Osram Licht AG announced to start the operation of its new LED chip factory in the Kulim Hi-Tech Park, Malaysia on October 23. The company claimed the new plant will be the world’s largest and most advanced 6-inch LED chip plant after the final stage of the construction scheduled to be finished in 2020.

Epistar Corporation filed a patent infringement lawsuit against All Star Lighting Supplies, Inc., d/b/a Luxrite in the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey on October 13, 2017. The complaint asserts that Luxrite’s LED filament bulbs infringe eight Epistar patents and seeks injunctive relief to halt further sale of the infringing products.

GB Energie LED announced the completion of an LED retrofit project for Leesburg Executive Airport in Leesburg, Virginia. The project included the installation of LED lighting solutions within the terminal, as well as exterior building lighting and throughout parking lots to improve lighting levels and increase energy efficiency, improving lighting energy use by more than 60%.

Acuity Brands announced LocusLabs, Inc. has joined the Atrius™ Internet of Things (IoT) partner ecosystem. LocusLabs plans to enable its location-as-a-service platform to take advantage of the Atrius IoT platform’s location-based services (LBS) and indoor positioning services (IPS).

The ideal solution for microLED makers would be the availability of efficient nitride LEDs in both green and red. In this case, all RGB LEDs would be composed of the same material with the same behaviors and driving conditions. The challenge is to find one material capable of spanning the blue to red spectrum. 

Veeco Instruments announced that Acken Optoelectronics will receive the first shipment of Veeco’s new GENxcel™ Molecular Beam Epitaxy (MBE) System.

Heliospectra AB (publ), an expert in intelligent lighting technology for greenhouse and controlled plant growth environments, announces a new cooperation with NYSK Holdings, a state-of-the-art medicinal cannabis facility in Macedonia. The grower is partnering with Heliospectra to be able to supply patients with consistent, pharmaceutical-grade medicine for chronic diseases year-round. The investment is valued at around $125,000 (1,016,000 SEK).

Metropolitan Wi-Fi firm Connexin has secured up to a £10m investment to rapidly scale up and expand its smart cities business.

Sengled, makers of intelligent lighting products that integrate consumer electronics with energy efficient LED light bulbs, announced on October 12 that their Element smart lighting family now offers further convenience through voice control using the Google Assistant.

Businesses and non-profit organizations across Michigan are snapping up rebates and grants offered by the Michigan Agency for Energy (MAE) to help them reduce their energy usage and cut energy bills.

OLED patent holder Samsung Electronics now also steps into the realm of Micro LED, reported the Investor. It is also looking to acquire PlayNitride, a Taiwan-based Micro LED developer in an attempt to offset the sluggish sales of its QLED TVs.

The first Micro LED product is Crystal LED Display that Sony showcased at CES 2012. Outwardly similar to a regular TV, it was an ultimate combination of the most state-of-the-art technologies back then. However, Sony, after its first success, had gone silent for quite a while until 2016.

The introduction of solid-state lighting using light-emitting diode (LED) technology has ignited widespread interest in the ways that lighting can offer benefits to people, including improved visibility at night, enhanced perceptions of brightness and security, and spectral tuning for management of circadian rhythms. Yet, as illustrated in a recent report from the American Medical Association (AMA), the increasing popularity of LED lighting is also raising new questions and reviving older concerns about unwanted impacts of these light sources, such as light pollution, discomfort glare, circadian disruption, and retinal damage via a mechanism known as blue-light hazard.

The U.S. Department of Energy has released a new Snapshot report on LED outdoor area lighting. Based on DOE's LED Lighting Facts®database, the report focuses on outdoor area/roadway luminaires (including street lighting and wall packs), parking garage luminaires, and canopy luminaires (e.g., those used for gas station fuel pump areas). Retrofit kits and dedicated luminaires in these categories are not considered separately, as only in the area/roadway category did retrofit kits make up a notable percentage (8%) of the products listed in the category.

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.

The U.S. Department of Energy's GATEWAY program has released a new report on a trial installation of tunable-white LED lighting systems in three classrooms in the Carrollton-Farmers Branch Independent School District in Carrollton, TX, which provides valuable insights into the use of this technology in a real-world setting.

Plessey announces a partnership with leading Dutch alstroemeria grower Together2Grow, following a successful trial of its LED grow lights combined with existing high-pressure sodium (HPS) lighting in a hybrid installation.

Philips Lighting has signed a partnership agreement with Ball Seed, one of North America’s leading wholesale horticultural distributors.

Philips Lighting has expanded its collaboration with Amazon to create an easy way to start with a voice-controlled smart home. While supplies last, customers who purchase an Echo Plus will receive a Philips Hue white connected light bulb, which can be controlled using your voice and Alexa.

Most people agree that athletic activity is healthy for mind and body, but harmful bacteria in locker rooms, restrooms and on equipment introduces the risk of infection. To combat these infections, Kenall has incorporated Indigo-Clean technology into two of the company’s best-selling sealed, high-abuse, LED light fixtures: the Millenium™ Stretch MLHA and SimpleSeal™ HASEDI Luminaires. These luminaires combine white ambient light with 405nm Indigo light in order to kill harmful bacteria, including staph, such as MRSA, and are part of a comprehensive portfolio of lighting products that Kenall has developed utilizing this revolutionary new technology.

Kenall continues to expand its offering of white LED luminaires using Indigo-Clean Technology (ICT) with the recent introduction of new luminaires for behavioral health and correctional applications, along with three new downlights.

Rapid expansion of Las Vegas commercial cultivation facility relies on Heliospectra’s technology to control product consistency and crop quality

OLED panels manufactured by LG Display are regarded as high-quality products, which has already been proven by LG's OLED TV and recently-launched V30 smartphone. However, LG did not limit the adoption of its OLED panels in the range of consumer electronics. Recently, LG has presented OLED lighting panels as desk lamps.

Philips Photonics, expert in VCSEL (Vertical Cavity Surface Emitting Lasers) technology solutions for data communications, consumer and industrial applications, announced the successful completion of its ‘VIDaP’ project (VCSEL Pilot Line for Illumination, Datacom and Power Applications), a €23 million project jointly sponsored by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and the EU, and executed under the umbrella of the European ECSEL program.

AIXTRON announced that the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Lausanne (Switzerland) has purchased a BM NOVO system. This versatile tool which can produce virtually all variations of 2-dimensional materials (2D) required for emerging optoelectronic applications is dedicated to support the University’s research projects coordinated by Prof. Andras Kis and Prof. Aleksandra Radenovic.

LASER COMPONENTS announces that the first of its products has achieved qualification for use in the automotive industry. Pulsed Laser Diodes (PLD) with a wavelength of 905 nm are key components for the LiDAR technology (Light Detection and Ranging) used in autonomous driving.

On July 16, an Industry collaboration agreement that is laying the foundation for a technology that could supersede Wi-Fi and greatly benefit the IoT Industry has just been signed between Monash University Australia and Malaysia, and Australian technology company nextLiFi.

On September 5, TUV Rheinland issued Zigbee 3.0 certification for the LEEDARSON LED Dimmable Bulb. This is the first LED light in the world to be officially Zigbee 3.0 certified and implement Green Power Proxy Basic (GPPB) functionality.

Sengled, an expert of intelligent lighting products that integrate consumer electronics inside energy efficient LED light bulbs, announced their Element smart lighting capabilities are now compatible with the Wink smart home platform.

Trilliant, a provider of IoT and smart energy communications solutions, signed a deal on August 15 with Saigon Hi-Tech Park (SHTP) to deploy Southeast Asia's first smart city project.