Smart cities is definitely one of the latest buzzwords, together with the Internet of things (IoT), cloud computing, smart data and visible light communication (VLC). Interesting enough, it is actually the presentation of these factors integrating all together on a scale of a city. Everything in a city–transportation, communication, security, water and power supply, and other community services–through networks, computing, analysing, and data transfer, can be more efficiently managed and improved. This is how a smart city is conceived.

Taiwanese LED packaging company Everlight announced a fairly stable revenue of 2Q17. The company is said to have performed better than in 1Q17 and its sales of 2H17 is anticipated to outnumber that in 1H17. As the traditional peak season of this year is right around the corner, the overall demand, mainly for applications such as IR LED, interior and exterior automotive lighting and fine pitch displays, will soar. Yet, Everlight’s supply of conventional lighting and LED backlighting products will slump.

Wipro Lighting became the first Indian Lighting Company to participate in the CISCO Live event which was scheduled from 25 – 29 June 2017, Las Vegas, USA. The company unveiled and showcased it’s smart & connected lighting solutions at the event. With over two decades of experience in standalone & connected lighting control system installations, Wipro Lighting is at the forefront in providing smart, intelligent & connected lighting solutions for modern work space requirements and applications.

The first half of 2017 has passed and the world has been waiting for the new iPhone, which is projected to be launched either late in this year or in 1Q18. However, according to CNBC’s report on 20th June, gadget lovers could probably have a few more things to expect, Apple’s smart glasses ‘iGlass’, for instance.

Organic light-emitting diode (OLED) display lately has been receiving market attention. Not only have Korean companies been working on the development, but recently, according to BusinessKorea, even Chinese firms have jumped into the competition.

DOWA ELECTRONICS MATERIALS CO., LTD. (Headquarters: 14-1, Sotokanda 4-chome, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo; Capital: ¥ 1,000 million; President: Akira Otsuka), a subsidiary of DOWA HOLDINGS CO., LTD. (same address; Capital: ¥36,400 million; President: Masao Yamada), has developed a deep ultraviolet LED chip featuring the industry’s highest output power in the world, with a peak wavelength of 280 nm, output of 75 mW and dimensions of 1 mm × 1 mm. The company has also been prepared for a mass production for these new produc...

Sharp, the Foxconn-controlled company, is possibly to partner with ASTRODESIGN, a Japanese video and signal processing tech company, to jointly develop video processing systems able to support displays with 8K ultra-high definition, as Nikkei Asian Review carried in its report on 26 June.  With Sharp’s strengths in the development of sensor technology for LCD screens and cameras, and ASTRODESIGN’s capability to upgrade digital broadcasting, the system can be used in cameras, displays and other image processing devices.

LG Display (LGD) suffered a serious disruption to its production of large-size LCD panels on June 24, when a deadly accident occurred at its P8-1 panel fab in Paju, South Korea. The Gen-8.5 has been shut down for repair and investigation by the local authorities. WitsView, a division of TrendForce, states that this incident will have a major impact on the supply of large-size panels in the third quarter. While panel quotes have softened during the second quarter, the third quarter will see a return of seasonal demand from device vendors. The accident at P8-1 will contribute to a tightening of the supply and help prop up prices to some extent.

While the public thought Sharp might focus fully on the manufacture of 8K resolution television screens after the first one was made public two years ago, according to the Japan Times, the LCD TV maker now seems determined to step into the market of OLED display by establishing new product lines- one in the city of Sakai, Osaka, and the other in Taki, a town in Mie Prefecture.

South Korean LED manufacturing Giant Seoul Semiconductor and Japan-based Toshiba Materials held a press conference introducing SunLike, a new LED technology supported by Toshiba’s TRI-R phosphor solution, in Frankfurt, Germany. The SunLike LEDs with TRI-R phosphor technology simulate sun in terms of emission spectrum, eliminating excessive blue light and appearing to be more friendly to human eyes and circadian rhythm.

Today Current, powered by GE announced it is partnering with Sainsbury’s to make it the first grocery retailer in the U.K. to power all its supermarkets entirely by LED lighting.

Lite-On Technology on 22nd June held its shareholder meeting of 2017, on which it reported a cash dividend of NT$ 2.92 with a dividend payout ratio of 72% and a dividend yield of 5.8%.

In the 2016/17 financial year the Zumtobel Group posted a marked improvement in earnings and was able to more than double its net profit year-on-year to EUR 25.2 million. While profitability was increased, revenues were impacted by negative currency effects and a challenging business environment. 

Epistar on 21st June announced its financial results, reporting a fully utilized capacity of blue LED as well as a sustained production of AlInGaP LED despite subtle growth in both the output of light sources and the orders for LED backlighting and little possibility to raise prices of its products. The company estimated a 15% QoQ rise that could possibly push up 2Q17’s revenue close to the number in 2Q16. Epistar also expected a decent financial performance in 3Q17 supported by the chip production for LED lighting, AlInGaP LED and infrared LED.

Yesterday (20 June), Jacob Tam, Executive Vice President/ Deputy BU Head at Samsung LED, vehemently refuted the Korea Herald’s and The Bell’s reporting of Samsung LED selling off its business unit in Tianjin to a Hong Kongese private equity firm.

