In order to push the development of autonomous driving technology, worldwide LiDAR developers continue to release new products and build partnerships with different industry players. Apart from the mechanical LiDAR suppliers and US-based solid-state LiDAR makers, LEDinside also tracks the progresses of solid-state LiDAR makers around the world and the following is their update in the past year. Related reading:  Global LiDAR Companies 2019 Progresses: Solid-State LiDAR Manufacturers in the U.S. Global LiDAR Companies and Their Lates...

MaxLite has filed petitions for inter partes review (IPR) before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) of the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) seeking to invalidate U.S. Patent No. 9,897,265 and 9,723,662 owned by Jiaxing Super Lighting Electric Appliance, a Chinese contract manufacturer. (Image: MaxLite) MaxLite reported that the patents that are the subjects of these petitions are part of Jiaxing Super Lighting’s recently-announced patent licensing program for LED tube lamps. According to the petitions, these pate...

UV-C LED water disinfection solution provider AquiSense Technologies announced its partnership with SUEZ to provide the UV-C LED Water Treatment Technology for water disinfection directly at the point of use in critical laboratory applications. AquiSense and SUEZ have been engaged in close co-operation for over a year in a detailed joint development effort to deliver a laboratory water purification unit equipped with advanced UV-C LED technology. The new laboratory product offers a high-level microbial disinfection barrier directly at the point of use. T...

Canada-based automotive component provider Magna announced the acquisition of Wipac Czech, an automotive lighting engineering firm located in Czech Republic. The transaction was closed last week and will expand Magna’s engineering capabilities globally. Wipac Czech’s engineering team designs and develops automotive forward lighting, primarily for European exotic and luxury brand including Aston Martin, Bentley, Rolls Royce, McLaren, Lamborghini, Bugatti, Audi, Daimler, BMW and Porsche. (Image: Magna) “We see Wipac Czech playing an imp...

Signify announced that it installed Interact Industry in the newly developed warehouse facility of Pilkington Automotive in Gelsenkirchen, Germany, marking its entrance into the Industrial IoT space. This cloud-based, wireless connected lighting system is specifically designed for warehouses and manufacturing facilities. Pilkington Automotive, part of NSG Group, is one of the world’s largest suppliers of automotive glass. Its new European central warehouse meets the latest storage systems and warehouse design standards and is fully aligned with the company’s...

Japanese LED manufacturer Nichia reported that it has filed patent infringement lawsuits in Brazil for its YAG patent. Since Nichia’s Brazilian YAG patent has not expired and is still in force, the company filed two patent infringement lawsuits in the Judicial District of the Capital of the State of São Paul on November 13, 2019 against two Brazilian distributors, Karimex and Arrow, who sell Everlight’s LED products. At the same time, Nichia also accused ASUS Do Brasil, a Brazilian affiliate of ASUSTek, of infringing its YAG...

Seoul Semiconductor Co., Ltd. (KOSDAQ 046890), a leading global innovator of LED products and technology, announced that it will auction its radio frequency (RF) semiconductor patent portfolio and its high power LED package patent portfolio. In the first auction, Seoul Semiconductor is seeking the top bidder for 98 patent assets related to power amplifiers and gallium nitride (GaN) RF semiconductors, including 55 U.S. patents. Three of the patents are licensed to the U.S. Air Force or the U.S. Army, confirming the value of the portfolio. This RF pate...

Increasing studies have indicated the effects of lighting on human well-being. Lighting design in healthcare facilities thus become even more critical to enhance patents’ condition and provide staffs suitable working environment. Based on the understanding and its expertise in lighting, Osram indicated that lighting design techniques play an influential role in the overall patient experience and healing process. The company thus introduced five trends in lighting design for healthcare facilities. (Image: Osram) Flexibility a Must Flexibility is identify as an indisp...

Signify announced the upgrade of its European specification portfolio of luminaires for office applications from CRI 80 to CRI 90 as standard. This step-up in Color Rendering Index will more accurately render object colors – displaying them even more precisely – compared to the standard CRI 80 products. Signify is the first lighting company to make the change to CRI 90 with a red color rendering index (R9 of 50 or higher) across the board of its office project luminaires in Europe. (Image: Signify) With office lighting design high on many organizatio...

Viavi Solutions filed a complaint with the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) to initiate an investigation under Section 337 of the Tariff Act of 1930, against LG Electronics, LG Electronics U.S.A., LG Innotek, and Optrontec. Viavi claimed that the LG group engaged in unfair trade practices by importing and selling in the United States certain mobile phones and tablet computers that infringe Viavi’s patents related to 3D sensing. Viavi also filed a complaint in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California asser...

