On August 30, 2019, EPISTAR filed a patent infringement lawsuit against GMY Lighting Technology (GMY), Lightinthebox Holding, Light In The Box, Lightinthebox International Logistic, and LITB, (collectively, LITB) in the United States District Court for the District of Delaware. The complaint asserts that GMY’s LED filament bulbs sold and offered for sale on GMY and LITB’s website infringe seven EPISTAR patents, and seeks injunctive relief to halt further sale of the infringing products. EPISTAR’s complain...

Polaris PowerLED Technologies, a U.S. based LED technology company and licensor of display brightness control functionality, announced that it has agreed to enter into a settlement and license agreement with Samsung Electronics for resolving patent infringement litigation brought by Polaris PowerLED against Samsung. "We are delighted to have resolved these litigations and that Samsung has become a licensee to Polaris' patented technologies," said Ralph Brandi, chief executive officer of Polaris PowerLED. (Image: Pixabay)...

As a driver IC design house with a special focus on power management and optoelectronic applications, Macroblock is not only devoted to LED display driver IC development, but also enthusiastic in new markets with innovated applications, such as: LED backlight driver ICs (Direct type LED full-array local dimming, called FALD), mini-LED backlight driver ICs and modules, Micro-LED backlight and display modules, and gaming keyboards. These are demonstrated at  at Touch Taiwan 2019.  Get Ready for HDR Macroblock demonstrates ‘Display&...

The Lighting Research Center (LRC) announced that LEDVANCE has joined the Light and Health Alliance which aims to enhance human health and wellbeing with indoor lighting. The mission of the Light and Health Alliance is to bridge the science of light and health to practical applications, and to provide objective information grounded in basic and applied research. The Alliance works to generate and disseminate new knowledge on the topic of light and health via outreach and education. (Image: LRC/LEDVANCE) LEDVANCE will join other members of ...

Osram announced that its Managing Board and Supervisory Board have waived the existing standstill agreement with AMS and signed a cooperation agreement. This clears the way for a voluntary public takeover offer by AMS. The offer, which is expected to be valid until the beginning of October, amounts to EUR 38.50 (US$ 42.70 ) in cash per share, with a minimum acceptance level of 70 percent. Olaf Berlien, CEO of OSRAM, commented, “Our shareholders now have two offers on the table, allowing them to choose between the different business concepts.” ...

The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Next Generation Lighting Systems (NGLS) program announced the launch of the next phase of evaluations of indoor connected lighting systems. The new phase will include the upgrade of existing systems as well as the addition of new systems that are also marketed as easy to install and configure. The systems will be evaluated over a two-year period for installation, configuration, control operation, lighting quality, energy savings, and user satisfaction. The initial phase began in 2017 which evaluated 12 systems installed in wor...

Crop One, the US-based vertical farm company, announced that it has teamed up with Sino-Science North America Photobiotech (SNAP), a vertical farm technology providers, to jointly develop future vertical farm projects. SNAP is the owner of SANANBIO, which is affiliated and supported by LED wafers and chips manufacturer Sanan Optoelectronics. According to Crop One, it will provide its plant science and controls technology in future projects while SNAP will supply LED lighting and its modular growing systems as well as fully automated vertical farm sy...

Velodyne Lidar announced that it has filed a patent infringement complaint with the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) against Hesai Photonics Technology and Suteng Innovation Technology, which is also known as RoboSense. (Image: Velodyne Lidar) Velodyne Lidar accused the Hesai and RoboSense of violating of section 337 of the Tariff Act of 1930 which makes unfair methods of competition and importation of certain products into the United States unlawful. Earlier this week, Velodyne also filed patent infringement complaints against Hesai and RoboS...

Signify announced its partnership with AppHarvest, a controlled-environment growing facilities builder to help the company increase efficiency and boost yields using fewer resources in their 25 hectare greenhouse in Kentucky, USA. With the partnership, the greenhouse will be fitted with a hybrid LED lighting system, utilizing Signify’s Philips GreenPower LED toplighting compact and Agrolux high pressure sodium lighting. AppHarvest will grow tomatoes and cucumbers in its facility, which will be completed in the second half of 2020. The facility uses a unique ...

Belo Horizonte, one of Brazil’s largest cities, is realizing 50% electricity cost savings by upgrading 182,000 streetlights with new LEDs. The new LED lights also improve the safety of the citizens on the streets of Belo Horizonte. The LED upgrade project is part of Brazil's first major public lighting public-private partnership between Belo Horizonte Iluminaçao Publica (BHIP) and Signify. The project started in 2017 with a survey of all the public light points, providing information of each street and scheduling their timely delivery and instal...

