Retro LED filament bulbs are trending from New York to London and installed at locations from retro bars, vogue restaurants, to households as intricate decorative lighting. Their appearances look similar to traditional incandescent lamps, but their light is softer. LEDfilament bulbs are not only used for decoration, but they also save energy and reduce carbon emission.

As one of Asia’s biggest trade shows for electronics design and manufacturing, the annual NEPCON JAPAN has been drawing huge crowds every year. The event gathers technology suppliers, R&D teams, and industrial experts from around the world, creating valuable opportunities for business collaborations and information exchanges. This year’s NEPCON JAPAN was held at Tokyo Big Sight from 17 to 19 January.

The development of technologies, components, theories, and practical experience for autonomous driving will determine when fully autonomous vehicles become mainstream and how we introduce it to our everyday life. In particular, advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) is one of the key technologies that helps monitor conditions of cars, capture surrounding situations, detect dangers and hazards and send warnings to make drivers stay alert before accidents happen. At NEPCON JAPAN 2018, exhibitors demonstrate their solutions for autonomous driving and ADAS.

Lighting Science, specializing in human-centric lighting solutions, unveiled its enhanced line of biological LED products that deliver greater physiological impacts and improved energy efficiency. 

Foreverlamp has expanded their DLC premium listed LED HB Industrial Series with a new versatile design that features a 75,000 lumen output for 1000W and 750W applications. Foreverlamp’s new HB5 LED High-Bay fixture combines innovative design with a technological breakthrough in reflective materials to create a highly reflective and efficient source that is rated for 100,000 hours with minimal energy consumption at a total of 522 system watts. The exceptionally light weight luminaire weighs only 26 lbs. for ease of installation in high ceiling mounting situations and is available in both a traditional round high bay reflector or a classic high bay housing.  

Introducing a performance of 100 mW, LG Innotek, industrial partner of LASER COMPONENTS, sets new standards for single-chip UVC LEDs. The manufacturer states that this development is two years ahead of current industry forecasts. So far, experts had assumed that similar output powers would not be achieved until 2020.

Over years, NEPCON JAPAN has been gaining popularity under the organization of Reed Exhibitions Japan. There are 2,480 exhibitors from 34 countries at 2018’s show, with a 10% increase compared with the number in 2017, according to Yuhi Maezono, Show Director of Reed Exhibitions Japan. “The show will keep upscaling for 2019,” said Maezono.

Ketra, a LED lighting manufacturer with the highest quality, most accurate Natural Light, has announced its capability to integrate with Amazon Alexa and plans to integrate with Google Home in February. The news builds on Ketra's recent announcement of integration capability with Crestron and Lutron control systems, making it the first architectural-grade lighting system complete with lamps, controls, and software to enter the smart home market.

LG Innotek today announced that it had succeeded in developing an 'advanced flip chip LED package' that demonstrates high efficiency and high luminous flux without deteriorating performance even after it gets through 300℃ soldering process.

With more complicated functions rolling out, future cars are programmed to be safer, more electric, automatic, and digitalized. This year, 1063 Japanese manufacturers and 242 foreign companies participate in NEPCON JAPAN. The number of exhibitors has hit a new high, compared with previous years. At the exhibition, many LED component makers show their ambition to enter the automotive market.

LG Electronics (LG) was honored with more than 90 awards at CES 2018, led by the Official CES Best TV Product Award (presented by Engadget) for the fourth consecutive year, this time for the new LG AI OLED TV (model C8). LG also earned numerous best-of-show honors for the LG InstaView ThinQ Refrigerator and LG 4K UHD Projector.

On January 15th, Shanghai Wellmax Lighting Industry (WELLMAX) signed a strategic partnership agreement with Jiangsu Prajna Electronic Industry (BORE) in Shanghai. As Epistar’s long-term partner, BORE’s collaboration with WELLMAX mainly focuses on the development of LED filament bulbs.

Cree, Inc. Announces 2018 Second Quarter Earnings Release Webcast

Walmart announced results of an extensive lighting program with Current, powered by GE at the National Retail Federation’s Big Show. As part of an ongoing commitment to energy efficiency, Walmart has now installed more than 1.5 million LED (light emitting diode) fixtures across more than 6,000 stores, parking lots, distribution centers and corporate offices in ten countries.

