Some novel applications of large size outdoor LED displays are happening now. Outdoor LED displays are not merely seen as digital billboards on the buildings or by the highway. Actually, it is very popular to use LED displays as backdrops for commercial events such as movie premiere, live concerts, and more. However, during the coronavirus pandemic, drive-in cinemas become a premier entertainment selection that can remain social distancing. Recently, more and more drive-in cinemas reopen across the world. There are LED display and projection solutions for drive-in cinema...

Singapore based equipment supplier K&S announced financial results of its fiscal 3Q20 ended June 27, 2020. The company posted revenue of US$ 150.5 million which grown by 18.4% YoY. For the third fiscal quarter of 2020, K&S reported a gross profit of US$ 69.4 million and a gross margin of 46.1%. On the non-GAAP base, the company’s net income grew by 258.3% YoY to 12.9 million. The increased profit and revenue were boosted by the company’s recently mass produced Pixalux, which was designed to meet the high speed transfer needs in Mini LED...

Osram announced the financial results of its fiscal 3Q20. The German company said that the performance was better than expected compared to the main sales markets. For Osram’s FY 3Q20, its revenue on a comparable basis fell by 29.4% YoY to EUR 606 million (US$ 711.95 million) due to the impact of the Coronavirus crisis. EBITDA before special items was well above expectations with negative EUR 27 million (US$ 31.75 million). Osram’s Automotive business unit was impacted the most with on-year sales dropped by 35.7% to EUR 282 million (US$ ...

Samsung unveiled the financial results for the second quarter of 2020 with consolidate revenues of KRW 52.97 trillion (US$ 44.49 billion) and operating profits of KRW 8.15 trillion (US$ 6.85 billion). (Image: Samsung) Even as the spread of COVID-19 caused closures and slowdowns at stores and production sites around the world, Samsung has managed minimize the impact of the pandemic by strengthening online sales channels and optimizing costs. Quarterly operating profit rose 26% comparing to the previous quarter and grew 23% by year, thanks to firm demand for memor...

Lucid Motors announced its DreamDrive, an ADAS system combining sensing solutions including LiDARS which will be equipped with Lucid Air revealing on September 9, 2020. Lucid Air that will be delivered in early 2021 is expected to be the first to market with the combination of a driver monitoring system and a sensor suite that includes high-resolution LIDAR as standard equipment. The DreamDrive technology suite supports 19 key safety, driving, and parking assist features that will be available on Lucid Air upon start of production, with another eight features e...

Germicidal LEDs have been wide deployed home appliances such as washing machine and air conditioners for disinfecting function, aiming to prevent the spread of disease especially at the time when COVID-19 still pose threats to the world. To address the disinfecting demands across the globe, Hyosung America, an ATM supplier, announced a disinfection kits for its products to help fight against the COVID-19 pandemic and to help ease consumers’ safety concerns with using ATMs. (Image: Hyosung America) Starting this fall, the company will equip the disinfect...

CES was one of the few events that had not been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. But not anymore. CES 2021 will be held online without any physical activities according to the announcement of the Consumer Technology Association (CTA) revealed on July 28, 2020. CES 2021 will be a digital event with all the product launches, keynotes and conferences moving online. Considering the ongoing threat of COVID-19, CTA believes that “it is not possible to safely convene tens of thousands of people in Las Vegas in early January 2021 to meet and do business...

The global supply chains of Mini LED backlight display have been unveiled one after another. After Samsung’s rumor of releasing Mini LED backlit TVs with chips supplied by Taiwan and China chip makers, LG Display is now said to provide panels for Dell. Korean media TheElec reported that LG Display has supplied panel for Dell’s 31.5-inch Mini LED backlit monitor for medical applications. The 31.5-inch display deployed more than 10,000 units of Mini LED to deliver advanced performance with high contrast ratio and brightness. The product was ...

Lighting Research Center (LRC) conducted a survey to investigate the viewpoint of people towards UV disinfection products. (Image: Pixabay) Demands for UV disinfection products hiked due to the present pandemic crisis. With increasing options for products and applications, many consumers and product specifiers have questions about the safety, effectiveness, and energy efficiency of these products. In order to address these concerns, the LRC is currently examining a range of UV disinfection technologies. The goal of this work is to provide information that will h...

LeddarTech announced that its LiDAR product Leddar Pixell is now adopted by COAST Autonomous in an autonomous delivery vehicle (ADV) at the Kinney County Railport (KCRP) near Brackettville, Texas. KCRP is one of several railyards operated by Harbor Rail Services Company of California. COAST Autonomous selected LeddarTech’s Leddar Pixell Cocoon LiDAR with its 360-degree vehicle coverage as a supplier for this project. The COAST Autonomous electric ADVs operate CO2 emission-free and enable Harbor Rail to operate and mov...

