2020-03-23

Japan Researchers Use Slow Light to Accelerate LiDAR Sensors Development

A team from Yokohama National University in Japan believes they have developed a method to obtain a sensor by taking advantage of slow light and published the results in the Optica, a journal published by The Optical Society, on January 2020. A small-sized silicon photonics chip that can be used for non-mechanical beam steering and scanning. (Image: Yokohama National University) In modern LiDAR sensors, many of the systems are composed of a laser source; a photodetector, which converts light into current; and an optical beam steering device, which directs the light...
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2020-03-23

Signify will Not Join Light + Building in September

The threat of the ongoing coronavirus epidemic continues to affect the industry. Companies have cancelled events, shut down facilities and adjusted their business outlook for the year to not only prevent their employees, clients and partners from infection but also evaluate. Signify, the first lighting company who announced withdrawal of Light + Building 2020 before the organizer postponed the event, again noted that it will not participate in the world biggest lighting event which was moved to September 2020. According to EdisonReport, who covered the news that Signify wil...
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2020-03-23

Factories Shutdowns in U.S. and Europe to Affect Display and LED Industry in Asia

In response to the wide spreading coronavirus infection across the globe, many world-leading automobile companies are temporarily closing their factories in the U.S. and Europe. These facility closures are expected to affect the supply chains of automotive components covering lighting and displays. (Image: LEDinside) Ford, General Motors (GM), Fiat Chrysler and Honda have shut down their manufacture facilities in North America. European automobile makers Volkswagen, Renault, PSA Group, BMW, Daimler also suspend production in Europe. Bloomberg reported th...
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2020-03-23

German LiDAR Company Blickfeld Completes Series A Funding With Participation of Continental and Wachstumsfonds Bayer

Blickfeld, the German LiDAR start-up Blickfeld based in Munich, announced that it has completed Series A financing round. The new financing was led by the venture capital unit of Continental together with Wachstumsfonds Bayern with participation of the existing investors Fluxunit – OSRAM Ventures, High-Tech Gründerfonds, TEV (Tengelmann Ventures) and Unternehmertum Venture Capital Partners. With the new financial resources, Blickfeld will them to ramp up production, qualify its LiDAR sensors for the automotive market and strengthen the app...
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2020-03-20

GT Advanced Technologies Partners ON Semiconductor for Production and Supply of Silicon Carbide Material

GT Advanced Technologies (GTAT) and ON Semiconductor announced on March 17 the execution of a five-year agreement which GTAT will produce and supply its CrystX™ silicon carbide (SiC) material to ON Semiconductor. The agreement is valued at a potential of US$50 million. Greg Knight, president and chief executive officer at GTAT, said, “Our agreement today helps address the very steep trajectory for SiC as the preferred semiconductor substrate material for power electronics applications.” By leveraging ON Semiconductor’s hi...
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2020-03-20

Energy Focus Posts Financial Results of 2019 and to Supply LED Lighting for New Navy Ships in the U.S.

U.S.-based lighting company Energy Focus reported financial results of fiscal year 2019 and announced new contract with U.S.-based shipbuilder. For fiscal 2019, Energy Focus posted US$ 12.7 million for net sales, which were down by 29.83% compared to 2018. Net sales from commercial products were US$7.9 million, or 62.0% of total net sales for 2019, compared with $8.7 million, or 47.8% of total net sales, for 2018. Military and maritime products in 2019 accounted for 38.0% of total net sales with US$4.8 million. Adjusted EBITDA was a loss of US$5.9 million for 201...
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2020-03-20

GE Current Provides Tips for Growers when Choosing Horticulture LEDs

GE Current offered some advices for LED horticulture grow lights for how to choose the most suitable LED lightings for controlled environment. A few concepts were proposed by the company regarding the idea of full-spectrum. The first thing GE Current pointed out that it is critical to learn that “full spectrum” actually has no strict definition and is not specific to any industry, standard or code. The term, according to GE Current, is rather a marketing label to describe light sources that emulate natural daylight (“white” light). As such, full ...
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2020-03-20

Hella Adjusts Fiscal 2019/2020 Company Outlook due to Coronavirus

Automotive lighting and electronics product manufacturer Hella reported that due the coronavirus pandemic, the company has adjusted its company outlook for the current fiscal year 2019/2020. Despite that Hella has developed sales and earnings that are in line with its expectations for the first nine months of the fiscal year 2019/2020, it still considered adjustment of the business guidance necessary. Hella indicated that on a provisional basis, currency and portfolio-adjusted sales decreased by 3.7 percent to EUR 4.8 billion (previous year: EUR 5.0 billion). The adjusted ea...
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2020-03-19

