Seoul Semiconductor announced on Sept. 19, 2017 that it has filed a patent infringement lawsuit, together with its affiliate, Seoul Viosys Co., Ltd., against Archipelago Lighting, Inc. in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.

Velodyne LiDAR Inc., the world leader in 3D real-time perception systems for autonomous vehicles, announced its selection by Mercedes-Benz Research & Development as a critical sensor supplier for the VLP-32C Ultra Puck™ for further development of fully automated and driverless vehicles.

NanoLumens, a creators of compelling interactive LED visualization solutions, and Infiled USA and DetaiLED Solutions, providers of customized technology solutions utilizing LED displays, announced they have reached a settlement to dismiss a patent infringement lawsuit. Although DetaiLED Solutions had displayed a flexible LED display model on its website, Infiled USA and DetaiLED Solutions demonstrated that they have not sold and agreed that they will not make, use, sell, offer for sale, or import any flexible LED display modules that infringe NanoLumens’ patents in the United States. The parties anticipate future discussions to explore mutually beneficial business opportunities.

CYNORA, a Germany-based provider of highly efficient organic emitter materials for OLEDs, announced that the two Korean tech giants have decided to support CYNORA on its way to becoming a major player for OLED emitting materials.

AIXTRON SE, a worldwide provider of deposition equipment to the semiconductor industry, received a multiple MOCVD system order from IQE plc, the British supplier of advanced wafer products and wafer services to the semiconductor industry. The AIX 2800G4-TM automated Planetary reactors® expected to be deployed for the growth of gallium arsenide-based (GaAs) epi-wafers on 6-inch substrates for the production of VCSEL (vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser) for a range of photonic applications.

Well, it is not much of a surprise that the design and features of the iPhone X are largely in line with expectations. It, different from all previous iPhones, sports a full screen OLED display with a bit of ‘bangs’, where Apple puts the sensors, cameras, and the speaker. “For more than a decade, our intention has been to create an iPhone that is all display. The iPhone X is the realization of that vision,” said Jony Ive, Apple’s chief design officer.

American Tower Corporation, specializing in wireless infrastructure and Philips Lighting formed an alliance to accelerate the digital transformation of urban spaces and the adoption of smart city services in the United States. The companies are developing a collocation ready, 4G/5G enabled LED smart light pole for use in roadways, streets and parking lots that will improve wireless broadband access in dense urban areas while also providing quality energy-efficient connected LED lighting.

Global consolidated revenue of LiteOn and its subsidiary in August 2017 was NTD 18.62 billion, up 6% MoM and down 12% YoY. Because of the stable demand in the end market benefiting LiteOn’s core business, its consolidated revenue from January 2017 to August 2017 hit NTD 140.54 billion, down 2.4% YoY.

Wipro Lighting, part of Wipro Enterprises (P) Limited and a leading player in lighting in India, has concluded an agreement with pureLiFi - global leaders in LiFi technology and commercialisation, to harness their LiFi technology to develop applications for the wireless communications and lighting market in Asia.

Silver Spring Networks, Inc. on 6th Sep. announced a new agreement with Genus Power Infrastructures Ltd., a smart meter provider in India and Southeast Asia. Under the agreement, Genus will integrate Silver Spring’s standards-based IPv6 network interface cards (NICs) into its single-phase and three-phase smart electric meters. Silver Spring’s technology is based on Wi-SUN® standards-based mesh, built on IEEE 802.15.4g

EV Group (EVG), a supplier of wafer bonding and lithography equipment for the MEMS, nanotechnology and semiconductor markets, announced it has received multiple orders for its comprehensive portfolio of manufacturing equipment and services designed to address the burgeoning demand for wafer-level optics (WLO) and 3D sensing.

Orbotech Ltd., a global supplier of yield-enhancing and process-enabling solutions for the manufacture of electronics products, announced that its end-to-end automated optical inspection (AOI) solutions have been selected by YUNGU (Gu'an) Technology Co., LTD for its new flexible OLED Gen 6 fab. The project execution is supported by Visionox, a Chinese flat panel display (FPD) manufacturer. The deal includes a large number of Orbotech AOI systems for TFT (thin-film transistor) Array and OLED-related layers for inspection and classification. The new Gen 6 fab is located in Gu'an Hebei, China. Delivery is expected at the beginning of 2018.

Major technology companies have been developing solutions and platforms for 3D sensing, which is expected to be featured on the upcoming iPhone devices. Market intelligence TrendForce anticipates that from 2017 onward, the market for 3D sensing solutions used in mobile devices will witness leaping growth. The total value of the global market for 3D sensing modules used in mobile devices is estimated to reach US$1.5 billion in 2017 and is forecast to grow at a massive CAGR of 209% to around US$14 billion in 2020. Note that the 3D sensing module that is being discussed includes IR transmitter and receiver components.

Taiwan-based LED chip giant Epistar’s revenue in August stood at NTD 2.332 billion (USD 77.59 million), with a rise of 3.7% MoM (5.3% YoY). It has hit a new high in the past 28 months. The company explained the fully-utilized capacity for blue LED manufacturing and the AlInGaP demand driver from the horticultural lighting market accounted for the growth, despite an overall slide of 0.3% YoY in the consolidated revenue of 2017 (accumulated until the end of August).

LeddarTech announced the completion of a combined investment of US$101 million (close to CA$130 million) led by Osram and including Delphi, Magneti Marelli and Integrated Device Technology, Inc. as strategic investors, as well as Fonds de solidarité FTQ. Representing the Company's largest capital raise to date, this round of funding will allow LeddarTech to enhance its ASIC development efforts, expand its R&D team, and accelerate ongoing LiDAR development programs with select Tier-1 automotive customers for rapid market deployment.

