LEDinside gathers a series of UV LED events and technology advancements in 2017.

Competition between QLED TV and AMOLED TV has continued in CES this year, and resolutions of the latest TVs include both 4K and 8K specifications. Major TV brands now focus on video processing chips in addition to constant improvements of HDR (High Dynamic Range) imaging technology, says WitsView, a division of TrendForce. Together with AI technology, TVs are now featuring “smart” video processing capability and superior image quality.

LEDVANCE has developed the world’s first LED lighting products that are Bluetooth mesh qualified - the SYLVANIA SMART+ Bluetooth Full Color LED A19 Bulb, Indoor Full Color LED Flex Strip, Soft White Filament LED A19 Bulb and Soft White LED A19 Bulb.

Philips Lighting announced its first partnership for Philips Hue Entertainment with Razer, the leading lifestyle brand for gamers. To provide gamers with a new level of spatial immersion, the companies have integrated the Philips Hue Entertainment API and tools with the Razer Chroma lighting ecosystem.

Innoviz Technologies announced the commercial launch of InnovizPro, a stand-alone, solid-state, MEMS-based scanning LiDAR solution offering the most accurate and reliable performance of any LiDAR sensor available on the market.

Perhaps one of the most attention-garnering products unveiled by Samsung Electronics at CES 2018 is its 146-inch The Wall, the world’s first modular Micro LED TV. Featuring a number of display technology advancements, The Wall is set to usher in the future of displays by providing an unsurpassed viewing experience while seamlessly integrating into consumers’ lives – and living rooms.

pmdtechnologies ag is showcasing its new 3D imager IRS238XC for the first time at CES 2018. The imager has been jointly developed by pmdand Infineon Technologies AG and addresses the rapidly growing market for 3D depth sensing.

pmdtechnologies ag and Ningbo Sunny Opotech today announced a collaboration to jointly strengthen their already existing partnership. Jointly the partners develop and market 3D sensing camera solutions for mobile devices to OEMs in China and the rest of the world.

Not just Samsung, another Korean display maker is unveiling its Micro LED displays. We covered last December that Lumens started producing two types of Micro LED displays and it alleged to bring them to CES 2018. It seems the company made it, too.

Sony unveils its new lineup of products at the CES 2018. It showcases its latest product offerings such as 4K OLED televisions and wireless noise-cancelling stereo headsets that allow users to enjoy high audio quality music while working out.

Innolux today announced its December 2017 consolidated revenues. The company reported unaudited consolidated revenues of NT$27 billion in December 2017, a decrease 1.1% M-o-M and a decrease of 15.9 % Y-o-Y.

Self-driving car, electric vehicle and internet of vehicles are three major trends of automotive panels. Innolux takes part in the 2018 CES to exhibit the world’s first AM Mini LED automotive panel.

LG Display is showcasing cutting-edge display products including the world’s first 65-inch UHD rollable OLED display that prove its global leadership in all areas of displays at CES 2018 in Las Vegas.

Wipro Lighting today at its signature event “Light Show 2018” launched its Internet of Lighting (IoL)solutions for Smart& Connected indoor & outdoor lighting.

One megatrend feature in mobile communications is to unlock smartphones by 3D face recognition instead of fingerprint or PIN. Making authentication more convenient and more secure, it may soon become indispensable for mobile payment applications and mobile ID. With the 3D image sensor chip from Infineon Technologies the unlock-with-your-face feature becomes smarter, faster and more reliable.

Whether you are at CES 2018 at the moment, you’ve probably already learnt that Samsung is exhibiting its gigantic Micro LED TV ‘the Wall’ at its First Look event.

Samsung Electronics today introduced “The Wall” – the world’s first consumer modular MicroLED 146-inch TV – at its annual First Look CES event. The modular, self-emitting MicroLED 146” TV display was featured alongside Samsung’s latest innovations in display technology, demonstrating how television is evolving to offer consumers an outstanding viewing experience, while acting as a centralized connected smart hub to enhance everyday life.

Heliospectra AB announces an order from a value-added reseller for a customer building a high-performance medicinal cannabis cultivation facility in Eastern Canada. The order for the Heliospectra LX60 intelligent LED lighting solution is valued at SEK 5,488,411 (USD $651,200).

Taiwan-based LED epi-wafer and chip manufacturer Epileds finished moving factories at the end of 2017. The installation of its newly purchased production equipment has begun. Because most of the equipment is used, the capacity growth is limited. In 1H18, newly added capacity from these machines is predicted to be gradually used for mass production. 

Plessey Semiconductor announces its commitment to being the first to market with a monolithic Micro LED based display based on GaN-on-Silicon.

Kopin Corporation will demonstrate its high-brightness Lightning™ organic light emitting diodes (OLED) microdisplays including its new 720p resolution (1280 x 720) OLED display at CES 2018. Kopin’s Lightning 720p OLED microdisplay is 0.49-inch diagonal size, has high brightness of over 1000 nits and has low power consumption.

In recent years, the "plant factory" concept has been getting popular. Supporting Horticultural lighting has also been gaining attention. Chinese and international LED enterprises are both eager to participate in this lighting segment.

The iPhone X has sparked a heated discussion of 3D sensing technology in 2017, and Apple will continue to develop 3D sensing. On the other hand, vendors of Android smartphones will also follow the trend, pushing up the demand for Vertical Cavity Surface Emitting Laser (VCSEL), a key component for 3D sensing technology. Therefore, VCSEL manufacturers now race to lay the foundation in this segment. 

Apple has introduced 3D sensing modules in iPhone X for the first time, together with neural network embedded in its A11 chip. 3D sensing modules record three-dimensional data while A11 chip processes large amounts of data, allowing iPhone X to learn and identify a variety of facial details and expressions. The modules also ensure that users can be correctly identified even when their appearances change, making it more difficult to counterfeit.

2018 just began but we already knew before that new technologies such as 3D sensing are going to be huge this year after the launch of Apple’s iPhone X last September. Using faces to unlock phones and personalize expressive Animojis are probably the two most memorable features that make 3D sensing widely known of among consumers. Surely, other phone makers will not let go of a chance to sport their products with similar capabilities, hence we learn the projection that the total value of the global market of mobile 3D Sensing is anticipated to grow at a CAGR of 209% from USD 1.5 billion in 2017 to USD 14 billion by 2020.

LG Display announced that it has developed the world’s first 88-inch 8K OLED display. This industry-leading product will be showcased at LG Display’s booth at CES 2018 in Las Vegas this month.

3D facial recognition has come into the spotlight after Apple’s introduction of Face ID in the iPhone X. Companies in the supply chain have also become the new focuses of inestors. In fact, 3D sensing technology has been around for years, but did not have commercial applications of facial recognition in smartphones until 2017. The reasons why it happened in 2017 can be explained in terms of components, modules andsubsystems, computing and systems, end-devices and applications.

JBD, a Hong Kong based technology startup company, reports the realization of monochromatic red, green and blue active matrix micro-LED (AMµLED) micro-displays with >5,000 dpi pixel density using wafer scale monolithic hybrid integration process. 

Major smartphone vendors like Samsung and Apple have been making improvements regarding unlocking devices beyond password-based methods, resulting in the rapid development of biometrics recognition in smartphones. In addition to smartphones, biometrics authentication methods will also be used in tablets and wearable devices.

VCSEL (vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser) technology has been at the center stage in the tech world of late, in the wake of the debut of the new iPhone X, which contains a 3D sensing module with VCSELs as its core components. Their importance even made Apple fork over quite an amount of money to secure some of the VCSEL shipment from Finisar, a laser chip producer.