Delta Electronics announced on the 19th that the company has obtained the phase 2 project of the energy-saving street light replacement and maintenance PFI (private finance initiative) for the 13 administrative districts in the north of New Taipei City, after having obtained phase 1 of the project in 2014. The project has commenced in October this year, and a total of approximately 110K street lights in the area will be replaced, which is expected to save roughly NTD$150 million of electricity expenditure for New Taipei City within 10 years. Among these, 8,500 units of stre...

The electronics supply chain in Taiwan has benefitted considerably from Apple’s decision to adopt displays with the Mini LED backlight for its latest devices. FitTech, a local provider of LED testing equipment and outsourced processing services, was recently assigned a buy rating and a target EPS of NT$195 by Yuanta Investment Consulting. The company was listed in 2019, and this was the first time that it was awarded a buy rating. The main reason for this bullish call is that Apple’s aggressive pursuit of the Mini LED technology will very likely spur...

Cree, Inc. (Nasdaq: CREE) announced that the Company has entered into a definitive agreement to sell its LED Products business unit (“Cree LED”) to SMART Global Holdings, Inc. (Nasdaq: SGH) for up to US$ 300 million, including fixed upfront and deferred payments and contingent consideration. Mark Adams, President and CEO of SMART Global Holdings has discussed their acquisition of Cree LED. Adams indicated that he was the former CEO at Lumileds and during his time there they started down the path looking at Cree. Cree is a...

Charles Lee, CEO of PlayNitride, said in a recent interview that the company has secured several strategic investors that are willing to fund the expansion of the company’s production capacity. Hence, mass production of Micro LED solutions is not a slogan, but an imminent reality. Li further stated that the company’s annual revenue will eventually hit the 100 million mark in US dollars. Presently, the main bottleneck in the development of Micro LED is the low yield rate of the mass transfer process. Although manufacturers in the LED and display industri...

After Philips and GE, Cree has also announced its permanent parting with LED and the lighting industry. Cree announced on October 20th that the company has reached a final agreement with SMART Global Holdings, Inc., and plans to sell its LED department (Cree LED) to SMART for US$300 million, which includes an advance of US$50 million, a deferred payment of US$125 million, and an earn-out of US$125 million. Cree commented that this transaction has further established the company’s strategic position by leading the industrial transformation...

Upon closing, creates a pure-play global semiconductor powerhouse focused on providing disruptive technology solutions to high-growth segments including EV, 5G and industrial applications Transaction represents a key milestone in Cree’s transformation to focus on silicon carbide and gallium nitride devices, as well as materials Consideration includes $50 million upfront payment; $125 million seller note and up to $125 million earn-out DURHAM, N.C. – Cree, Inc. (Nasdaq: CREE) today announced that the Company has entered into a definitive agree...

Signify reported that its horticulture LED lighting product was selected by GoodLeaf Community Farms in Canada to enhance food production. GoodLeaf grows and packs fresh greens year-round, operating a 4,000-square-metre indoor vertical farm in Ontario, Canada, which is now fully operational to supply some of the largest Canadian retail chains. The vertical farm is fully automated and equipped with the latest LED lighting technology for growing indoors. By providing a controlled environment, Philips Greenpower LED production modules enable GoodLeaf to shorten prod...

Chinese TV brands have been proactively launching Mini LED backlit TVs. After TCL and Xiaomi releasing their new products, Konka also announced that it will debut a 75-inch 8K TV featuring Mini LED backlight technology. Konka said that this 75-inch 8K TV adopts Mini LED backlight technology with more than 20,000 units of Mini LED chips to realize 5184 local dimming zones. Implementing IPS RGB display, the TV achieves 8K resolution and support 120Hz and 60Hz refresh rate. (Image: Konka) Cost of Mini LED Backlit TVs Remain High...

LiDAR sensor manufacturers across the world including Innoviz Technologies, Hesai, Lumentum and Velodyne Lidar have announced their new achievements recently and are going to showcase novel technologies at upcoming events. Innoviz Technologies added a new sensor to its product line, the InnovizTwo. The new automotive-grade LiDAR sensor, with a major cost reduction design of over 70% compared to InnovizOne, offers a solution for all levels of autonomous driving. Samples of InnovizTwo will be available in Q3 2021. (Image: Innoviz) China-based Hesai also re...

LED companies including Nichia, Osram and Lumileds updated the results of their patent disputes against Lighting Science Group (LSG) yesterday on October 14. All the three companies prevailed over the LSG’s asserted LED patents. (Image: Pixabay) LSG has initiated patent infringement lawsuit against Nichia, Osram and Lumileds claiming that the three LED manufacturers violet its patents covering LSG’s United States Patent Nos. 7,528,421; 7,095,053; and 7,098,483, in 2019. On April 7, 2020, and October 1, 2020, the United States I...