Burton Lighting, the premier LED lighting company, has announced the release of their debut product, The Burton Bulb. This Neo-vintage, Edison style LED bulb features high-quality light and a design that surpasses the competition. 

LITE-ON Technology reported December consolidated revenue of NT$18.02 billion, decreased 3% M-o-M and 16% Y-o-Y. Cumulative sales for the entire year of 2017 reached NT$ 214.57 billion supported by stable end-demand from core businesses.

NEPCON JAPAN 2018, the largest exposition for electronics manufacturing and R&D technologies in Asia, started today (January 17, 2018) at Tokyo Big Sight. The three-day show has grown larger with approximately 2,600 Japanese and overseas exhibitors presenting their advancements in both the East and West Exhibition Halls this year. The number of attendees is anticipated to hit 127,000. The show is ready to witness Asia’s first large-scale dialogue between tech companies in 2018.  

GB Energie LED announced it has signed a partnership agreement with IMPACT Construction, LLC, a minority-owned construction company located in the Virgin Islands that provides start-to-finish solutions for building and remodeling projects.

FastLed performed the light planning for the various requirements in reception, in the open space with the sports equipment, the teaching studios and the spa and beauty area, and implemented the lighting concept. All those involved were impressed by the offer from Tridonic as the ideal holistic solution from modules and drivers to decentralised, intelligent lighting management.

Micro LED is an enticing display technology considerably future-proof yet hard to fully realize. All already-known challenges are basically induced by three key factors: the size, material, and number of LED chips. The industry refers to a LED chip as a Micro LED chip when its size is below 100μm—almost as tiny as the diameter of human hair. Different colors of Micro LEDs are made with different materials. Some companies attempt to develop a solution for chips of all colors, while the others invent several approaches to transfer, bond, and drive Micro LEDs produced with different compounds. What about the Number of Micro LEDs used for a display, let’s say, a TV, for example? It’s going to be single- to double-digit millions of them.

Human Centric Lighting will be the next major area of opportunity for the global lighting and building design industries now that energy saving is regarded as ubiquitous, according to lighting technology specialist amBX.

To be fair, none of the products launched in 2017 can arouse such a heated discussion as the iPhone X did. Its futuristic appearance, including the notch at the top of its OLED screen, attracted a lot of attention. Apart from that, the public also anticipated it to launch Apple Watch Series 3 featuring a Micro LED display but it did not happen.

EVERLIGHT ELECTRONICS will be introducing new LED components for automotive, lighting, signage, infrared applications in LED Tech Japan (East Hall 4 E36-48). Everyone is welcome to experience total solutions from EVERLIGHT.   

At this year’s North American International Auto Show’s AutoMobili-D 2018, Osram Opto Semiconductors is demonstrating how its high-power infrared pulse lasers are helping speed the adoption of autonomous vehicles and advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS). 

Intertek, a Total Quality Assurance provider to industries worldwide, has expanded its Class P program to include LED light engines, allowing luminaire manufacturers faster, simpler product certification at reduced costs.

Veeco Instruments announced that OSRAM Opto Semiconductors GmbH has ordered a multi-reactor Propel High Volume Manufacturing (HVM) Gallium Nitride (GaN) Metal Organic Chemical Vapor Deposition (MOCVD) System.

TILS 2018: EMPREX High Bay Solution

A unique, immersive installation that leverages flexible, eye-popping commercial display technology from LG Electronics (LG), is wowing attendees at CES 2018 this week. The winding 92-foot-long "LG OLED Canyon" features 246 LG Open Frame OLED displays, in concave and convex configurations, giving tens of thousands of visitors a one-of-a-kind experience of natural wonders.

Ring, a specialist in home security, announced it acquired Mr. Beams, an innovative LED lighting technology company, in order to integrate smart, energy-efficient lights into more of its security devices and release new, standalone outdoor security lights, called Ring Beams.

Numerous orders are flowing to 3D sensing component suppliers including Lumentum and Win Semiconductor because of the boom in 3D sensing in 2018. Placed by Apple and other application makers, those orders are bringing fortune to suppliers.