Cree announced it will invest up to US$1 billion in the expansion of its silicon carbide capacity with the development of an automated 200mm silicon carbide fabrication facility and a materials mega factory at its U.S. campus headquarters in Durham, N.C. Cree said that the decision marks the company’s largest investment to date in fueling its Wolfspeed silicon carbide and GaN on silicon carbide business. Upon completion in 2024, the facilities will substantially increase the company’s silicon carbide materials capability and wafer fabrication capacity, allowing wi...

Focal Point, a North American manufacturer of commercial lighting solutions, announced its partnership with BIMsmith to expand its suite of free digital Building Information Modeling (BIM) resources for the global architecture and building design community. The partnership involves the addition of more than 150 Focal Point lighting product models to BIMsmith Market, a free cloud platform for architects, designers and contractors to discover and download building product data for use in their design projects. BIMsmith Market simplifies the product research and selec...

The rising market of autonomous vehicle has driven developments of LiDAR sensor and other sensing technology. LiDAR providers are also actively building up connections with industry partners for speeding up their market expansion and technology improvement. Quanergy Systems, LiDAR sensors and smart sensing solutions provider announced its partnership with NIT, a distributor of IP surveillance and physical security solutions in the META region (Middle East, Turkey, Africa). Through the partnership, Quanergy aims to expand the market for its LiDAR-based sec...

Orion Energy Systems (Orion Lighting), LED lighting and energy project solutions provider, and Arizona based energy solutions firm BC Energy Solutions, announced that they have completed US$4.9 million in LED lighting upgrade projects across nine states in the U.S. funded in part by helping clients secure nearly US$1.3 million in electric utility rebates from October 2018 to March 2019. The rebates provide added financial incentives for companies to prioritize their investment in converting to LED lighting systems and controls. In aggregate, the utility reba...

Equipment provider Veeco Instruments announced financial results for its first quarter ended March 31, 2019. Veeco posted revenues of US$99.4 million, down by 37.33% compared to 1Q18. The company reported a net loss of US$18.5 million on GAAP base and a net loss of US$6.4 million on Non-GAAP base. The company has been challenged by China’s MOCVD equipment manufacturers since the fourth quarter of 2018. Its blue LED business in China had shrunk drastically after the 2Q18. Veeco said that it has been transforming its business structure, putting mo...

Taiwan-based LED manufacturers Lextar and Epistar announced their financial reports for the first quarter of 2019. Both companies posted an on-year degrease for 1Q19; however, Lextar managed to stay profitable while Epistar had a loss in the past two quarters with impacts from the US-China dispute. Lextar registered revenues of NT$2.167 billion (US$70.13 million) for 1Q19 with an on-year decrease of 18.15% and an on-quarter decrease of 10%. Net profit came to NT$113 million (US$3.66 million). The company also posted a revenue of NT$815 million (US$26.38 millio...

Last week, Mr. Herbert Willmy, CEO of OSRAM Lighting Solutions, together with Mr. Wang Yamin, CEO of Shanghai Wellmax Lighting (WELLMAX) and WELLMAX’s top executive team, visited the State Key Laboratory of Solid State Lighting (SKL), a world-class LED lighting research center with complete series of cutting-edged testing equipment and the strongest R&D capability. The group has a field tour of the SKL laboratory and held a talk on the future development of the whole lighting industry. OSRAM CEO and WELLMAX C...

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Sunday that the tariffs on US$200 billion of Chinese goods will be raised to 25 percent from 10 percent on Friday, May 10, 2019. The Chinese LED chip manufacturers have reached a record high inventory level due to increased capacity and tepid demand, as well as the trade disputes starting 2018. If the tariffs come to effect, the sluggish LED industry might encounter even greater challenges. The LED industry has suffered from low price competition thanks to over supply as Chinese LED makers continued their capacity expansion...

Epiwafer producer IQE and optoelectronic components maker II-VI have report orders and growth driven by demands for sensing and communication technology. UK-based wafer product supplier IQE announced that has received the first mass production order for its recently constructed Newport Mega Foundry from its VCSEL customer. Optical components manufacturer II-VI reported its Fiscal 3Q19 results with strong demands for communications products. IQE reported that it has achieved full product qualification with its existing VCSEL client and is processing furt...

As more Asian players demonstrate their progress in Micro LED, LED technology providers and researchers from Europe and North America also synchronize their advances through deepening collaboration with various solution providers. Europe: Plessey presents Micro LED AR/VR glasses; Osram joins in on Micro LED automotive display research After Plessey unveiled its GaN-on-Si monolithic Micro LED in 2018, the UK-based company has cooperated with several partners including Vuzix, JDC, Nanoco Technologies, Aixtron, Mojo Vision and others. In col...

