Dublin, the capital of Ireland, is planning to convert its public street lights into LED lighting, aiming to initiate smart city applications. The project proposed by Dublin City Council will replace up to 40000 city lights with LED and install smart city applications as well as restore 120 columns with heritage luminaires to original design. The cost is estimated to be EUR 80 million (US$ 90 million) and the project is currently at tendering stage. The city is famous for its ornate historical street light with Georgian style decoration including shamrocks and crest...

Seoul Semiconductor announced that its SunLike Series natural spectrum LEDs have been adopted for horticulture LED lighting by Rofianda, a Netherlands-based lighting solution company. According to Seoul Semiconductor, its SunLike Series natural spectrum LEDs produce light that closely matches the spectrum of natural sunlight. Adopting the SunLike LEDs, the horticulture LED lighting by Rofianda achieved a full spectrum of light wavelengths from 380nm to 740nm which is similar to the spectral curve of natural sunlight. In co-operation with Rofianda, Seoul ...

Luminis partnered with Illuminart, a Michigan-based lighting design company, to set up lighting installation for the new Microsoft Technology Center in Detroit, USA. Microsoft has moved its regional technology and training center to downtown Detroit’s central business district. The new 45,000 square ft. (4180 square meters) space has functional rooms and common spaces. Elizabeth Williams, lighting designer at Illuminart, selected Luminis’ Syrios SY606 pendant, with both an up and downlight, as the predominant fixture throughout common spaces and corridors t...

Bright lighting is indispensable. However, the lights that accompany me every day are often underestimated and become simple consumables. The influence of lighting on life is actually bigger than imagined, and the same space is matched with different lights. It does create a completely different atmosphere. A bright LED bulb that makes the light more than just a lighting tool! Enriching the LED chip allows the bulb to have a life and bring life to endless possibilities. The simple way to use light to integrate life, the light bulb can be adjusted from candlelight to...

In the modern society, the majority of people spend about 90 percent of their time indoor, leading to the issue of lacking explosion to natural sunlight. This further causes disruption of people’s circadian system, which connects to sleep disorder and depressed moods that would negatively affect productivity for work and study. In order to solve the problem, human centric lighting (HCL) applications have attracted more attention. HCL mimics natural light with adjusted colors that shift from bright blue-rich white during the day time to keep people alert and focus to relaxin...

Followed the notice released by the end of January, Osram announced the results of its first quarter of fiscal 2019. The company posted a revenue of EUR 828 million (US$ 934.65 million) which declined by 15% YoY with revenue dropped in three of Osram’s business segments. The Opto Semiconductors division recorded an on-year decline in revenue of 17% and its revenue of automotive segment decreased by 11 % YoY. In the Digital segment, revenue fell by around 17% YoY due to weak market development in the general lighting segment. Olaf Berlien, CEO of Osram...

Last week at Integrated Systems Europe (ISE) 2019 in Amsterdam, Korean electronics producers LG and Samsung both introduced their latest LED and OLED technologies for signage applications. Samsung presented a range of 8K digital signage products including QLED displays and the 2019 version of The Wall display while LG demonstrate a transparent and curving OLED signage as well as a full lineup of LED products. Samsung showcased a new 82-inch QLED 8K signage, a 292-inch The Wall display in 8K, Multi-Link LED HDR technology and semi-outdoo...

Plessey added a new horticulture lighting product to its Hyperion Grow Light. The new Hyperion Inter Light comes after its Hyperion top light range which saw over 10Ha of grow light installations in 2018. Plessey’s Hyperion Inter Light has been specifically designed to provide intra canopy light from LEDs for high wire cultivation of greenhouse vegetables and is installed within the crop to supplement existing top lighting. The Inter Light is suitable for use in hybrid systems with HPS and LEDs, promoting plant growth and fruit ripening speed. With a choic...

Lighting Science Group has spun off the biological lighting business into Healthe Inc. to carry forward the company’s circadian lighting product line with the aim to enhance people’s health with lighting. The new spinoff, Healthe, is launching new commercial products as well as incorporating the Lighting Science products that adopting the group’s technology to set up human-centric lighting environments. Healthe is riding on the momentum of growing demand as it continues to deliver well-being solutions using light as a platform. (Image: Healthe/Lighting S...

Signify, the largest lighting company in the world, reported its financial results for the fourth quarter and the fiscal year of 2018. With increased LED-based sales, the company announced improved adjusted EBITA margin for the fourth quarter of 2018. For the fourth quarter of 2018, Signify posted a revenue of EUR 1.73 billion (US$ 1.96 billion), dropped by 8.8% YoY. The adjusted gross margin was EUR 647 million (US$731.93 million) which declined 11.6% YoY. However, the adjusted EBITA of 4Q18 grew by 3.2% YoY at 214 million. For full year of 2018, the ...

