In the past few weeks, the LED industry has been active with several worldwide leading brands reporting their financial results of the second quarter and the first half of 2018 as well as big names announcing news of company reconstruction. LEDinside highlights the news for our readers to quickly follow up the industry updates. 

Veeco Instrument released the financial results for its second quarter of 2018. Its revenue has grown by 40.64% YoY to US$ 157.8 million, with Non-GAAP operating income of US$ 11 million and EPS of US$ 0.15. With GAAP, the company had a net loss of US$ 237.6 million or US$ 5.02 loss per diluted share. 

Under the pressure of price competition and oversupply in the LED industry, LED producers worldwide have been devoting their efforts in organization transformation and reconstruction as well as focusing on innovative technologies. The development of Mini LED and Micro LED has been viewed as the new opportunity for LED firms. LEDinside has estimated that the revenue of Micro LED and Mini LED will reach US$1.38 billion by 2022.

Unity Opto, a Taiwan-based LED packaging company, has announced the issuance of up to 120 million shares for private placement as approved by its shareholders to introduce strategic partners. The Taiwanese OEM Wistron, reported its investment in Unity Opto through its subsidiary, ArFlex.

Panel makers in Asia have been struggling with the oversupply of LCD products and have reported profit drop in the second quarter of 2018 compared to last quarter and last year. 

Signify launched its “interact Hospitality” system which provides smart management and services to hotels and guests. Swissôtel The Stamford in Singapore has become the first hotel to commercially implement the system and to provide smart services to its guests.

A culture center and museum in Iceland has recently transformed with the luminaires from Altman lighting to more sophisticatedly transmit the stories and legacy of Thorbergur Thordarson, an Islandic writer and the region of Suðursveit in South-East Iceland. 

Phoseon Technology, the U.S. based UV LED solution provider, is going to exhibit its latest UV LED curing solutions for adhesive applications at Touch Taiwan 2018 in Taipei, Taiwan. 

Many LED manufacturers have prepared themselves when entering the peak quarter of a year. Taiwanese LED chip maker Epistar has also reported the increasing demands from the market for four-element LEDs, LED backlights and Mini LED applications. 

Macroblock has showcased several displays adopting its new ICs at 2018 Macroblock LED Display Conference. The company is also ready to welcome the peak quarter of the year with its shipments of various products.

Taiwanese LED chip maker Opto Tech has reported a steady growth of 8% YoY in the second season of 2018 and expects a better performance in the second half of the year with its new capacity completed. 

Samsung Electronics announced its financial result for the second quarter of 2018 at KRW 58.48 trillion (US$ 52.05 billion) with a decrease of 4% YoY. The operating profit was KRW 14.87 trillion (US$ 13.23 billion), up by 6% YoY.

Diodes Incorporated released a new series of automotive LED drivers to simply the driving of low-power lighting. The BCR4xxUQ series is designed to provide a total solution for automotive applications including puddle lighting, side markers and internal lighting covering ambient lights, instrument clusters and button backlighting.

In September 2010, Nichia Corporation (“Nichia“) started a patent infringement lawsuit in Germany against Taiwanese LED manufacturer Harvatek Corporation (“Harvatek“) concerning Harvatek‘s white LED products

Osram has reported its financial result of the third quarter of its 2018 fiscal year* and announced the company’s plan to divest its luminaires business and to save cost for the coming years. 

Osram announced on July 31 that the company decided to initiate the sale of its luminaires business and to strategically focus on the high-growth market.

Cities worldwide are preparing themselves to enter the new age of IoT (Internet of Thing) through the installation of smart streetlights and the capital of Taiwan, Taipei is no exception. Taipei city has been working with Everlight, the Taiwanese LED package giant and LED lighting producer, to replace the conventional streetlights with LED smart streetlights and to integrate with different solution providers for constructing a smart city for the future. 

Kyocera Corporation has announced its development of the world’s first full-spectrum LED lighting for aquariums. The LED lighting product is designed with innovative technology to mimic sunlight at specific underwater depths which optimizes growth of corals and marine plants.

According to the latest report from LEDinside, “Micro-projection Technology Applied to Automotive HUD Trends,” the number of LEDs used in head up display (HUD) is estimated to reach 300 million in 2023.

Signify announced its start of the share repurchase program which plans to buy back up to EUR 230 million (US$ 269.59 million) of its own shares to reduce the company’s capital.

Everlight, the leading Taiwanese LED package company commented on the tariff policy of the U.S. government and considered that there might be impacts on the prices of LED components and LED lighting products.

The U.S. Federal Circuit has reversed a court’s ruling in a patent infringement dispute between Boston University and Epistar, Everlight and Lite-On.

The German semiconductor equipment maker Aixtron has reported its financial results for the second quarter and the first half of 2018 and revealed that its MOCVD systems for laser and red-orange-yellow (ROY) LED applications have created significant contributions to the sales growth. 

“2018 Macroblock LED Display Conference” is the most important event of the LED display industry every summer. Not only do speakers bring the latest information about trends and technology, but also Macroblock demonstrates the next-generation display cabinets that adopt the newest ICs outside the venue. The booth of Macroblock’s booth carries a lot of energy to the LED display market for 2nd half year of 2018

Seoul Semiconductor has announced its revenue for the second quarter of 2018 to be KRW 290 billion (US$ 259.84 million), which meets the company’s target of KRW 280 to 300 billion. 

Taiwanese semiconductor equipment supplier Gallant Precision Machining (GPM) reported that the company has prepared for equipment to produce Micro LED, including facilities of LED picking, washing, mass transferring and testing. The facilities are now at the experimental phase.

Signify released the company’s business performance result for the second quarter and first half of 2018. The highlights are as follows: 

The Taiwanese backlight module and projector producer Coretronic held the earnings conference call of Q2 on July 24th and claimed that the company’s business has not been influenced by the tariff imposed by the U.S. government.

LG Innotek announced that the company has filed a lawsuit against Evergreat, a U.S. based UV nail dryer manufacturer, for patent infringement. The lawsuit alleges that Evergreat used LG Innotek's LED chip technology patents in all of its 10 UV nail dryer models without its permission. 

Taiwanese panel producer AUO has reported its revenue for the second season of 2018 and revealed that the company expects to release Mini LED displays for gaming monitors or gaming notebooks in the second half of 2018.