3D LiDAR provider Cepton Technologies announced a partnership with ThinkReps, a physical security manufacturers' representative. As part of this strategic collaboration, Cepton’s sales and marketing efforts will be supported by ThinkReps’ area team to drive sales of Cepton’s Smart Lidar solutions for the physical security, smart cities and IoT industries. Through the partnership, ThinkReps’ security partners will have the opportunity to integrate Cepton’s LiDAR technology into a wide variety of security solutions. (Image: Cept...

US-based architectural LED lighting manufacturer Luminii announced the acquisition of its competitor Optic Arts, based in Los Angeles. With the acquisition, Luminii will include Optic Arts’ product lines into its portfolio, reinforcing its commitment of growing, according to the company’s CEO, Jeff Parker. (Image: Luminii) Parker noted that the distribution strategies of Luminii and Optic Arts are complementary and will remain in place after the Optic Arts acquisition. The team from Luminii remains agent focused, calling on the specification ...

Plessey, the British optoelectronic technologies developer who currently focuses on Micro LED technology for AR/MR display applications, announced the appointment of Dr. Edward H. Frank to its Micro LED advisory board. Dr. Frank joins Plessey’s advisory board as part of the rapid development of Plessey’s Micro LED technology. Dr. Frank was CEO and co-founder of Cloud Parity and had served as Vice President of Macintosh Hardware Systems Engineering at Apple as well as Corporate Vice President of Research and Development at Broadcom....

Luumii, a joint venture (JV) of Rohinni and KoJa, announced that its Micro and Mini LED-based solutions for notebook computer keyboard backlights and logo lighting are in mass production. These solutions enable notebook designers to take advantage of the significant benefits of incorporating Micro and Mini LEDs into products, including savings in size and power consumption and enhancing product features and user experience via colors and animation. Luumii’s initial monthly production output is 34,000 units. By the end of the year, the company will be operating fou...

Illuminating Engineering Society (IES) released its annual Progress Report which identifies novel and significant advancement in lighting related products and researches. North America lighting brands including Eureka, Hubbell Lighting and Luminis announced that their lighting products have been selected in the 2019 Progress Report. Eureka announced that its Arena luminaire has been selected for inclusion in the 2019 IES Progress Report. Arena is a circular luminaire that combines a classic form with the ability to reconfigure light sources by attaching them magnet...

Pointengineering(PEC), a UVC PKG manufacture company in Korea, has demonstrated various power UVC LED package at 2019 Guangzhou International Lighting Exhibition (GILE 2019). The company began with manufacturing Al metal frame that optimize UV light. Now, the company makes a technical progress toward the UV sterilization market with DOWA electronics. As a result, a UVC specialized brand, UVON, was launched in the market. (UVON at GILE 2019; image: PEC/UVON) Products line up organized 3 kinds of series such as 3.5mW power o...

The International SSL Alliance (ISA) is a famous international and non-profit organization, which aims to promote the sustainable development and application of Solid State Lighting (SSL) worldwide. The organization has more than 4,000 members, almost are major players of the global SSL community, representing 70% of the output of the global SSL industry. Recently, in response to the green lighting initiative of "One Belt and One Road", and in order to intensify global cooperation to accelerate the development of lighting industry, the ISA secretari...

Fluxunit, OSRAM's Venture Capital arm joins leading VC funds well as automotive OEMs and Tier-1 suppliers in the financing round of Recogni. Recogni is a Silicon Valley start-up with subsidiary in Munich which develops a vision-oriented AI platform for autonomous vehicles, which allows the processing of sensor data from LiDAR, camera and RADAR systems in real-time and at low power consumption. Other investors of the financing round include GreatPoint Ventures, Toyota AI Ventures, BMW iVentures, Faurecia and DNS Capital with an amount of US...

Austria-based lighting group Zumtobel Group announced it has secured a contract with the Mongolian government for installing approximately 11,000 LED streetlights of the Thorn brand in the north of Mongolia’s capital. Zumtobel said that the contract is in the low double-digit million euros range. The Mongolian government aims to use light to reduce crime rate and enhance safety of the area on a sustained basis. In addition, the provision of essential infrastructure such as lighting is a key factor for attracting companies and therefore serves the overall economic upswin...

Quanergy Systems announced a partnership with Chinese automotive manufacturer Chery Automobile. Quanergy signed on to Chery Lion’s Smart Partner Program as the LiDAR partner, to focus efforts on advancing autonomous driving and smart cities in China. Quanergy‘s S3 automotive grade solid state LiDARs are based on optical phased arrays (OPA) produced in CMOS silicon. These sensors, being fully solid state with no moving parts on any scale, offer an unparalleled level of quality and reliability. Further, the CMOS silicon node used in wafer fabri...

