Samsung demonstrated “The Wall”, the new giant 16inch Micro LED TV in CES 2018 and is now planning to release the products into the market by third quarter this year. According to the report of Korea Times, a senior company executive said Samsung Electronics will debut TVs using Micro LED technology commercially the soonest in the third quarter in 2018. 

Signify announced to appoint Brian Friborg as the new leader of Entertainment Lighting Group on 6th June 2018. Born in Danmark and now based in the U.S., Brian is experienced in lighting business and carries critical understandings about the industry.

LG Eletronics USA Business Solution is introducing the new Transparent Color LED film display which is flexible and can be attached on any surface such as windows and glass, making it possible to turn them into customized digital display. 

Signify, formerly known as Philips, announced the expansion of LED horticultural lighting installation with Agro-Inwest, Russia’s rapidly growing innovative company cultivating fresh vegetables. The greenhouses using LED lighting for growing tomatoes will reach the size of 68.5 hectares, equivalent to 100 soccer pitches. 

With Micro LED entering different applications, LEDinside this year has invited industry experts in Taiwan and from around the world to dissect the development of the technology and its major bottlenecks.

Focusing on the technology trend of Micro LED and its manufacturing limitation, this year in Micro LEDforum, LEDinside has invited worldwide experts to dissert and reveal the solutions of Micro LED applications. 

Vuzix® Corporation ("Vuzix" or, the "Company"), a leading supplier of Smart Glasses and Augmented Reality (AR) technologies and products for the consumer and enterprise markets, is pleased to announce that the Company is partnering with Plessey Semiconductor, a leading developer of award-winning optoelectronic solutions. The two companies are partnering to develop advanced display engines for Vuzix waveguide optics to enable next generation AR Smart Glasses. The combination of Vuzix' extensive expertise and IP in smart glasses and waveguide optic technologies along with Plessey's microLED light source product family, Quanta-Brite™ will be the basis for a new generation of AR Smart Glasses with the sleekest form factors to date.

Luminus Devices, Inc. has released its third proprietary spectral technology, PerfectWhite™, which closely replicates the visual characteristics of halogen lamps (3000K). When compared to halogen, PerfectWhite was preferred by lighting designers in testing at both Light + Building and Lightfair. Though the spectrums are a virtual match – Luminus filled the cyan gap – PerfectWhite’s color point is slightly below the black body locus and as a result, there’s no green/yellow tint that is common to halogen. A better halogen has long been a wish of the lighting design community and PerfectWhite delivers without infra-red, without green/yellow tint, and without ultraviolet radiation.

Luminus Devices, Inc. has expanded its ultraviolet (UV) LED portfolio with two new 280 nm devices intended for the medical and health and well-being product segments. The standard footprint 3535 surface mount emitter is a 350 mA device with peak output up to 60 mW. The second ultra-compact emitter is 1.3 mm by 1.3 mm and only 0.85 mm tall; it delivers 3 mW at 20 mA and peak output of 11 mW at 100 mA.

Signify (Euronext: LIGHT), the world leader in lighting, today announced that it has reached the 900th member milestone for its EnabLED Licensing Program for LED luminaires and retrofit bulbs in May. This latest milestone underlines the company's commitment to research and development and innovation in the latest energy efficient LED technologies.

Light Polymers is now shipping the first of its Healthy Lighting products in the Taiwan market. In a press conference in Neihu today, Light Polymers explained its lyotropic liquid crystal technology which is made and formulated in Taiwan and how it uses its liquid crystals to make Crystallin film to create healthy LED lighting products.

Korea-based Lumens made a stunning debut by delivering Micro LED display module called “MLD” in Indian market.

Veeco Instruments Inc. (Nasdaq: VECO) announced that Lumentum Holdings Inc. has ordered the Veeco K475i™ Arsenide/Phosphide (As/P) Metal Organic Chemical Vapor Deposition (MOCVD) System for production of its advanced semiconductor components which address the 3D sensing, high-speed fiber-optic communications and laser-based materials processing end-markets. Lumentum, headquartered in Milpitas, Calif., is a leading manufacturer of innovative optical and photonics products.

Micro LED since 2014 has been receiving attention. The industry is slowly becoming familiar with the new display technology that motivated Apple to acquire LuxVue. However, in 2008 a company already foresaw Micro LED to be a future display trend and started related development despite lack of market appetite. When the market started noticing Mini/Micro LED UK-based optic tech firm Optovate had already patented ideas to render various applications featuring these microscopic technologies.

