Horticulture LED lighting has opened a new horizon for farming. Indoor farming, vertical farming and many other alternative ways to grow crops free the weather limits for food production. Now, British scholars at University of Nottingham suggested that abandoned underground coal mines could be suitable environments for growing vegetables. With hydroponic systems and LED lighting, crops can be grown in subterranean environments some advantages. For example, groundwater could be directly used in the hydroponic systems. Besides, crop production is unaffected by climatic or sea...

Researchers at the Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology have developed LEDs comprising infrared colloidal quantum dots that enable high efficiency and low cost CMOS integration. Colloidal quantum dots are extremely small semiconductor particles which are as small as a few nanometers in size. Featured with small size, CQDs offer unique optical and electronic properties including absorbing and emitting light. Moreover, their properties change with their size and shape, smaller quantum dots emit in the blue range while larger quantum dots emit in the red. (Ima...

Apple has applied a patent related to optoelectronics devices for improving LiDAR sensors and applications, reported Patently Apple. The report said that Apple noted the demands for applications using 3D sensing and imaging systems and proposed enhanced technologies to integrate LiDAR and VCSEL for advanced 3D image technology. The new patent introduce a method to combine different types of light source and laser array such as diffractive optical elements or VCSEL to develop improved 3D image devices for various applications. (Image: Apple) Patently Ap...

The LED industry has been involved in the trade war between the United States and China as LED components and related lighting products were included in the list of extra tariffs. LEDinside has been tracking the impacts of the trade war, which is believed to have led to the aggravation of oversupply in the LED industry. The two countries have recently reached a trade truce by suspending the new tariffs for 90 days. However, LEDinside believes that the delay would bring increased uncertainty into the LED industry. Figo Wang, senior analyst of LEDinside, pointed...

Eaton announced that it has reached a settlement in the patent infringement lawsuit it filed against Cordelia Lighting and Jimway. The settlement ends a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia filed in 2016. As part of the settlement, Cordelia and Jimway will receive a license to the Eaton patents asserted in the District Court case. (Image: Eaton Lighting) “Protecting the intellectual property in our innovative lighting portfolio is something we take very seriously,” said Kraig Kasler, president, Lighting Division, ...

Idemitsu Kosan announces that it will build a facility for OLED material manufacturing in Chengdu, China in order to accommodate the growing demand for OLED materials in China and to enhance technical support to Chinese customers. Idemitsu Kosan aims to expand its OLED production in China targeting the increasing Chinese market for OLED applications. The company will construct its third OLED material plant in China after its factory in Japan and Korea. The construction is expected to be completed in November 2019 and the commercial production is schedul...

Kunsthalle Mannheim (Mannheim Museum of Modern Art) was designed as an extension of the city of Mannheim, which is known as the “city of squares” because of its ordered structure of blocks in a chessboard pattern. The new cube-style museum building is therefore divided into smaller units with thirteen galleries interlinked by bridges, stairs and terraces. (Image: Tridonic) Some of the rooms are open up to daylight from windows and glazing units, while others appear as introverted cabinets and halls. The various room situations make the lighting design of the mus...

DigiLens, a U.S.-based HUD device developer, announced that it has received an investment from AR software company Niantic and Diamond Edge Ventures, the strategic investment arm of Mitsubishi Chemical Holdings Corporation (MCHC) in its Series C funding round. With the investment, DigiLens will continue its development in holographic AR displays for automobile, consumer and other applications. With its technology in holographic waveguide displays, DigiLens provides proprietary nanomaterials and core technologies for AR displays. The company aims to create...

VPED (Visual Photonics Epitaxy Co. Ltd), a Taiwan-based GaAs wafer producer, announced that the company expects growth momentum from the applications of VCSEL and will begin to ship small volumes of 5G products next year. As the smartphone market has passed its peak phase, semiconductor suppliers are looking forward to the applications of IoT and 5G. However, the development of these fields has just begun, bringing limited momentum to the industry. As result, the growth of VPED would still come from VCSEL applications including 3D facial recognition and L...

VividGro, the horticultural LED division of Lighting Science, announced that it has built partnerships with U.S. suppliers to domestically produce LED fixtures with cost-effective solutions and has moved back its manufacturing lines back to the U.S. since the beginning of 2018. VividGro has relocated its production and assembly of all of its product lines in Rockledge, Florida, since the first quarter of 2018. Through strategic partnerships with domestic suppliers, the company has minimized its overseas sourcing and managed to create local job opportunities with its pro...

