The German based research institute, the Fraunhofer Institute for Organic Electronics, Electron Beam and Plasma Technology, has developed OLED elements that can be integrated into textile. The development will be presented at the Electronics System Integration Technology Conference (ESTC) 2018 from September 18 – 21, 2018 in Dresden, Germany.

  The latest research report of LEDinside “2019 Global LED Video Wall Market Outlook - Cinema, Rental Market and Price Trend,” indicated that the market scale of global LED display is expected to reach US$ 9.349 billion by 2022 with a CAGR of 12% during 2018 to 2022. Meanwhile, the market scale of indoor fine pitch display is forecasted to reach up to US$ 1.997 billion with a YoY growth of 39%. 

An old tunnel in South Korea has been transformed into a vertical farm lit with LED growing lights to grow vegetables and fruits as an approach to solve issues caused by the extreme weather and shortages of agriculture land and labor, reported Associated Press. 

Micro LED has been considered as the next generation display technology and many leading brands have continued to report their progress of Micro LED development. Taiwanese LED makers and panel producers have also introduced their latest development of Micro LED display technologies at Touch Taiwan 2018. According to sources from the supply chain, Apple has visited AUO and Epistar to learn their progress of Micro LED technology and discuss the possible cooperation regarding Micro LED display development. 

Samsung India has partnered with PVR Cinemas, an Indian film entertainment company, to launch Onyx Cinema LED screens in India. Samsung plans to install about five 4K Onyx Cinema LED displays in different cities in India by the end of the year.

Chunghwa Picture Tubes (CPT) has reported its progress of Mini LED and its achievement of cadmium-free quantum dots LED (QLED) material development. The company has targeted the automobile market with related applications adopting these technologies. 

By deploying LED lighting, agricultural activities can be carried out in places with difficult environment conditions for providing food locally and diminishing the food miles. Vertical farms have been established worldwide with the aim of producing food with more efficiency and less resource waste. 

British smart city applications provider Telensa has announced that the company was selected by Sunshine Coast Council to install its intelligent street lighting system in the Maroochydore City Center for a 24 month pilot smart city project. Meanwhile, in Chicago, 76,000 LED smart streetlights were installed as part of the city’s four-year modernization program. 

A floating farm built by a Dutch company, Beladon, is expected to open in the Port of Rotterdam, the Netherlands, by the end of the year, reported BBC. The world first offshore farm has been built in the middle of Merwehaven, aiming to serve as a sustainable food source for the city. 

Rooted in the U.S. since 1901, Sylvania was acquired by SH Felio Acoustics in 2017 and has become a Chinese company, Felio SYLVANIA, with the focus on the global market. Targeting the growing LED lighting market of South East Asia, Sylvania has been proactively expanding its business in the area and has set up branches in Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand and Taiwan. 

Taiwanese semiconductor component provider TOPCO has announced that it will join the Touch Taiwan display show to introduce materials and components that are crucial for Micro LED/Mini LED technology development. 

The technology developments on wearable devices have created numerous applications with the purpose of improving the convenience and well-being of life. In the first half of 2018, several researches and projects combining LED technologies and wearables were revealed. Meanwhile, whether the new Apple Watch will adopt Micro LED has been a focus to all.

LG Innotek has reportedly launched visible LEDs for disinfection lighting which uses indoor light to deliver sterilization effect, according the report of Korea Herald. 

The UK’s Royal Navy has ordered 100,783 LED tubes worth £1 million (US$ 1.27 million) for its flagship warships from Voltacon, a UK based company.

The market value of LED lighting has continuously expanded in the past years with the progress of the technology. According to the latest report of LEDinside, LED lighting market scale will reach US$ 33.3 billion in 2019 and LED lighting market penetration will come to 63 percent in 2022 from 22 percent in 2017.

Taiwan-based flexible printed circuit board producer Uniflex announced its development of Mini LED substrates which has entered the supply chain of LED chips, LED backlight modules and panels. The company expects mass production and shipment of the products in the fourth quarter of 2018.

A research team at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has produced a fiber-based “soft hardware” with embedded LED and diode photodetectors which can be used to make clothes.

As one of the most important display shows of the industry, Touch Taiwan will take place during August 29 – 31 in Taipei, Taiwan. Manufacturers of the supply chain including LED chip, panel, driver IC and end-product applications will gather at the event to demonstrate their innovative technologies as well as to discuss the development trend of the industry. Micro LED, considered to be the next generation display technology, will be a spotlight of the event.

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. 

According to the research of LEDinside, the market scale of LED plant lighting is estimated to grow to US$ 633 million by 2022, with a CAGR of 30% during 2018-2022. Many LED producers have entered the market of horticulture lighting to share the expanding opportunities when the demands in the general lighting market are relatively weak. LEDinside has collected the updates of horticultural applications from LED firms of the world. 

Nokia has announced its commercial partnership with Current by GE for applying smart city technology to Canadian cities to improve infrastructures and citizen services.

A project named UnMast City was initiated by NGOs and supported by professionals in National Health Service in England to fight against the air pollution in London. The project highlights the toxic air crisis by designing a customized LED light mask which changes color to indicate the air quality. 

Cochlear implant is a device using electrodes to stimulate the auditory nerve to help hearing-impaired people to “hear.” But it cannot deliver complex sound as the electrode current does not move from the electrode to an auditory neuron directly. Researchers have been exploring the possibilities to replace electricity with light in cochlear implants via optogenetics technology.

After showcasing “The Wall” for the first time at CES 2018 in January, Samsung did not stop moving forward with its progress of Micro LED display. The South Korean display giant announced during a press conference that it is ready to mass produce The Wall display for both commercial and home entertainment use.

Besides display and lighting, LED technology applications in medical field have been progressing to create possibilities for curing cancer. Researchers at Waseda University, Japan have developed an implantable device consisting of LED chips and bio-adhesive nanosheet which has successfully shrank the tumors in mice through photodynamic therapy. The result was published in Nature Biomedical Engineering journal on July 16th 2018. 

Though the big brands have been focusing on Micro LED and pushing its development, currently most of the technologies of Micro LED have stayed inside the laboratories and still need further preparation before entering the mass production process. Mini LED, on the other hand, is ready to be applied and to be produced in volume, according to many LED manufactures.

The Belgium based nano-electronic center, Imec and the Taiwan based semiconductor equipment supplier Marketech International Corp are reportedly reported to collaborate for developing a testing chip implantation equipment for Micro LED manufacturing. 

Micro LEDforum 2018 was held successfully yesterday on July 12th in Taipei. Nearly 300 attendees from all over the world joined the giant annual event to learn the trends of the industry and to spark idea exchanges as well as to find the opportunities for business cooperation. LEDinside was honored to invite speakers from leading institutes including eLux, Uniquarta, QMAT, KIMM, Nitride Semiconductors, V-technology, Topcon, Macroblock, KLA, SelfArray and Jasper Display to share their technologies and insights of Micro LED. 

Lufa Farms, a Canadian food supplier based in Montreal, has collaborated with Hort Americas and Current by GE to install LED lights for maximizing the production efficiency of its hydroponic rooftop greenhouses.

The development of LED technology not only enhances the quality of life for humans but also improves the well-being of animals. One study shows that by attaching LED lights on fishing nets, it could significantly reduce the chance to bycatch birds and turtles.