Automotive lighting and electronics provider Hella announced a new lighting system with high resolution, Digital Light SSL | HD. With the new lighting technology, more than 30,000 pixels can be controlled intelligently and individually, enabling numerous new safety functions like optical lane markings. According to Hella, "Digital Light SSL | HD" is a consistent further development and miniaturization of existing matrix LED systems. Together with an enlarged light-emitting surface, the s higher number of pixels is the basis for a multitude of new functiona...

As Mini LED products entering the market, equipment producer FitTech, who experts in Mini LED probing, sorting and testing is expect thriving business in 2020. (Image: FitTech) Mini LED and Micro LED technologies became more mature in the past year, leading to higher demands and requirements for back-end manufacture processes such as testing and probing. Thus, FitTech is taking orders from LED companies in Taiwan and China. Taiwanese chip producer Epistar just revealed that it will increase investment in testing equipment in 2020. In addition, currently...

Chip provider Epistar announced that it will double its capital expenditure to gear up for booming demands with increasing Mini LED applications in the coming years. The Taiwan-based LED chip maker sees rising demands in Mini LED products in the near future and plans to prepare its capacity in advance. As a result, Epistar said that it plans to increase its capital expenditure to above NTD 5 billion (US$ 163.83 billion), comparing to the regular expanses of NTD 2.5 billion (US$ 82 million) in the past. Currently the two major applications of Mini LED a...

Many consider solid-state LiDARs the solution to realize autonomous driving technology as they are much cheaper and lighter compared to mechanical LiDARs. In 2019, many solid-state LiDAR providers have reported their technology developments and market expansion. Let’s take a look of the latest updates in solid-state LiDARs. Related reading: Global LiDAR Companies and Their Latest Progresses in 2019: Mechanical LiDAR Suppliers Quanergy Expands Business in Asia and South America Solid-state LiDAR company Quanergy has been proact...

Satco Products filed suit against The Regents of the University of California at Santa Barbara (UCSB) in the United States District Court of the Eastern District of New York to declare that the company does not infringe patents claimed by UCSB. In the press release of Satco, the company noted that it brought the legal action to seek a declaration that Satco Products, identified in the UCSB claim letters, do not infringe any of the ten patents asserted by UCSB. Satco also mentioned that it would aggressively defend its products and protect its custome...

Cree announced that it has extended its existing agreement with STMicroelectronics for silicon carbide supply with double value of the original agreement. In January 2019, Cree and STMicroelectronics revealed their long term partnership that Cree will provide its Wolfspeed silicon carbide wafers valued US$250 million to STMicroelectronics. The two companies now reported expansion and extension of the agreement to more than US$500 million. The increased wafer supply enables the semiconductor leaders to address the rapidly growing demand for silicon carbide power devi...

Semiconductor equipment providers Veeco and K&S (Kulicke & Soffa) announced their financial results respectively. The two companies both reported business decline for the previous quarter. K&S revealed its fourth fiscal quarter of 2019 which ended September 28, 2019. The Company reported fourth quarter net revenue of US$139.8 million, net income of $6.4 million and non-GAAP net income of $9.3 million. The revenue and gross profit of K&S in fiscal 4Q19 have dropped by 24.3% and 23.8% compared to previous year. However, compared to previous quarter, bo...

Adjustable LEDs that deliver light source similar to natural sun light not only help to improve human wellbeing but also enable sustainable fishing. Lighting supplier Signify announced that it is providing underwater LED lighting for the marine-based fish farms of Australis Seafoods in Chile. Australis chose Signify because of its commitment to a sustainable world, strongly supporting Australis’ objectives for responsible and efficient fish farming. (Image: Signify) Signify’s underwater lights that reach up to 100,000 lumen, mimicking the summer sun, conve...

Cree announced that it will team up with ABB to jointly expand the rollout of silicon carbide in the rapidly-growing high-power semiconductor market. The agreement incorporates the use of Cree’s Wolfspeed® silicon carbide-based semiconductors into ABB’s comprehensive product portfolio, enabling Cree to broaden its customer base while accelerating ABB’s entry into the fast-expanding EV sector. (Image: Cree) Cree’s products will be included as part of ABB’s power semiconductor product portfolio, across power grids, train and tractio...

Driven by the prospering development of autonomous driving technology, LiDAR companies across the world continue to expand their business and present new products. Many LiDAR builders reported their updates in both technology and business progresses in 2019. Following these news, LEDinside would like to share with our readers updates of the LiDAR industry in the past year. (Image: Ouster/NVIDIA) Velodyne Lidar Partners Hyundai Mobis for ADAS and Supports Varied Applications In 2019, the mechanical LiDAR expert has introduced several new ...

