WESCO International announced that its WESCO Services subsidiary has completed the purchase of Sylvania Lighting Solution (SLS), the North American service business of Osram, following the previous announcement in January. Osram has planned to sell the SLS business in the U.S. and Canada since May 2018. On January 16, 2019, Osram announced the sale of the business to WESCO International. SLS offers a full spectrum of energy-efficient lighting upgrade, retrofit, and renovation solutions with annual sales of more than US$100 million and appro...

On March 5, 2019, the U.S. government announced the notice to postpone the 25 percent tariffs on Chinese imported products and the duty will remain 10 percent until further notice. Before the official notification released, U.S.-based companies Acuity Brands and Eaton have announced the pause of their scheduled price increased in response to the delayed tariff implementation. Eaton planned to increase price on March 1 due to the expected extra tariffs on Chinese-manufactured products including components and finished goods. Acuity Brands also announced a price increased ...

LED industry players have accelerated their development in niche products including Mini LED and sensing components IR LED and VCSEL. Taiwan-based LED company Lexter began mass producing Mini LED products since the third quarter of 2018. Apart from the initial applications in gaming monitor and notebook, Mini LED backlight has also been adopted in automotive display. The company estimates that Mini LED products will account for five percent or more of its 2019 revenue. Lextar also strengthened red LED business and pushes development in IR LE...

Indoor farming with controlled environment and LED lighting has brought agriculture to another level. Osram, as a leading photonic producer, has been an active player in the development of horticulture lighting. The company announced the development of LED-based luminaire system, Phytofy RL, which is designed to meet the increasing demands of horticulture researches at universities, private institutes and plant production in greenhouses and vertical farms. (Image: Osram) Phytofy RL is a tunable lighting system integrated UV to far-red LEDs to create various growth...

Power management company Eaton announced its plan to spin off its lighting business to create an independent, publicly traded company by the end of 2019. The lighting business of Eaton covers a wide range of products and systems to maximize energy efficiency which records sales of US$ 1.7 billion in 2018. Eaton’s lighting business provides services to customers in commercial, industrial, residential and municipal market. The spin-off will include Eaton’s global airport lighting business and Mains lighting. According to Eaton, Goldman Sachs will be Eaton&rsq...

Seoul Semiconductor announced that it has joined LightingEurope, the industry association that represents the lighting industry in Europe aiming to promote efficient lighting practices for the benefit of the global environment, human comfort, and the health and safety of consumers. (image: Seoul Semiconductor) Seoul Semiconductor becomes a member of the association so that the company will be informed with the latest EU lighting policies that impact its corporate strategies for LED technology development and application, for better and faster response to the European lig...

German equipment manufacturer AIXTRON posted its 2018 financial results. The company reported increased on-year revenue and gross margin due to continued demand for its MOCVD systems for lasers, red-orange-yellow (ROY) LEDs and specialty LEDs production. According to AIXTRON, its order intake in 2018 grew by 15% YoY to EUR 302.5 million (US$ 344.26 million), which led to a yearly revenue of EUR 268.8 million (US$ 306 million), up by 17% YoY. Adjusted for previous year's sales from discontinued operations, the sales increased by 40% compare...

A Micro LED equipped with 5G connection was showcased at MWC this year by the Fibocom International Alliance (FIA), an organization focuses on 5G IoT devices established by Chinese wireless communication specialist, Fibocom. According to FIA, the 5G Micro LED display, named FIA One, combines the two attention-drawing technologies and integrates existing access devices such as gateways, routers, set-top boxes, or IP TV services into a single display. FIA said the integration opens a door for new digital experiences and IoT innovations. "W...

German semiconductor maker Infineon announced that it has teamed up with LG Electronics to introduce Time-of-Flight (ToF) technology adopted front-facing camera on the latest smartphone of LG which will be revealed at Mobile World Congress 2019 in Barcelona. Infineon has provided its REAL3™ image sensor chip to LG’s upcoming G8 ThinQ. With Infineon’s pmdtechnologies in algorithms for processed 3D point clouds (a set of data points in space produced by 3D scanning), the innovative sensor will deliver a new level of front camera capability in a...

The penetration of Mini LED is expected to increase in the coming years with applications including gaming display and other professional monitors. The technology is also becoming popular for automotive applications. WitsView, a division of Trendforce, suggested a high possibility of Mini LED backlighting mass production in 2019 and noted that the cost of display production may increase by 20 to 100 percent depending on the number of Mini LED used. LEDinside noticed that Mini LED has been adopted as backlight for automotive displays such as HUDs, dashboards, in-...

