Welcome to the LEDs Magazine News & Insights newsletter for Nov. 4, 2020. Unfortunately, but as many feared, we started our day in the US this morning with much uncertainty regarding the future direction of our country. I mention it here because the election situation is unsettling in so many ways and it is likely headed to the courts. And it will impact the LED and solid-state lighting (SSL) sectors, as it will many other industries. We need to chart a positive path forward.
Of course, our business world also provides tumultuous and long, drawn-out proceedings through regulatory bodies and courts. Consider the ams acquisition of Osram. Our Mark Halper has patiently covered the chronology and complications of the deal going back to mid-2019. And he reported just yesterday that the two companies voted to award ams domination status in the deal. That vote will finally clear the way for ams to begin the business integration process.
Mark has also patiently followed the troubled technology progress in visible light communications (VLC) technology that’s often called Li-Fi as it is intended to be a non-RF alternative to Wi-Fi. I have previously voiced my doubts about the viability of Li-Fi. Mark has written that one roadblock to broad adoption has been the requirement that any device using Li-Fi required an external dongle and that integration into portable computing devices was critical in the path to commercial success. He recently reported that Getac from Taiwan has integrated the technology into a tablet-style device.
Getac’s system is based on technology from UK-based pureLiFi. That company has been among the most aggressive supporters of Li-Fi advantages including secure communications. But I think an uphill fight remains, including promulgation of an interoperable standard.
Moving to the packaged LED space, Lumileds has been in the news quite frequently of late. Just more than a month ago, Matt Roney took the helm as CEO moving up from leading the Lumileds automotive business unit. Subsequently, Steve Barlow moved from a position leading the Lumileds lighting business into Roney’s former position in automotive. Then Leon Pikaar was promoted to Barlow’s former position heading the lighting business.
The company has also continued to make regular technology news, most recently with a portfolio-wide performance upgrade to the Luxeon C and CZ colored LED families. Colored LEDs remain a niche relative to phosphor-converted white LEDs. But I find the color space fascinating from a technology perspective. Lumileds was able to increase flux output in some of the components by as much as 17%.
Remember you can easily register and access our recent virtual conferences. The HortiCann Light + Tech conference took place just two weeks ago. There were excellent presentations across the agenda. And our Renaissance of Light Quality conference was held in September and also included some great educational content.
You will find many more stories of interest in the body of today’s newsletter. And always feel free to contact me to discuss content we post or to pitch a contributed article.
- Maury Wright, (858) 748-6785, [email protected]