NEC announced that it will remove the lighting business from its group and sell its lighting subsidiary, NEC Lighting, to a new company founded by Japan Mirai Capital on April 1st, 2019. According to the announcement of NEC, the intense price competition in the LED lighting market has led to deficit of its lighting business in the recent ten years. Therefore, NEC decided to withdraw the lighting business which the company has been running for more than six decades. (Image: pixabay) NEC began to produce fluorescent light since 1952 and established NEC Li...

Epistar started its shipment of Mini LED products since the third quarter of 2018 and plans to increase the production by the first quarter of 2019. Its spin-off subsidiary of VCSEL manufacturing is also expanding its 4-inch and 6-inch products. The applications of Epistar’s Mini LED products include backlight for gaming monitors and notebooks and fine-pitch displays. The company expects the market momentum of displays will push the growth of its Mini LED and hope to boost the business by 2020. Epistar Semiconductor, the spin-off subsidiary of Epistar, ...

Acuva Technologies, a Canadian company developing UVC-LED water purification system, announced that it has received CAD 2.1 million (US$ 1.6 million) from the Canadian government. Access to safe drinking water contributes to improved health, helping reduce the risk of waterborne diseases. However, according to the report of the World Health Organization (2017), a quarter of the world’s population drinks contaminated water, causing over 2.2 million deaths annually. UV LED technology has been used in water purifying devices to sterilize water for improving dri...

South Korean prosecutors have charged nine people of selling Samsung’s technology of flexible OLED display to a Chinese company, reported Reuters. Toptec, a Samsung supplier which produce automated equipment for smartphone display production, has received 15.5 billion won (US$ 13.85 million) for transferring Samsung’s OLED panel technology to China. According to the report, the CEO and eight employees of the company has formed a shell company to receive information about panel production from Samsung Display and then sell the high-profiled documents...

Signify has been announced as the connected lighting partner to illuminate up to 15 of London’s iconic bridges by 2022. In July, the City of London Corporation has passed a project, named “Illuminated River,” to incorporate the 15 bridges on the River Thames for setting up lighting installation. Signify won the contract to supply its Interact Landmark system and Philips Color Kinetics LED luminaires to light up the bridges with dynamic, artistic lighting effects via its centrally managed software. In addition, Signify will provide lifecycle services...

For LED luminaires application, MEAN WELL officially releases the new generation waterproof LED driver series—XLG series. The whole XLG series, which has been highly expected by the market, covers from 25W to 250W. It can be used for LED Bay light/Street light/Horticulture lighting and flood light applications. XLG series applies the constant current and constant power design, which remarkably enhances the convenience of integrating model selection. The design of XLG Series makes the model selection easier and reduces the pressure of stock. (I...

Taiwanese LED packager Edison Opto has shifted its business focus from LED lighting to LED automotive lighting modules due to the decreasing profit of its conventional lighting business. The portfolio adjustment has come into effect with the company reporting the highest profit margin in the past five year despite its lukewarm revenue performance. (Image: Edison Opto) Edison Opto posted a revenue of NT$ 639 million (US$ 20.71 million) for 3Q18 with on quarter decrease of 14% and on year decrease of 7.4%. However, the quarterly profit margin came to the highest p...

ThorDrive, an autonomous vehicle (AV) startup, has utilized LiDAR sensors of Velodyne to realize its commercial vehicle services. On November 29th, ThorDrive is introducing the service with a kick-off event in Palo Alto with attendants including local government and business leaders. The initial service, in partnership with Hassett ACE Hardware, will support select residents of Channing House (senior housing) and fire departments in Palo Alto with plans to expand to additional pilots soon. The ThorDrive platform is using Velodyne’s lidar sensors to provi...

Texas Instruments introduced a new family of LED drivers with integrated, independent color mixing, brightness control and a power-saving mode. The new family includes the LP5018, LP5024, LP5030 and LP5036 enable smooth, vivid color and reduce system power consumption. The devices are the industry's first to offer a 29-kHz dimming frequency, above human-audible range, to help designers of applications that use a human-machine interface, such as portable electronics, building automation and appliances, eliminate the noise typically heard when dimming lights. Additional...

Cree introduced a new lighting system which enables limitless lighting design for architects and lighting specialists. According to Cree, its FLEX Series LED Troffer offers an opportunity to LED replacement as recessed fluorescent troffers comprise 50 percent of all luminaires used in the U.S. commercial market, according to the Department of Energy. The FLEX Series LED Specification troffer, featured with its slim luminaire style, offers design flexibility to fits different ceiling type. With five customizable inner-optic choices, architects and designers ...

