FitTech, a Taiwanese LED chip and wafer probers provider, has increased its product portfolio for the production of Mini LED and VCSEL and has been providing its equipment to the top three Chinese LED companies. FitTech has continued to extend its product lines in the optoelectronic field with a focus on system integration. Its products include LED/wafer probers, automatic solar sorters, laser micromachining systems and others. With its products, the company has successfully become a supplier for the top three Chinese LED companies. Its LED prober takes...

Heliospectra, the Swedish horticulture LED lighting solution provider, has reported new orders from John Innes Center, a British research center, and F&M 2017 DOO, a Macedonian medicinal cannabis provider. UK-based John Innes Centre focuses on researches on plant science and uses speed breading to accelerate research on wheat and other crops. The institute has installed Heliospectra’s LED grow light for its research project and successfully speeded up the growing cycle of wheat. John Innes Centre has ordered new ELIXIA and EOS lights from H...

Electronica 2018, the biannual electronic components exhibition, was held in Munich, Germany, from November 13th to 16th. Several world leading LED producers joined the event to showcase their novel technology developments and innovative applications. Korea-based LG Innotek and Everlight from Taiwan both participated in Electronica 2018 and demonstrated their LED products and applications. LG Innotek presented its automotive and electronic components for electric and smart vehicles during the event and aims to increase its presence in the European market. The compan...

A new study published in the European Journal of Preventative Cardiology reported that exposure to blue light would decrease blood pressure and reduce the risk of developing cardiovascular disease. In previous studies, it is shown that UV light can help the skin to release nitric oxide and decrease blood pressure. Researchers from the University of Surrey and Heinrich Heine University Dusseldorf have collaborated with Philips to learn whether body exposure to blue light also has the same effect as visible blue light is not carcinogenic compared to UV light. (Image: ...

The Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI), a Taiwan-based high-tech applied research institution, reported that it has received three 2018 R&D 100 Awards on November 16th in Florida, USA. One of the awarded innovation products was a portable UVC LED water sterilizer system. ITRI’s portable UVC LED water sterilizer system is the world’s first solar-powered flow-water sterilizer for emergency use. It efficiently produces clean water by killing water-borne bacteria with UVC LED technology. The device is designed for electri...

Imec, the Belgium-based nanoelectronics research center, has worked with Ghent University and contact lens producer SEED to develop a contact lens integrated with LED light. The lens is presented at imec technology forum Japan (ITF Japan 2018) on November 19th, 2018. The contact lens with an integrated LED light is made of hydrogel-based material and is embedded with an ultra-thin silicon microchip, radio‐frequency (RF) antenna for wireless energy transfer, and stretchable thin‐film interconnections. imec and CMST, an imec research group at Ghent University...

Infineon Technologies has announced the acquisition of Siltectra, a Dresden-based start-up which developed an innovative technology, named Cold Split, for processing crystal material. The company was acquired for EUR 124 million (US$141.38 million). With the acquisition, Infineon aims to adopt Cold Split technology to split silicon carbide (SiC) wafers, doubling the number of chips out of one wafer. “This acquisition will help us expand our excellent portfolio with the new material silicon carbide as well. Our system understanding and our unique know how on thin ...

At electronica 2016 Inova Semiconductors launched the innovative ISELED technology, a groundbreaking approach for interior automotive lighting. At the same time the ISELED Alliance was announced. The alliance aims to coordinate between its members and build an ecosystem for the ISELED technology whose core is a “digital” RGB-LED, with a tiny controller inside the LED package. This innovative approach reduces costs, simplifies control, and expands the functionality of LED lighting in the automobile significantly. (Image: ISELED) T...

On November 15, the Sensor Technology and Smart City seminar was successfully held at Shanghai Institute of Technical Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Co-organized by Shanghai Optoelectronics Trade Association (SOTA) and Shanghai Illumination Electric Appliance Trade Association (SIEATA), the seminar gathered top entrepreneurs, industrial experts and academicians in Shanghai to participate and exchange insights on the development of smart lighting technologies. Shanghai Wellmax Lighting (WELLMAX), a key member of the SOTA and SIE...

