid development of Plessey’s Micro LED technology. Dr. Frank was CEO and co-founder of Cloud Parity and had served as Vice President of Macintosh Hardware Systems Engineering at Apple as well as Corporate Vice President of Research and Development at Broadcom....

Osram said that it has begun talking with AMS on a Business Combination Agreement since August 13, aiming a publication of AMS' takeover offer before the end of September 5. According to Osram, both parties will continue to carefully assess the details the agreement and hope to reach the common goal that ams will be able to start its tender period during the offer period of the existing takeover offer from the financial investors Bain Capital and The Carlyle Group, thus before the end of September 5, 2019. AMS submitted the proposal to Osram on October 11...

According to the newly released 2019 Global Automotive LED Market Report- Passenger Car and Box Truck report by LEDinside, a division of TrendForce, the global automotive market has been showing declines since 2018 amid global trade frictions and economic recessions, and this also caused revenue for automotive LED products to grow at a slow pace. Global automotive LED revenue is forecast to register a CAGR of 7% during the forecast period 2018-2023. Despite the continual decline in car sales, the penetration rates of LEDs in various major automotive lighting...

The United States Trade Representative (USTR) announced that addition tariffs on certain Chinese-made consumer items will be delayed until December 15 for avoiding the holiday shopping season, according to President Trumps. As a result, USTR has announced two new lists for products with extra tariffs effective on September 1, 2019, and those effective on December 15, 2019. Several items were removed from the tariffs list due to health, safety, national security and other factors, according to USTR. Original list has covered LED products include “Ball...

Mini LED and Micro LED technologies have been the focal point of many Taiwanese LED manufacturers as they attempt to get away from severe price competition with Chinese companies. However, as Micro LED requires higher technology integration as well as production cost, Mini LED becomes an easier target. Vertical integrated LED company Lextar has begun organization restructure since 2018, cutting off LED fixture manufacture and prioritizing Mini LED research and development. Mini LED backlight and signage are the two major areas focused by Lextar. ...

Luumii, a joint venture (JV) of Rohinni and KoJa, announced that its Micro and Mini LED-based solutions for notebook computer keyboard backlights and logo lighting are in mass production. These solutions enable notebook designers to take advantage of the significant benefits of incorporating Micro and Mini LEDs into products, including savings in size and power consumption and enhancing product features and user experience via colors and animation. Luumii’s initial monthly production output is 34,000 units. By the end of the year, the company will be operating fou...

Illuminating Engineering Society (IES) released its annual Progress Report which identifies novel and significant advancement in lighting related products and researches. North America lighting brands including Eureka, Hubbell Lighting and Luminis announced that their lighting products have been selected in the 2019 Progress Report. Eureka announced that its Arena luminaire has been selected for inclusion in the 2019 IES Progress Report. Arena is a circular luminaire that combines a classic form with the ability to reconfigure light sources by attaching them magnet...

As the industry enters high season, LED chip maker Epistar reported revenue increase with rising demands for consumer products. Epistar registered a revenue of NT$1.396 billion (US$44.32 million) in July, which reached a peak in the past three month with an on-month increase of 14.24%. For 2Q19, the company posted revenues of NT$ 4.027 billion (US$1.279 billion), dropped by 23.95%YoY and 7.3%QoQ. The company has been suffered from operation loss in the past few quarters with market uncertainty caused by the on-going trade dispute between the U.S. and China. D...

Austria-based lighting solution supplier Zumtobel was selected as the lighting partner of The James Simon Gallery, which is the new entrance building for Berlin’s Museum Island. Named after Henri James Simon, a German entrepreneur and art collector, the new building serves as the entry points for worldwide tourists and connects the ensemble of museums on the Island from August 2019. (Image: Zumtobel) Zumtobel, as the lighting partner of the building, provided the open architectural structure with optimal artificial light. In addition, Zumtobel also develop...

Velodyne Lidar introduced a new LiDAR sensor, the Puck 32MR™, to address key markets in the autonomous industry. This product offers a cost-effective perception solution for low speed autonomous markets including industrial vehicles, robotics, shuttles and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). The Puck 32MR bolsters Velodyne’s robust portfolio of patented sensor technology, delivering rich perception data for mid-range applications. (Image: Velodyne Lidar) In addition to featuring Velodyne’s patented surround-view perception capability, the Puck 32M...

Sensor maker AMS officially joined the bidding competition for Osram takeover against Bain Capital and The Carlyle Group. Osram confirmed the proposal from AMS on August 12 and will start negotiations with AMS. AMS announced on August 11 that it has submitted a takeover proposal to Osram at a price of EUR 38.50 per share (US$ 43.08), which is 10 percent higher than the price offered by Bain and Carlyle (EUR 35 per share). Based on the AMS’ offer, the value of Osram is around EUR 4.3 billion (US$ 4.81 billion).   The sensor maker a...

Laser Components, a company providing optoelectronics components and laser diode for next generation LiDAR, announced cutting-edge advancements and achievements that are moving the sensors industry forward. LEDinside was honored to have an exclusive interview with Winfried Reeb, Head of Business Unit Active Components, to share the advanced technology of QuickSwitch Pulsed Laser Diode (PLD) ushers in a new era of 3D imaging market to meet high resolutions requirements for automotive and industrial applications. Laser Components was founded 1982 in Germany as a ...

LED products have been popularized globally in various fields along with the rapid progress of technology at each end of the industrial chain. Although being popular, there are still problems of LED products to be solved. Through hundreds of professional oversea buyers, WELLMAX learnt that the quality problem is the most important one, meeting the demand for high-end product on the market. Shanghai WELLMAX Lighting (WELLMAX), the LED Bulb Expert, developed a unique LED downlight panel. The product has achieved great success since its debut because o...

Pointengineering(PEC), a UVC PKG manufacture company in Korea, has demonstrated various power UVC LED package at 2019 Guangzhou International Lighting Exhibition (GILE 2019). The company began with manufacturing Al metal frame that optimize UV light. Now, the company makes a technical progress toward the UV sterilization market with DOWA electronics. As a result, a UVC specialized brand, UVON, was launched in the market. (UVON at GILE 2019; image: PEC/UVON) Products line up organized 3 kinds of series such as 3.5mW power o...

When and in what product Apple will adopt Micro LED display technology has been an ongoing topic for the industry. Apple Watch and AR/VR smart glasses were the two products that are most likely to adopt Micro LED according to industry rumors as well as Apple’s revealed patents. On August 1, 2019, a new Micro LED display patent applied by Apple was published in Europe, reported Patently Apple. The patent abstract described that it states the structure and methods of Micro LED display fabrication, including how LEDs are transferred to a carrier subst...