LED driver IC specialist Macroblock reported a gross margin of 34.2% for the first quarter of 2018, reaching new high over the past two years. The company expects its 2Q18 revenue to increase by 20% QoQ after its driver IC is chosen and successfully adopted in Samsung’s display products.

Samsung Electronics said on May 10 it released the latest QLED TVs in Vietnam, seeking to penetrate deeper into a market with considerable demand for large displays.

Leyard and Planar, specialized in visualization products, announced May 10 that they have completed the acquisition of eyevis, which includes the company Teracue. In line with the announcement earlier in April, Leyard and Planar have completed the acquisition process.

As GE lighting is still a strong brand in North America, it is expected a number of Chinese LED and lighting firms will scramble for the sale. In this regard, LEDinside looked into the Chinese lighting industry and found out a few firms that might be interested in buying GE’s assets.

Philips Lighting launched a new cloud-based Scene management app that enables businesses to quickly and effortlessly change a building’s architectural lighting using your smartphone or tablet. The app, specially designed for use on smart devices, further illustrates the company’s leadership in connected lighting and lighting for the Internet of Things.

Taiwanese LED chip maker Epistar in 2017 went through a financial turnaround and reported a share dividend of NTD 0.8. In wake of lukewarm market demand, the company’s 2Q18 results showed declinces. Its plan to mass produce Mini LED products is scheduled in the second half of 2018.

LG Electronics said Wednesday (May 9) its latest OLED TVs released in the United States come with features that allow them to be connected to the Google Assistant voice recognition system.

LED lighting technology specialist LG Electronics has unveiled next-generation smart lighting advancements with greater flexibility and connectivity options. The super-efficient new LG "Simple Choice" LED high bay lights and LG "Sensor Connect" application were introduced at LIGHTFAIR International 2018.

Philips Lighting will roll out a major update to its Philips Hue app for iOS and Android-based devices this month. Consumers will enjoy new features as well as enhancements of existing app capabilities, so they can easily and quickly personalize and control the Philips Hue lighting system for the home.

While more companies join in the development of Micro LED, only a few are able to manufacture RGB Micro LED chips. Taiwanese electronics giant Foxconn is reported to acquire shares of Epileds, a Taiwan-based LED wafer and chip maker, from Catcher Technology, specialized in light metal technology and originally a shareholder of Epileds.

Current, powered by GE is unveiling a series of new products at LIGHTFAIR International in Chicago that expand the company’s portfolio of retrofit, connected and specialized LED and controls offerings. The business is displaying several proprietary technologies that spotlight its continued focus on the digital transformation of lighting infrastructure.

Cree announces an expansion of the XLamp High Current LED Array family with new CMT LEDs that extend Cree’s latest metal-based chip-on-board (COB) LED technology to the most prevalent COB form factors.

Tuya Smart, a China-based global AI/IoT platform company, is expanding its business with the opening of a U.S. sales and R&D office in Silicon Valley. The company is bringing its one-stop shop solution to device manufacturers so that any standard ‘dumb’ device can be transformed into a smart one, ready for production in less than two weeks.

On May 7, 2018, Epistar filed a patent infringement lawsuit against V-TAC USA Corp. (“V-TAC”) in the United States District Court for the Central District of California on May 7, 2018. The complaint asserts that V-TAC’s LED filament bulbs infringe seven Epistar patents and seeks injunctive relief to halt further sale of the infringing products.

Firefly LiFi, a manufacturer of Visible Light Communications (VLC) and Infrared Light Communications (ILC) LiFi products, announced that it is bringing affordable backhaul connectivity to 5G Smart City networks and the security camera market, using LED technology.

Samsung Electronics is now offering LED component solutions that have been optimized for horticulture lighting. The company’s new horticulture LED lineup features a newly developed “red LED” package, as well as additions to key existing Samsung “white LED” package and module families to include horticulture lighting specifications.