Velodyne Lidar recently reported new collaboration with its partners in China. The recently listed LiDAR maker said that it has entered a long‑term global cross-licensing relationship with RoboSense (Suteng Innovation Technology) and signed a three-year sales agreement with Baidu. (Image: Velodyne Lidar) The cross-licensing relationship with RoboSense encompasses a broad range of 360° surround-view LiDAR sensors, by which Velodyne said will be mutually beneficial for the existing and future patents of both companies. Velodyne and RoboSense have also agr...

Acuity Brands reported that it has entered into strategic agreements with Violet Defense and Puro Lighting. These strategic agreements will give Acuity Brands access to Violet Defense’s patented UV technology to expand its portfolio of UV disinfection products. PURO and Acuity Brands will also work together on the development of a next generation of UV lighting products. (Image: Pixabay) The products from Violet Defense and PURO employ a method pioneered by Violet Defense to deliver high intensity full spectrum ultraviolet light, using a pulsed x...

Axus Technology, a provider of CMP, wafer thinning and wafer polishing surface-processing solutions for semiconductor applications, announced the collaboration with Compound Photonics (CP, also known as CP Display), a microdisplay solutions developer for AR/MR. The two parties will work to accelerate sub 5 µm pixel Micro LED development to the mass market. (Image: Compound Photonics) Axus and CP are partnering to integrate critical wafer-scale processes needed for mass-production scale up of CP’s 2 µm pixel, 1080p Micro LED displays fo...

JBD reported that it will release its JBD4UM480P Micro LED display series extending the AmµLED™ family in November this year. This series has a display area of 0.13-inch (3.3 mm) in diagonal and a resolution of 640X480. Approaching the size of a grain of rice (Figure 1), the display panel can be easily designed into a smart glass due to its ultra-compact footprint. The panels deliver luminance of 0.2 million nits, 2 million nits, and 0.15 million nits for red, green, and blue, respectively for a power consumption of only a few hundred mW under average oper...

Company closes first of 3 tranches in Series D round. Backing will be used to complete product development near Grenoble and create a new display manufacturing facility based on Aledia’s proprietary technology of 3D microLEDs. Aledia, a French startup that is pioneering a disruptive technology for microLED displays, has closed an €80M first tranche of its €120M D-round financing. The company will use the proceeds to complete its product development and create the first-of-its-kind, high-volume 3D microLED manufacturing facility in the Grenoble are...

Velodyne Lidar announced on September 29 that it has completed the business combination with Graf Industrial. The LiDAR producer reported in July this year that it will go public through the combination. The two companies have closed the combination and Velodyne has became a wholly owned subsidiary of Graf which changed its name to Velodyne Lidar. Beginning on Wednesday, September 30, 2020, the common stock and warrants of Velodyne Lidar, Inc., the post-combination company, is being listed and to begin trading on The Nasdaq Global Select Market under the ticke...

Following its announcement last week, Xiaomi launched two 82-inch TVs with Mini LED backlight technology featuring 8K and 4K resolution. The 8K one priced RMB 49999 and the 4K is RMB 9999. Both product will be released on October 21, 2020. (Image: Xiaomi) LEDinside learned that Xiaomi’s Mini LED TVs adopt the backlight solution based on a sprinkle of Mini LED components sized 1616. The 8K TV used 15,360 units of Mini LEDs to achieve 960 local dimming zones. Each of the dimming zone can deliver 4096 grayscales to realize a high contrac...

Sharp is going to spin off its display business, setting up a new subsidiary named “Sharp Display Technology” (SDTC) on October 1, 2020, reported The Sankei News. The new spinoff will focus on novel display technology particularly Micro LED. (Image: LEDinside) By establishing SDTC, Sharp plan to collect more external funds for Micro LED development, which will support the company to join the competition of next-gen display technology that currently ruled by Sony, Samsung and other competitors. It was revealed in August that Sharp has buil...

Airplane manufacturer Boeing announced that it has entered into a patent and technology license with Healthe. Based on the collaboration, Healthe will produce an UV wand designed by Boeing to sanitize airplane interiors. "The UV wand is designed to be more effective than similar devices. It quickly disinfects surfaces on an airplane and further strengthens other layers of protection for passengers and crew," said Mike Delaney, who leads Boeing's CTI efforts. "Boeing spent six months transforming an idea for the wand into a working model, and Healthe ...

Toyoda Gosei, who announced the development of deep UV LED disinfecting module, recently confirmed the effectiveness of its product in SARS-CoV-2 inactivation. The company also reported that the UV LED module will adopted in water purification unit launching in November 2020. Toyoda Gosei has conducted a viral inactivation experiment in which the novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) was irradiated using its deep UV LED technology. The experiment was conducted jointly with the Biomedical Science Association, a certified NPO, and showed these deep UV LE...