ZIGEN Launches World First Tunable White COB LED Based on Its Patented Technology

ZIGEN Lighting Solution based in Hiroshima Japan announced a tunable while COB LED product, which changes luminous color following the blackbody locus (BBL) by 2 channel inputs. With its proprietary ON-BBL LED structure, the color range of ZIGEN’s tunable white COB LED product, ZG7BGXL5W00, is set from 2000K sunset color temperature, preventing middle color from becoming pinkish. (Image: ZIGEN) So far, luminaire manufactures have to take care Duv (deviation from the BBL) in the middle color when designing a tunable white...
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2020-03-19

Affected by Coronavirus, Signify to Increase Price on Its LED and Lamp Products

The world’s biggest lighting company, Signify, announced to its customers that it will raise price on all LED and lamp electronics as the cost in its logistics chains keep rising due to coronavirus spread. Signify sent a letter to its customers in the U.S. noting that the company is treating the coronavirus epidemic as a force majeure event which had led to considerable additional costs in its logistics chain. As a result, the company is going to charge a temporary increase of 3% on all LED electronics (including Emergency products), and Lamp electronics (Magnetic a...
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2020-03-19

APPLE Reveals New 12.9-inch iPad Pro with 3D Sensing Solution Adopting LiDAR Scanner

APPLE reveals the latest 12.9-inch iPad Pro product of 2020, which is equipped with a LiDAR scanner for world facing 3D sensing solution. The product can be regarded as an outpost for full 3D sensing iPhones scheduled in September 2020. 3D sensing has been equipped with rear camera to provide features like rangefinder, blur photo effect (background removal included), 3D object recognition, spatial modeling and augmented reality. 3D sensing combining 5G transmission and AR function with gesture control is expected to realize interactive augmented reality, leading to ...
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2020-03-19

3D Sensing Equipment Provider CyberOptics Receives New Orders for Micro LED Inspection and Metrology Systems

Despite the coronavirus pandemic, the progress of Micro LED technology continues to go on. After AIXTRON reported that it has received orders from the Konka Group for Micro LED pilot production, another equipment supplier, CyperOptics, who specialized in high precision 3D sensing technology, also announced orders for Micro LED production. Based in Minnesota, USA, CyberOptics develops and manufactures 3D sensing technology solutions for inspection and metrology in the SMT and semiconductor markets to improve yields and productivity. (Image: CyberO...
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2020-03-19

Osram Withdraws Business Guidance for Fiscal 2020 due to Coronavirus Pandemic

Many businesses are updating their outlook of the year as the global business has been affected by the continuously spreading coronavirus across the world. Osram announced on March 18 the withdrawal of the guidance for its fiscal 2020 as the German photonics company thinks it is unlikely to achieve its corporate targets due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. (Image: Pixabay) Osram noted that the unprecedented operational and financial challenges posed by the spread of COVID-19 and the uncertain developments in the coming weeks are leading to economic impact on the...
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2020-03-18

AUO Sees Opportunities with Its Panel Products and More despite the Impacts of Coronavirus

AU Optronics (AUO), the Taiwan-based panel manufacturer, held an annual press event displaying its new products and applications in 2020 including 8K TVs, Micro LED automotive displays, Mini LED backlit displays. (Image: LEDinside) The wide range of displays target diverse fields covering medical applications, gaming displays, public information displays, automotive displays and more. AUO noted that orders for medical and educational applications such as electronic whiteboards and digital X-ray panels have increased with rising needs in home education and med...
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2020-03-18

COVID-19 Impacts: Veeco Withdraws Business Guidance for 1Q20; Velodyne Lidar Closes Offices

The COVID-19 coronavirus outbreaks across the world has forced the industry to take actions as impacts brought the epidemic continue to expand. In the U.S., equipment provider Veeco said that the epidemic is inevitably affecting its business for 1Q20 and thus withdrew its guidance for the first quarter. LiDAR maker Velodyne also noted that its offices in Bay Area, San Francisco are closed, following the mandatory “shelter-in-place” order in the area. (Image: Pixabay) Veeco said that it puts the health and well-being of its employees, customers, suppli...
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2020-03-18

