The fourth quarter is usually the off-peak season for the LED market. Industry players including Lextar and Macroblock have reported lukewarm business performance in November and are expecting growth in 2019 with the booming Mini LED market. Lextar posted its monthly revenue of NT$ 823 million (US$ 26.67 million) for November with a decrease of 6.5% MoM and 7.8% YoY. The company has continued its product shipments including Mini LED backlights, Mini LED RGB modules, fine-pitch displays and VCSEL packages. Meanwhile, it also focuses on further tech...

Apple has applied a patent related to optoelectronics devices for improving LiDAR sensors and applications, reported Patently Apple. The report said that Apple noted the demands for applications using 3D sensing and imaging systems and proposed enhanced technologies to integrate LiDAR and VCSEL for advanced 3D image technology. The new patent introduce a method to combine different types of light source and laser array such as diffractive optical elements or VCSEL to develop improved 3D image devices for various applications. (Image: Apple) Patently Ap...

The LED industry has been involved in the trade war between the United States and China as LED components and related lighting products were included in the list of extra tariffs. LEDinside has been tracking the impacts of the trade war, which is believed to have led to the aggravation of oversupply in the LED industry. The two countries have recently reached a trade truce by suspending the new tariffs for 90 days. However, LEDinside believes that the delay would bring increased uncertainty into the LED industry. Figo Wang, senior analyst of LEDinside, pointed...

Idemitsu Kosan announces that it will build a facility for OLED material manufacturing in Chengdu, China in order to accommodate the growing demand for OLED materials in China and to enhance technical support to Chinese customers. Idemitsu Kosan aims to expand its OLED production in China targeting the increasing Chinese market for OLED applications. The company will construct its third OLED material plant in China after its factory in Japan and Korea. The construction is expected to be completed in November 2019 and the commercial production is schedul...

DigiLens, a U.S.-based HUD device developer, announced that it has received an investment from AR software company Niantic and Diamond Edge Ventures, the strategic investment arm of Mitsubishi Chemical Holdings Corporation (MCHC) in its Series C funding round. With the investment, DigiLens will continue its development in holographic AR displays for automobile, consumer and other applications. With its technology in holographic waveguide displays, DigiLens provides proprietary nanomaterials and core technologies for AR displays. The company aims to create...

VPED (Visual Photonics Epitaxy Co. Ltd), a Taiwan-based GaAs wafer producer, announced that the company expects growth momentum from the applications of VCSEL and will begin to ship small volumes of 5G products next year. As the smartphone market has passed its peak phase, semiconductor suppliers are looking forward to the applications of IoT and 5G. However, the development of these fields has just begun, bringing limited momentum to the industry. As result, the growth of VPED would still come from VCSEL applications including 3D facial recognition and L...

VividGro, the horticultural LED division of Lighting Science, announced that it has built partnerships with U.S. suppliers to domestically produce LED fixtures with cost-effective solutions and has moved back its manufacturing lines back to the U.S. since the beginning of 2018. VividGro has relocated its production and assembly of all of its product lines in Rockledge, Florida, since the first quarter of 2018. Through strategic partnerships with domestic suppliers, the company has minimized its overseas sourcing and managed to create local job opportunities with its pro...

NEC announced that it will remove the lighting business from its group and sell its lighting subsidiary, NEC Lighting, to a new company founded by Japan Mirai Capital on April 1st, 2019. According to the announcement of NEC, the intense price competition in the LED lighting market has led to deficit of its lighting business in the recent ten years. Therefore, NEC decided to withdraw the lighting business which the company has been running for more than six decades. (Image: pixabay) NEC began to produce fluorescent light since 1952 and established NEC Li...

Epistar started its shipment of Mini LED products since the third quarter of 2018 and plans to increase the production by the first quarter of 2019. Its spin-off subsidiary of VCSEL manufacturing is also expanding its 4-inch and 6-inch products. The applications of Epistar’s Mini LED products include backlight for gaming monitors and notebooks and fine-pitch displays. The company expects the market momentum of displays will push the growth of its Mini LED and hope to boost the business by 2020. Epistar Semiconductor, the spin-off subsidiary of Epistar, ...

Acuva Technologies, a Canadian company developing UVC-LED water purification system, announced that it has received CAD 2.1 million (US$ 1.6 million) from the Canadian government. Access to safe drinking water contributes to improved health, helping reduce the risk of waterborne diseases. However, according to the report of the World Health Organization (2017), a quarter of the world’s population drinks contaminated water, causing over 2.2 million deaths annually. UV LED technology has been used in water purifying devices to sterilize water for improving dri...