Researchers at West Virginia University found that exposure to white light at night could impact recovery of cardiac patients and dimming the light can reduce the damages. With the results published in Experimental Neurology, the research team, led by Randy Nelson, who chairs the Department of Neuroscience in the WVU School of Medicine, linked white light at night to inflammation, brain-cell death and higher mortality risk in cardiac patients. (Image: Pixaby) The researchers re-created cardiac arrest in animal models and divided the models into three groups that w...

The development of Micro LED display technology has further materialized in 2019 in the form of more solid applications presented in big trade shows. Micro LED products demonstrations marked the intensified collaboration between industry players in the supply chain across the world. Researchers, chip makers, panel producers, equipment providers and application device developers have intensified their cooperation to accelerate Micro LED technology progress. Since the beginning of 2019, many companies have announced their Micro LED progresses and plans. Follow the update...

UK-based optoelectronic technology solution provider Plessey announced that it will showcase its latest Micro LED display solutions for augmented and mixed reality (AR/MR), head-up/head-mounted displays (HUD/HMDs), smartphones and other display applications at Display Week 2019 held from May 14 to 17 in San Jose, California, USA. Plessey said it will unveil its Micro LED technology breakthroughs and demonstrate why its scalable and repeatable GaN-on-Silicon monolithic process is the solution for next-generation display products. (Image: Plessey) C...

Osram announced the completion of the acquisition of Ring Automotive, a British aftermarket specialist. The acquisition was revealed in the end of January 2019. The acquisition will allow Osram to expand its product range in the automotive sector to include more automotive electronics and accessories. After approval by the British Competitors and Market Authority (CMA) for the takeover of Ring Automotive by Osram, the partnership between the companies will officially start in May. The common goal is to respond faster and better to new trends and challenges in the cons...

The development of agricultural innovation has become more and more urgent than ever given the factors of increasing world population and global warming. As a result, vertical farming, which serves as a feasible solution to mass produce healthy and safe food, is getting increasingly popular across the world. Samsung Electronics has launched full-spectrum white-based horticulture LEDs to keep up with the trend of agriculture innovation and underline the advantages of applying LEDs for smart farming approaches such as vertical farm. (Image: Samsung) Smart farming refers t...

Cree announced financial results for its third quarter of fiscal 2019, ended March 31, 2019. Revenue from continuing operations for the third quarter of fiscal 2019 was US$274 million, which represents a 22% on-year increase. GAAP net loss from continuing operations for the third quarter of fiscal 2019 was US$22 million, or US$0.22 per diluted share. On a non-GAAP basis, net income from continuing operations for the third quarter of fiscal 2019 was US$20 million, compared to non-GAAP net income from continuing operations for the third quarter of fiscal 2018 of US$17...

AIXTRON, the Germany-based semiconductor equipment provider, announced its financial report for the first quarter of 2019 with an expected performance. The revenue of 1Q19 increased by 10% YoY to EUR 68.7 million (US$ 77 million). Although the gross margin decreased slightly to 39% YoY due to a change in the product mix, the gross profit of EUR 26.7 million (US$29.92 million) in the first quarter of 2019 was on a par with the previous year. According to AIXTRON, the first quarter of 2019 was mainly influenced by the expected reluctance of customers to inve...

As the lighting partner for London’s Illuminated River project, Signify updated the progress of the exciting lighting art and how connected LED lighting creates a novel identity of the city. Iain Byrne, Project Manager of Illuminated River Project at Signify, addressed that urban lighting and architectural lighting serve as powerful tools in building impressive images for city landmarks. “Light is one of the most powerful means of breathing new life into cities and metropolitan areas and is becoming more and more of a focus when it comes to urban design and...

To select a LED driver with a proper voltage operating range (Constant Current region) may look fairly easy, but this article will explain that it is not that straight forward. Firstly, one has to realize that LED forward voltages are not identical from die to die. Secondly, the LED voltage varies when the junction temperature goes up or down. Since a correct working of the driver is crucial to the functionality and reliability of the lamp, it is worthwhile to look more into details of these factors which affect the LED voltage. This article explains the typical concerns o...

Samsung SDS, the digital arm of Samsung, and Telensa, a leader in smart street lighting and smart city data, announced their partnership for smart city projects. The two companies are collaborating on smart street lighting and the Urban Data Project, a cloud platform that creates a trust infrastructure for urban data which enables cities to collect, protect and use their data for the benefit of all citizens. The first collaboration will be in city projects in Korea, with wider deployments following across Asia Pacific and in the United States. The initial area of collabor...

