The year of 2019 was a fruitful year for Micro LED as the technology entering a more mature stage with increasing global manufacturers announcing their progresses and updates in Micro LED applications. LEDinside pointed out in its “2019 Micro LED Next Generation Display Key Technology Report,” that with outstanding performance in brightness, contrast, response time and energy saving, Micro LED technology might out beat LCD and OLED and be adopted in wearable applications, automotive displays, AR/VR and large displays. In the past year, ...

Pioneer and its subsidiary, Pioneer Smart Sensing Innovations (PSSI), announced their development of a mass-production 3D LiDAR sensor in a compact size and improved performance with an extended measurement distance and more. The new LiDAR sensor is expected to be equipped in level 3 and above autonomous driving vehicles and will be released in 1H20 and enter full scale production in the second half of 2020. Pioneer and PSSI have been providing various companies with verification models from 2017 to 2018, and continued verifying performance through demonstration...

Each year the innovative products and technologies showcased at CES bring us closer to our imaginative future life. This year at the event, LiDAR manufacturers, sensor chip providers, automobile companies and other technology builders are joining force to present solutions for autonomous driving and smart city applications. Artificial perception provider AEye announced that it has integrated Infineon’s microcontroller into AEye’s iDAR™ platform to ensure a robust, software-definable platform that is functionally safe for automated and autonomous vehicle...

China display manufacturer BOE and Micro LED technology builder Rohinni officially announced the launch of their joint venture, BOE Pixey. The two companies reported in January 2019 that they will form a joint venture focusing on Micro LED and Mini LED based display backlight technology. In development for more than two years, BOE Pixey will design and build LCD display backlights, direct-emission displays and display-related sensors for televisions, video walls and other large-format end products. The joint venture will roll out at CES 2020, with ...

Israeli TowerJazz announced the process development partnership with Aledia, the French 3D LEDs display manufacturer. This development is based on Aledia’s IP and utilizes TowerJazz’s Transfer Optimization and Development Process Services (TOPS). Financed by Intel Capital among others, Aledia's nanowire-LED display technology offers breakthrough solutions for the global display market’s constant growing demand. (Image: TowerJaxx/Aledia) Aledia has expanded its technology to 3D Micro LED production by adopting Veeco’s...

The Konka Group reported that it has increase an investment of RMB 1.5 billion (US$ 213.8 million) for Micro LED R&D and is entering the consumer electronics market in North America in 2020. (Image: Konga) Konka launched its Micro LED TV, named “Smart Wall,” in order to compete with Samsung’s “The Wall” Micro LED display. The Chinese company also formed a joint venture with Chongqing Liangshan Industrial Investment as its Micro LED initiative. The joint venture will invest a total of RMB 2.55 billion (US...

A pioneer in sustainable energy technology, University of California-Santa Barbara materials professor Shuji Nakamura, has won the 2019 Leigh Ann Conn Prize for Renewable Energy from the University of Louisville. The prize recognizes outstanding renewable energy ideas and achievements with proven global impact. Nakamura is recognized for scientific innovations and commercialization of efficient solid-state LEDs. His innovations have enabled efficient use of energy, reduced the burden on the environment and helped create sustainable lighting worldwide. In March ...

CES, the first highlight of the technology industry every year, will take place from September 7 to 10 in Las Vegas. At the coming CES 2020, what are the featured technologies and products that will amaze the industry? Following the on-going trends, LEDinside points out the products and innovations that we might find at the big event in the beginning of 2020. Micro LED Displays and Applications Micro LED technology has moved few steps towards commercialization after years of development. Samsung unveiled its stunning Micro LED displays at CES in the past t...

École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) together with Geneva School of Art and Design (HEAD – Genève) developed a wearable sensor that measures how much light an individual is exposed to along with the spectral resolution of that light. The wearable sensor, named “Spectrace,” can detect the amount of light one person receives by being put around the neck like a pair of headphones or attached to an item of clothing with a magnetic pin. (Image: EPFL) Scientists have taken a growing interest in how a shortage ...

Korean media etnews covered that Samsung is planning to make an investment in Micro LED facilities in the first half of 2020 to kick off mass production of Micro LED. According to the report, Samsung has been in contact with equipment manufacturers and pending on the scale of the investment. The Korean giant might make its final decision for the Micro LED investment after CES 2020. Samsung was said to reveal the specifications of the Micro LED product at CES 2020 and decide further on the production volume afterwards. The company has showcase its Micro...

