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 new research by Stanford scientist demonstrate a new approach to slow down light so that photons have more chances to interact with other materials, opening a door for new applications such as LiDAR, LiFi and AR/VR. The research paper was published in Nature Nanotechnology on August 17, 2020. To slow down light, the Stanford researchers structured ultrathin silicon chips into nanoscale bars to resonantly trap light and then release or redirect it later. The approach is like creating an echo chamber to hold onto sound and direct it. These "high-quality-factor&quo...

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 ...

Researchers from Taiwan’s National Tshing Hua University (NTHU) developed a method of adding salt water to quantum dots to make the materials more stable and easier for inkjet printing for optimized Micro LED display manufacture. Their results were published in ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, titled “Inkjet-Printed Salt-Encapsulated Quantum Dot Film for UV-Based RGB Color-Converted Micro-Light Emitting Diode Displays.” (Image: NTHU) Full color Micro LED display fabrication is challenging due to poor performanc...

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 ...

Perovskite LED promises higher color quality and ease of manufacture, so it is oven considered a solution to breakthrough LED applications. However, it has been known to fail when subjected to the kind of electrical current typically needed for practical uses. A research team from Princeton University has demonstrated improvement of perovskite LED in stability and performance by better managing the thermal dissipation. (Photo by Sameer A. Khan/Fotobuddy; image source: Princeton) The research, published in Advanced Materials, is titled “Thermal Management ...

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...

In the second half of 2020, increasing applications based on novel display technologies are emerging in the market. Mini LED backlight technology has reached the stage of commercialization with several notebook and monitor products launched. Chinese TV brands TCL have released its Mini LED TV series and Korean giants Samsung and LG are likely to roll out Mini LED backlight TVs in the near future as well. And of course, the most expected Mini LED product would be the 12.9 iPad Pro of Apple. Meanwhile, Micro LED technology is still developing and a few...

Despite the interruption of the COVID-19 pandemic, the development of novel display technologies have to go on. At the virtual Display Week held last week, there were still several new Micro LED display exhibits showcased by worldwide experts. LEDinside selects a few innovations that cannot be missed. AUO AUO exhibited an integrated full color TFT driven Micro LED automotive displays with two 9.4-inch flexible Micro LED panels. Its S-curve shape enables the display to be mounted into automotive interior design. It also demonstrated a 12.1-inch Micro...

Dutch lighting company Signify is planning to close its production facility in Salina, a city in Kansas, U.S., reported local news “Salina Post.” (Image: Signify) The production facility in Kansas manufactures conventional lighting products. As the demands continues to decline, Signify said it will leverage economies of scale and improve efficiencies by relocating the production of conventional lighting products to its facilities in Poland and India. The company will gradually start the transition and plans to close the facility in Kansas in the second ...

Recently United Airlines and Heathrow airport unveiled their disinfecting measures with UVC light respectively. United Airlines is using UVC light to clean pilot flight decks while Heathrow deploys UV cleaning robots and UV handrail for disinfection within the airport. (Image: United Airlines) United Airlines uses handheld, AUVCo blades from the American Ultraviolet company to kill any viruses that may reside on sensitive switches and touch screen displays within the flight deck. The company also applies electrostatic spraying to disinfect its aircraft cabi...

Large size LED video display supplier Daktronics announced its partnership with Austin FC for manufacturing and installing an LED display system with all displays featuring pixel pitch of 10 mm. The installation includes a new main video display, two ribbon displays, a pitch perimeter display and a double-sided marquee and are currently being set up with the stadium’s construction. The project is expected to complete for the 2021 season. (Image: Daktronics) The centerpiece of the installation will be the main video display at the north end of the stadium. It w...

Leading electronics brands are releasing their new consumer products as the peak third season arrived. Novel smartphones, tablets and wearables adopting innovative technologies continue to draw attention from the market. However, the ongoing pandemic has led to global economy decline so that the most eye-catching flagship smartphones lose their edges as they are usually more expensive. People who used to go for the high-end products may now turn to mid-range or budget smartphone under such circumstance. As a result, iPhone SE, the mid-range product of Apple, led to an unexpected s...