Signify announced that it has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Diamond Developers, a Dubai-based sustainable communities builder, as part of their mutual commitment to utilize creative and innovative technologies and solutions designed to promote sustainability. The agreement is a testament to a collaborative approach that seeks to accelerate innovation in sustainable energy and vertical farming. The agreement is built on two pillars of collaboration; the first pillar is centered on providing advanced lighting solutions and innovations that contribute to the city&...

Velodyne Lidar announced Kaarta has included Velodyne’s smart, powerful lidar technology in Kaarta’s new Stencil 2-32 ground surface mapping solution. Equipped with Velodyne LiDAR, Stencil 2-32 scans ground level surfaces, mapping items such as curbs, manholes, signs, poles, and other features at a fraction of the cost of traditional mobile mapping systems. The Stencil platform helps enable city planning for infrastructure improvements as well as parking and traffic management. The 3D data generated by Stencil 2-32 can be utilized for a range of applications ...

Telensa, the UK-based smart street lighting and smart city solution provider, announced that its smart streetlight system has been selected by Dunedin City Council (DCC) in New Zealand as part of a contract with Broadspectrum to upgrade Dunedin’s streetlighting network. There are approximately 15,000 high-pressure sodium streetlights on the Dunedin streetlight network. These lights are reaching the end of their useful life and are being converted by Broadspectrum to LEDs, which will be wirelessly connected and managed by Telensa’s PLANet system. PL...

LiDAR sensor manufacturer Quanergy announced its distribution partnership with Ingram Micro Brazil, a subsidiary of Ingram Micro for expanding it market penetration into South America. Ingram Micro will provide Quanergy’s LiDAR technology to a range of diverse industries focusing on bringing connected IoT solutions to companies across mining, transportation, security, energy, and finance. (Image: Quanergy) "Quanergy’s LiDAR solution complements our security and IoT portfolio," said Alexandre Nakano, Director of Security and Ne...

Current, powered by GE announced Hort Americas as its sole distributor for LED horticulture lighting solutions in North America. At Cultivate 2019, Hort Americas showcased Current by GE’s new Arize Element Top Light, which is an one-for-one LED replacement for a double-ended 1000-watt high pressure sodium (HPS) fixture. Current worked closely with its customers to design a top light with efficacy levels up to 3.5 micromoles per joule that supports universal installation, enabling growers to grow more and consume less in any region. Combined with advan...

US-based LiDAR startup Luminar announced that it is entering the consumer automotive and commercial trucking markets with a sensing and perception platform called Iris. After three years of stealth development and continuously increasing funds, the company revealed its perception software built on its LiDAR sensing platform. (Image: Luminar) A recent addition of US$100 million, along with previously unannounced capital, brings the company’s total raised to date to more than $250 million. Major financial investors include G2VP, two of the most prominent sover...

Juganu, an Israeli company developing and manufacturing innovative LED lighting systems, announced the completion of a financing round, led by Viola Growth, totaling about US$23 million. Other investors include OurCrowd and a Mexican investment fund. Juganu integrates LED lighting technology, sensors and infrastructure with AI, building a proprietary "Digital World" technology in cooperation with software and hardware technology market leaders. The company provides a response for communications and services challenges in public and commercial spaces. (I...

Velodyne Lidar announced that Idriverplus, a China-based company who commercialized driverless technology, is using Velodyne’s groundbreaking LiDAR sensors in a range of autonomous driving products. Velodyne has strategically teamed with Idriverplus to help Idriverplus with its efforts for mass production of commercial autonomous vehicles, which include street cleaners, passenger cars, and logistics vehicles. Velodyne LiDAR sensors are used in all Idriverplus self-driving vehicles, providing rich computer perception data that allows real-time object and free space ...

WiSilica, an IoT solution provider, and Samsung Electronics’ LED Business Team, announced their strategic partnership in developing next-gen IoT solutions for lighting. With the affiliation, the companies aim to create unified experiences in human-centric lighting, wireless controls, and energy efficiency. WiSilica is known for its location-aware IoT platform, ARIXA, which combines smart lighting and real time location services. The platform integrates hardware, middleware, cloud, and application interfaces to power a wide range of business applications. W...

LiDAR provider Quanergy Systems announced that its proprietary LiDAR perimeter security system, QORTEX DTC Solution, will be used to protect a large scale security facility in South Korea. The company is expanding its business in the APAC region with the installation which includes the mass deployment of LiDAR sensors and software licenses. Quanergy’s solution combines hardware and software platform solution consisting of its M8 LiDAR sensor and QORTEX artificial intelligence perception software. The patented M8 LiDAR sensor allows a ...