The ninth annual Taiwan International Lighting Show (TILS 2018) opened with much fanfare in Hall 1 of Taipei World Trade Center on 25 April. This year’s show has gathered 114 exhibitors and featured 420 display booths showcasing technologies under the categories of LED general lighting and smart lighting.

Major Chinese LED package supplier MLS teams up with Taiwanese auto lamp manufacturers to develop automotive lighting. Targets of its early stage development are aftermarkets of rear lamp and turn signal in Taiwan.

Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI), a Taiwan-based technology R&D institution, displayed innovative OLED and LED lighting applications at 2018 Taiwan International Lighting Show (TILS) between April 25th and 28th.

In addition to our witness of the raid at Light and Building 2018, LEDinside also learnt a low-key move from Epistar, who according to sources had reached out to dozens of exhibitors on-site regarding Epistar’s intellectual property rights.

The 2018 Taiwan International Lighting Show (TILS 2018) will be held at Hall 1, Taipei World Trade Center(TWTC) from April 25th -28th this year. An estimated 150 domestic and foreign companies will participate in the exhibition and use more than 500 booths. The exhibition is expected to attract 12,000 visitors and it is the largest and most influential annual professional exhibition of domestic lighting and LED industries.

The TFT-LCD market has already become a red ocean. Korea and Japan take the lead in the OLED market. In terms of display technologies, Taiwan should seize the chance to pioneer the development of Micro LED if it wants to secure a competitive share in the global display market in the future.

Researchers have designed a new LED-based train headlight that uses a tenth of the energy required for headlights using conventional light sources. If operated 8 hours every day, the electricity savings of the new design would reduce emissions of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide by about 152 kilograms per year.

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.

Several Taiwanese LED companies have seen positive results after three quarters of business transformation. As they have been shifting more capacity to non-blue LED applications, more mid- and small-sized LED firms starts to see turnarounds. Looking ahead to 2018, Taiwanese companies will keep differentiating themselves from Chinese competitors and expanding product lines in niche markets, such as IR LED, sensors, and Mini LED.

Mini LED has a high chance to help Taiwanese LED manufacturers reclaim the leading position in the high-end backlight market in 2018. It rekindles Taiwanese firms’ hope against the ‘OLED attack’ from Korea, expected Bingjie Li, Chairman of Epistar.

Apple might be cutting the size of its Micro LED R&D team, but it does not seem to give up on the next generation display technology, a few sources reported. It is collaborating with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) to develop an alternative approach to sidestep challenges including the notorious mass transfer of chips.

The next generation display technology Micro LED draws lots of attention, but Micro LED will take time to reach the mass production (MP) phase. Before that happens, mini LED with lower technical barrier will enter its MP phase first. Sources said, panel makers and LED die manufacturers already started their collaboration. Initially, mini LED will be used for two major categories: signage and TV panel backlight source. The cooperative effort will launch ultra-fine-pitch signage and super energy-saving, ultra-slim direct lit mini LED backlight TV panels.

Parks and Street Lights Office, Taipei City Government has been replacing HPS lamps with LED lamps that save more energy and are much brighter since early 2017. A new NTD 240 million budget will be granted to remove the remaining 20 thousand HPS lamps in 2018. The project is expected to be completed by the end of June, 2018. HPS lamp will soon be history.

The 29th Summer Universiade, an international multi-sports event organized by the International University Sports Federation (FISU), opened its curtains on 19th August in the city of Taipei, Taiwan. The opening ceremony was highlighted with the world’s largest floor LED display right in the middle of the main venue Taipei Municipal Stadium. 

LED package giant EVERLIGHT reported a solid 2Q17 revenue and profit better than that in 1Q17, yet worse than that in the prior year period. The product mix adjustment and price wars are said to account for the annual decline in EVERLIGHT’s finance. Besides, its new capacity is yet to contribute.

Technology giants such as Apple and Sharp have been actively running a series of research and development on Micro LED technology. PCB manufacturers are also eager to seize the related business opportunities. Unimicron has invested in related advanced manufacturing processes. It will start a small batch production in 2018 at the earliest and plans to mass produce PCBs for Micro LED applications in 2019. The rest of PCB makers intend to follow suit, which is expected to drive the growth of the PCB market to a new high. 

