On May 18, 2018, Nichia Corporation (“Nichia”) filed a patent infringement lawsuit with the Tokyo District Court against ASUS JAPAN Inc., a Japanese affiliate of Taiwanese ASUSTeK Computer Inc. (“ASUS”), and SYNNEX Infotec Corporation, a distributor of ASUS JAPAN Inc., seeking a compensation for damages.

At SID's Display Week 2018 in Los Angeles, glō and Jasper Display Corp. (JDC) will, for the first time ever, demo the world's brightest self-emitting display panel. The industry's brightest Micro LEDs (10 μm), developed and integrated by glō, paired with JDC's new silicon backplane, the JD67E2, make it possible to deliver the high brightness and contrast that will benefit the next wave of watches, phones, heads-up-displays (HUDs), and augmented reality (AR) products.

In March, LEDinside witnessed a Chinese lighting company being caught red-handed for showcasing patent-infringing LED filament bulbs at Light + Building 2018. Slightly later than that, we also learnt Epistar has approached and initiated talks with a few companies for IP collaborations at that fair. At TILS 2018 in April, LEDinside interviewed Epistar and got more details about the matter.

Smart Cannabis Corp. announced an immediate sale of 60 of their new Multi Spectrum Grow Light fixtures within days of presenting them to the marketplace.

On May 17th, Visionox (Gu'an) 6th-generation fully flexible AMOLED (active-matrix organic light emitting diode) production line, China's first 6th-generation fully flexible AMOLED production line, was put into operation in Gu'an New Industry City in Hebei Province. Featuring a designed productivity of 30,000 substrates per month, the production line can meet the display demands of approximately 100 million intelligent terminal devices.

Luminus Devices, Inc., a manufacturer of high-performance LEDs and solid-state light sources, has expanded its horticulture LED portfolio with new SST-20 series white LEDs to complement the extensive range of discrete wavelengths from UVA (365nm) to Far Red (730nm).

LEDtronics announces its new DLC-listed series of dimmable LED Linear Low Bay Luminaires. The Title 24 compliant units can be surface or wall mounted, as well as suspension-mounted with cables. The LLS series low bays come with the needed accessories, and can optionally be installed with T-bar clips or inverted V-hangers.

Signify announced it will light up over 90 schools around the world through its 'Light for Better Learning' campaign in celebration of UNESCO's first International Day of Light. Through this campaign the Signify Foundation improves learning opportunities for young people in on- and off-grid communities by providing lighting to schools and workshops on energy efficiency and climate change.

Enlighted, a provider of Internet of Things (IoT) solutions for commercial buildings, continues to drive innovation with its 5th-generation smart sensor. Engineered with insight from installations in more than 200 million square feet of buildings that have collected 10’s of terabytes of data, it is the most powerful and smallest sensor Enlighted has developed. Featuring a 32-bit ARM® processor with enhanced processing and memory capacity, it offers out of the box future-proofing with unparalleled levels of upgradability. It is the first IoT-Ready™ Profile 1 compliant IoT sensor on the market.

Violumas announces their new venture into the UV LED market. Violumas is the latest UV specific branch from Silicon Valley-based company Flip Chip Opto. Flip Chip Opto focuses on high power COB light engines based upon their proprietary 3-Pad Flip Chip featuring super-pillar MCPCB technology. Flip Chip Opto creates the most powerful COBs on the market, focusing on industrial and horticultural applications.

As time is moving forward to the second quarter of 2018, more and more rumblings and updates about Micro/Mini LED emerged and have been circulating in the industry. In February, LEDinside collected and revealed information of Micro LED development from nearly 50 companies around the globe. Here, we would like to share some progress updates released after that from 10 companies.

Germany-based IP licensing company ALLOS Semiconductors sees itself as the leading provider of GaN-on-Si wafer technology for LED, power and RF applications and claims to have the best performance in the market with respect to essential properties like crystal quality, uniformity, and low wafer bow.

Osram’s venture capital arm, Fluxunit, has acquired a stake in Canadian startup Motorleaf, an artificial intelligence company focused on bringing actionable, datadriven insights to greenhouse and indoor farm operators.