Mini LED backlight products are expect to bring a revolution to the display market with driving momentum from leading brands including Apple and Samsung. The two companies are reportedly launching Mini LED backlight tablets and TVs in the coming months or next year, which will bring up demands for Mini LED chips. LED chips suppliers from Taiwan and China are seeing a surging demands for Mini LED chips in the second half of 2020. Taiwan-based Epistar has been preparing its Mini LED capacity for Apple and will be ready to begin shipment in September. E...

The Franco-German satellite MERLIN is due to be launched into space in 2025 to measure the methane concentration in the Earth's atmosphere - a milestone in climate research. Important components of the LiDAR measurement system come from the Ferdinand-Braun-Institut in Berlin, which has now delivered the required laser diode benches to the project partner. The MERLIN mission aims to better understand the effect of the greenhouse gas methane on global warming. A radar-like laser system on the satellite measures natural and anthropogenic methane emissions: The...

In the first half of 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic has heavily impacted the world as well as the technology industry with various interruptions occurred in the supply chain. In April, LEDinside covered how Micro LED technology could still have a chance to grow despite the COVID-19 impacts on the industry. And now, we would like to share the breakthroughs of Micro LED unveiled during the first half of the year proving that developments of the technology have not stopped by the pandemic. Micro LED Wafer and Chip Improvements Researchers have been working on...

LG Electronics has added the category of Micro LED to its Business Solution website with its Micro LED display product available for inquiry. The Micro LED TV, named LSAB009 by the company, is a 163-inch 4K screen with a pixel pitch of 0.9mm based on COB technology. (Image: LG) The Micro LED TV of LG delivers a peak brightness of 1,200 nits and typical brightness of 600 nits. The peak contrast ratio achieves 100,000:1 and the max ratio 50,000:1. LG has yet announced the release date of the product but some source said it would start shipping i...

Velodyne Lidar announced a three year sales agreement with PARIFEX, a traffic management and speed measurement systems provider. Based on the agreement, PARIFEX will use Velodyne’s LiDAR sensors in its traffic monitoring solutions which can help reduce road accident rates and enhance roadway safety. (Image: Velodyne Lidar/PARIFEX) PARIFEX equips its NANO-CAM and NOMAD solutions with Velodyne Puck sensors for real-time tracking of static and moving objects including vehicles, pedestrians and bicyclists, while preserving anonymit...

LiDAR sensor and technology builders Cepton and Luminar recently announced their expansion plans respectively, aiming to scale the market as well as to speed up technology development. Cepton Technologies, who began partnership with Japan-based Koito, appointed industry veteran Andrew Klaus as country manager for Japan, marking its continued expansion into the Japanese and Asian markets. Klaus’ role will initially focus on building Cepton’s market share in Japan, where the company has experienced growing demand for its high-performance LiDAR solution...

Signify announced the company’s 2020 second quarter results with sales of EUR 1.469 billion (US$ 1.7 billion). Comparable sales decreased by 22.5% due to the COVID-19 impact. However, the company still managed to maintain a profitable adjusted EBITA margin of 9%. (Image: Signify) The company also reported a net income of EUR 81 million (US$ 94.03 million) which increased by 61.5% YoY as a result of lower restructuring costs and one-time non-cash tax benefits from changes in the organizational structure. LED-based sales accounted for 80% of total ...

Semiconductor equipment provider AIXTRON published its financial results of the first half and the second quarter of 2020. The company said that it remains on track in the period despite the COVID-19 crisis. For 1H20, AIXTRON said it has received order volumes of EUR 138.4 million (US$ 160.6 million), which achieved an on-year growth of 41%. The order intake of 2Q20 came to EUR 69.6 million (US$ 80.76 million), up by 55% comparing to the same period in 2019. The main drivers of the growing customer demand for deposition equipment are the growing mar...

Samsung is reportedly preparing the launch of Mini LED backlit TVs in 2021 and the increasing demands of Mini LED chips will be supplied by Taiwan and China companies, reported TechNews, a Taiwan-based online media. (Image: Samsung) By quitting the production of LCD display, the Korean giant plans to boost its high end TV products shipment based on diverse display technologies, aiming to exit the low price competition. Apart from the scheduled “The Wall” TV launch in the market of North America and Europe, Samsung might also release new TV...

STMicroelectronics announced that its FlightSense Time-of-Flight (ToF) technology has been adopted by Aura Aware, a Dutch startup company to develop a social distance maintaining device for preventing disease transmission. Time-of-Flight sensors transmit photons and then calculate distance to the target based on the time it takes for the reflected photons to be received back by the sensor. Moreover, ranging accuracy is unaffected by surface characteristics of the target, such as clothing color or skin reflectivity, of the target, making FlightSense ideal for helping peopl...