AMS Introduces World’s Smallest IR Flood Illuminator for 3D Face Scan

Sensor solution provider AMS debuted a new IR flood illuminator module, Merano Hybrid, which integrates the laser emitter, laser driver, optical stack and eye-safety monitoring to enhance 3D sensing capabilities for mobile products. (Image: AMS) The highly power-efficient 2W Merano-Hybrid is suitable for use in the latest 3D sensing technologies, including the Time-of-Flight and Structured Light methods. Applications such as face recognition, augmented reality, 3D object scanning and 3D image rendering, as well as other industrial and automotive applications, w...
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2020-03-17

Konka Adopts AIXTRON Tools for Micro LED Pilot Production

AIXTRON announced that Konka Group has ordered multiple AIX G5+ C and AIX 2800G4-TM MOCVD systems to build its own volume production of GaN-based (gallium nitride) and AsP-based (Arsenide-Phosphide) Mini- and Micro LEDs. Konka, which recently announced its plans to enter the North American consumer electronics market in 2020, established its Micro LED initiative as a joint venture with Chongqing Liangshan Industrial Investment. The company also increase an investment of over US$210 million for Micro LED development. Most recently, ...
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2020-03-17

UV LEDs Tell the Quality of Your Steak, Say Scientists

UV light exposure not only kills microorganism, it can also assess meat quality. A research team with scientists of Sechenov University in Russia, Macquarie University and University of New South Wales in Australia proposed a method incorporating UV light emission to classify meat into standard quality categories. The study was published in Journal of Biophotonics under the title “Autofluorescence excitation-emission matrices as a quantitative tool for the assessment of meat quality.” Conventionally, to evaluate the quality of beef, specialists pay attentio...
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2020-03-17

Seoul Semiconductor’s Former Employee who Leak out Key LED Technology Sentenced to Imprisonment

Korea’s LED company, Seoul Semiconductor, announced that its former R&D employee (“Kim”, age of 40) was found guilty and sentenced to imprisonment as he divulged key LED technology from the company. At the end of February, the Incheon Criminal District Court sentenced eight months in prison, two years of probation and 120 hours of community service to a former R&D employee of Seoul Semiconductor, who resigned in December 2014, charged with the Act on Prevention of Divulgence and Protection of Industrial Technology. The Court sa...
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2020-03-17

Cologne Becomes Germany’s First Smart City with Connected Lighting System from Signify

85,000 lights points in the city of Cologne, Germany, are connected with Signify’s Interact City lighting management system to make the city smarter. The installation is expected to increase the city’s energy efficiency and reduce costs while improve the safety and quality of life of the citizens. The system can also accommodate the integration of sensors into the luminaires, providing data that offer environmental benefits that go beyond lighting. RheinEnergie, which is responsible for the city’s lighting, will replace all the light points with connected luminaire...
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2020-03-16

Taiwan LED Makers to Outpace in Mini LED Production with Less Impacted Production Capacities

LED suppliers in Taiwan are seizing their opportunity in Mini LED with their production capacities in Taiwan which are less impacted by the coronavirus epidemic and free from tariffs. With Apple reportedly to launch iPad and MacBook based on Mini LED backlight technology, many expect that demands for Mini LED will surge. Seeing the trends, industry players in Taiwan believes that they can take the advantages in both technology development and production. Many Taiwan-based companies own capacity in Taiwan, China and also other countries. Since the trade disp...
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2020-03-16

Taiwan Researchers Design LED Lighting System for Water Bamboo to Increase Yield and Save 80% Energy Consumption

A multi-departmental research team at Taiwan’s National Chi Nan University (NCNU) collaborated with local famers and developed a LED lighting system for water bamboo (Zizania latifolia) cultivation to improve the growth with a new design of LED lenses. The advanced technology tackled the existing issues and proved to benefit the harvest. The results were published Applied Sciences in February 2020, titled “Optimized LED-Integrated Agricultural Facilities for Adjusting the Growth of Water Bamboo (Zizania latifolia).” The optimized LED...
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2020-03-16

LightFair 2020 Postponed; ProLight + Sound Cancelled

LightFair International, originally scheduled to take place during May 3-7, 2020, in Las Vegas, was postponed due to the spreading coronavirus epidemic. Also, Prolight + Sound, which was postponed to May 26-29, has been cancelled. (Image: LightFair) On March 13, LightFair announced the postponement of the trade show and conference. The fair will be moved to late summer or early fall pending on the conditions. Dan Darby, the show director, addressed that safety and wellbeing of all LightFair attendees is the first priority and postponing the show is the most res...
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2020-03-13

