Global warming has drawn enormous attention to green energy and DC house application. Many countries have started to promote energy-saving and safer electricity usage. MEAN WELL develops direct current (DC) input LED drive power supply, the LDH-25/65 series for green energy LED lighting applications, including LED solar street lights or equipment with secondary battery applications, such as camping car/yacht applications. LDH-25/65 series provide customers options for reducing conversion losses between DC bus to DC/DC driver. LDH-25/65W which are d...

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$ ...

Next-generation Micro/Mini LED display technologies have generated a market which companies hoping to recover from the pandemic-induced global economic downturn look to for the next wave of commercial opportunities. Furthermore, major brands including Samsung, Apple, Facebook, Google, LG, and Sony are also rushing to get a head start in Micro/Mini LED development, in turn galvanizing the growth of the overall supply chain. Total Micro/Mini LED revenue is projected to reach upwards of US$4.2 billion in 2024. TrendForce’s latest investigations find that cu...

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...

Quanergy Systems revealed its new product M1, a 2D industrial LiDAR sensor for mid- to long-range, high precision measurement applications. The M1 joins the company’s M-Series to expand its industrial product portfolio by offering twice the price-performance vs legacy industrial LiDAR sensors. With up to double the range and range accuracy and 75% more data, M1 provides accuracy and object-detection at longer range compared to the legacy LiDAR sensors in the market today. (Image: Quanergy) The M1 2D LiDAR sensor is designed specifically to increase ...

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 ...

Infineon reported its development of a smart entrance counter solution which can help public places to manage people flow and maintain safe social distancing to support slowing down the COVID-19 spread. The Smart entrance counter solution is a miniaturized, discrete radar board (250 mm x 150 mm) that accurately and anonymously counts people with one single 60 GHz radar sensor and integrated software. A traffic light system informs about if an entry is allowed or not. (Image: Infineon) “We aimed at quickly creating an effective solution that allows everyone of us ...

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...

Total shipment of AR/VR devices is expected to reach 5.12 million units in 2020, according to TrendForce. Thanks to the release of various glasses-like AR/VR devices, the AR/VR devices market is likely to rapidly expand from 2021 to 2022, with a forecasted shipment of 43.2 million units in 2025. This market is projected to reach a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 53.1% from 2020 to 2025. TrendForce analyst Jason Tsai indicates that the accelerating growth of the AR/VR devices market can be attributed to aggressive product strategies from branded manufactu...

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...

Toyoda Gosei unveiled its new deep UV LED modules developed for sterilization of water, air, and surfaces. Deep UV LEDs emit short wavelength UV light including the UVC wavelengths that destroy the genetic materials of viruses and bacteria. They are promising as a new sterilizing light alternative to replace mercury lamps. (Image: Toyoda Gosei) Aiming to expand deep UV LED applications, Toyoda Gosei has been developing products in modules or units with waterproof or heat dissipation features. In a joint experiment conducted with the Biomedical Scienc...

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...

Apart from helping to improve eyesight, LED light is now used to restore hearing, according to a new study conducted by University of Göttingen, Germany. The scientists created an optical cochlear implant based on LED lights that can safely and partially restore the sensation of hearing in deaf rats and gerbils. Their design's light-based approach allowed it to deliver more accurate and pinpointed signals to auditory nerves compared with current implants based on electricity, which often suffer from poor sound quality. The technology also offers some improvements ove...

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 ...

Two recent researches of LiDAR introduced new solutions to improve the sensing technology. The study by University of Colorado Boulder described a new silicon ship without moving parts or electronics that enhances resolution and scanning speed for LiDAR sensor. In addition, researchers from Purdue University and École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) unveiled their development with FMCW LiDAR. For the research of Univerity of Colorado Boulder aims to develop small chip to replace existing big LiDAR system. The research t...

U.S.-based LiDAR maker, Velodyne Lidar, announced that it has entered a long-term global licensing agreement with Hesai Photonics Technology encompassing 360° surround-view LiDAR sensors. Based on the agreement, Velodyne and Hesai have agreed to dismiss current legal proceedings in the U.S., Germany and China that exist between the two companies. The license agreement covers both existing and future patents of both company. David Hall, Velodyne Founder and Chairman of the Board, commented, “We think this agreement will expand the adoption of LiD...