Luminis Lighting released its recent outdoor lighting project at Julia Lathrop Homes in Chicago, USA. The buildings were constructed as a public housing development during the Great Depression. The building including 1,116 units of mixed-income housing were restored and modernized with parking, driveways, walkways and surrounding green space. For staying true to the designs of the original architects, there was a focus on restoring building exteriors, including brickwork and limestone pillars, to their former glory. Luminis’ Eclipse Mini EC600 fixtures were select...

After publishing the research paper demonstrating Micro LED integration with amorphous silicon TFTs, the research team from the University of Waterloo in Canada further revealed its approach of transferring InGaN nanowire LEDs on flexible substrate without degrading optical performance of the LEDs when the substrate bends. Researchers use vertical GaN nanowire LEDs to separate the electrically active region of the LEDs from the bending platform. LEDs are transferred onto flexible polyethylene terephthalate (PET) with a “paste and cut” process...

Solid state LiDAR-based perception systems developer AEye reported that it has provided its AE110 system as an integrated component in the HELLA demonstration vehicle, which will be presented at IAA, the motor show starting from September 12 in Frankfurt, Germany. HELLA and AEye announced in January that the two companies had entered a joint development and manufacturing agreement to bring ADAS solutions to global automotive OEMs. The physical co-location of AEye’s AE110 solid state LiDAR-based artificial perception system with HELLA&...

LiDAR sensors developers continue to advance their products to push autonomous vehicle development. Cepton Technologies, LeddarTech and Quanergy recently announced their new LiDAR sensor products and perception software. Cepton Technologies revealed its newest Vista LiDAR sensor, the Vista™-X120, for Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) and autonomous applications. The product offers a 120° horizontal field of view (FOV), 0.15° angular resolution and a maximum detection range of up to 200 meters at 10% reflectivity. Cepton will demonst...

Acuity Brands announced that its wholly-owned subsidiary, Acuity Brands Lighting, has entered into a purchase agreement to acquire all of the equity interests of The Luminaires Group (TLG) including its five lighting brands: a-light, Cyclone, Eureka, Luminaire LED and Luminis. TLG generates annual sales of approximately US$100 million and employs over 350 associates located across five locations in the U.S. and Canada. Each TLG brand has its own business focus on indoor architectural lighting, outdoor decorative luminaires, indoor and outdoor contemporary d...

Until the third quarter of 2019, we have seen Micro LED products presented at several international events, marking the progressing maturity of the technology after years of development. Recently, companies of the Micro LED supply chain revealed that they are getting ready for mass production. Taiwan’s RiTdisplay and PlayNitride jointly developed two Micro LED displays for wearable applications. One is a 1.25-inch display and the other is a 0.94-inch flexible display. Both panels are featured with a resolution of 228 ppi. According to RiTdisplay, it has been ...

InnoLas Solutions, the laser processing equipment provider, reported that it has participated in a development project with the Osram to create new laser diodes for automotive lighting. Laser diode based car light can deliver powerful light output with a range of up to 600 m with very compact dimensions while being compact and even smaller than before. LINEXO, the versatile laser processing workstation which InnoLas build a special laser system, helped to reach the required tolerances in this special automotive project. “We are more than happy with the supplied lase...

Delphi Technologies, an automotive propulsion technologies provider, and Cree will collaborate to utilize silicon carbide semiconductor device technology to enable faster, smaller, lighter and more powerful electronic systems for future electric vehicles (EV). Cree’s silicon carbide-based MOSFET (metal–oxide–semiconductor field-effect transistor) technology coupled with Delphi Technologies’ traction drive inverters, DC/DC converters and chargers will extend driving range and deliver faster charging times of EVs, while also lowering weight, con...

UV-C LED technology provider, AquiSense Technologies, announced that it has participated in ten aerospace projects to support UV-C LED application in the space. According to AquiSense, the company was selected to participate in BIOWYSE, a Horizon 2020 project dedicated to designing and testing a water monitoring and treatment system for next-generation manned space stations in 2015. Since then, several other aerospace projects have looked for leading water treatment technology from AquiSense. These projects include product design and hardware supply to both...

Signify announced that its LiFi system, Trulifi, was installed in the press center at Volkspark stadium in Hamburg, Germany. The installation provides journalists with reliable, secure and fast Internet connections through the room’s ceiling lights and alleviates overloaded wifi connection when the stadium is packed during games. The Volkspark stadium can host 57,000 people and will be one of 10 stadiums for the European football tournament in Germany in 2024. Like other international matches venue, the wireless signal in its busy press center was prone to overload due...

