In order to speed up smart city applications to meet the modern connectivity needs, Signify presents its BrightSites smart pole to turbocharge cities’ smart city infrastructure. Smart pole accommodates a wide variety of IoT applications, including sensors and cameras to offer environmental monitoring and enhanced security options such as incident detection. It also incorporates controllable energy-efficient LED lighting while maintaining the integrity of the urban environment. BrightSites illustrates Signify’s strategy to leverage lighting infrastructure to de...

According to the latest price report of LEDinside, the average price of LED bulb worldwide is in a downtrend as a whole, even though the price in some regions heats up thanks to their robust economy. Amid such a sluggish environment, many enterprises are confronted with severe challenge to survive, and some of them have even been phased out by the market. The LED Bulb Expert, WELLMAX, however, has held firmly its market share and achieved a revenue growth of 40% in 2018. On the opening day of Guangzhou International Lighting Exhibition (GILE), LEDinside...

20 years of Light + Building: Fascinating and Pioneering Work on Lighting and Connected Building Technology Light + Building is celebrating its twentieth year in 2020 and will spotlights the interlinkage of intelligent building-services systems and the influence of future-oriented light design in the world’s leading fair from 8 to 13 March 2020. (Image: Light + Building) Top themes at a glance ‘Dynamic digitalization’ is the overarching theme of all top themes, which refer to the claim of the anniversary edition of the fair in the ‘Connecti...

China LED company Shineon presented its Micro LED display at GILE 2019 with its new brand “IconiView” targeting high-end display products. The 139-inch 4K Micro LED display was developed by Shineon and Lumens, using Flip-Chip-on-Module (COM) technology with a pixel density of 1,570,900 pixel/m2. The display achieved a contrast ratio of 3000:1 and its brightness is over 2000nit. According to Shineon, the product has been verified and can be mass produced. Shineon said it has been developing laser-lift-off thin-film LED technology which i...

Micro LED and Mini LED products are going to be the spot lights at this year’s Touch Taiwan, the Taiwan-based display show which will take place in Taipei, Taiwan during August 28 to 30. Micro LED is regarded the next generation display technology with its excellent performance including high brightness, high contrast, low power consumption and long lifetime which suppress OLED. Despite that several manufacturing barriers have slow down the commercialization process of Micro LED, worldwide technology developers have teamed up to leverage their expertise in...

LEDinside observes that GILE 2019, which concluded this week, attracted a larger crowd of attendees than before, with more areas of applications for everyone’s perusal. Health lighting, horticulture lighting and other niche applications have become mainstreams to meet the rocketing demands of the market, appearing on the exhibits of several large companies. Also, the future development and technology upgrades of lighting became the focus of many seminars as they sought to address the deployment of IoT and 5G. Connected Lighting Merges with Infrastructure and Marches...

LEDinside, a division of TrendForce, points out that Apple has just released the Pro Display XDR 32-inch 6K display, which utilizes a brand new LED backlight solution. In doing so, Apple is motivating the display industry to actively explore new solutions for high end products, with next generation Mini LED backlight technology to become the main area of development for many suppliers. Mini LED backlight revenue is expected to reach US$340 million in 2023 (not including the revenue from other driver ICs and backplanes). TrendForce points out that the brand n...

The Canada UVC-LED water disinfection technology provider, Acuva Technologies announced that its Strike Platform has been certified by the International Association of Plumbing and Mechanical Officials (IAPMO) and become the world first UV-LED drinking water disinfection module platform. The UV-LED water disinfection module platform complies with a pair of key standards including NSF/ANSI 55 Ultraviolet Microbiological Water Treatment Systems for Material Safety and Structural Integrity, and NSF/ANSI 372 Drinking Water System Com...

Innoviz Technologies, the Israeli LiDAR sensor and perception software provider, announced that it has closed its Series C funding round with US$170 million. The total funding of the company came to US$252 million. (The close of Innoviz’s Series C funding round marks a significant milestone in a long line of achievements by the company. Image: Innoviz) The company said that this funding will support several key initiatives, including the enhancement of Innoviz's perception software. Innoviz's perception software provides vehicles with a deep underst...

Horticultural applications of LED lighting are the current trend in the lighting industry. Leading companies around the world have been developing different products to meet the increasing demands. As worldwide need for healthy, fresh food continues to grow, greenhouse growers require efficient, effective lighting to enable year-round growing. Current, powered by GE announced the release of the Arize Element Top Light, the industry’s first one-for-one LED replacement for 1000W High Pressure Sodium (HPS) products. The Arize Element features multiple light...