Seoul Semiconductor announced that it has concluded a patent infringement lawsuit as Mouser, an international electronic component distributor agreed to stop selling certain LED product manufactured by Everlight in Japan. (Image: Pixabay) February 2018, Seoul Semiconductor filed a patent infringement lawsuit with the Tokyo District Court, accusing the LED product manufactured by Everlight and sold by Mouser of infringing an LED patent of Seoul Semiconductor’s affiliate. The company announced on February 21 that it agreed to withdraw the lawsuit as M...

Sweden-based horticulture lighting specialist Heliospectra reported that it has re-branded its technical services under the new name, helioCARE. The company also revealed an order from a medicinal plant research facility in Spain. With its expertise in intelligent lighting technology for greenhouse and controlled environment, Heliospectra offers a team of experts and a range of turnkey services to help growers and businesses to increase yields, accelerate harvests, and achieve consistent crop quality and production cycles. (image: Heliospectra) The re-branded helioCAR...

Perception solution developer AEye announced that eight patents related to its perception system iDAR (Intelligent Detection and Ranging) have been confirmed. AEye’s iDAR is an integrated system combining solid-state MEMs-based agile LiDAR, fused HD camera, and software definable AI technology. With the aim to solve the challenges of robotic vision for autonomous vehicles, AEye developed iDAR, the artificial perception system that combines LiDAR, HD camera and AI intelligence to create a smart perception sensor that mimic human visual cortex fo...

Signify is speeding up its LiFi development and implement. The leading lighting company announced the trail of LiFi in Europe, North America and Asia through cooperation with more than 30 customers. Signify and its customers set up pilot LiFi installations in worldwide cities. In India, Signify works with Incubex, an incubator for product and business solution, to set up a LiFi implemented meeting room where new startups and firms can apply the technology with Signify’s Philips LiFi-enabled luminaires. In Europe, Signify collaborate with telecoms company...

Zumtobel announced that it has teamed up with pureLiFi, the UK-based LiFi company spun off from the University of Edinburgh, to empower its LED solution with capacity of data transmission. With the partnership, Zumtobel installed pureLiFi’s system with its LED lights. The trial will allow Zumtobel to evaluate the market demand for the technology over the coming months. Then the company aims to leverage LiFi to create value for lead adopters from industries such as medical, defence, industrial and manufacturing. (Image: Zumtobel) Alfred Felder, Zumt...

The importance of LED lighting applications in the horticultural industry is increasing with the on-going trend of indoor and vertical farming applications. With controllable spectrum and illuminance, LED lighting is widely used in cultivation for various kinds of crops including tomatoes, cucumbers, herbs, greens and cannabis. LEDinside notices that many LED and lighting companies have increased their product portfolio for horticulture lighting and pushed related technology development. According to the report of LEDinside, titled “2019 Light LED and LED ...

Signify announced that its EnabLED Licensing Prgram for LED luminaires and retrofit bulbs has included more than 1000 members and is providing more than 400 inventions and over 2800 granted patents for them. Signify reported in May 2018 that it has signed 900 licensees with the program covering 2600 patents. The program has added 150 more innovations to its portfolio early in 2018 and increased the licensing members to 1000. (Image: Signify) The new innovations added to the program are related to filament-based LED products, warm dimming incandescent emulation, om...

Chinese panel producer BOE will become a supplier of OLED panels to Apple for iPhone aside from Samsung and LGD, reported Etnews, a South Korean media. According to the report, BOE might be providing flexible OLED panel for the folding iPhone scheduled for 2020. However, currently the flexible OLED panels of BOE have not passed Apple’s final validation yet. For officially supplying its OLED products to Apple, BOE has to provide further sample products and go through the demanding process of quality control. As a result, it might take more...

Fujitsu Network Communications, announced an expansion of its Internet of Things (IoT) technology platform which will enable the rapid development and deployment of smart utility applications. With the addition of new ecosystem partners ClearWorld and GreenStar, this powerful platform of tools and technologies includes solutions for integrated smart lighting and smart energy resilience. Fujitsu is empowering utilities and communities to leverage advanced technologies with an integrated ecosystem of technology vendors, offering simplicity, cost savings and convenience with bes...

Osram has continued its company profile sharpening and appointed Dieter May, who has served as Senior Vice President of the Digital Services and Business Models unit for the BMW Group, as the new CEO of OSRAM Opto Semiconductors business unit. May will begin its position to lead the LED division of Osram since May 1, 2019, taking over the management from Aldo Kamper, the previous CEO of Osarm Opto Semiconductors who became CEO of Germany’s Leoni AG after he left Osram in August 2018. (Image: BMW/OSRAM) The intensive expe...

