St.Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican City is now shines in LED lighting as Osram completed its digital lighting project of the World Heritage after 18 month of planning and the installation of a new LED lighting system. Osram said that the entire lighting concept for the project was tailor-made to highlight all the treasures of the world's most important and historic basilica. More than 780 special luminaires equipped with approximately 100,000 LEDs were used in this project. Thanks to intelligent lighting control, the lighting of the church, which covers an ar...

Japanese LED maker Nichia Corporation announced the expansion of its Optisolis™ natural light source technology with a portfolio of COB packages. (Image: Nichia) To further improve the overall quality of light as "AKARI”, Nichia has developed Optisolis. Launched in February 2018 with a Nichia Mid Power LED series, Optisolis provides a natural light source with a spectrum that achieves the industry’s closest match to that of the standard illuminant, including both the sun and incandescent. Optisolis, which was first presented to the i...

2019 has just begun but this year seems to be a tough one for global LED manufacturers with continuous global market uncertainty caused by the US-China dispute. Osram, the German representative of the LED industry, unveiled its weak business performance of the first quarter of its fiscal 2019 with a 15 percent YoY revenue drop. The company noted that the revenue for coming quarters might remain “significantly low” due to the general political uncertainties. Taiwanese LED maker Everlight is not optimistic about 2019 either. Robert Yeh, the CEO of E...

Unilumin, the Chinese LED application products and integrated solutions provider, announced that it is capable to mass produce 0.9mm Mini LED and will launch Mini LED solution at ISE 2019. Meanwhile, the company also reported that it is investing a new smart manufacturing facility for the development and production of Mini/Micro LED. According to Unilumin, it is the first to mass-produce 0.9 mm LED for high-end applications which is solving previous technical barriers and addressing the issue of the high cost of traditional SMD display. (Image: Unilumin...

Osram announced that in the first quarter of fiscal year 2019, the company is facing an on-year revenue decline due to the weak Chinese market under the impact of the on-going US-China trade dispute. According to Osram, the declining market in the end of 2018 has led to poor performance of its three business units, Opto Semiconductor, Automotive and Digital. The revenue of Osram for its fiscal 1Q19 was EUR 828 million (US$ 938 million) with a 15 percent YoY decrease. And the Opto Semiconductors unit recorded a 16.9 percent decline in revenue on a comparable basis...

UV curing technology developer Phoseon Technology announced that it has been granted a new patent in the US and achieved a milestone of 300 patents awarded. Phoseon’s patents are organized in 54 patent families, covering critical design, process, and other photonic technologies across all the major markets worldwide. Phoseon’s new patent granted UV LED fiber curing system ensures high speed curing of optical fiber to deliver uniform and concentrated light for a fast cure, increased output and simplified process control. The Fiber Curing System consists of...

US-based Insight LiDAR showcased its new LiDAR technology development at CES 2019. The company presented Digital Coherent LiDAR, a chip-scale, long-range LiDAR sensor based on Frequency Modulated Continuous Wave (FMCW) to target the emerging autonomous vehicle market. FMCW radar radiates continuous transmission power and can change its operating frequency during the measurement. The technology has stronger sensing capability in comparison with ToF and is suitable for long distance detection. Insight’s Digital Coherent LiDAR was develope...

LEDVANCE, the maker of SYLVANIA general lighting in the United States and Canada, announced that global CEO Lawrence Lin will assume managing director responsibilities for the United States and Canada on an interim basis, in addition to his current responsibilities. Jim Johnson, who previously held the position, left the company this month. (Image: LEDVANCE) Lawrence Lin became the CEO and Managing Director of global LEDVANCE in November 2018. He commented, “LEDVANCE continues to evolve to deliver innovative lighting ...

The National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA) has published new guideline for outdoor luminaires and roadway and area lighting equipment with LED technology added. The NEMA LSD 80-2018 Installation Guidelines for Outdoor Luminaires—Grounding Considerations addresses the application of the National Electrical Safety Code® (NESC) as it pertains to the grounding of outdoor luminaires and recommends installation guidelines. New outdoor luminaries contain more electronics (e.g., LED lamps, electronic drivers, and electronic lighting ...

Oxford Instruments Plasma Technology (OIPT) announced that it has worked with Taiwan’s Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) by providing multiple PlasmaPro 100 systems including both etch and deposition for ITRI’s Micro LED R&D program. The PlasmaPro 100 ICP process solutions are designed to support leading edge device applications such as Lasers, RF, Power and advanced LEDs. ITRI has been developing Micro LED technology since 2009. In 2018, with the cooperation with Macroblock, Unimicron and PlayNitrid...