Photonics West 2019 is the largest photonics exhibition in the world held annually in San Francisco. According to the exhibitors at the show, LEDinside learnt that the main technical challenges of VCSEL include power conversion efficiency (PCE), temperature drift, slope efficiency, and light field design. Most of the exhibitors at the show have achieved a power conversion efficiency of 40% for VCSEL products of 1-2W. Among them, Lumentum said it will continue to increase conversion efficiency to 43% in this year. LEDinside was honored to interview Somit Jos...

Photonics West 2019 is the largest photonics exhibition in the world with the most centralized visitors. As an international photonics industry event, Photonics West is annually held in San Francisco. During the show, deep UV LED, with its advantages of environmental friendly, long-lifetime, energy-saving, less heat loss and more, has attracted attention of visitors. The market of deep UV LED continues to expand as its product reliability and application demand increased. Nichia exhibited industrial laser and UV LED products at the show. The company’s ind...

Velodyne LiDAR announced that it has provided LiDAR sensors for a new autonomous driving technology from HoloMatic to provide autonomous parking service to free travelers from the burden of time-consuming searches for parking spots. The HoloMatic system, called HoloParking, is China’s first smart valet parking solution that operates 24/7 and in all weather conditions. Unlike parking assistance systems, HoloParking does not require the vehicle to be driven next to a parking spot. Rather, it allows a driver to leave a vehicle at the entrance of the parking lot. U...

Researchers at the Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST) and the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) have achieved new technology developments including foldable flexible perovskite LEDs and a core chip for 3D image sensors respectively, reported BusinessKorea. The research team at UNIST announced that it has developed foldable perovskite LEDs (PeLED) with a transparent material as electrode of the device. PeLED uses perovskite material as light emitting layer through electricity. In the study, resear...

With its advanced green laser diode, Osram is transforming smartphones into portable cinema projector. Green lighting is the crucial color for projection to deliver sharp and bright images as the human eye is most sensitive in the green spectral range. The brighter the green laser shines on a surface, the brighter and stronger the projected image appears to the viewer. Osram’s PLT3 520D achieves high pulse output for direct green laser diodes at 140 mW while offering eight percent of increased efficiency. These improvements make a smartphone capable of enlarging its displ...

Samsung Electronics announced its financial results for the fourth quarter and the fiscal year of 2018. The revenue and profit of 4Q18 declined due to global market uncertainty but Samsung still reached its annual goal in fiscal 2018. For 4Q18, Samsung posted a KRW 59.27 trillion (US$ 53.22 billion) quarterly revenue, which decreased by 10 percent YoY. The quarterly operating profit was KRW 10.8 trillion (US$9.7 billion), with an on-year decline of 29 percent. The yearly revenue for fiscal 2018 was KRW 243.77 trillion (US$ 218.9 billion) and operating profit cam...

Cree announced its financial results for the second quarter of fiscal 2019, ended December 30, 2018. Revenue for the second quarter of fiscal 2019 was US$413 million, up by 12% YoY. GAAP net loss for the second quarter of fiscal 2019 was US$2 million, or $0.02 per diluted share. This compares to a GAAP net income of $14 million, or $0.14 per diluted share, for the second quarter of fiscal 2018. On a non-GAAP basis, net income for the second quarter of fiscal 2019 was $23 million, or $0.23 per diluted share, compared to non-GAAP net loss for the second quarter of...

After revealing its sluggish business performance, Osram announced that it will strengthen its automotive business by acquiring aftermarket specialist Ring Automotive. With the acquisition, Osram plans to expand its aftermarket portfolio and reach end customers via the distribution channels of Ring Automotive in the UK. In addition, Ring's specialization in electronic car accessories complements Osram’s product range. Moreover, Osram will give the ring portfolio access to the US market via the established Osram Sylvania channels and opens up new sales pote...

A research team consists of scholars from Taiwan and China has developed a microscopic imaging system for inspecting Micro LED display surface luminance. Currently the major luminance measurement systems focus on inspecting the total luminance of LEDs which do not meet the requirement of Micro LED as the luminance of each individual Micro LED chips need to be evaluated. To solve the issue, researchers from Xiamen University in China and National Chiao Tung University in Taiwan proposed a method to accurately inspect the luminance of a whole micro-LED array a...

Seoul Semiconductor reported its 2018 fiscal year consolidated revenue of KRW 1194.2 billion (US$1.07 billion) with an operating profit of KRW 99 billion (US$ 88.6 million), as well as a net income of KRW 65.4 billion (US$ 58.53 million) to report two year consecutive sales growth. As a result of stabilization of Seoul Semiconductor’s new manufacturing plant in Vietnam and improved product mix, the consolidated fourth quarter revenue increased by 6% YoY to KRW 300.6 billion (US$ 269.04 million), while operating profit amounted to KRW 36.2 billion (US...

