The market demands for disinfection have climbed significantly this year with the outbreak of COVID-19, leading to greater attention to UVC LED. In addition to surface and air disinfection, water purification is one of the major focuses of UVC LED manufacturers and home appliance brands. Featured with compacted size and installation flexibility, UVC LEDs can be mounted at the outlet of water dispenser to ensure the safety of drinking water. Recently many home appliance brands have launched new products adopting the technology. LG presented its latest refrigera...

LED package company Everlight reported that Seoul Semiconductor has shared false information regarding the case of misappropriation.  The Korean Suwon District Court convicted three former Everlight employees of misappropriation of Seoul Semiconductor’s trade secret. In response to the issue, Everlight said it will file an appeal. Everlight noted that the press release of Seoul Semiconductor include misleading false information. (Image: LEDinside) Firstly, Everlight was sentenced only 3% of the maximum criminal fine permitted under Korean law, whi...

Vuzix announced that it is developing next generation product line of smart glasses powered by Micro LED technology that are expected to become available in 2021. (Image: Vuzix) The smart glasses maker said that the Micro LED-based product line will include middle-end consumer-facing product and a higher end enterprise version with built-in cellular connectivity. (Image: Vuzix) Micro LED will be used as projectors for the smart glasses to deliver high density pixel arrays with both monochrome and full color solution. The glasses will also feature a larger field...

Mini LED backlight display technology is going to be adopted by Apple and Samsung for tablets and TVs launching next year. Meanwhile, we have seen several Micro LED technology breakthroughs recently with AUO, PlayNitride and ITRI showcasing their prototypes for innovative applications. To speed up Micro/Mini LED display technology, integration within the supply chain is a major strategy recognized by industry players. Epistar and Lextar, the two Taiwan-based LED chip manufacturers, are merging with the aim to leverage their expertise and avoid duplicated ...

Osram announced the expansion of its automotive LED portfolio, launching a new generation of 1 to 4-chip versions in the Oslon Compact PL product family. The company also reported settlement with its contract manufacturer Lextar. The new version of the Oslon Compact PL products feature ceramic components with an electrically insulated pad that makes it much easier to dissipate heat from the package. The design enables a higher current to allow the 1-chip version to achieve an outstanding brightness value of 395 lumens at 1A with a chip area of 1mm². Sized small as 1...

A new deal announced by Heliospectra, a Sweden based horticulture lighting technology provider, unveiled a new approach for achieving urban farming with LED grow lights. (Image: Heliospectra) Heliospectra reported that it has received an order from BBL Construction, who operates as a general contractor in the fields of commercial and institutional construction. According to Heliospectra, the two business partners are going to apply their expertise for several projects. The partnership might indicate that LED grow light and vertical farming facilities are now consi...

Accelerating the development of new display technologies is the goal for worldwide display manufacturers and some of them have decided to sell or buy new facilities as a move to approach their target. Samsung Display has sold its LCD factory in China to Chinese display maker CSOT, a company under TCL group, to further cut down its LCD capacity, which goes in line with Samsung’s plan to quit LCD business. By ending its LCD panel production, Samsung aims to expand its development in QD displays and OLED displays. The Korean giant has also reportedly t...

The pandemic urged many countries to face the issue of food security as the lockdowns have posed threats to areas replying heavily on food import. Food production based on agri-tech demonstrates a feasible solution for the problem. For example, a new vertical farm in Abu Dhabi is going to launch in September to supply fresh veggies for the UAE. The vertical farm company, Smart Acres, has set the vertical farming facilities based on LED lighting and IoT technology in Abu Dhabi at the Armed Forces Officers Club. The company collaborated with a Korean company “...

As the launch of iPhone 12 is approaching, more rumors about the new Apple product were unveiled. Las week, a new Apple leak said that LiDAR sensor is “confirmed” for iPhone 12 Pro Max. Apple predictor Jon Prosser uploaded a video and share a few alleged screenshot of iPhone 12. One of the picture demonstrate the option of “Enable LiDAR CA,” indicating that LiDAR will be featured for the new iPhone. (Image: Jon Prosser's Twitter post) This will not be the first time Apple adopting the sensor component in its product. Th...

Micro LED technology developers from Taiwan unveiled their latest progress in quantum dots (QD) color conversion and wafer production. Lextar introduced its progresses in reliable QD development to realize full color Micro LED displays while PlayNitride shared its achievement of 6-inch Micro LED epitaxial wafers with advanced uniformity. (Image: screenshot from PlayNitride video) Lextar, a vertical integrated LED company based in Taiwan, shared that the company has been working on deploying QD color conversion technology on Micro LED display. Since M...