South Korean prosecutors have charged nine people of selling Samsung’s technology of flexible OLED display to a Chinese company, reported Reuters. Toptec, a Samsung supplier which produce automated equipment for smartphone display production, has received 15.5 billion won (US$ 13.85 million) for transferring Samsung’s OLED panel technology to China. According to the report, the CEO and eight employees of the company has formed a shell company to receive information about panel production from Samsung Display and then sell the high-profiled documents...

Taiwanese LED packager Edison Opto has shifted its business focus from LED lighting to LED automotive lighting modules due to the decreasing profit of its conventional lighting business. The portfolio adjustment has come into effect with the company reporting the highest profit margin in the past five year despite its lukewarm revenue performance. (Image: Edison Opto) Edison Opto posted a revenue of NT$ 639 million (US$ 20.71 million) for 3Q18 with on quarter decrease of 14% and on year decrease of 7.4%. However, the quarterly profit margin came to the highest p...

ThorDrive, an autonomous vehicle (AV) startup, has utilized LiDAR sensors of Velodyne to realize its commercial vehicle services. On November 29th, ThorDrive is introducing the service with a kick-off event in Palo Alto with attendants including local government and business leaders. The initial service, in partnership with Hassett ACE Hardware, will support select residents of Channing House (senior housing) and fire departments in Palo Alto with plans to expand to additional pilots soon. The ThorDrive platform is using Velodyne’s lidar sensors to provi...

AquiSense Technologies, a U.S. based UV-C LED systems developer, announced its partnership with the United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) and Washington University base on a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) for advanced development of UV LED disinfection system. Through the CRADA partnership, researchers at AquiSense and USEPA will work together at the National Homeland Security Research Center (NHSRC) and at Washington University for developing UV LED integrated water sterilizatio...

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) of the U.S. government issued an announcement to call on distributers and marketers of LED signs to follow statute and rules of the FCC. In the announcement, the FCC unveiled that its Enforcement Bureau has entered into 21 settlement agreements with companies that marketed noncompliant LED signs in violation of the Communications Act and FCC rules since March 2018. The settlements yielded approximately US$850,000 in penalties paid to the U.S. Treasury and commitments to ensure compliance with the law going for...

LiDAR startup Luminar and Volvo Cars revealed their development in LiDAR perception for safe autonomous driving technology. Volvo has announced to invest in Luminar in June and became the first of its partners to develop advanced perception capabilities for vehicles. Volvo Cars has introduced its vision for full autonomy with its 360c concept and worked closely with Luminar. At the AutoMobility show in Los Angeles, the two companies jointly demonstrated long-range perception capabilities on a live drive along Los Angeles highways and streets to show Volvo Cars lo...

Gallant Precision Machining (GPM), a Taiwan-based semiconductor equipment provider, reported that its business has been growing stably with orders from penal producers and semiconductor companies. The company and its subsidiary GMM have also been pushing the development of Micro LED transfer equipment which is expected to enter the market by the first quarter of 2019. GPM and its subsidiary GMM have focused on equipment for different Micro LED production. GPM targets in-process testing equipment for Micro LED chips while GMM is focused on Micro LED...

The Netherland-based research center, Holst Centre and Fraunhofer FEP have developed the world's longest single-device OLED which of 15 meters long. The development opens the door to 'endless OLEDs' that manufacturers and designers can then easily tailor to their own needs. Holst Centre and Fraunhofer FEP worked together through Lyteus, an EU founded public-private partnership organization which brings together leaders in OLED technology from across Europe to create an OLED pilot production line and product development services. Under the fr...

ams, a high performance sensor solutions provider, has cooperated with Qualcomm Technologies to focus on the development of a 3D depth sensing camera solution for mobile phone applications such as 3D imaging and scanning and biometric face authentication. The two companies aim to dedicate their technology expertise and engineering force to design a 3D stereo camera solution for Android-based mobile phones. ams provides its VCSEL light sources and optical IR pattern technology on the base of Qualcomm’s Snapdragon™ Mobile Platforms to suppourt various applicati...

Seven-Eleven Japan will grow vegetables for its own salads products sold at convenience stores by establishing a plant factory in Tokyo, reported Nikkei Asian Review. Seven-Eleven is the largest convenience store operator in Japan and it began the project in order to reduce the supply risks caused by weather. The indoor farming facility will be set up in Kanagawa Prefecture to produce lettuce for stores in the Greater Tokyo Area. (Image: Osram) According to the report, the facility will cost about 6 billion yen (US$53.3 million) and is scheduled to operate in J...