In Sydney, Australia, a giant command and control LED display was installed in its nearly completed new Rail Operations Centre (ROC). The LED display is claimed to be the world’s largest control room display with the largest number of pixels, according to the supplier NanoLumens, a U.S. based LED display provider. Critical Room Solutions (CRS), a specialist in command and control room installations, and Digital Place Solutions (DPS), have commenced discussions with Sydney Trains in 2017 to determine the display solution to allow the new control c...

AquiSense Technologies, a U.S. based UV-C LED systems developer, announced its partnership with the United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) and Washington University base on a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) for advanced development of UV LED disinfection system. Through the CRADA partnership, researchers at AquiSense and USEPA will work together at the National Homeland Security Research Center (NHSRC) and at Washington University for developing UV LED integrated water sterilizatio...

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) of the U.S. government issued an announcement to call on distributers and marketers of LED signs to follow statute and rules of the FCC. In the announcement, the FCC unveiled that its Enforcement Bureau has entered into 21 settlement agreements with companies that marketed noncompliant LED signs in violation of the Communications Act and FCC rules since March 2018. The settlements yielded approximately US$850,000 in penalties paid to the U.S. Treasury and commitments to ensure compliance with the law going for...

Seoul Semiconductor announced that it has expanded its patent infringement litigation against Fry’s Electronics, a U.S. based consumer electronics retailer, in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas. In September, Seoul Semiconductor filed a patent infringement lawsuit that accused Fry’s Electronics of selling LED TV products that violate 15 of Seoul Semiconductor’s patents for LED backlight unit process. In its amended complaint, Seoul asserts that the top brand televisions being sold in Fry’s stores infr...

LiDAR startup Luminar and Volvo Cars revealed their development in LiDAR perception for safe autonomous driving technology. Volvo has announced to invest in Luminar in June and became the first of its partners to develop advanced perception capabilities for vehicles. Volvo Cars has introduced its vision for full autonomy with its 360c concept and worked closely with Luminar. At the AutoMobility show in Los Angeles, the two companies jointly demonstrated long-range perception capabilities on a live drive along Los Angeles highways and streets to show Volvo Cars lo...

Cities in Southern California have been replacing their streetlights with LED fixtures to minimize light pollution, enhance public safety and save approximately US$60 million in reduced energy and maintenance costs over a 20-year period. 55,000 Current, powered by GE fixtures will be purchased by The Western Riverside Council of Governments (WRCOG) for its 11 local jurisdictions. (Image: Current by GE) In order to find out the regions suitable for LED lighting, WRCOG has created a demonstration area in the City of Hemet and arranged guided tours with...

Lumileds introduced the LUXEON SunPlus 2835 Line of LEDs, a series for horticulture applications which provides eight color options and high photosynthetic photon flux (PPF) for improving plant growth rate and crop yield of a variety of plants and vegetables. According to Lumileds, as LUXEON SunPlus 2835 LEDs offer various colors, users are able to select specific color points or design a customized spectrum. The LED’s compact 2.8 x 3.5 mm footprint allows minimal spacing between plants and lighting so that higher crop yield can be realized in interw...

Gallant Precision Machining (GPM), a Taiwan-based semiconductor equipment provider, reported that its business has been growing stably with orders from penal producers and semiconductor companies. The company and its subsidiary GMM have also been pushing the development of Micro LED transfer equipment which is expected to enter the market by the first quarter of 2019. GPM and its subsidiary GMM have focused on equipment for different Micro LED production. GPM targets in-process testing equipment for Micro LED chips while GMM is focused on Micro LED...

Chinese autonomous vehicle developer XPENG Motors has announced a strategic partnership with NVIDIA and its China partner Desay SV for developing Level 3 autonomous driving technology tailored for the driving environment in China. XPENG Motors will self-develop the software for China's typical traffic conditions and user scenarios and will work with Desay SV to jointly develop the computing hardware platform for autonomous driving. The company plans to implement in various phases the L3 intelligent driving features in its new models starting in 2020. ...

The Netherland-based research center, Holst Centre and Fraunhofer FEP have developed the world's longest single-device OLED which of 15 meters long. The development opens the door to 'endless OLEDs' that manufacturers and designers can then easily tailor to their own needs. Holst Centre and Fraunhofer FEP worked together through Lyteus, an EU founded public-private partnership organization which brings together leaders in OLED technology from across Europe to create an OLED pilot production line and product development services. Under the fr...