The ultimate display technology Micro LED has improved significantly in wafer technology, full color performance and mass transferring recently. Taiwan-based industry players have shared their insights of the technology at an industry gathering last week. Jennifer Y-C Lin, Senior Associate Vice President of AUO, indicated that Micro LED will be a key technology to drive innovative applications in the era of 5G connection and IoT, especially as the world heavily impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. She explained that in addition to excellent display performance,...

Japan Display (JDI) is going to sell its LCD plant in Hakusan, Japan, to Sharp and Apple, so that the Japanese display maker can pay off its debt to Apple. The total transfer price is estimated to be JPY 71 billion (US$ 672 million). (Image: JDI) The plant will be transferred to Sharp, who is also a display supplier of Apple, by the end of September. With the transaction, Sharp will take over most of the debt of JDI which JDI borrowed from Apple when building the plant. The plant was originally built for supplying LCD panels for iPhone. But S...

Daktronics announced fiscal 2021 first quarter results. The company registered net sales of US$143.6 million, operating income of $9.5 million, and net income of $7.5 million, and earnings per diluted share of $0.17. Net sales decreased by 20.3% in the first quarter of fiscal 2021 as compared to the first quarter of fiscal 2020. Net sales decreased in all business units. The change in sales primarily relates to fluctuations and related conversion to sales. Some shipping and on-site delays continue to be caused by COVID-19 related work restrictions or customer delays in readin...

As the COVID-19 pandemic is still posing a threat to worldwide communities, UVC light incorporated products for disinfection are becoming more and more popular. Common applications include upper-room UVC disinfection integrated with lighting fixtures or air cleaners, UVC light embedded robots, UVC light boxes and other portable disinfecting products. These UVC light disinfecting products usually deploy either mercury lamps or LEDs as light source. Currently, mercury lamps are more widely adopted for disinfecting products given its lower production cost and highe...

The Singapore company OTSAW who launched UVC LED based disinfecting robot announced that the product’s efficacy has been tested using high concentrations of live samples of human Coronavirus flown from the United States. Based on results and tests carried out by A*STAR completed on August 21st, the robot demonstrated a 99.9% efficacy for disinfection within 5 minutes at a working distance of 2.5 meters. . (Image: OTSAW) The robot O-RX was built in-house by OTSAW and is equipped with a 360-degree camera and LiDAR sensors integrating AI...

2021 is expected to be the year that Mini LED will illuminate the display market. Apple is getting ready to launch the new iPad Pro featuring Mini LED backlight display and Samsung will probably debut new high end TV portfolio based on the technology. Recently a Korean media added that Samsung might produce about 2 million units of Mini LED backlit TV next year. With all the upcoming Mini LED display applications, the supply chain in Taiwan covering LED manufacturers and panel makers who have been dedicating to improving the display technology based on mini...

Innolux hosted 2020 new product premiere yesterday and presented a 55-inch rollable Mini LED emissive display featuring active matrix (AM) driving technology. The panel maker also introduced new display products targeting health and entertaining applications. The rollable display adopts flexible PCB backplane and features high curvature, brightness, contrast and saturation. However, Innolux did not reveal further details such as resolution for the product. Comparing to the rollable OLED panel LG demonstrated before, Innolux claimed that direct emissive Mini LE...

Sharp’s mass production plan for Micro LED displays marked a progress of the Foxconn Group in next-gen display technology development. Incorporates LED chip production, packaging technology, panel manufacture and TV brands, the Foxconn Group is known for its ambition to set up an internal Micro LED supply chain. The Micro LED displays developed by Sharp, a 0.38-inch full color panel featuring 1053 PPI and a 0.13-inch blue display with 3000 PPI, were designed by the semiconductor group under Foxconn and manufactured by Sharp Fukuyama Semiconductor. ...

Luminar announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to merge with Gores Metropoulos and once the transaction finished, the combined company will be listed on Nasdaq under “LAZR.” Luminar is set to power the introduction of highway self-driving and next-generation safety systems and is partnered with 7 of the top 10 global automakers including Volvo and Audi. Starting in 2022, Luminar’s hardware and software will be integrated into Volvo’s global vehicle platform, the foundation for their next generation of consumer vehicles. (Image:...

A Finland-based vertical farming company iFarm announced that it has raised US$ 4 million funding led by Gagarin Capital, who previously invested in the project. Other investors include Matrix Capital, Impulse VC, IMI.VC and more. With the funding, iFarm said it will deepen its automated indoor farming technology and extend cultivation experiments. (Image: iFarm) iFarm offers vertical farming solutions for growing greens, berries and vegetables. It aims to develop its iFarm Growtune tech platform that enables operations of multiple varieties of vertical farms ...