Offering the industry's broadest portfolio of consumer OLED TVs – 10 models in 55-, 65- and 77-inch class sizes – home entertainment innovator LG Electronics USA is bringing the award-winning 2017 LG OLED lineup to CEDIA 2017 in San Diego this week.

Philips Lighting today announced that it achieved the status of Industry leader in the Electrical Components and Equipment category of the 2017 Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI). The company’s overall score was 85 out of 100 points, demonstrating that sustainability is central to Philips Lighting’s company strategy and purpose. This is the first year that Philips Lighting has been included in the category as an independent company since its initial public offering in May 2016.

Future Lighting Solutions, a provider of solid-state lighting and supply chain solutions, and OSRAM Digital Systems, specializing in lighting technology solutions, have announced a new franchise partnership encompassing OSRAM’s comprehensive range of drivers, light engines and controls for lighting applications. The agreement covers Asia.

The BACnet community announced yesterday that Osram has lately become the newest company to join BACnet International as a Silver member. The involvement of the lighting manufacturer marks a tighter bond between advanced smart lighting and BACnet protocol. It is possible in the future to see Osram’s products being able to communicate with more building automation devices smarter through BACnet’s systems.

Japan-based Yano Research Institute issued on 4th September a research report projecting the market value of Micro LED in 2017 to be USD 7 million following Sony’s launch of CLEDIS display that features Micro LED technology. The market is slowly shaping up. 

LumiGrow Inc., a smart horticultural lighting company, announced in mid August their partnership with CF Industrial, a lighting and power solutions provider in Leamington, Ontario. The new partnership bolsters LumiGrow’s commitment to their Ontario greenhouse growers, further providing responsive local support for those implementing smart horticultural lighting for precision greenhouse management.  The CF Industrial team is yet another addition to LumiGrow’s Ontario-based services, as the company has already deployed plant science research support across the region.

Top Taiwanese LED manufacturer Epistar’s revenue made a turnaround in 2Q17. After the improvement of its product assortment, the capacity of EPISTAR’s blue light LED in Q3 is full. The utilization rate of four-element LED stays above 80%. With the support of AlInGaP LED’s demand in markets such as automotive lighting and security control, the capacity of Epistar will be almost fully-utilized until Q4. The price of its blue LED is likely to remain stable. Epistar doesn’t appear to be involved in the price war in China considering Chinese manufacturers tend to expand capacity to manufacture their own blue LEDs. 

As the nation prepares to celebrate Labor Day Weekend, a time for recognizing the hard work of American workers, the maker of SYLVANIA light bulbs in the United States is announcing it has invested millions of dollars to keep and add local manufacturing jobs and increase U.S. production of something we all depend on – the light bulb. This initiative transitions 200 jobs from making traditional lighting products, whose demand has been declining, to new LED technology and also adds 20 new jobs.

Taiwan-based LED lighting company Lite-On announced its participation in a digital cities program run by the Global Project Center of Stanford University. Through collaboration with experts in various fields including finance, city management, and infrastructure planning, it aims to tailor its solutions toward the concept of smart cities.

Google Inc has invested 15 million USD for a 13 percent stake in Glo, a university spin-out focused on creating nanowire-based LED-displays for mobile phones and smart watches as well as AR- and VR-applications.

China-based LED chip supplier SemiTek announced an agreement signed by its wholly-owned subsidiary Yunnan Lanjing Technology and the People’s Government of Hongta District, Yunnan to build a new LED substrate fab for capacity expansion.

EVERLIGHT launches the NIR-C19M series with a wavelength of 810nm which exert the clearest contrast effect to read the pattern of the iris. The recognition process is precise, quick and features excellent heat dissipation. This makes it perfectly suitable for iris recognition applications in security surveillance systems (access control) and portable handsets.

Philips Lighting announced it has been awarded a new project with longtime partner Wim Peters, a high wire tomato growers in The Netherlands. Philips Lighting will again provide Peters with LED lighting for two greenhouses that he’s rebuilding after they were destroyed during a hailstorm in June 2016. The company will also provide LEDs for one new greenhouse that Peters is building to expand his business and meet the growing demand for LED grown tomatoes by his customers. The LED lighting will have higher light levels than the twenty kilometers of LED grow lights that Philips Lighting installed in the two greenhouses in 2013.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average yesterday said consumer electronics giant Apple will be holding its product launch event on 12th of September, as the Wall Street Journal carried in its report. Products to be unveiled are said to be the iPhone 8, the 10th anniversary edition exciting the public for long, the iPhone 7s, the iPhone 7s Plus, a new Apple TV box supporting 4K super high definition visual content, and an updated Apple Watch. Along with those products, the supply chains and technologies behind them have also been gradually revealed by various sources, even though Apple itself is very tight-lipped about it. 

Osram has agreed to acquire Digital Lumens Inc., a U.S. company based in Boston, Massachusetts that specializes in industrial IoT solutions. Founded in 2008, Digital Lumens employs 65 people and in the last fiscal year generated sales in the mid-double-digit millions (USD). The Digital Lumens software platform can be used to run applications covering everything from intelligent lighting control, energy use, and security systems to the measurement of environmental parameters such as air quality. The cloud-based platform is compatible with components and hardware of other manufacturers. Digital Lumens has built a strong customer base for industrial IoT solutions, with more than 2,500 installations.