TowerJazz, an Israel-based chip producer, announced that its 0.18um CMOS Image Sensor (CIS) SPAD (single-photon avalanche diode) process has been selected by LeddarTech, a Canadian automotive LiDAR developer, for its automotive LiDAR solutions. TowerJazz’s CIS SPAD platform combines CMOS, image sensors and SPAD on the same chip, offering an integrated solution with figures of merit. Through the partnership with TowerJazz, LeddarTech expects to expand the market of its LiDAR platform. LeddarTech’s LiDAR solutions enable...

Forest Lighting has released a letter to its customers to share the update regarding MLS’s plan to integrate Forest Lighting and LEDVANCE. MLS is the global parent company of LEDVANCE and Forest Lighting and has decided to integrate these two businesses in the United States and Canada to maximize operation efficiency. According to the announcement of Forest Lighting, LEDVANCE will be responsible for operation management after integration. The purpose of the integration is to accelerate product development, reduce internal costs, and improve...

Kulicke and Soffa (K&S) has announced its financial results of the fourth quarter and its fiscal 2018 ended September 29, 2018. The Company’s revenue for the fourth quarter was US$184.8 million and the full year revenue was US$889.1 million. Dr. Fusen Chen, Kulicke & Soffa's President and CEO, stated, “Over the past two years, our organizational redesign and development efforts have diversified our business and provided access to several new and promising growth opportunities. Throughout fiscal year 2018, these fundamental improvements resul...

FitTech, a Taiwanese LED chip and wafer probers provider, has increased its product portfolio for the production of Mini LED and VCSEL and has been providing its equipment to the top three Chinese LED companies. FitTech has continued to extend its product lines in the optoelectronic field with a focus on system integration. Its products include LED/wafer probers, automatic solar sorters, laser micromachining systems and others. With its products, the company has successfully become a supplier for the top three Chinese LED companies. Its LED prober takes...

Heliospectra, the Swedish horticulture LED lighting solution provider, has reported new orders from John Innes Center, a British research center, and F&M 2017 DOO, a Macedonian medicinal cannabis provider. UK-based John Innes Centre focuses on researches on plant science and uses speed breading to accelerate research on wheat and other crops. The institute has installed Heliospectra’s LED grow light for its research project and successfully speeded up the growing cycle of wheat. John Innes Centre has ordered new ELIXIA and EOS lights from H...

Electronica 2018, the biannual electronic components exhibition, was held in Munich, Germany, from November 13th to 16th. Several world leading LED producers joined the event to showcase their novel technology developments and innovative applications. Korea-based LG Innotek and Everlight from Taiwan both participated in Electronica 2018 and demonstrated their LED products and applications. LG Innotek presented its automotive and electronic components for electric and smart vehicles during the event and aims to increase its presence in the European market. The compan...

Imec, the Belgium-based nanoelectronics research center, has worked with Ghent University and contact lens producer SEED to develop a contact lens integrated with LED light. The lens is presented at imec technology forum Japan (ITF Japan 2018) on November 19th, 2018. The contact lens with an integrated LED light is made of hydrogel-based material and is embedded with an ultra-thin silicon microchip, radio‐frequency (RF) antenna for wireless energy transfer, and stretchable thin‐film interconnections. imec and CMST, an imec research group at Ghent University...

SemiLEDs Corporation, a developer and manufacturer of LED chips and LED components, has posted its financial results for the fourth quarter and full year of fiscal year 2018, ended August 31, 2018. (Image: SemiLEDs) Revenues for the fourth quarter and for the third quarter of fiscal 2018 were both approximately US$2.0 million. GAAP net loss attributable to SemiLEDs stockholders for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2018 was US$1.1 million, compared to a loss of $326 thousand in the third quarter of 2018, or a net loss of US$0.32 per diluted share, compared to...

Orion Energy Systems reported results for the second quarter of its fiscal 2019 ended September 30, 2018. The company posted a revenue of US$ 13.2 million for 2Q19, down14.3% YoY and 4% QoQ due to lower sales through the distribution channel and delays of certain projects. Gross margin declined to 19.3% in 2Q19, compared to 23.5% in 2Q18. According to Orion, the business in the U.S. is progressing significantly with its automotive, retail and public sector customers. With its capability to provide tailored LED lighting solutions, the growth momentum of Orion com...

Big lighting brands have continually transformed their positioning from luminaires providers to high technology developers. Apart from Osram revising its organization structure and moving towards to digitalization, Signify has also been expanding its presence in the market of smart applications and establishing IoT systems in Asia. (Image: Signify) According to the report by Digital News Asia, Signify has launched its Interact IoT platform in Kuala Lumpur on November 14th. Alok Ghose, CEO of Signify ASEAN, said that the company will assist Malaysia for t...