LED testing and sorting equipment manufacturer FitTech held investor conference yesterday (August 20, 2020) and announced that in order to meet the demand of Mini LED chip process from its clients, the company will expand its capacity in 4Q20. The expansion is expected to finish in the second quarter of 2021 and will be a major growing momentum for FitTech. (Image: FitTech) Being part of the Mini LED backlight technology supply chain, FitTech provides LED testing equipment for Epistar, who is known for the major Mini LED chip supplier for Apple’s ...

Nitride Semiconductors announced that it has filed an amended complaint against Digi-key in the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota, asserting infringement of Nitride’s UV LED patent. (Image: Pixabay) According to the amended complaint, Nitride Semiconductor claimed that UV LED products being supplied by various LED companies including Lite-On Semiconductor, Luminus Devices, and Vishay Intertechnology are infringing Nitride’s UV LED patent. To protect its UV LED patented technology, Nitride initiated its paten...

Micro LED display technology based on self-emitting pixels delivers advanced contract ratio, high brightness and wide color gamut. Many believe that the technology is bringing revolutions to the display industry and can be widely adopted in different forms of applications. However, after years of development with more and more players joining the ecosystem, the fundamental issues for mass production are yet to be tackled. The most well-known difficulty of Micro LED display manufacture is mass transferring as most of the LED companies do not have equipment capable of process ...

Sharp, one of the panel providers of Apple, is reportedly developing small size Micro LED displays and will mass produce the products by 2023 for eye-wear smart devices, reported Nikkan Kogyo Shimbun. According to the report, Sharp Fukuyama Semiconductor, a subsidiary of Sharp, has developed Micro LED prototypes including a 0.38-inch full color panel featuring 1053 PPI and a 0.13-inch blue display with 3000 PPI. The company deploys its proprietary color conversion technology to achieve full color display and aims to mass produce the products in 2023 to 2024 for A...

Cree announced financial results for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2020 ended June 28, 2020. The company posted revenues of US$205.7 million, representing an on-year drop of 18% compared to FY4Q19 and a 5% decrease compared to FY3Q20. The company also reported GAAP net loss of $39.5 million, or $0.36 per diluted share. On a non-GAAP basis, net loss was $20.0 million, or $0.18 per diluted share. For fiscal year 2020, Cree reported revenue of $903.9 million, down by 16%YoY and GAAP net loss of $191.7 million, or $1.78 per diluted share. On a non-GAAP ...

UVC LED product developer Acuva Technologies announced the opening of its first office outside of Canada. The company plans to expand its disinfection products to the European market with the opening of the office in Dusseldorf, Germany. Acuva also announced a strategic partnership with Italian UV germicidal technology company LightProgress. The two parties will leverage their expertise to promote disinfecting applications for the fast-growing markets in Europe. Acuva is known for its UV LED disinfection technology called IntenseBeam, which is found in al...

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) published a new article in Science Advances demonstrating a new design for LED that may overcome a long-standing limitation in the light sources' efficiency. The research team developed microscopic LEDs which achieve a dramatic increase in brightness as well as the ability to create laser light. Consisting of scientists from the University of Maryland, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and the IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center, the team achieved 100 to 1,000 times higher brightness with LEDs...

Last September, Volkspark stadium in Humburg, Germany, installed Signify’s LiFi system Trulifi. The system has provided fast and reliable internet connectivity for the journalists and photographers reporting the 2019-2020 season. Stadiums usually have difficulties offering stable and reliable connections for the press center during large sport games as wireless signal in these bustling locations was prone to overload. To tackle the issue, the Volksparkstadion in Hamburg installed LiFi system which uses light to transmit data and allows up to a blistering 250Mbps for...

Ushio and a research group from Kobe University Graduate School of Medicine have completed a study proven that irradiation of filtered 222 nm UV-C light on human skin reduces bacterial counts while causing no injury to the skin. This is the first study on the safety of 222 nm far UVC light conducted on humans. The research paper regarding this study is published on PLOS ONE, titled “Exploratory clinical trial on the safety and bactericidal effect of 222-nm ultraviolet C irradiation in healthy humans.” (Image: Ushio) In this study, Ushio’s C...

Energy Focus announced financial results for its second quarter ended June 30, 2020. The company reported net sales of US$3.3 million, up by 8.2% compared to 2Q19 and down by 11.8% sequentially from the first quarter of 2020 reflecting the shift in the timing of the shipment of a portion of a certain military contract order from the second quarter to the third quarter of 2020. Loss from operations improved by $1.2 million year-over-year, and by $0.3 million compared sequentially to the first quarter of 2020. Net loss of $4.3 million, or $(1.36) per share, inclusive of a $3.3 mi...