Mini LED backlight display, featuring high brightness, contrast, reliability as well as longer lifetime, is regarded as a great competitor to OLED display, which is the current dominant display technology for high end consuming electronics. But higher production cost is still a pain point for Mini LED backlight display. From the viewpoint of the supply chain, driver ICs that control the local dimming zones of Mini LED backlight display could actually be a critical component to help reducing production cost. The increased production cost of Mini LED comes from the ...

Ushio announced that it has commenced production of the latest high-powered short-wavelength infrared (SWIR) LEDs, which achieves the world’s highest output power and efficiency. Low-power chips are mounted in SMT packages and moulded type LEDs; while with 1 mm2 high-powered chips, the SWIR D-Series can be mounted in EDC, SMBB, and TO-66 packages. For the majority of wavelengths, a two-fold improvement of output and efficiency is attained; however, the high-power versions have ramped up their forward current to 1 A and gain a boost of up to four times...

ALLOS Semiconductors announced its collaboration with Prof. Ohkawa and his team at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) for realizing high efficiency nitride-based red LEDs on large diameter silicon substrates. The collaboration will focus on solving fundamental issues like the large lattice mismatch and the quantum-confined Stark effect (QCSE) which limit the adoption of red nitride-based LEDs for practical industry usage. In particular, for the emerging field of Micro LED displays there is a strong demand to enable red LEDs on ...

Researchers of King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) have been working on improve efficiency of red Micro LEDs and they recently announced the achievement of manufacturing stable red Micro LED based on InGaN. (Image: KAUST) A major challenge facing the development of Micro LEDs is to integrate red, green and blue light into a single LED chip. Current RGB LEDs are made by combining two kinds of materials with InGaP red LEDs and InGaN blue and green LEDs. "Creating RGB displays requires the mass transfer...

LG Electronics released its preliminary earnings results for the second quarter of 2020. The Korean company posted tentative consolidated revenue of KRW 12.8 trillion (US$ 10.64 billion) in the second quarter of 2020 with an operating profit of KRW 493.1 billion (US$ 409.77 billion). (Image: LG) Comparing to the number last year, LG said the sales of 2Q20 is expected to drop by 17.9% and operating income also decreased by 24.4% YoY. Comparing to the previous quarter, 2Q20 revenue would decrease by 13% and operating profit down by 54.76%. In 1Q20, LG bro...

LED applications covering lighting and disinfection have become crucial technologies to support people’s safety when COVID-19 is still posing a threat globally. During the pandemic, technology builders continue to enhance applications and create new possibility to leverage the functions of LEDs aiming to provide safer environments for people. Enlighted, a IoT platform provider, added workplace digital contact tracing application to its IoT platform to help employees return safely to manufacturing facilities, pharmaceutical labs, offices and more. The application pr...

MaxLite has filed petitions for inter partes review (IPR) aiming to invalidate the patents of Jiaxing Super Lighting to fight against the Chinese company’s accusing of patent infringement. MaxLite provided an update on the status of the pending lawsuit. (Image: MaxLite) In May 2019, Super Lighting filed a patent infringement lawsuit against MaxLite, accusing MaxLite of infringing several Super Lighting’s US patents. In response, MaxLite filed petitions for IPR before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) of the United States Pat...

As COVID-19 sweeping across the world, most large scale activities have been cancelled, rescheduled or moved online. So are the fashion events. Milano Fashion Week is now hosted entirely online from July 14 to 17 and people in the city can see the shows on the large LED signage provided by Samsung hanging on Duomo Cathedral. (Image: Samsung) By moving the showcase online, the organizer of the event, the National Chamber of Italian Fashion and Urban Vision, streaming partner of the Milano Digital Fashion Week, hopes to offer fans of fashion and design a sen...

We have now learned that COVID-19 is transmitted through droplets or surfaces contact of the infected individuals. As a result, wearing mask and intensifying disinfection are considered effective ways to prevent infection. Combining above two solutions, a UVC LED embedded mask was developed and raised more than US$ 1 million on a crowdfunding platform. (Image: UM System) The product, named UVMask, was launched by UM System, a subsidiary of Measure Inc. focusing on optical and bio-technology, on June 25, 2020. According to UM System, UVMask is a reus...

LiDAR sensor developer Quanergy Systems shared that its new generation QORTEX People Counter solution can deliver over 98% accuracy from pitch dark or indoor to very bright lighting conditions in full sun light. By combining the system with Quanergy’s LiDAR product, a wide range of flow management can be deployed to enhance security and safety in public areas especially at the critical time of reopen. According Quanergy, QORTEX People Counter provides information about the flow and number of people in retail stores, public transportation centers, stadiu...