The development of LED applications in horticulture has continued to transform our understanding of farming. Delphy, a Dutch company, has recently conducted research on growing raspberries and blackberries with LED lighting, aiming to harvest them during winter.

Lextar has reported revenue drop in September due to its continuous product adjustments. The company registered a revenue of NT$ 98 million (US$ 3.17 million) for September with a decrease of 6.7% YoY. 

Osarm has cooperated with German company builder mantro to develop VISN, a product for analyzing and optimizing spaces in the office. The two companies are presenting the product at the Expo Real trade fair from October 8th – 10th in Munich, Germany. 

Velodyne LiDAR, the world leader in 3D real-time perception systems for autonomous vehicles, has been working on promoting the safety of autonomous cars. The company will hold the World Safety Summit on Autonomous Technology to address safety issues and public concern regarding autonomous vehicles in Santa Clara, California, on October 18th. In addition, it has partnered with non-profit organization Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) to create an educational website providing information about how autonomous vehicles can help to prevent roadway collisions.

GE Lighting has been the LED lighting supplier for Walmart. By converting Walmart shoppers from traditional light bulbs to energy-efficient LEDs over the past two years, it has saved 1.2 billion kWh of electricity*.

Cree continues to expand its industrial lighting portfolio and has announced the launch of its new LXB Series Linear High-Bay luminaires. LEDVANCE, on the other hand, has debuted a low glare luminaires for replacing conventional fluorescent lighting. 

Thorn Lighting, a UK-based lighting provider and a member of the Zumtobel Group, has announced that its luminaires were selected to light the newly constructed bridge which connects Hong Kong, Zhuhai and Macao. The bridge is currently the longest sea bridge in the world and is scheduled to open soon in October. 

Micro LED displays and devices developer VueReal has announced $8.5 million in funding from Sustainable Development Technology Canada (SDTC) to support its project whose total investment is over $26 million. The funding will be used to further develop innovative Micro LED technologies by expanding its original research team and launching a new center with fabrication facility. 

Automotive LED application has provided advanced light sources for drivers and now it offers a new function: creating eyes for self-driving cars like those of Herbie’s. 

Dr. Hiroshi Amano, a 2014 Nobel laureate in physics, delivered a lecture at Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan on October 3rd, sharing his research progress on GaN blue LED with Prof. Isamu Akasaki and how he has transferred his research focus from blue LED to UV LED and GaN power. He also highlighted the potential applications of GaN technology in the era of IoT and 5G. 

LG Display has confirmed its plan to cut jobs through voluntary retirement as the company intends to shift its product portfolio from LCD display to OLED display which requires less production workforce, reported Reuters.

Taiwan-based LED packagers Edison Opto and Bright LED Electronics (BRTLED) have reported their strategies in response to the price competition of LED products and the impacts of trade war. 

Taiwanese LED wafer and chip maker Epileds has reportedly continued its progress in developing Micro LED/Mini LED products. However, impacted by the price pressure and severe competition, the company’s performance for 3Q18 turned out flat.

With the advent of the internet-of-things (IoT) era, the IoT-Ready™ alliance (an alliance of lighting, building management, and Internet of Things companies, https://www.iot-ready.org/) has developed a common standard to reduce communication errors between component suppliers in the field of smart lighting, so smart light adjustment, environmental protection, and energy saving can be applied more efficiently in daily life. FSP Group joined the IoT-Ready™ Alliance in 2018 and was the first to introduce a 50W power supply to be used with the Enlighted ESI V4.8 protocol and the latest IoT sensors.

People have continued to discover more applications and functions of LED lights. Researchers at Purdue University have found that blue and red LED can be used to prevent birds from colliding with human structures and vehicles.

Nick Klase, co-founder and CEO of Fluence Bioengineering, has appointed Dave Cohen as the new CEO of the company and he will move into a new role in the company’s R&D team.

Mitsubishi Electric Corporation has introduced its new development of an indoor lighting technology which mimics blue skies and changes colors with daytime to create a natural feel for indoor spaces.

Power management company Eaton has introduced LumenSafe™, an Integrated Network Security Camera system, which enables public and private sectors to integrate connected video technology onto the company’s LED outdoor lighting fixtures.

With the low profit of LED general lighting and the escalating uncertainty of the LED industry due to the trade war, worldwide LED manufacturers are facing unprecedented challenges and have taken different actions to cope with the situation. Some decided to divert their LED lighting business while others are changing their business focal point. However, LEDinside believes that there are plenty of opportunities for LED lighting technology despite the difficult circumstance of the current LED lighting industry.

Osram Opto Semiconductors developed Oslon Boost HX, a new automotive LED which helps headlights to achieve high resolution and to project information onto the roads. 

Many panel producers have reported profit drop in the early 2018 due to oversupply. But in the third quarter of 2018, the enhanced stocking-up demand in the peak season has reversed the over-supply trend, analyzed WitsView, a division of TrendForce.

Dr. Hiroshi Amano, Nobel Laureate in Physics 2014, will deliver a lecture on October 3rd at Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan. The topic of the lecture is “The History of the Development of Blue & UV-LEDs and Their Future Prospects.”

Four Japanese companies, Nichia, Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation (MCC), Citizen and National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS), reported that they have been granted in the U.S. the patent (U.S. patent No. 10,072,207) to LEDs using a nitride-type red phosphor*.

Cree has released the XLamp® eTone™ LEDs, a new set of chip-on-board (COB) LEDs that delivers 90 color rendering index (CRI) light quality with the same efficacy as the standard 80 CRI LEDs.

A Cincinnati-based indoor farming company, 80 Acres Farms, has announced its plan to build a vertical farm in Hamilton, Ohio, which will be the first fully automated indoor farm in the U.S.

Taiwanese LED manufacturers have been affected by the tepid LED market resulting from LED price declines due to oversupply. The escalating trade war has also impacted the demand of the end market. 

Current by GE and Vodafone have worked together to deploy a new multi-sensor network in part of Vodafone’s London headquarters. Combining sensors of Current by GE, IoT technology and cloud of Vodafone, the new network has adopted innovative visualization software to transform raw data into actionable information.

Semiconductor equipment provider AIXTRON announced that the company has received an order for an AIX 2800G4-TM MOCVD system from Chinese chipmaker Sino-Semiconductor for the production of laser diodes.

Quanergy Systems, a US-based smart sensing solution provider, has announced its partnership with VRCO, a UK-based startup who develops luxury high-end e-VTOL (electric Vertical Take-Off and Landing) crafts. They have reported that VRCO will exclusively use Quanergy’s S3 solid state LiDAR sensors in the testing and market release versions of its latest aircraft, the NeoXcraft XP2.

Korea-based semiconductor designer and manufacturer MagnaChip has announced that the company is offering a multi-channel Mini LED Driver to meet the demands of the rapidly growing digital signage market.