Philips Lighting today announced that the Annual General Meeting of Shareholders (AGM) adopted the proposal to amend the articles of association of the company to change its name from Philips Lighting N.V. to Signify N.V.

LED luminaires from Thorn are now illuminating the Arco della Pace, one of the most important neoclassical monuments in Milan. A series of high-performance Contrast 2 LED floodlights has been installed around the imposing “Arch of Peace” to pick out the intricate details and fine workmanship, improving the overall visitor experience and simultaneously saving resources by boosting efficiency.

On this year’s Light+ Building in Frankfurt Germany, the LED Bulb Expert- Shanghai Wellmax Lighting Industry (WELLMAX) officially introduced its patented iDAPT technology for LED light bulbs, attracting global attentions; on the Spring Canton Fair last month in Guangzhou, WELLMAX’s iDAPT technology again became the star of the fair, breaking sales records. With such popular demand from the global market, the iDAPT technology has become a rising star in the LED lighting industry.

At SID DisplayWeek 2018 in Los Angeles CA, PixelDisplay  will be presenting at the SID/DSCC Investor Conference. PixelDisplay will also be demonstrating VividColor HDR™ enabled displays in the SID Exhibition hall. 

Philips Lighting has completed the cancellation of 2.2 million shares that it repurchased from Royal Philips in February 2018 for an aggregate amount of EUR 71 million.

LumEfficient received an Innovation Award at this year’s LIGHTFAIR, held May 8-10th. The LFI Innovation Awards, judged by an independent panel of esteemed lighting professionals, recognize distininnovations from more than 500 of the world’s leading manufacturers across the lighting industry.

The Lighting Research Center (LRC) at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute has published a new report on the energy and economic performance of LED horticultural luminaires. The LRC evaluated key factors such as power demand, life-cycle cost, luminaire intensity distribution, and luminaire shading. Of particular importance is the fact that the LRC considered the effectiveness of the entire lighting system for a controlled growing environment.

Philips Lighting announced that it has repurchased 338,652 shares in the period May 7, 2018 to May 11, 2018. The shares were repurchased at an average price of EUR 26.26 per share and an aggregate amount of EUR 8.89 million.

In order to conform to the development trend of TVs, and combing with the accurate judgment of the development of the TV market, BMTC has released its global TV backlighting strategy for 2018. The strategy covers a comprehensive layout in terms of technology and patent, which aims to seize market opportunities and strive for market commanding heights.

Philips Lighting announced it has entered into an agreement to acquire Shenzhen LiteMagic Technologies Co., Ltd., a Chinese manufacturer and seller of lighting luminaires and control systems for urban and façade lighting.

LED driver IC specialist Macroblock reported a gross margin of 34.2% for the first quarter of 2018, reaching new high over the past two years. The company expects its 2Q18 revenue to increase by 20% QoQ after its driver IC is chosen and successfully adopted in Samsung’s display products.

Samsung Electronics said on May 10 it released the latest QLED TVs in Vietnam, seeking to penetrate deeper into a market with considerable demand for large displays.

Leyard and Planar, specialized in visualization products, announced May 10 that they have completed the acquisition of eyevis, which includes the company Teracue. In line with the announcement earlier in April, Leyard and Planar have completed the acquisition process.

As GE lighting is still a strong brand in North America, it is expected a number of Chinese LED and lighting firms will scramble for the sale. In this regard, LEDinside looked into the Chinese lighting industry and found out a few firms that might be interested in buying GE’s assets.

Philips Lighting launched a new cloud-based Scene management app that enables businesses to quickly and effortlessly change a building’s architectural lighting using your smartphone or tablet. The app, specially designed for use on smart devices, further illustrates the company’s leadership in connected lighting and lighting for the Internet of Things.

Taiwanese LED chip maker Epistar in 2017 went through a financial turnaround and reported a share dividend of NTD 0.8. In wake of lukewarm market demand, the company’s 2Q18 results showed declinces. Its plan to mass produce Mini LED products is scheduled in the second half of 2018.

LG Electronics said Wednesday (May 9) its latest OLED TVs released in the United States come with features that allow them to be connected to the Google Assistant voice recognition system.