Point Engineering (PEC) is a UV LED package manufacturer based in South Korea who specialized in its vertical insulator aluminum metal frame for UV LED package. According to the analysis of LEDinside, the UV LED market is expected to increase to US$ 1.224 billion in 2022, with a CAGR of 33% during 2017-2022. Apart from the steady curing market growth, surface sterilization, static water sterilization, and flowing water sterilization are the market momentums to drive the growth of UV LED during 2018 to 2022. The development for LED chips becom...

Apart from the buyout talk confirmation, Osram also announced that it has purchased shares of Beaconinside, a German company developing IoT solutions, for expanding its digital business in location-based services. Osram aims to integrate Beaconinside’s IoT solution for retails, smart city and logistics with its sensor technology to extend product portfolio such as beacon. Stefan Kampmann, CTO of OSRAM, noted, "Beaconinside's innovative solutions enable sales-supporting advertising campaigns, detailed customer analyses and intelligent logistics monitorin...

Taiwanese LED companies announced their revenue of January 2019. Epistar and Lextar posted on-month revenue increase while Lite-On reported growth in LED products. Epistar registered a revenue of NT$ 1.27 billion (US$ 41.16 million) for January which increased by 6.56% MoM but dropped by 32.4% YoY. Impacted by the trade dispute and political uncertainty, business growth in the global LED market is not expected by the industry players. To cope with the sluggish market, Epistar has focused on Mini LED backlight products targeting high-end display applicatio...

U.S.-based instrument manufacturer Veeco announced its financial results for the fourth quarter and fiscal 2018. For 4Q18, the company registered a revenue of US$99 million, which dropped by 29.1% YoY. Veeco also reported a GAAP net loss of US$144.7 million, in comparison with US$8.5 loss in 4Q17. The non-GAAP loss was US$7.5 million. According to the company, the declined revenue and profit in the fourth quarter of 2018 was due to "Commoditization of the MOCVD market for LEDs in China.” In 2Q18, the revenue from China accounted for 45...

Osram announced a confirmation about the possible buyout by Bain Capital and Carlyle Group and revealed that it is engaged in detailed discussions with the interested parties. After Osram reported its declined business performance in the first quarter of fiscal 2019 and said it has “taken a number of measures to improve revenue and returns,” the Germany company confirmed the market rumors that Bain Capital and Carlyle Group are eyeing the buyout of Osram. In November 2018, Bloomberg reported that the U.S.-based Bain Capital has been considering acquiri...

Signify has been increasing its investment in fast-growing areas including horticulture, solar, and LiFi as they go in line with the company’s sustainability principle. LiFi was particularly addressed as Signify has recently acquired Firefly LiFi, a LiFi company with offices in the U.S. and Germany. According to the news covered by LiFiReport, Signify has bought FireFly LiFi with the transaction completed in December 2018. The lighting company has also acquired a French LiFi company by the end of 2016 and started a trial in Paris with a French real esta...

Austrian sensing solution provider ams announced that it will showcase several industry-first technologies for mobile devices at Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2019 in Barcelona during February 25 -28. ams will demonstrate state-of-the-art sensor solutions for mobile, computing and consumers including 3D sensing technology, behind screen solution color sensors and medical-level wearable devices. The industrial and automotive applications of these technologies will also be presented by ams. (image: ams) The 3D sensing technologies for mobile devices include active stereo ca...

Seoul Semiconductor announced that its SunLike Series natural spectrum LEDs have been adopted for horticulture LED lighting by Rofianda, a Netherlands-based lighting solution company. According to Seoul Semiconductor, its SunLike Series natural spectrum LEDs produce light that closely matches the spectrum of natural sunlight. Adopting the SunLike LEDs, the horticulture LED lighting by Rofianda achieved a full spectrum of light wavelengths from 380nm to 740nm which is similar to the spectral curve of natural sunlight. In co-operation with Rofianda, Seoul ...

Followed the notice released by the end of January, Osram announced the results of its first quarter of fiscal 2019. The company posted a revenue of EUR 828 million (US$ 934.65 million) which declined by 15% YoY with revenue dropped in three of Osram’s business segments. The Opto Semiconductors division recorded an on-year decline in revenue of 17% and its revenue of automotive segment decreased by 11 % YoY. In the Digital segment, revenue fell by around 17% YoY due to weak market development in the general lighting segment. Olaf Berlien, CEO of Osram...

Last week at Integrated Systems Europe (ISE) 2019 in Amsterdam, Korean electronics producers LG and Samsung both introduced their latest LED and OLED technologies for signage applications. Samsung presented a range of 8K digital signage products including QLED displays and the 2019 version of The Wall display while LG demonstrate a transparent and curving OLED signage as well as a full lineup of LED products. Samsung showcased a new 82-inch QLED 8K signage, a 292-inch The Wall display in 8K, Multi-Link LED HDR technology and semi-outdoo...