The goal of launching fully autonomous vehicle as well as advanced driver assistance systems is driving LiDAR developers to accelerate their technology developments. Draper, a U.S. LiDAR producer, unveiled its LiDAR with MEMS beam steering technology. Also, Aeva, founded by two former Apple engineers, introduced 4D LiDAR-on-chip. The two companies both focus on scaling down and simplifying LiDAR system. Draper has developed and advanced, a LiDAR-on-a-Chip that uses patented, all-digital MEMS optical switches for beam steering. According to Drap...

In November, Seoul Semiconductor announced that it will auction its patent portfolio of radio frequency (RF) and LED package. As the market response has been enthusiastic since the company released the auction, Seoul Semiconductor reported extension of the auction until February 28, 2020. In the first auction, Seoul Semiconductor is seeking the top bidder for 98 patent assets related to power amplifiers and gallium nitride (GaN) RF semiconductors, including 55 U.S. patents. In the second auction, Seoul Semiconductor will auction 177 patents, including 76 U.S....

Lighting Research Center (LRC) announced the partnership with Eaton to work on a project of additively manufactured LED-integrated luminaire, which is to use 3D printing technology to produce LED luminaires. The 3D printing luminaire development project is under funding from the United States Department of Energy and aims to address the main barriers to widespread adoption of 3D printing technology as applied to solid-state lighting. (Image: LRC/Eaton) Over the next two years, the project partners will conduct material science, electronics, optics, and adv...

Lighting Research Center (LRC) continues to conduct studies to learn how light impacts alertness during the day and sleep quality at night in daytime office workers. In its latest press release, LRC revealed that using blue light in the morning and red light in the afternoon helps office to increase energy. The study field tested a novel luminaire developed by the LRC to promote circadian entrainment and alertness in the office environment. 19 participants from three U.S. Department of State office buildings in Washington, D.C., completed the 3-week study. During ...

Chinese companies proactively joined Micro LED development and production to catch up with the competitors in Taiwan and South Korea. LED chip producer Sanan Optoeletronics and panel manufacturer BOE both reported that they are putting focus on Mini LED and Micro LED production. Other China-based industry players also revealed their progress in the past year. Refond Refond completed a Mini LED autonomous production line and will expand its capacity if once the demands grow. The company has supplied its Mini LED products to several display producers ...

AIXTRON announced that PlayNitride has qualified its AIX G5+ C MOCVD system for the manufacturing of GaN-based (gallium nitride) Micro LEDs, concluding the joint collaboration agreement signed in January. The German equipment provider and Micro LED specialist PlayNitride reported their partnership in January 2019 to speed up Micro LED mass production with AIXTRON’s AIX G5+ C platform. According to AIXTRON, PlayNitride ordered another tool for expanding its capacities for high-volume production of Micro LEDs. The M...

Smart glasses are expected to replace smartphones in the coming three to five years. Global big names pushing their development in smart wearable applications particularly headset or glasses combining AR technology with the ultimate goal to make them function like smartphones. In the past 10 years, the invention and usage of smartphones have changed the ecosystem of the technology industry as well as our daily life. But as new developments in smartphones become limited, the smartphone market shows tepidity recently. Trendforce analysis pointed out that market demand of smartphone i...

SiLC Technologies, the provider of integrated single-chip FMCW LiDAR solutions, and vehicle lighting supplier Varroc Lighting Systems announced that they will join force to demonstrate a LiDAR integration into a production automotive headlamp at CES 2020. The Varroc Lighting Systems headlamp combines its LED design and four of SiLC's silicon photonics FMCW vision chips providing a full 20 x 80-degree field of view (FOV) per headlamp. (Image: Varroc Lighting System/SiLC) According to SiLC, its compact LiDAR chip architecture c...

PMOLED specialist RiTdisplay announced that the company plans to launch Micro LED and Mini LED products in 2020 with volume production and expects profit boom in the coming year. On top of its PMOLED technology, RiTdisplay has extended its business to automotive OLED lighting and Mini/Micro LED. The company established joint venture with Luminit for OLED based automotive lighting in December 2018. Its products have been verified by six automobile companies in Japan, Europe and the U.S. As for Mini/Micro LED, RiTdisplay collaborated ...

The British Micro LED technology developer Plessey reported that it has successfully developed the world’s first GaN on Silicon-based red LED. (Image: Plessey) Whilst InGaN-based blue and green LEDs are commercially available, red LEDs are typically based on AlInGaP material or color converted red. For AR, achieving high efficiency ultra-fine pitch red pixels (< 5 µm) remains elusive due to severe edge effects from AlInGaP material and cavity losses from color conversion processes. InGaN-based red is attractive as it offers lower...