Bridgelux 2835 surface mount device (SMD) products incorporate cutting-edge technology to deliver unsurpassed performance at competitive prices.  Bridgelux's technology results from years of advanced research and development, and is protected by Bridgelux's intellectual property, which currently includes a patent portfolio of more than 300 worldwide patents that extend across the expanse of light emitting diode (LED) technologies, from chips to luminaire solutions. 

EVERLIGHT Electronics Co., Ltd. (EVERLIGHT) on June 10, 2017 filed a patent infringement action against Bridgelux, Inc. in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. EVERLIGHT is claiming that Bridgelux infringes U.S. Patent Nos. 6,335,548 and 7,253,448 by manufacturing and selling infringing LED products, including for example the Bridgelux 2835 series.

At this moment in the history of the LED industry, we have already witnessed it passed into the maturity stage, struggled to revive by finding new beachhead markets (and it succeeded), and advanced its production, ready to embrace future business possibilities. LED chip manufacturers and packagers worldwide have now been gradually shifting their focus to develop products for niche markets, including UV LED, IR LED, automotive, horticultural, and even smart lighting.

Philips Lighting announced that it will provide LLC Agro-Invest, Russia’s most innovative greenhouse produce company, with LED grow lights to support cultivation of tomatoes and cucumbers in greenhouses covering an area of more than 25 hectares (equivalent in size to about 40 soccer pitches). The project, which is the largest LED horticultural lighting project ever undertaken, will enable year-round growing, help boost yields - especially in the winter - and will save 50 percent on energy costs compared to conventional high-pressure sodium lighting. The project also underlines a global trend for large-scale LED horticultural lighting implementations that can support demand for locally grown produce. 

The 22nd edition of the Guangzhou International Lighting Exhibition (GILE), the most influential and comprehensive lighting and LED event in Asia, has just ended on June 12th 2017 in Guangzhou. Shanghai Wellmax Lighting Industry Co. (WELLMAX), as the industry-wide renowned “LED Bulb Expert” exhibited the trendiest and the best-selling products during the four-day fair, gathering international buyer and media attentions.

It is inevitable to find some exhibitors keep harping on the same old products at a tremendous lighting exposition as GILE 2017 (of course it is for they were there to trade), but it is also fairly reasonable to spot something new, let alone when walking around in the hall of LED chips and packages (of which the market is now a deep red ocean in China).

Kicking off on 9th of June, Guangzhou International Lighting Exhibition 2017, under Messe Frankfurt’s thorough organization, gathered 2,428 exhibitors from global lighting and smart technology supply chains. Within a total exhibition space of 180,000 square meters across 17 halls of the China Import and Export Fair Complex, state-of-the-art technologies and hot-button lighting trends and concepts from 21 countries and regions were presented to trade visitors expecting to source promising lighting products and smart-tech ideas.

At LASER World of PHOTONICS, due to be held in Munich from 26- 29 June 2017, Instrument Systems will be showcasing many new products for the measurement of displays, UV sources and laser diodes, together with an extensive portfolio of spectroradiometric instruments. 

EVERLIGHT Electronics Co., Ltd., a leading player in the global LED and optoelectronics industry, is going to exhibit its latest high-voltage & high-efficacy 2835 series, full color and UV LEDs at Guangzhou Int'l Lighting Exhibition 2017; including the various types of components for applications to different situations and occasions, such as office, commercial, residential, industrial and special lighting, etc. one-stop exhibition is available at site; and we sincerely welcome you to visit EVERLIGHT booth at Hall 10.2 B02 to see everything in person.

Osram has agreed to acquire U.S.-based LED Engin Inc. in San Jose, California. The company has approximately 30 employees and annual sales of around USD 10 million. LED Engin specializes in ultra-bright, ultra-compact solid state lighting solutions for variety of specialty markets including entertainment lighting, ultraviolet, horticulture, tunable white and medical lighting applications. Its products mainly incorporate LED chips from Osram Opto Semiconductors.

Apple has been attracting a lot of media attention lately as rumors regarding its next-generation iPhone, new MacBook and AR glasses continue to swirl. A recent thread appeared on Reddit from supposed Foxconn insiders revealed some interesting details about the upcoming products, just days before the tech giant’s annual WWDC kicks off on Monday (June 5, 2017).

In order to know what oversea buyers consider the biggest obstacles they face when sourcing from China, we surveyed over 100 professional international buyers over the past several months and asked them “What is your biggest procurement challenge when buying in China?” It turned out that amongst the most frequent answers, such as quality control issue, supplier relationship management or product certification issues, the top rated one are all supply-chain related challenges. 

Google's VR vice president, Clay Bavor, recently revealed at the Society for Information Display’s (SID) week that Google has teamed up with Sharp to develop VR LCD displays. If the plan goes well, Google is expected to adopt these displays in its VR devices.

According to Japanese media Nikkei, major LED manufacturer Nichia Corporation plans to invest around 22 billion Japanese yen (about US$197 million) by the end of 2020 to build a new laser diode (LD) factory at its current production base. LD can be used as a light source for projectors, endoscopy and headlights. The Japanese LED maker’s goal is to increase current LD production capacity by at least three-fold by 2020. 

Philips Lighting announces the results of the research on the response of bats to different light spectra published in Royal Society journal Proceedings B. The recently launched Philips ClearField LED lighting was used in the research and was proven not to disturb the habitat of light-shy bat species at night.