Using LED as a light source, researchers at Osaka University have now developed a convenient light-driven process for oxidizing polypropylene (PP) without harmful waste. The research team used radicals to make the plastic react. Scholars chose an LED lamp as the light source photo-chemically activate radicals for breaking down the chemical bonds which make plastic unreactive and hard to decompose. "In applications like printing and medical materials, plastics must be surface-modified," explained Tsuyoshi Inoue, co-author of the study. "Oxidizing C-H bo...

With the rising market of fine pitch display, LED driver IC should be equipped with improved energy efficiency and higher integration. During InfoComm 2019, LEDinside interviewed three LED driver IC manufacturers to learn more about their approaches. Macroblock launches series products to tackle main issue of the display market Macroblock focused on three featured LED display driver ICs at InfoComm 2019 targeting live-stage and broadcast applications. Its 16-Channel SRAM LED Display Driver IC, MBI5253, is an upgraded version of MBI5153, w...

InfoComm 2019, held by AVIXA, kicked off on June 8th with the exhibition taking place during June 12-14th at Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Florida, USA. LEDinside noticed that both display and projector manufacturers put their focal point on fine display technology and high valued market, aiming to push display technology to another level with innovation and creativity. Micro LED, as the next generation display technology, again became the spotlight of the show. SONY showcased a 440-inch Crystal LED display with 8K4K resolution, matching ...

Cree announced an update to its financial guidance for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2019. The company modified its revenue forecast of fiscal 4Q19 to the range of US$245 million to 252 million from prior US$263 million to 271 million as the U.S. government put Huawei on a trade blacklist. Cree said the update of financial guidance is in response to the decision on May 15, 2019, by the Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) of the U.S. Department of Commerce to add Huawei Technologies and 68 of its affiliates to the “Entity List” maintained by the U.S...

AquiSense Technologies, the UV LED specialist under the Nikkiso Group, announced that its PearlAqua Micro, the world’s first UV LED water treatment system, was verified by Hull Consulting in compliance with US-EPA microbiological performance protocols. AquiSense launced the PearlAqua Micro series in 2017 and claimed that it is the world’s smallest UV system. The PearlAqua Micro range offers benefits to the customer through LED current sensing and UV intensity monitoring as well as a variety of other design benefits specific only to Aqu...

Seoul Semiconductor announced that it has filed a patent infringement lawsuit in the United States District Court for the Central District of California, against The Factory Depot Advantages, a distributor of Philips TV display. In its complaint, Seoul asserts that a Philips LED TV display being sold by this distributor infringe ten patents regarding manufacturing of LED backlighting unit. Particularly, these patented technologies encompass LED TV backlight unit system for enhancing Color Gamut of LCD displays, and LED lenses for providing uniform ...

Chipone Technology is a semi-conductor chip design house in China. Its products include touch sensor ICs, fingerprint recognition ICs, display driver ICs, and power management ICs. Chipone acquired and merged a US company (iML) in 2016. After their financial statements were consolidated, in 2018 the Group's total revenue reached RMB 1.21 billion, and the Group focuses on raising its gross profit. LEDinside has an honor to interview the No.1 LED display IC player- Chipone's Vice President, Charles Lin, and Marketing Director, Mr. Hank Zhang....

Sense Photonics, a company building the next generation of LiDAR and 3D sensor solutions for autonomous vehicles, industrial equipment and other applications, announced a close of a $26 million Series A funding round. The round was co-led by Acadia Woods and Congruent Ventures, with participation from a number of other investors, including Prelude Ventures, Samsung Ventures and Shell Ventures. The company’s solid-state LiDAR system ushers in a new era of advanced 3D imaging technology designed from the ground up to meet the cost, performance and safety requ...

The rapid development of display technology has seen a gradually maturing narrow pitch display technology. This is particularly true when pixel pitches between module and driver IC are shrinking, the demand for new forms of optical tests has arisen. The R&D team at Apacer (8271) was the first to propose a design with a removable micro diameter light shield tube to effectively resolve measurement challenges due to the limited measurement range of a single driver IC and a single LED module. It has opened up a new world for fine pitch LED optical tests. In comparison wi...

The 24th Guangzhou International Lighting Exhibition (GILE 2019) has officially concluded today. As part of Messe Frankfurt’s architecture and technology shows, the event has gathered more than 2500 exhibitors from 22 countries to participate. The renowned LED Bulb Expert, Shanghai Wellmax Lighting (WELLMAX) attended the fair and debuted its innovative lighting solutions, attracting famous brands and buyers worldwide. Visitors around and inside WELLMAX’s booth Bulbized Sunflower LED Panel Formed the “Spotlight” After...