In the beginning of 2019, GE Lighting announced that it is deepening its C by GE portfolio which features hub-free IoT smart lighting with Google Assistant control. The Made-for-Google products are able to connect with Google’s system and be controlled via app on smartphones or portable devices. The connected lights allow app and voice control for changing the color of lights and tuning brightness. Furthermore, they can also combine smart accessories including smart wall plug and motion sensor to manage lighting away from home and by movement. (Image: GE) E...

The next-generation display technology – Micro LED, has remained a spotlight of the industry. NEPCON Japan 2019 has invited Chih-I Wu from ITRI and Paul Schuele of eLux to share their insights of the technology at the key note conference focusing on Micro LED. Wu and Schuele both began their lecture by comparing Micro LED with LCD and OLED and addressed the advantage of Micro LED. Micro LED, as considered to be the next generation display technology, is featured with high brightness, long lifetime, and low power consumption. Wu highl...

AUTOMOTIVE WORLD, the automotive technology exhibition taking place concurrently with NEPCON Japan, highlighted the theme of CASE, addressing the next generation features of connected, autonomous, sharing and electric vehicles. Masaki Soda, the show director of AUTOMOTIVE WORLD, told LEDinside that the show gathered cutting-edge automotive technologies focusing on the components and technologies of vehicles including lighting modules, battery drivers, automotive IC, panels and others. Soda said, AUTOMOTIVE WORLD offers a plat...

The trend of wearable devices can be observed at NEPCON Japan 2019. The concurrent show WEARABLE EXPO attracted a big crowd during the exhibition. LEDinside founded that smart glasses, head up display (HUD) and AR/VR devices were popular demonstration at the show.   Color Link Japan presents VR lenses module Optical technology developer Color Link Japan exhibited two lenses modules designed for VR glasses. One is designed for 3D display application and the other features ultra-fast responding time to show smooth images when incorporate...

Japan-based Ushio Opto Semiconductors announced that it has developed a broadband LED that produces an output 160 mW over a wide bandwidth between 400 and 1000 nm, covering the range from visible light to near-infrared light. According to the Ushio Opto Semiconductors, the near-infrared light are widely applied in food scanning and medical field. In addition, the demands for portable measuring devices such as blood oximeter are rising. On the other hand, light that extends from the visible region to the near-infrared region where the wavelength is about 1000 nm matches th...

Austrian lighting group Zumtobel announced its lighting project for the new Town Hall in Freiburg, Germany. Cooperated with ingenhoven architects, Tropp Lighting Design and the City of Freiburg authorities, Zumtobel helped the building to generate more energy than it actually uses. Thanks to the project, the Freiburg Germany, an oval shape, sit-story building, has a façade with slender storey-high slats that stretch around the building. A façade with slats that are light larch wood on one side and full-scale photovoltaic panel on the other presents a stylish...

One essential features of LED lighting is that its wavelength and intensities can be managed to meet various requirements of different applications. Jeff Tsao, a researcher of Sandia National Laboratories, believes that engineered light has great potential to improve human health and productivity. Tsao and his colleagues have published a Nature “Perspectives” article in November 2018 to illustrate the unlimited potential of LED lighting. (Image: SANDIA NATIONAL LABORATORIES) The authors addressed that "LED lighting is o...

The installation of sophisticated electronic devices in vehicles has been a rising trend in the automotive industry. This development has also brought about the rapid growth in related application demands, which include safety solutions, automation solutions, electric powertrain, and other categories of automotive electronics. Likewise, the automotive industry represents an increasingly important market for electronics manufacturers. At this year’s NEPCON Japan, many Japanese suppliers of automotive electronics have participated in the exhibition. Their presence indicates ...

Mainstream high- and mid-power LED package products in the Chinese market witnessed price declines in December, according to the latest report from LEDinside, a division of TrendForce. “LED manufacturers have continued to clear their inventories in December due to the weak demand at the year end, which lowered the prices in the general lighting market”, says LEDinside analyst Terri Wang. The average prices of high- and mid-power LED package products slid 2%~4% and 1%~8% respectively. Faced with the sluggish demand, LED packaging companies conti...