Signify introduced an innovative way to product lighting products: 3D print them! The company unveiled its facilities to 3D print light shades and fittings (luminaires) in the Netherlands and announced its plan to establish more 3D printing factories in the US, India and Indonesia. (Supermarket using 3D printed luminaires; image: Signify) By 3D printing luminaires, Signify uses a 100% recyclable polycarbonate material, allowing lighting products to be bespoke designed or tailored to customer’s exact needs and recycled at the end of their life, supporting a circula...

Silvair is providing Bluetooth mesh solutions for Osram’s lighting control system through its new new partnership. Osram’s HubSense® is designed to enable easy and time-efficient retrofitting of existing lighting installations into flexible wireless control systems based on the globally interoperable Bluetooth mesh standard. The system also allows quick and effortless modification of settings and lighting arrangement without bearing the costs of recommissioning. (Image: Silvair/Osram) With Silvair as its Technology Partner, OSRAM gains access to th...

Signify has been proactively expanding its LiFi services via cooperation with partners in different fields to provide reliable, secure and fast connectivity everywhere. The company announced a pilot project with Ellamp Spa, an Italian designer and manufacturer of interior systems and components for public and private transport by road and rail, to provide Trulifi systems to buses. The move follows a recent similar announcement with Latécoère to provide Trulifi for passenger aircraft. (Image: Signify) The pilot with Ellamp will improve passenger connectivity...

Despite that Tesla’s founder Elon Musk said that “Anyone relying on LiDAR is doomed,” the technology using lighting to detect, range, and imaging targeted areas and objects is believed to be critical for autonomous driving technology development. LiDAR uses infrared LED or laser light to deliver light pause and receive the reflected light for measuring distances of objects and constructing the surrounding environment. Advantages of LiDAR include high accuracy, high resolution, and long detecting distance. (Image: Luminar) LiDAR can be d...

The new Apple facility in Taiwan was said to be finished in December 2019 but analyst of LEDinside visited the site and noted that the building may not be completed at the scheduled time. Two weeks ago LEDinside covered that Apple is building a new plant in Taiwan which might be used for developing Micro LED products. The planned complete time was set on December 2, 2019; however, according to analyst of LEDinside who visited the site last week, the facility would take at least two to three months to be able to operate. (The new Apple facility in the front)...

Everlight, the Taiwan-based LED packager, announced that it will expand its LED capacity in 2020 mainly for automotive LEDs and invisible LEDs such as UV LED and IR LEDs. The LED industry has been through a challenging year in 2019 and is expecting a rebound in 2020 with commercialization of Mini LED and Micro LED. Growth in horticulture lighting contributed by legalized cannabis production in North America is also a momentum for the industry. Seeing the opportunity, Everlight is gearing up for the rising demands. The company reported a reven...

Scottish LiFi company pureLiFi announced that it has completed a US$18 million in its Series B fundraise. The funding round includes Temasek, an investment company headquartered in Singapore, and the Scottish Investment Bank. The investment will allow the company to further develop Gigabit LiFi components and make them available in form factors ready for mobile device integration. (Image: pureLiFi) pureLiFi announced the move from LiFi systems to components at Mobile World Congress in February when the company demonstrated new Gigabit LiFi integrated in...

An enormous LED display was installed in Harvard Business School’s newly opened multipurpose auditorium in the campus. With a pixel pitch of 1.9mm, the curved LED display supplied by SiliconCore is 6 meters high and 18.8 meters wide. The new auditorium in Harvard Business School is named Karman Hall and accommodates up to 1,000 people. The LED display was set in the center, providing viewing distances ranging from 5 to 40 meters. (Image: SiliconCore/Harvard Business School) The digital canvas can connected with devices via HDMI and can be fed ...

Osram reported the financial results of its fiscal 2019 and 4Q19 yesterday in the same press release that backs up AMS’ takeover offer. The company reported a declined revenue in fiscal 2019 hit by the impacts of the weak Chinese automotive industry. For fiscal 4Q19, Osram registered revenues of EUR 924 million (US$ 1.02 billion), with an on-year decline of 5.3% and 9% on a comparable basis. Adjusted EBITDA came to EUR 86 million (US$ 94.72 million), down by 43.1%YoY. For fiscal 2019, the company posted revenues of EUR 3.464 billion (US$ 3.816...

In the list of CES 2020 Innovation Award Honoree, several LiDAR products were named including Cube by Blickfeld, Helius Smart Lidar System by Cepton, Leddar Pixell by LeddarTech and RS-LiDAR-M1 by RoboSense. Blickfeld, LeddarTech and RoboSense were listed in the category of “Vehicle Intelligence & Transportation,” while Cepton was named in two categories, “Smart Cities,” and “Tech for a Better World.” Blickfeld Cube is a solid-state LiDAR targeting the mass market, according to Blickfeld, the Germ...