Samsung and LG have both released their financial results for the first quarter of 2019 with profit loss in their display business resulting from the sluggish market. Samsung registered a revenue of KRW 6.12 trillion (US$ 5.24 billion) for its Display Panel Business in 1Q19 with an operating loss of KRW 0.56 trillion (US$ 479 million). The company said that the operating loss came from weaker profitability in both mobile and large displays. Mobile displays suffered slower demand and intensifying competition with LTPS LCDs. Large displays also took a hit from a ...

Advanced LED technologies are bringing increasing smart applications for automobile makers, especially for the rising market of new energy car. Tesla has recently applied a patent for its newly designed sunroof which integrated LED lighting and electrical tinting. The patent, titled “Advanced Sunroof Lighting System,” describes a sunroof consisting of multiple transparent layers including an electronic tint layer and a transparent lighting layer. By controlling the tint layer and lighting layer electronically, Tesla aims to monitor the light source inside the ca...

Seoul Semiconductor announced consolidated first quarter revenues of KRW 282 billion (US$ 242.52 million), down by 0.4% YoY compared to 1Q18 but within the range of company’s guided KRW 280 billion to KRW 300 billion. The company reported KRW 17 billion (US$ 14.62 million) of operating profit, recording an on year decline of 0.8%. According to Seoul Semiconductor, the modest decline of profits was a result from lower utilization. Due to equipment relocation among factories, the utilization rate of the company in 1Q19 dropped to 60% from 74% from the same p...

Fueled by the rising autonomous driving technology applications, LiDAR sensor manufacturers have reported business growth and expansion. The LUMIBIRD Group announced a robust revenue growth for 1Q19 while Cepton opened a new office in the UK to accelerate EMEIA business. Paris-based laser specialist Lumibird posted a revenue of EUR 24.2 million (US$ 27.07 million) for the first quarter of 2019 with an on-year increase of 35.2%. The three strategic business lines of the company, LiDAR, Defense and Medical, are delivering strong growth in value. LiDA...

Sanan Optoelectronics announced a CNY 120 billion (US$ 1.78 billion) investment agreement with Hubei Province on April 25, 2019 for Micro LED and Mini LED wafer and chip development and production. According to the agreement, Sanan will increase investment of III-V compound semiconductors for Micro LED and Mini LED wafer and chip production. (Image: Samsung) In September 2018, Sanan was said that it will build the first production line for Micro LED wafers and chips in 2019. The Chinese company has also worked closely with Samsung in Micr...

Signify reported a profit growth in the first quarter of 2019 which ended by March 31. Adjusted EBITA came to EUR 115 million (US$128.34 million), increased by 8.8%YoY. Net income of 1Q19 doubled from EUR 20 million (US$22.33 million) last year to EUR 44 million (US$49.1 million) as a result of better operational profitability and lower restructuring costs. Sales amount of Signify for the first quarter was EUR 1,478 million (US$ 1.65 million), with an on-year increase of 1.1% after currency adjustment. LED-based sales were up by 3.6% in comparison to...

Superinjection is a physical effect that underlies modern LEDs and lasers and was believed to occur only in semiconductor heterostructures in the past. Recently, researchers from the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (MIPT) have found that the effect can also occur in homostructures, which opens up new prospects for the development of light sources. In the 1960’s, Zhores Alferov and Herbert Kroemer proposed to use heterostructures, which consist of two or more complementary semiconductors to generate wider bandgaps, enabling the concentration of electrons ...

An international research team demonstrated the possibility of tuning the color of a GaN LED by changing the time sequence at which the operation current is provided to the device. Scientists from Lehigh University, West Chester University, Osaka University and the University of Amsterdam have collaborated to develop a new technique of color tuning for GaN LED by controlling current injection to monitor the intensity ratios of emission atomic. The research, titled “Color-Tunablility in GaN LEDs Based on Atomic Emission Manipulation under Current In...

Signify, as a global leading lighting company, continues its development in innovative lighting technologies and sees light as a smart language to convey information. LiFi system which uses visible light to transmit data in over the air is a major focus of Signify to make light a new communication tool. Heading to the era of IoT, the number of internet connected devices increases drastically. Ed Huibers, general manager of Signify‘s visible light wireless communication system business unit, pointed out that there would be more than 50 billion devices relying on wireless in...

Velodyne Lidar announced an agreement with Nikon Cooperation, under which Sendai Nikon Corporation, a Nikon subsidiary, will manufacture LiDAR sensors for Velodyne with plans to start mass production in the second half of 2019. Through the partnership with Nikon to boost LiDAR sensor production, Velodyne aims to expand its business in North America, Europe and Asia, indicated Marta Hall, President and CBDO, Velodyne Lidar. The company has set a goal to produce LiDAR in millions of units to meet the rising demands in the automotive industry and other a...