Signify to Improve Office Lighting with New IoT Sensor Bundles with Its Interact Office

Signify launched new Philips IoT sensor bundles that collect and deliver data via the Interact Office connected lighting system and Environmental monitoring API’s. The new sensors that are being launched enable businesses to monitor their office environment and optimize conditions for employee health and wellbeing. (Image: Signify) The new sensor bundles can monitor occupancy, the number of people, temperature (at room and at desk level), noise levels, daylight levels, relative humidity and are Bluetooth enabled, to provide indoor positioning and navigation capabil...
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2020-03-13

VerLASE Introduces Novel Mass Transfer Technique for Micro LED Displays

Micro LED technology builder VerLASE introduced a novel mass transfer technique for Micro LED display production based on its “Large Area Assembly Platform” (LAAP), which the company revealed in June, 2019. With similar concept, the company transfer the technology into a simpler, semiconductor-fab compatible solution based on Photo-Mechanical Actuation (PMA). According to VerLASE, the solution uses a novel formulation comprising of fab compatible chemistries and transfer stamp architecture in a unique way to deterministically pick-up a large ...
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2020-03-13

Velodyne Strengthens LiDAR Sensors Supply to NAVYA with New Sales Agreement

Velodyne Lidar announced a multi-year sales agreement with NAVYA, an autonomous driving system provider. NAYVA is a French company expert in autonomous driving system. The company has put into service autonomous mobility solutions in 2015 and used Velodyne’s LiDAR sensors in production for its autonomous shuttle fleet that provides mobility services to cities and private sites. (Image: Velodyne Lidar/NAVYA) With the sales agreement, NAVYA plans to pursue the worldwide expansion of its shuttle with Velodyne’s sensors for precise real-time...
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2020-03-13

Global LED Companies Launch UVC LED Products to Meet Growing Demands

The coronavirus has now declared a worldwide pandemic by the World Health Organization and the infected numbers continues to rise all over the world. Products used for preventing infection thus became bestsellers everywhere. Featuring disinfecting function, UVC LED embedded products are also drawing attentions in the market. LED companies who have been progressing UV LED technologies now leverage their strengths to launch UV LED products for meeting the surging demands for disinfection applications. (Image: Pixabay) Lextar, the vertical integrated LED ...
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2020-03-12

ON Semiconductor Introduce Connected Lighting Platform for Wireless Smart Lighting Solutions

ON Semiconductor revealed the Connected Lighting Platform, leveraging the company's expertise in Power over Ethernet (PoE) and ultra-low-power Bluetooth® Low Energy connectivity, along with AC/DC and DC/DC power conversion design. The prototyping platform enables engineering teams to explore and innovate in the connected lighting sector, where light fittings become part of the Internet of Things (IoT). The Connected Lighting Platform features multiple forms of connectivity for LED control, including secured Bluetooth Low Energy, provided by th...
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2020-03-12

Mitsubishi Electric Develops MEMS LiDAR Solution for Autonomous Vehicles

Mitsubishi Electric announced that it has developed a compact LiDAR solution incorporating a micro-electromechanical system (MEMS) that achieves an extra-wide horizontal scanning angle to accurately detect the shapes and distances of objects ahead in autonomous driving systems. The new LiDAR solution irradiates objects by laser and uses a dual-axis (horizontal and vertical) MEMS mirror to scan for the reflected light, generating three-dimensional images of vehicles and pedestrians. Mitsubishi Electric expects this compact, low-cost solution to contribute to th...
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2020-03-12

Light Emitting Fabric to Innovate Wearable Display Applications

A new type of light emitting textile may enable innovative wearable applications. Researchers at the University of Windsor in Canada published their development in the journal Matters, revealing a stretchable, lighting emitting fabric based on typical ultrasheer pantyhose coated in a thin gold film. (Image: Matters) The new development tackled some of the limitations of existing light-emitting fabrics and use the textile structure as an integral part of the wearable device design. With effective power sources, the light emitting fabric could be further developed into more fun...
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Violumas, provider of high-power UV LED solutions and inventor of 3-PAD LED technology, is proud to launch the release of new 275nm and 265nm LEDs in mid-power, high-power, and high-density packages. The radiant flux of the new 275nm and 265nm... READ MORE

DURHAM, NC – November 12, 2024 –– Cree LED, a Penguin Solutions brand (Nasdaq: PENG), today announced the launch of its new CV28D LEDs with FusionBeam™ Technology, a groundbreaking advancement for the LED signage market... READ MORE