2018 is a pivotal year for Mini/Micro LED development. UK-based Plessey Semiconductors in January announced its commitment to launch a Micro LED microdisplay featuring monolithic GaN-on-Silicon Micro LEDs. Following the announcement, LEDinside got in touch with Myles Blake, Marketing Director of Plessey Semiconductors, to learn more about its technology platform and product roadmap.

At SID's Display Week 2018 in Los Angeles, glō and Jasper Display Corp. (JDC) will, for the first time ever, demo the world's brightest self-emitting display panel. The industry's brightest Micro LEDs (10 μm), developed and integrated by glō, paired with JDC's new silicon backplane, the JD67E2, make it possible to deliver the high brightness and contrast that will benefit the next wave of watches, phones, heads-up-displays (HUDs), and augmented reality (AR) products.

In March, LEDinside witnessed a Chinese lighting company being caught red-handed for showcasing patent-infringing LED filament bulbs at Light + Building 2018. Slightly later than that, we also learnt Epistar has approached and initiated talks with a few companies for IP collaborations at that fair. At TILS 2018 in April, LEDinside interviewed Epistar and got more details about the matter.

On May 17th, Visionox (Gu'an) 6th-generation fully flexible AMOLED (active-matrix organic light emitting diode) production line, China's first 6th-generation fully flexible AMOLED production line, was put into operation in Gu'an New Industry City in Hebei Province. Featuring a designed productivity of 30,000 substrates per month, the production line can meet the display demands of approximately 100 million intelligent terminal devices.

Osram’s venture capital arm, Fluxunit, has acquired a stake in Canadian startup Motorleaf, an artificial intelligence company focused on bringing actionable, datadriven insights to greenhouse and indoor farm operators.

Philips Lighting today announced that the Annual General Meeting of Shareholders (AGM) adopted the proposal to amend the articles of association of the company to change its name from Philips Lighting N.V. to Signify N.V.

Philips Lighting has completed the cancellation of 2.2 million shares that it repurchased from Royal Philips in February 2018 for an aggregate amount of EUR 71 million.

The Lighting Research Center (LRC) at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute has published a new report on the energy and economic performance of LED horticultural luminaires. The LRC evaluated key factors such as power demand, life-cycle cost, luminaire intensity distribution, and luminaire shading. Of particular importance is the fact that the LRC considered the effectiveness of the entire lighting system for a controlled growing environment.

Philips Lighting announced that it has repurchased 338,652 shares in the period May 7, 2018 to May 11, 2018. The shares were repurchased at an average price of EUR 26.26 per share and an aggregate amount of EUR 8.89 million.

In order to conform to the development trend of TVs, and combing with the accurate judgment of the development of the TV market, BMTC has released its global TV backlighting strategy for 2018. The strategy covers a comprehensive layout in terms of technology and patent, which aims to seize market opportunities and strive for market commanding heights.

Philips Lighting announced it has entered into an agreement to acquire Shenzhen LiteMagic Technologies Co., Ltd., a Chinese manufacturer and seller of lighting luminaires and control systems for urban and façade lighting.

LED driver IC specialist Macroblock reported a gross margin of 34.2% for the first quarter of 2018, reaching new high over the past two years. The company expects its 2Q18 revenue to increase by 20% QoQ after its driver IC is chosen and successfully adopted in Samsung’s display products.

Samsung Electronics said on May 10 it released the latest QLED TVs in Vietnam, seeking to penetrate deeper into a market with considerable demand for large displays.

Leyard and Planar, specialized in visualization products, announced May 10 that they have completed the acquisition of eyevis, which includes the company Teracue. In line with the announcement earlier in April, Leyard and Planar have completed the acquisition process.

As GE lighting is still a strong brand in North America, it is expected a number of Chinese LED and lighting firms will scramble for the sale. In this regard, LEDinside looked into the Chinese lighting industry and found out a few firms that might be interested in buying GE’s assets.

Philips Lighting launched a new cloud-based Scene management app that enables businesses to quickly and effortlessly change a building’s architectural lighting using your smartphone or tablet. The app, specially designed for use on smart devices, further illustrates the company’s leadership in connected lighting and lighting for the Internet of Things.