During Guangzhou International Lighting Exhibition 2019, the most influential and comprehensive lighting and LED event in Asia, as one of the leading manufacturers of high-tech polymer materials, Covestro is introducing its polycarbonate solutions in LED Lighting Industry. The innovative solutions, including the lens material grade, Makrolon® LED5102, and diffusion material grades,Makrolon® DQ family, can be widely used for LED general lighting application such as road light, high bay light, tri-proof light,etc. Makrolon® LED5102 is a UV-stabiliz...

Despite that the core of GILE is LED lighting and lighting related applications, LED producers who joined the event this year took the opportunity to present their latest development of Micro LED and Mini LED technologies. Micro LED Display Shineon from Beijing, China, showcased a 139-inch 4K Micro LED display at GILE 2019. The Micro LED display is spliced by 576 units of 96mm*96mm Micro LED display module which their pitch size is 0.8mm. Shineon and Lumens from South Korea have developed Micro LED display modules with pitch siz...

Although LED and lighting are facing the two-pronged pressure of the competition in the industry and the trade dispute, GILE this year still saw bustling crowds of people. It was the worst of times, yet large exhibitions provided a platform and opportunity for industries to connect and collaborate. Participating suppliers and guests from all over the world invariably took ahold of this annual occasion and expanded their business opportunities from exhibition to exhibition. LEDinside made the trip to visit a few of Taiwan’s participating companies at this year’s G...

Guangzhou International Lighting Exhibition (GILE) 2019 commences with a grand opening at the China Import and Export Fair, and will be held from June 9 to 12. The event’s host, Messe Frankfurt, points out that GILE took up 19 exhibition centers in scale with 2500 companies from 22 different countries participating in this grand occasion. It has already been 24 years since GILE’s inception, and the competition is all fired up in the lighting industry thanks to maturely developed technologies. Under the economic impact from the trade war triggered la...

Fohse, a horticulture lighting supplier based in Nevada, USA, announced that it has closed a deal with Curative Cannabis, a Canadian cannabis grower, to supply cannabis grow lights to its growing facility in Ontario. Curative Cannabis has a production capacity that is scheduled to produce up to 3,000 kg (approx. 6,600 lbs) of cannabis per year both for large-scale cultivation. With the supply partnership, Fohse will be deploying its A3i and F1V LED lighting models in Curative Cannabis' 30,000 square foot growing facility. Curative Cannabis expects that its yield...

Osram started a project named “SceneUnderLight”, with the University of Verona and the Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (IIT) in Genova in 2015, aiming to response to the growing demand for maximum comfort and sense of security while granting large savings in energy consumption. The German company and the Italian research institutions have combined advanced computer vision technology and lighting solutions to create the invisible light switch that estimates the light propagation in offices in real-time and computes how much of it is perceived by the people. Mea...

Plessey, the UK-based semiconductor technology provider, has successfully developed GaN-on-Si monolithic Micro LED. According to the company, the innovative development will support next generation applications such as AR headsets, head-up displays (HUD) and other smart wearables to enter the mass market. Given their high contrast, high speed, wide viewing angle, high brightness and more efficient and longer-lasting operation, Micro LEDs are perfect for display applications on wearables such as smart watches, HUDs and AR headsets. (Image: Plessey) Howeve...

The Zumtobel Group has teamed up with Casambi, the wireless lighting control company based in Finland to work on wireless lighting controls based on Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE). The strategic partnership ensures an extensive new range of Thorn and Zumtobel luminaires offering seamless control to users via Casambi’s BLE software control platform. Furthermore, a series of Tridonic drivers is now also ‘Casambi-Ready’, allowing luminaire manufacturers to easily integrate wireless controls within their products to reduce cost and complexity. Additionally...

According to LEDinside's latest report-2019 Global Automotive LED Market Report- Passenger Car and Box Truck, in 2018, global trade frictions and economic recession had a negative impact on the development of vehicle market, leading to a decline in annual vehicle sales. In 2019 , although the instability of global economic condition still continues, sales volume of new energy vehicles still shows rapid growth, and is expected to be the major driving force of total vehicle sales in the future. In terms of regional market development, sales growth of vehicles in some eme...

In the manufacturing process of Micro LED display, inspection and repair technologies are indispensable to enhance and assure production yield. But again, given the massive amount of Micro LED chips in tiny size, Micro LED display makers face a great challenge for the testing and repairing process. LED testing includes photoluminescence (PL) and electroluminescence (EL) test, the former method can test LED chips without touching and ruining them but it might not detect all the defects compared to EL test. On the contrary, EL test is able to identify more defec...