Most facility managers today are using building management systems (BMS), also known as building automation control systems (BACS), to control and monitor some of their buildings’ mechanical and electrical equipment such as heating, ventilation, air conditioning (HVAC), and safety and security systems. However, the lighting system has remained separate from the BMS for some buildings, which is viewed as an opportunity loss for lighting technology providers. Osram, for example, considers that further optimization of energy usage and operations through lighting system an...

IFA 2019 opened on September 6 in Berlin and has attracted more than 1,000 exhibitors from across the world to showcase their latest products and technologies. Display technology has been a focus of worldwide big name recently and display products covering TVs and mobile phones are featured at the show. 8K TV is the battle field for global industry players. Samsung, Sharp, LG, TCL and others all brought their newly developed high end TVs adopting QLED, OLED, Micro LED, Mini LED technologies to the show. Korean giant Samsung announced its new 55-inc...

Patently Apple reported an Apple’s patent published in Europe titled “Display with Embedded Pixel Driver Chips” describing the method of fabricating Micro LED display panels with a display integration scheme that embed an array of LEDs on substrates with the front side up. In the description of the patent application, Apple used figures of flexible and foldable display to illustrate how the approach of LED pixel driver chips can be embedded on different display panels. (Image: World Intellectural Property Organization) With the patent app...

iBeam Materials, a U.S.-based company focusing on technologies for crystal-aligned coatings utilizing ion-beam-assisted deposition (IBAD) texturing, announced that Samsung Venture has invested in the company as Samsung’s strategic investments in Micro LED. iBeam pioneers in the development of ion-beam crystal alignment of thin layers deposited on a variety of substrates for optoelectronic devices. Its breakthrough in LED technology enables LEDs to be manufactured on large-area substrates as opposed to the much smaller single-crystal wafers currently used in th...

Signify announced new smart light products, including an upgraded Hue Go, the Smart button, the Smart plug, and new GU10 and E14 smart bulbs. The Philips Hue Go is a portable smart lamp offering colored smart light with Bluetooth capability for wireless control via app or selected smart home assistants. The upgraded Hue Go also features an improved battery life for an even longer period of time. The Smart plug turns any table or floor lamp into a Hue smart light. And the Smart button can be used to control Hue lights to brighten and dim. When connected to the Ph...

Innovative display technology is no longer a new idea in the industry with more and more Micro/Mini LED display products exhibited at major international events in the past two years. However, there are still several challenging bottlenecks within Micro LED and Mini LED manufacture process that block the way to product commercialization. Therefore, it is expected that more industry players joining the market will help to advance solutions for achieving technology breakthroughs. Flexible, Folding and Transparent Displays: Turning Points for the Oversupplied Displ...

On September 5, 2019, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) finalized a set of new rules that eliminate the policy of LED light bulbs transition requirement starting January 1, 2020. The revise policy is considered a roll-back of the efficiency standards passed by Obama in 2017 and will slow down LED light upgrade. The policy was proposed in February 19, 2019 by DOE to withdraw the definitions of general service lamp (GSL) and general service incandescent lamp (GSIL) and other supplemental definition that adopt the efficiency standards. American Council ...

A research team formed by specialists in photonics, electrical and computer engineering and medicine jointly developed a device which integrated a 10x10 array of glass microneedles with Micro LED to deliver light for stimulating neurons in brains of mammals. Researchers from the University of Strathclyde, University of Utah and Fienstein Institute for Medical Research aim to advance optogenetic studies by connecting neural activities to specific cognitive functions in large mammals. In the study, the researchers combined a glass microneedle array with a custom fabricated...

Lumotive, the Bill Gates-funded startup developing LiDAR systems for autonomous vehicles, and Himax Display, a subsidiary of Himax Technologies, announced their collaboration on beam steering technology in LiDAR systems that integrates Himax’s Liquid-Crystal-On-Silicon (LCOS) technology with Lumotive’s patented Liquid Crystal Metasurfaces™ (LCMs). With the partnership, the two companies aim to improve the performance, reliability and cost of LiDAR systems for enabling advanced ADAS and automotive vehicle technologies. Lumotive lev...

Titled as “City of Science,” Darmstadt in Germany is installing wireless IoT connected streetlights as part of its smart city project to save energy and reduce light pollution. The project is Tridonic’s first installation of innovative Smart City technology with light-on-demand functionality. As part of the “Digital City Darmstadt” project, a street section in the Wixhausen area of Darmstadt has been equipped with adaptive lighting that integrated PIR sensors. The streetlights are equipped with wireless modules to connect one another as w...