An international research team led by the Georgia Institute of Technology illustrates the potential of next-generation semiconducting materials in transforming lighting technology. . Researchers have found out that the quantum particles of the hybrid semiconductors could create desirable optoelectronic (light-electronic) properties. The particles moving through these new materials also engage the material itself in the quantum action. The researchers were able to measure patterns in the material caused by relating them to the emerging material’s quantum properties and to ener...

Sanan Optoelectronics, the largest LED epitaxy wafer manufacturer in China, announced that it has received funds from its strategic investors including Quanzhou Financial Holding, the China Industrial International Trust, and An Xin Capital. The three organizations plan to provide a joint investment of at least CNY 5.4 billion (US$801.64 million) to Sanan and Quanzhou Financial Holding will offer liquidity assistance of CNY 600 million (US$ 89 million). Sanan Optoelectronics has been through a financial crisis in January with its stock price dropped ...

China-based LED display solution provider Absen announced that it is showcasing three new narrow pixel pitch (NPP) product series at ISE 2019 which is taking place during February 5-8 in Amsterdam. The new display series with Integrated Matrix Device (IMD) and Common Cathode (CC) technologies provide five times the strength as traditional LED screens whilst consuming 20% less power. By combining the two technologies in an innovative way, Absen has further reduced the pixel pitch of its LED screens whilst ensuring maximum durability. Absen’s new A...

Osram debuted the second generation of blue multi-mode laser diodes for cars to illuminate the road condition when driving at night. The laser diodes doubles the range compared to previous LED solutions to 600 meters and simplifies the system design at the same time, when used in the auxiliary high beam of the car. With brighter light source, Osram’s PLPT9 450D_E A01 laser makes driving at night safer. (Image: Osram) “With our newly developed laser diode, car lights can be designed and built even smaller than before – without compromising light out...

Velodyne LiDAR has begun partnership with Postmates, a food delivery startup, by providing its LiDAR sensors to Postmates Serve, innovative self-driving rover providing services for short-distance deliveries. (Image: Postmates) The autonomous rover is equipped with Velodyne’s market-leading VLP-16 Puck™ sensor, which is built into the top of the rover for a high-performance surround view, enabling Serve to detect people and objects as it completes local deliveries. Serve can carry 50 lbs and go 30 miles on a single charge. Also, it can interact wit...

Driving LED by constant power mode has been a popular topic recently. Why do LEDs must be driven by the constant current? Why not with a constant power source? Before discussing the above issue, we have to understand why the LED must be driven by a constant current. As shown in Figure (a) LED I-V curve, when the LED forward voltage changed about 2.5%, the current through the LED will correspondingly change about 16%, and forward voltage of the LED is easily affected by junction temperature. The change of high and low temperature may even make the voltage chan...

2019 may not be a prosperous year for LED manufacturers given the market uncertainties resulting from the changing global politics. Yet, industry players continue their technology developments and expect Mini LED to revive the stagnant market. Mini LED, as an improved version of conventional LED, provides refined diming zones when serving as backlight and can be utilized in curved displays when coupled with flexible substrates. Since last year, several LED makers including Lextar have begun shipping Mini LED backlight products for high end applications such as gami...

Flexible and foldable panels have created a sensation since Royole and Samsung introduced their foldable phones by the end of 2018. Soon after that, LG revealed a stunning rollable TV at CES 2019. Flexible OLED displays are getting more attentions with products launched in the market in 2019. Samsung is expected to launch its folding smartphone in February 20 while its rival LG is also set to reveal a foldable smartphone soon. Meanwhile, Chinese smartphone makers including Oppo, Xiaomi and Huawei have all announced their plans of releasing folding phones in this y...

PixelFLEX, the US-based LED manufacturer announced the launch of its EF Series LED video display which is front-serviceable and high-resolution for quality performance and reliability, while offering an innovative simplicity to installation and serviceability. "As a company, we strive to develop products that we know we can stand behind, and that our customers can trust,” said David Venus, PixelFLEX Chief Marketing Officer. “Our goal with the new EF Series was to offer an economical solution, without affecting the performance quality that ou...

Since 2017, General Motors (GM) has begun LED lighting system replacement for its facilities all over the U.S. with the help from Current by GE. Until now, the company has installed more than 50,000 LED fixtures and is incorporating sensors and controls into the new light fixtures to create a future-proof digital ceiling to improve its intelligent infrastructure and enhancing sustainability. GM has continued to demonstrate leadership in sustainability through superior operational efficiency. In 2015, GM’s Lighting Strategy Committee began to focus on lightin...