The display show, Touch Taiwan, has kicked off in Taipei, Taiwan. The next generation display technology, Mini and Micro LED, has been the spotlight of the event with several companies showcasing their latest display products adopting the technologies. According to the latest report of LEDinside, the market value of Micro LED and Mini LED products is estimated at US$1.38 billion by 2022.

With judgment dated July 19, 2018 (docket number 2 Ni 55/16 (EP)), the German Federal Patent Court fully confirmed the validity of the German part of Nichia’s YAG patent EP 936 682 (DE 697 02 929). As a consequence, the court completely rejected the nullity action of Everlight Electronics Europe, the German subsidiary of Taiwanese LED manufacturer Everlight. The judgment of the Federal Patent Court is not final and can be appealed.

Samsung India has partnered with PVR Cinemas, an Indian film entertainment company, to launch Onyx Cinema LED screens in India. Samsung plans to install about five 4K Onyx Cinema LED displays in different cities in India by the end of the year.

Horticulture lighting has been an escalating market for LED applications. Lighting solutions providers and LED makers have continuously reported innovated products with specific functions. Lighting giant Signify and the U.S. based growing lights supplier Fluence Bioengineering have debuted new horticultural LED lighting products respectively to enhance the growth efficiency of crops.

Lextar has announced that the company will launch the latest Micro LED chips with the size smaller than 20 µm and two different Micro LED chip solutions for display applications at Touch Taiwan 2018.

Chunghwa Picture Tubes (CPT) has reported its progress of Mini LED and its achievement of cadmium-free quantum dots LED (QLED) material development. The company has targeted the automobile market with related applications adopting these technologies. 

By deploying LED lighting, agricultural activities can be carried out in places with difficult environment conditions for providing food locally and diminishing the food miles. Vertical farms have been established worldwide with the aim of producing food with more efficiency and less resource waste. 

Taiwanese LED packaging company Everlight has addressed its continuous portfolio amendment and its further operation direction in response to the company’s share price slide.

Epistar Corporation (“Epistar”) announced today that it agreed to settle its patent litigation against V-TAC USA Corp. (“V-TAC”) pending in the United States District Court for the Central District of California, for the infringement of Epistar’s light-emitting diode (“LED”) filament patents.

Nichia Corporation has announced that two of its latest LED families have been recognized by the Illuminating Engineering Society (IES) for their unique and significant advancement to the art and science of lighting, per the IES 2018 Progress Report. The IES has noted the innovation and development of Nichia’s Optisolis™ series of LEDs and its discrete colors of the Direct Mountable Chip series of LEDs.

Taiwanese panel manufacturer Innolux is to showcase its latest products including gaming panels, QLED notebook panels and smart watches with flexible OLED displays at Touch Taiwan 2018. 

Taiwanese LED manufacturer Harvatek Corporation is expecting a better performance for 3Q18 with its new production capacities in China and the steady orders of displays and consumer electronics products. 

British smart city applications provider Telensa has announced that the company was selected by Sunshine Coast Council to install its intelligent street lighting system in the Maroochydore City Center for a 24 month pilot smart city project. Meanwhile, in Chicago, 76,000 LED smart streetlights were installed as part of the city’s four-year modernization program. 

A Swiss property company SPG gained a new “second skin” of light and vertical offset glass topped with LED façade luminaires developed by German lighting company ERCO. 

A floating farm built by a Dutch company, Beladon, is expected to open in the Port of Rotterdam, the Netherlands, by the end of the year, reported BBC. The world first offshore farm has been built in the middle of Merwehaven, aiming to serve as a sustainable food source for the city. 

Rooted in the U.S. since 1901, Sylvania was acquired by SH Felio Acoustics in 2017 and has become a Chinese company, Felio SYLVANIA, with the focus on the global market. Targeting the growing LED lighting market of South East Asia, Sylvania has been proactively expanding its business in the area and has set up branches in Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand and Taiwan. 

Cree has launched XLamp XP-G3 LED S Line, an optimized version of its series for the applications of connected lighting. On the other hand, Tridonic has released its fifth generation 5 LLE module featuring high efficacy.

Quantum Materials Corp, a U.S. based quantum dot manufacturer, has announced its achievement of exceeding 7,000 hour continuous on-time durability test for the company's cadmium-free quantum dots in a remote LED.

In April, the U.S. government has proposed a list of 1300 Chinese exports and announced to impose 25 percent tariffs on these products, following the Section 301 investigation. Later in July, the Trump administration released the second tranche of additional tariffs on US$ 200 billion worth of Chinese goods. As LED products are included in both tariff lists, LEDinside has continued to follow and analyze the impacts of the tariffs on LED lighting business. 

Vietnam’s historical monument, the “Imperial City” in Huế, has been illuminated with architectural LED lighting provided by Signify.

Taiwanese semiconductor component provider TOPCO has announced that it will join the Touch Taiwan display show to introduce materials and components that are crucial for Micro LED/Mini LED technology development. 

SleepScore Labs has released a study to prove that using Good Night® LED Sleep-Enhancing Lights in the evening helps people to fall asleep more easily and feel more rested the next morning. 

Architectural SSL announced today that Lumileds has won a 2018 Product Innovation Award (PIA) from Architectural SSL magazine for its line of Integrated Light Guides under the Matrix Platform Advanced Technologies.

Telecom operator O2 has announced its partnership with pureLiFi for a trail network using LED lights to provide high-speed wireless connection for data transmission. 

German automobile manufacturer Volkswagen has been recalling 700,000 of its Tiguan and Touran cars around the world due to the possible short-circuiting risk of their LED lights.

Signify has announced a new series of its Philips Hue products and will showcase them at IFA 2018. With a wide range of products including luminaires for bathrooms, living rooms and gardens, Signify aims to provide a smart home lighting system.

Cree announced that the company intends to offer US$500 million aggregate principal amount of its Convertible Senior Notes due 2023 in a private offering to qualified institutional buyers. In addition, the initial purchasers of the Notes will be granted by Cree an option to purchase up to an additional US$75 million aggregate principal amount of the Notes, for settlement within a 13-day period from, and including, the date on which the Notes are first issued.

Industry sources have leaked in February that LG planned to release its first Micro LED TV in September. LG Electronics will reportedly launch its Micro LED TV at the IFA electronics trade show in Germany, according to a report from The Investor. 

The technology developments on wearable devices have created numerous applications with the purpose of improving the convenience and well-being of life. In the first half of 2018, several researches and projects combining LED technologies and wearables were revealed. Meanwhile, whether the new Apple Watch will adopt Micro LED has been a focus to all.

Lighting and electronics specialist HELLA will present intelligent lighting and electronics solutions for trucks, trailers and buses at the IAA Commercial Vehicles, which will take place during September 20-27th in Hanover, Germany.