Seoul Semiconductor announced that it filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Conrad Electronic again in the District Court of Manheim, Germany. In July, Seoul Semiconductor has filed the first litigation involving mobile phone products against Conrad in the District Court of Düsseldorf in Germany. According to the second complaint raised by Seoul, LEDs for flashlights of mobile phones sold by Conrad are infringing Seoul’s patent. The patented technology in this litigation is “the Roughened Light Extraction Surface” technology that e...

After Osram agreed to waive the standstill agreement with AMS, the Austrian company made a counter offer with the price of EUR 38.5 per share in cash to take over the German firm on September 3, 2019. Shareholders of Osram have an acceptance period until October 2019 to decide on the acquisition plan. The offer of AMS raised a bidding war with Bain Capital and The Carlyle Group, who proposed a takeover offer of EUR 35 per share to acquire Osram. AMS underlined that “our offer and the combination of Osram and AMS represents a better option to all sta...

In 2018, Signify announced that it has completed the world first bat-friendly LED lighting installation in a Dutch town, Zuidhoek-Nieuwkoop. Now on a way A4440 in the UK, LED lights that provide bat-friendly light source are set up by Worcestershire County Council, according to the report of Lux. The red light emitting LED lights a wavelength that does not affect a bat’s fly, providing a bat friendly crossing across the A4440 which is close to Warndon Wood nature reserve. (Image: Signify) The bat-friendly lighting switch project was a collaboration...

Mini LED has been viewed as the technology to confront OLED in display applications. Industry players from Taiwan possessing expertise in LEDs and LCD see the opportunity and are accelerating their technology development, aiming to boost the LED industry. Chip maker Epistar and vertical integrated LED company Lextar both demonstrated a wide range of Mini LED products including Mini LED backlit displays for gaming notebook, monitors, automotive panels and large sized Mini LED RGB displays for outdoor signage. Automotive applications are the targe...

Several exhibitors attending Touch Taiwan 2019 showcased their latest Micro LED displays and applications at the show including Taiwan-based panel manufacturer AU Optronics (AUO) presenting a 12.1-inch Micro LED automotive display. Paul Peng, chairman of AUO, indicated that commercialized Micro LED products will hit the market in one to two years. The panel market showed decline in 2019 due to soft global economy and the U.S.-China trade dispute. Despite that AUO has also been impacted by the slow growth, the company is pushing high value products deve...

Leveraging connected lighting technology from Signify and network expertise from Cisco, Norwegian IT systems integrator Atea has redefined the meaning of “smart office” with its office building in Stavanger, Norway. The office, named “living lab,” demonstrate the integration of connected technology on a single converged network. Key to smart office capabilities at Atea is Interact Office from Signify — a suite of connected lighting monitoring and management software — and connected sensors and luminaires from Signify. In addition to hig...

A research team from the University of Waterloo published their result of a successful demonstration which integrates amorphous silicon TFTs and Micro LED on large-area flexible substrates. With the approach, manufacturing of flexible Micro LED for wearables and large size displays with lower cost could be achieved. Researchers combined conventional low-temperature amorphous silicon TFT fabrication process with a laser lift-off transfer process to integrate blue GaN-based Micro LEDs with flexible TFT pixel circuits. According to the study, the selective l...

Micro LED and Mini LED technologies and applications created a sensation at Touch Taiwan 2019. Exhibitors from the supply chain presented key materials, components, equipment solutions as well as products applications following the Micro LED and Mini LED waves. eLux and Epileds jointly demonstrate a 12-inch full color Micro LED automotive display. The display adopts Micro LED RGB chip sized 40-50µm by Epileds and active LTPS backplane drive solution, reaching 42 ppi and brightness over 1,000nits. The full color and high contrast display performan...

On August 30, 2019, EPISTAR filed a patent infringement lawsuit against GMY Lighting Technology (GMY), Lightinthebox Holding, Light In The Box, Lightinthebox International Logistic, and LITB, (collectively, LITB) in the United States District Court for the District of Delaware. The complaint asserts that GMY’s LED filament bulbs sold and offered for sale on GMY and LITB’s website infringe seven EPISTAR patents, and seeks injunctive relief to halt further sale of the infringing products. EPISTAR’s complain...

LiDAR companies continuously extend their partnerships with autonomous driving technology developers to speed up self-driving applications. Canadian LeddarTech announced the collaboration with the Flodraulic Group for autonomous applications. Velodyne Lidar, on the other hand, is providing its LiDAR sensors to Optimus Ride’s self-driving vehicles. Flodraulic is a mobile system integrator specialized in creating full machine control and monitoring systems. The company selected LeddarTech's LeddarTM IS16 LiDAR sensors for the feature of distance and a...