Chinese brands TCL and Xioami introduced their new TV products featuring advanced display technologies. TCL launched its new Mini LED backlight TV, 6-series and Xiaomi presented a transparent OLED TV. TCL released 5- and 6-Series Roku TV lines. The 6-series products are based on Mini LED backlight technology with 240 dimming zones that enables brilliantly bright and deeply dark areas to achieve ultra-high contract ratio. According to TCL, the series will be the first TV with THX® Certified Game Mode, supporting a refresh rate of 120Hz. A...

Kyocera and Osram reported worked on a new Micro LED display driving technology. According to a report of MicroLED-info, the two companies have designed a hybrid current and PWM driving technology for Micro LED displays. The new driving scheme can be used to avoid using lower pixel currents through Micro LED chips, as described by Kyocera and Osram. As a result, the approach reduces luminance deviation and color shift even at lower grayscale levels. The new driving technology was demonstrated with Kyocera’s 3.9-inch full color Micro LED display bas...

Energy Harness, a Purdue University affiliated LED lighting manufacturer develop an air disinfection system which can be attached to ceiling to clean the air from upper part of the room with UVC light delivered by embedded LEDs. (Image: Energy Harness/Purdue University) According to Purdue University, the device is designed to utilize the effectiveness of UVC light in killing the SARS-COV-2 family of pathogens. Patricio M. Daneri, managing director of Energy’s Midwest division, said, “Our Active Airflow unit provides the added advantag...

Smart city system expert CIMCON introduced new technology partners to its NearSky™ Connect Partner Program. The program brings together sensor/device manufacturers and application developers to make it easier for cities to specify, procure, and deploy smart city solutions in their efforts to improve public health and safety outcomes. Collectively, this group of partners will provide cities with actionable data on parking, sound, carbon dioxide and flood levels to optimize operations, maintenance and safety through one easy-to-use platform. (Image: CIMCON) ...

Global warming, climate changes and increasing world population are posing threats to the planet we are living on and putting pressure on food security. Leading lighting supplier Signify recently shares its viewpoint of how horticulture lighting based on LED technology can be an enabler for sustainable alternative food production. Signify suggests that using artificial lights in horticulture is one way to increase demand without driving up the resource usage. Grow lights can either supplement natural daylight or replace it entirely. Using them creates a controlled farming envi...

Among the next-gen display technologies based on miniaturized LEDs, while Micro LED is still confronting issues of low yield and high cost, Mini LED backlight display technology has been commercialized and is seeing a thriving future starting next year. Currently at the market, we can see Mini LED backlit gaming notebooks and monitors launched by Acer, Asus, MSI, Lenovo and other notebook brands. The long rumored Mini LED iPad Pro from Apple is another highlight expected by the market and the industry. In addition, Samsung is reportedly debuting a series o...

PMOLED panel maker RiTdisplay presented a Micro LED thin film display at virtual Display Week that took place last week from August 3 to 8. The company also indicated in its investor conference last week that it has begun sending sample of Mini LED products this year and the shipment is scheduled in 2021. (Image: screenshot from RiTdisplay's video) RiTdisplay has been collaborating with Micro LED company PlayNitride since 2019 to develop Micro LED displays. The two parties exhibited a few small size Micro LED display modules for wearable appl...

On August 7, LED companies Epistar and Lextar held an extraordinary shareholders meeting to pass the share conversion of both companies to the new holding company, ENNOSTAR. The members of the board of directors, supervisors and chairman of ENNOSTAR were also elected. As expected, Epistar holds three seats in the board of directors, Lextar takes one seat and its parent company AUO gets one seat as well. The members of the board of director include Biing-Jye Lee, Chairman of Epistar; Chin-Yung Fan, President of Epistar; Shih-Shien Chang, Vice P...

NS Nanotech, a LED materials company startup announced its first technical milestone with the demonstration of a nano-LED that promises to close the “green gap” in LEDs. The new LED technology is based on patented technology enabling fabrication of components that will be smaller and draw far less power than current LED solutions, while emitting brighter, more saturated, more stable, and more directional green light. The demonstration unit is now showing at the virtual Display Week until today. (Image: screenshot from NS Nanotech video) Seth C...