For a long time, Nichia, Osram Opto., Cree, Toyota Gosei and Lumileds have jointly shaped an enormous and powerful patent shield with cross-license agreements within the world LED industry and the five lighting goliaths have been charging, more or less, whoever tried to sell LED products abroad. However, as those patents are about to expire, Taiwan- and Korea-based Companies rise with their new patents and the expansion of Chinese businesses is posing threats, the industry is slowing transitioning away from the old oligopoly.

Smart cities is definitely one of the latest buzzwords, together with the Internet of things (IoT), cloud computing, smart data and visible light communication (VLC). Interesting enough, it is actually the presentation of these factors integrating all together on a scale of a city. Everything in a city–transportation, communication, security, water and power supply, and other community services–through networks, computing, analysing, and data transfer, can be more efficiently managed and improved. This is how a smart city is conceived.

Chroma ATE Inc. CEO Leo Huang received the Distinguished Enterprise Innovation Award, the highest honor available from the 5th Industrial Innovation Award during the awards ceremony held on April 21. Leo Huang expresses his gratitude towards the Evaluation Committee from the 5th Industrial Innovation Award for awarding Chroma this honor, "This award also belongs to all members of Chroma who have devoted their long effort in developing innovative testing solutions."

EVERLIGHT Electronics Co., Ltd., a leading player in the global LED and optoelectronics industry, is dedicated to R&D of automotive LED products and providing a comprehensive portfolio of automotive products for its either interior or exterior applications. 

The range of LED products continues to expand, which opens up a great deal of business opportunities especially in the solid-state lighting sector. Struggling for market share, major Chinese LED manufacturers have been cutting down prices of their goods, making it even more difficult for Taiwanese makers to compete.

Ever since Micro LED emerged, LEDinside has been pouring endeavour into studying Micro LED and we have a solid grasp of most advanced insights and analyses regarding the technology. LEDinside's ongoing effort, 2016 Micro LED forum in particular, has taken the industry by storm and successfully brought to light Micro LED, the monumental technology opening up a whole new dimension in LED industry that companies around the globe look forwards to. Its application can already be seen in displays and wearable devices, yet it is just the first step.

Regarding the performance of LED industry in Taiwan, due to low season, demand for InGan (blue) LEDs has dropped in the first quarter, while that of AlINGap (red) LEDs is still strong. Thus, institutional investors estimate that business operations of LED manufacturers will significantly improve in the second quarter. For fiscal 2017, the overall industry profitability is expected to increase, and price competition in the blue LED segment will be less intense. 

After its average selling price (ASP) dropped by 25% in 2016, Phecda Technology, specializing in LED patterned sapphire substrates (PSS) manufacturing, could possibly experience a turnaround this year. On one hand, in terms of revenue, Phecda Technology topped in the industry with the amount of NTD 530 million, rising from NTD 340 million in 2015. On the other, it ended the disappointing profit slump at the end of 1H16 and slowly recuperated in 2H16. The Tier 1 giant’s financial results reflected how down the market was in 2016, according to several juridical persons.

Global demand for LED chips has been picking up strongly, and is expected to finally exceed supply in 2017. In addition, Apple has recently patented a new smartphone solution that would use a range of Micro LEDs for fingerprint recognition. As a result, prices of LED products have been on the rise.

Formosa Petrochemical Corporation (FPCC) announced Thursday about a new investment partnership with Japanese UV LED manufacturer Nikkiso to expand applications in medical devices, reported Taiwanese media UDN.

LED Taiwan exhibits full arrays of LED components, packages, modules, manufacturing and testing equipment, materials, driver ICs, sapphire substrates, manufacturing technologies and applications and solutions. LED Taiwan organizes forums and seminars on popular topics, which provide not only information exchange but also business opportunities for professionals. LED Taiwan, an invaluable platform for business development, is one must-attend event of the year!

Taiwanese LED industry underwent significant changes in senior management including in leading LED manufacturer Everlight, Optotech, and Unistar Opto, reported Chinese-language newspaper Commercial Times.

Taiwan’s LED industry production value increased nearly 15% year-on-year during the first nine months of 2016, as more governments around the globe rolled out policies supporting environmental friendly businesses, said the Ministry of Economics Affair (MOEA) recently.

The sapphire substrate application industry hit a low point when Apple abandoned employing sapphire screens in its new generation iPhones, many Taiwanese sapphire manufacturers have bear the brunt from the abrupt decision, reported Chinese-language newspaper Commercial Times.