Osram Opto Semiconductor has announced a new LED, Osconiq S3030. The LED is featured with long lifetime and robustness to fulfill the demands of general lighting products. Osconiq S3030 targets mid-power market for outdoor and industrial lighting applications, providing high quality and durability in various operating conditions. The individual components provide flexibility in forward voltage and luminous flux with an exceptional lifetime of 75.000 hours even at high temperatures. Together with an optimized phosphor, lead frame and chip design, the development of the Osc...

SemiLEDs Corporation, a developer and manufacturer of LED chips and LED components, has posted its financial results for the fourth quarter and full year of fiscal year 2018, ended August 31, 2018. (Image: SemiLEDs) Revenues for the fourth quarter and for the third quarter of fiscal 2018 were both approximately US$2.0 million. GAAP net loss attributable to SemiLEDs stockholders for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2018 was US$1.1 million, compared to a loss of $326 thousand in the third quarter of 2018, or a net loss of US$0.32 per diluted share, compared to...

Hydroponic equipment supplier Hydrofarm Holdings Group has announced that the company has built an exclusive partnership with SANANBIO to launch PHOTOBIO Powered by SANANBIO, a horticulture LED product line, in the U.S. and Canada. SANANBIO develops innovative vertical growing systems and horticulture lighting solutions to ensure high quality and yield. With the collaboration, its product performance will be enhanced by Hydrofarm’s customer support, which includes professionally rendered lighting plans that help growers evaluate the needs...

Orion Energy Systems reported results for the second quarter of its fiscal 2019 ended September 30, 2018. The company posted a revenue of US$ 13.2 million for 2Q19, down14.3% YoY and 4% QoQ due to lower sales through the distribution channel and delays of certain projects. Gross margin declined to 19.3% in 2Q19, compared to 23.5% in 2Q18. According to Orion, the business in the U.S. is progressing significantly with its automotive, retail and public sector customers. With its capability to provide tailored LED lighting solutions, the growth momentum of Orion com...

Osram has announced that it will present its state-of-the-art LED automotive lighting at the 2018 Essen Motor Show which will be held from December 1st to 9th. The company has launched new Osram LEDriving products for the replacement of halogen and xenon light. LEDriving work lights and additional headlights are new additions to the Osram portfolio. The new headlamps with novel LED technology offer greater output than the original headlamps. In addition, the LED retrofit headlamp can deliver low-beam, high-beam, daytime running lights, position lights and turn ind...

Big lighting brands have continually transformed their positioning from luminaires providers to high technology developers. Apart from Osram revising its organization structure and moving towards to digitalization, Signify has also been expanding its presence in the market of smart applications and establishing IoT systems in Asia. (Image: Signify) According to the report by Digital News Asia, Signify has launched its Interact IoT platform in Kuala Lumpur on November 14th. Alok Ghose, CEO of Signify ASEAN, said that the company will assist Malaysia for t...

The LEDVANCE Supervisory Board has appointed Lawrence Lin as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Managing Director of LEDVANCE. Lin, who most recently served as Chairman of the LEDVANCE Supervisory Board, will continue to drive the transition of LEDVANCE to become one of the global leaders in LED-based general lighting. Lin brings a successful track record and vast international management experience into his new position at LEDVANCE. In his latest role since 2015, as Executive General Manager at MLS, he was instrumental in...

Serving as a key technology in the development of autonomous vehicle, LiDAR has gained increasing attentions from the industry with more and more companies continually advancing their LiDAR technology development. Two LiDAR companies, Innoviz and Robosense, announced that their cutting-edge LiDAR solutions have been honored with CES 2019 Innovation Awards. Chinese LiDAR company RoboSense said that its RS-IPLS Intelligent Perception LiDAR System was named as a CES 2019 Innovation Awards Honoree which was released during CES Unveiled N...

With the help of Current, powered by GE, the City of San Diego has begun smart city project since last year and has released several new digital applications to improve parking, traffic and public safety on city streets. The city has continued to increase the installation of Current’s CityIQ sensor nodes on LED streetlights in the city. In total, the infrastructure project will include 4,200 new CityIQ nodes across 14,000 new individually metered LED fixtures. Together with a lighting control platform, the project will boost LED streetlight efficiency by an...