Global leading display producers are shifting the production focus from LCD display, cutting down manufacture facility or even quitting the business, majorly due to the fierce price competition and market transformation. The new display technologies, OLED, Mini LED are now competing to take over the role of leading display technology. Micro LED might also join the competition in the near future. (Image: Lextar) According to WitsView, a division of TrendForce, TV panel prices generally have been lower than the cash costs leading to business loss for global pane...

The South Korean equipment manufacturer Charm Engineering is extending its business towards Micro LED display and built partnership with Korea Photonics to develop related technologies. (Image: Pixabay) According to Charm Engineering, the company is expanding its display repairing business from OLED display to Micro LED display with its newly developed TFT array defective wiring repair equipment, reported ETnews, an online media in South Korea. The equipment provider also reported that it has signed a MOU with Korea Photonics Technology Institu...

KAIST research team has invented “transformative electronics systems” which can change shapes and stretch flexibly, enabling novel design for wearable products. The new study was published in Science Advance in November. According to KAIST, the transformative electronics consist of a special gallium metal structure, hermetically encapsulated and sealed within a soft silicone material, combined with electronics that are designed to be flexible and stretchable. The mechanical transformation of the electronic systems is specifically triggered by temperature change...

Kubos Semiconductors from the UK and the UK Compound Semiconductor Centre (CSC) announced that their partnership to commercialize cubic GaN epitaxy for the manufacture of high efficiency green and amber LEDs. Hexagonal GaN crystals have been widely used to fabricate blue LEDs, but achieving efficient operation in green devices is a problem. Large polarization fields in the active regions of these longer-wavelength structures reduce radiative recombination rates and limit LED efficiency. Targeting the issue, Kubos Semiconductors develops process based on gr...

Smart wearables including watches, glasses, headphones and others are considered rising stars in the consumer market with more and more big names launching products combining different functions for medical use, health care, entertainment and more. According to Trendforce, the global shipments of smart watches in 2019 are estimated to reach 62.63 million units. The requirements of wearable products include small size, light weight, low power consumption and environmental resistance. The progressing Micro LED technologies thus become critical for the development of smart wearables...

Samsung reported that two of the company’s research fellows have proved the potential of QLEDs for commercial purposes in a new study, which was published in ‘Nature’ on November 27, 2019. The research team managed to hugely improve quantum efficiency, as well as extend the lifetime of the QLED element by improving the structure of quantum dots. With the thick shell structure proposed by the research team, oxidation of the core and energy leak could be prevented. The study concluded that the method had improved quantum efficiency by 21.4% and increased the ...

Apple’s autonomous vehicle development, also known as “Project Titan,” seems to go on progressing with more and more related patents published. Patently Apple and appleinsider both covered that the company has won new patents of automotive applications. One of the new Apple patents is titled “Systems with Synchronized Windows,” describing a LCD integrated car window with adjustable transparency which enhance privacy. Apple noted in the patent that the vehicle window would include a light modulator layer such as a liquid crystal layer with polari...

Japan Display (JDI) announced the development of a Micro LED display. The prototype Micro LED display will be presented at “FINTECH JAPAN 2019,” which is taking place in Makuhari Messe from December 4 to 6, 2019. The 1.6-inch Micro LED display of JDI is based on LTPS backplane developed by the company and Micro LED chips from glō, a Micro LED technology provider. The display achieves a resolution of 265 ppi with a pixel number of 300*300. (Image: JDI) JDI also noted that the Micro LED display has a wide viewin...

Seoul Semiconductor Co., Ltd. (KOSDAQ 046890), a leading global innovator of LED products and technology, announced that it will auction its radio frequency (RF) semiconductor patent portfolio and its high power LED package patent portfolio. In the first auction, Seoul Semiconductor is seeking the top bidder for 98 patent assets related to power amplifiers and gallium nitride (GaN) RF semiconductors, including 55 U.S. patents. Three of the patents are licensed to the U.S. Air Force or the U.S. Army, confirming the value of the portfolio. This RF pate...

Signify introduced an innovative way to product lighting products: 3D print them! The company unveiled its facilities to 3D print light shades and fittings (luminaires) in the Netherlands and announced its plan to establish more 3D printing factories in the US, India and Indonesia. (Supermarket using 3D printed luminaires; image: Signify) By 3D printing luminaires, Signify uses a 100% recyclable polycarbonate material, allowing lighting products to be bespoke designed or tailored to customer’s exact needs and recycled at the end of their life, supporting a circula...