In recent years, the hardware industry has changed its past favorable conditions and is facing a series of problems including serious homogenization of products and intensified market competition and more. In other words, the development of enterprises has encountered bottlenecks. If there are no new products with competitiveness, hardware distributors will not advance but retreat, and will be gradually eliminated by the market. Two South American hardware clients of WELLMAX have faced the same problem, and fortunately, they found a way to break the predicament with //we...

Companies in LED and display industries are keen on investing in the development of Micro LED displays because this emerging display technology has strong potentials in a wide range of applications and spans across many industries. However, entrants in the Micro LED market still face huge barriers in terms of key technologies and equipment. LED companies have thus turned to Mini LED, of which the manufacturing technology is relatively mature, in order to explore emerging markets on one hand, and to prepare for further progress in Micro LED on the other. NEPCON...

At this year’s CES event, French Li-Fi company Oledcomm presented its new Li-Fi module, LiFiMAX, which provides high speed internet through invisible light and brings the technology a step forward. Oledcomm released the first ceiling Li-Fi module for information transfer which can offer high speed internet connection of 100Mbps in downlink data rate and 40Mpbs uplink. According to Oledcomm, LiFiMax can provide connection to 16 users simultaneously with coverage of 28 square meters. (Image: Oledcomm) Benjamin Azoulay, president of Oledcomm, explain...

Worldwide LED manufacturers recently have transformed their businesses from general lighting to other niche applications. This industrial trend can be observed at NEPCON Japan as well. At NEPCON Japan 2019, most of the LED manufacturers emphasized non-general lighting LED applications. These categories mostly covered automotive LED products for interior and exterior applications, special lighting, invisible light sensors, and UV light applications. 1. Everlight LED packaging manufacturer Everlight centered on automobile LED and infrared sensor modu...

Globalization and the rapid changes taking place in industries have raised the importance of R&D in the upstream sections of electronics supply chains (i.e. materials and equipment). Results of R&D in the upstream in fact constitute a critical driver behind technological breakthroughs and the advancement of an entire industry. Hence, manufacturers and solution developers are constantly searching for innovations in process and material technologies that can serve as the basis for developing new industrial applications. At NEPCON Japan 2019, LEDinside has spotted some...

Designed for intelligent factory, intelligent commercial building and intelligent housing, smart remote controller allows you to have smarter living and better life. Team Young Technology Corporation focuses on developing smart power control systems which provide power control solutions to business units. The system integrates all power consume equipments including air conditioner, lamp, electric curtain, roll-up door and electronic lock. It helps the factories, commercial buildings, hotels, schools, and residential houses to solve the issue of power management. EzCon smart re...

The most convenient home monitor Use App to remote monitoring Child/elder care and security Sound and images are saved in SD card and smartphone without clouds,no information disclosure 1000lm (80W incandescent bulbs or 23W energy saving bulb) Samrt Home Lighting  We offer three different technical support of IOT Color Changing Lamp,in addition to Bluetooth,there are WIFI,Zigbee choices. Industrial Lighting Long Lifetime 50000hrs NTC Design:Available for sealed fixture 5KV Surge Protection Device(W. e...

AIXTRON announced that the company will supply multiple AIX 2800G4-TM (IC2) cluster systems to San’an Optoelectronics. The Chinese chipmaker with its long-term plan for the rising market demands for fine pitch displays requires a capacity increase in red, orange and yellow LEDs (ROY LEDs). AIXTRON’s AIX 2800G4-TM (IC2) tools will feature a configuration of 15x4 inches and are scheduled for shipment between 4Q18 and 2Q19.

Signify announced an innovative creation of virtual reality (VR) development for its customers. With the new lighting VR apps, Philips Fashion Lighting VR and Philips Urban VR, users can immerse themselves in the virtual world to visualize how lighting can transform their fashion store or city street.

Speaking of the global market uncertainty caused by the disputes between US and China, Maezono noted that due to the extra tariffs imposed on Chinese exports, Japanese companies who own factories in China might move out their facilities. The moving trend will lead to increased cost and thus force companies to transform their facilities, pushing demands for smart factory and robots. As a result, Maezono pointed out that RoboDEX and SMART FACTORY Expo would become even more noticeable. 

NEPCON Japan, as the most iconic consolidate electronics show in Asia, continues to expand and has hosted 2640 exhibitors, including more than 400 international exhibitors in 2019. The organizer, Reed Exhibitions Japan, noted that all the leading Japanese industry players participate in this annual event, making it a great opportunity for domestic and international visitors to communicate and exchange their technical insights and knowledge.