ERP Power LLC (ERP), a provider of small, smart and connected LED drivers for the lighting industry, announced its compact constant voltage drivers for indoor and outdoor LED signage applications will be demonstrated May 8-10 at LIGHTFAIR International 2018 in Chicago. The new VGM Series drivers are available in 60W/12V and 100W/24V models that deliver double the power density of industry competitors and achieve 90% efficiency from 50-100% of load with power factor greater than 0.9 and THD less than 20%.

Epistar yesterday announced it has agreed with Kaistar Lighting on the licensing of LED filament patents. The LED filament bulb products manufactured by Kaistar and its subsidiaries (including Bridgelux, SINOTRON Lighting, and Interlight Optotech) are licensed under Epistar’s filament patents.

The FSP Group, one of the world’s major power supply vendors, will be presenting its latest smart lighting technologies at this year’s LIGHTFAIR International (LFI) that will be held in Chicago from May 8 to 10. Solutions that FSP will bring to the event include intelligent programming for smart lighting controls and high-efficiency lighting products, both of which are central to the company’s committed strategy to stake out a position in the growing market of the Internet of Things (IoT).

The prices of high-power LED products in the Chinese market remained stable, while mid-power 3030 LED package products saw slight price drop in April 2018, says LEDinside, a division of TrendForce.

The significant drop in light output (green gap phenomenon) exhibited by green LEDs has often been the cause of efficiency problems and high costs in customer applications. For its indium gallium nitride (InGaN)-based green LEDs, Osram Opto Semiconductors has now succeeded in reducing the typical forward voltages by around 600 mV drastically. With a simultaneous increase in optical output power, customers instantly benefit from improvements in efficiency of up to 40 percent compared to predecessor products across the entire UX:3 portfolio from Osram. 

EPISTAR announced it has reached agreement with KAISTAR lighting (Xiamen) Co., Ltd.(Kaistar). The LED filament bulb products of Kaistar and its subsidiaries are licensed under Epistar’s filament patents. 

As a popular product in the LED display industry, Micro LED is regarded as a leader of next-generation display technology. A large number of manufacturers at home and abroad have paid attention to Micro LED, which has promising market prospects.

According to TrendForce’s latest report New Display Technology Cost Analysis, Micro LED has emerged as the most discussed topic in the display industry. The capital market and the supply chain are all looking forward to this next-generation display technology. However, from the technical perspective, the mass production of Micro LED still face many challenges, including the yield rate of mass transfer and LED uniformity, etc. Some manufacturers have thus shifted their development focus to Mini LED, whose architecture is similar to that of current LCD and LED displays. No major change in the design is needed. Commercialization of Mini LED is only a matter of time, therefore, companies are all expecting it to become a transitional product before Micro LED is ready for mass production.

The WiZ Connected program launched in March allowing OEM partners to integrating the WiZ Connected Controller into their LED driver, to offer their customers full control of their lighting experience through WiFi connectivity and Bluetooth Low Energy capability via the world-class Android and iOS WiZ consumer and WiZ Pro apps, and through cloud web services for greater interoperability and scalability together with flexible multi-user control capability.

LG Innotek today announced it will participate in RadTech 2018, North America's largest UV fair in Chicago, Illinois, on the 7th to 9th of this month.

Delivering LED industry transformation for over 15 years, Bridgelux is taking bold new steps to address customer requests for human centric lighting and connectivity for the Internet of Things (IoT) by expanding its industry presence and product portfolio.

Philips Lighting announced that it has repurchased 154,000 shares in the period May 2, 2018 to May 4, 2018. The shares were repurchased at an average price of EUR 26.54 per share and an aggregate amount of EUR 4.09 million.

EVERLIGHT ELECTRONICS CO., LTD. will demonstrate its comprehensive offering of horticulture LEDs and diverse lighting application products as well as relevant lamps, such as horticulture luminaires and fishing lamps at LIGHTFAIR International 2018.

Universal Display Corporation reported financial results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2018. It also announced that its Board of Directors approved a second quarter cash dividend of $0.06 per share on the Company's common stock.