U.S.-based material producer PPG and wireless power company Powercast have announced a joint development agreement to produce wirelessly powered printed electronics products for applications such as smart consumer packaging and smart ID cards. By leveraging the expertise from each other, the project will combine substrate and conductive inks from PPG and receiver technology of Powercast to develop LED-based wireless illumination solutions. With the technology, consumer packaging can light up itself to showcase products on a shelf. For smart ID cards, it can be illumina...

EpiGaN, the Belgian GaN-on-Si and GaN-on-SiC epitaxial wafer provider, has ordered a new AIX G5+ C system from AIXTRON to expand its production capability for large size wafer.   The new AIXTRON AIX G5+ C reactor will be installed at EpiGaN’s manufacturing site in Hasselt Belgium in the first quarter of 2019 and start to operate afterwards. The fully automated Planetary® MOCVD system features in-situ chamber cleaning and enables configurations of 8x6 inch or 5x8 inch epitaxial wafers to be automatically loaded and removed by ...

In recent years, with the development of LED industry becoming more and more mature, general lighting market has gradually become saturated, and major lighting brands have launched fierce competition in order to seize market share. Channel layout has become a key part of the competition for lighting companies. It is also an important way for lighting enterprises to improve product coverage, market share and market competitiveness. EVERLIGHT, as the benchmark for Taiwan’s LED packaging companies, knows the importance of channel distribution for lighting companies. ...

The Micro LED Technology Research Contest has received papers targeting all aspects of Micro LED technology development. Aside from mass transferring and methods for full color display, backplane is also a critical factor in the manufacturing process of Micro LED.

UK-based Micro LED producer Plessey has announced a partnership with EV Group (EVG), a wafer bonding and lithography equipment supplier. The aim of the collaboration is to accelerate the commercialization of GaN-on-Si monolithic Micro LED technology.

Lextar has announced that it is going to launch a series of VCSEL products for 3D sensing applications including facial and gesture recognition, people detection, and driver fatigue detection. Lextar’s VCSEL products include the PV88M component series which emit light for 3D depth-sensing module. The series provides various wavelengths, different levels of brightness and package sizes while offering a beam angle selection from 45 to 100 degrees. According to Lextar, the product can also be customized to meet the needs of its clients. (Image: Lextar) The ...

As Osram continues to accelerate its development in high technology, the company has released its latest addition to its laser portfolio for LiDAR applications of autonomous vehicles. LiDAR systems are an integral part of driving assistance systems, such as lane assist and emergency braking systems in autonomous or semi-autonomous vehicles. The propagation time of very short light pulses is used to determine the distance between the vehicle and objects in its vicinity. When a laser pulse hits a person or an object it is reflected and captured by a detector. From the time betw...

The prices of high-power LED package products in the Chinese market continued to drop in October 2018, according to LEDinside, a division of TrendForce. “The prices of high-power LED package products dropped in October because the costs of LED chips have been lowered in 3Q18, but the magnitudes of price decline varied”, says Terri Wang, LEDinside analyst. For example, prices of high power ceramic-substrate LEDs and 5-10W 7070 LEDs declined by 2-5% and 4% respectively. On the other hand, prices of mid-power LED package products remained stab...

LITE-ON Technology, a leading global provider of optoelectronic semiconductors, showcases its comprehensive products and solutions for Smart Home & Appliances, Automotive, Mobile Devices, Security & Surveillance, Smart Industrial at electronica 2018.  (Nov 13-16, Hall B4, Booth 121).

Engineers at the University of California, Berkeley, have developed a flexible sensor embedded with red and infrared OLED which is able to map blood-oxygen levels over large areas of skin, tissue and organs. By tracking blood-oxygen, the OLED sensor could help to monitor healing wounds.

Optoelectronic component producer II-VI Inc. announced on November 9th that it is going to acquire Finisar, the supplier of optical communication products for Apple with a deal worth US$3.2 billion cash and stock.

Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation announced that it obtained a judgment recognizing an infringement for its red phosphor patent in China by Yantai Shield Advanced Materials (Shield). Mitsubishi Chemical has filed a suit in the Shenzhen Intermediate People's Court on January 23, 2015, accusing the Chinese company of infringement for the patents (No. ZL200480040967.7, No. ZL200710199440.4, and No. ZL201110066517.7) that are related to red phosphor. The patents are owned by Mitsubishi and the National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS). Mitsubishi...