Samsung announced that it will stick to its play to produce QD display panel next year as the Korean giant has quit LCD business. Meanwhile, BOE, the Chinese panel maker, announced its plan to take over shares of CEC Panda’s facilities to expand its capacity of large size display. (Image: Samsung) As the capacity of Chinese display manufacturers continues to expand, competitors from other countries have been searching for new approaches to drive their own business. Samsung, who once took a lead in the industry, decided to cut its LCD production and has sol...

Analog Devices announced a strategic collaboration with Microsoft to leverage Microsoft’s 3D time-of-flight (ToF) sensor technology, allowing customers to easily create 3D applications that bring higher degrees of depth accuracy and work regardless of the environmental conditions in the scene. ADI’s technical expertise will build upon Microsoft Azure Kinect technology to deliver leading ToF solutions to a much broader audience in areas such as Industry 4.0, automotive, gaming, augmented reality, computational photography and videography. Currently, the indu...

Hydromea, a spinoff of École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), has developed a miniature optical modem that can operate down to 6,000 meters below the ocean’s surface. It is sensitive enough to collect data at very high speeds from sources more than 50 meters away. Radio wave can hardly work underwater as they are easily absorbed by water. So wireless internet connection underwater is nearly impossible. But it would be another story if the connection is based on light. Hydromea is using light to transmit data below the ocean or lake surfac...

Xiaomi announced that it is going to officially launch its Xiaomi TVs in China on September 28. The new TV products under the Mi TV Master series will feature 8K resolution and 5G connection based on panel using Mini LED backlight display technology. (Image: Xiaomi) Xiaomi has been expanding its high-end TV portfolio with the launch of its transparent TV series based on OLED technology announced in August and the latest update of Mini LED backlit TVs. Other than 8K, 5G and Mini LED technology, the Chinese company has yet revealed details ...

ON Semiconductor announced that SUBARU has selected its image sensing technology to enable camera-based ADAS (Advanced Driver Assistance Systems) in the car manufacturer's new-generation EyeSight Driver Assist platform. The Levorg, a 2020 All-Wheel Drive Sports Tourer, is the first model to offer the new system. As with previous versions of EyeSight, ON Semiconductor's image sensing technology acts as the ‘eyes’ to enable this important safety functionality. The new-generation Eyesight, recently announced in the Japan market, provid...

Osram announced the plan to realign its partnership with Continental and return their joint venture business to the parent company. The information was released soon after Osram reported its transfer progress with ams, indicating that the company is speeding up transformation within the organization. Osram and Continental will negotiate on separating of the business in smart automotive lighting systems and returning it to the respective companies. The German companies noted that the decision was made in response to the gloomy market environment, which is being further impacted b...

The deal of Austria sensor company buying Osram is moving one more step forward as Osram announced that it has agreed with ams on the conclusion of a domination and profit and loss transfer agreement. In this regard, the Managing Board and the Supervisory Board of Osram adopted resolutions to sign the agreement with ams Offer GmbH and to convene an Extraordinary General Meeting for November 3, 2020 in which, inter alia, a resolution is to be tabled to approve Osram’s entry into the agreement. Base on the agreement, minority shareholders of Osram will receive an...

GE Current announced its disinfecting lighting product based on the latest patent pending technology. These solutions represent a first line of defense that fights a broad spectrum of germs including the SARS-CoV-2 virus around the clock. GE Current’s 365DisInFx™ technology leverages a business’ existing lighting infrastructure to deliver germicidal UV light in places where people gather. The technology implement UVA LED and demonstrated a 99.7% disinfecting rate of common pathogens on surfaces over an eight-hour period at 3 W/m2 with in-vitro t...

As LG officially released its Micro LED display, Samsung’s The Wall is also moving a step forward by breaking into the commercial display market in Japan. BusinessKorea reported that Japan’s largest display solution company NGC is offering Samsung’s The Wall series to its customers such as NHK and TV Asahi. (Image: Samsung) For the Korean company, it is a great achievement to penetrate the Japanese market as it had been a rather close environment favoring domestic suppliers. However, since other Japanese competitors like NEC and Sh...

Vertical farming startup InFarm announced that it has raised US$170 million in the first close of a Series C funding round expected to reach $200 million. Led by LGT Lightstone, the first round included participation by investors Hanaco, Bonnier, Haniel, and Latitude, and was supported by existing Infarm investors Atomico, TriplePoint Capital, Mons Capital and Astanor Ventures. With a mix of equity and debt financing, the fresh capital infusion brings Infarm's total funding to date to more than $300 million, underscoring consumer and retailer appetite for I...