It's reported that the U.S. Department of Energy has named the winners of its eighth annual Lighting for Tomorrow competition, which aims to bridge that gap by showcasing LED fixture design for homes and other small-scale uses such as offices, restaurants and retail stores. And the focus was on new high efficiency LED designs that could help cut lighting energy use by 25 percent.

Vancouver-based Carmanah Technologies announced to buy Israeli LED company Lightech Electronic Industries Ltd. outstanding shares for $18.5 million. And this is expected to close in November 2010.

ED packager Harvatek recently entered the supply chain for TV backlighting, and inventory adjustments by TV vendors had less affected on it. The company expected its September revenues will reach NT$400 million (US$12.67 million) and 3Q revenues got over NT$1 billion benefit from Japan-based TV vendors’ orders. In Harvatek’s revenues, handset business accounted for about 40-45% and lighting business accounted for about 15%, over 20% for IT (notebook and monitor) products.

Recently, LED epitaxial wafer and chip maker Genesis Photonics has began construction for its joint venture with the Kunshan city government in China. The first stage engineering of the joint venture will host 50 sets of MOCVD machines. In the new factory, Genesis has held 51% stake, and Kunshan city government has held the other stake. The new factory will start production in Q3 of 2011 and will be the largest LED chip and lighting manufacturing base in China.

Diodes Incorporated has designed the SBR1U400P1 super barrier rectifier to increase the efficiency of off-line LED drivers. This 1A, 400V rated part suits both bridge, with a 120VAC input, and buck stages of driver circuits. The rectifier's typical ultra-low forward voltage is less than 0.65V for a current of 1A at 125°C. It is provided in Diodes' own high performance PowerDI®123 package for best possible heat dissipation.

Sony Ericsson has named Everlight, the best "Electronics Supplier" of the year in 2009, at Sony Ericsson's recent annual supplier conference in Beijing in September 2010. It's said that Everlight took the lead of more than 50 other Sony Ericsson electronics' suppliers.

Austriamicrosystems has announced two collections of new LED driver ICs, the AS3695A -- a 16-channel white LED driver for direct lighting -- and the AS3695C -- a 16-channel white LED controller for edge lighting. With the new productions, Austriamicrosystems extends its portfolio of LED backlight unit drivers and controllers for the latest generation of LCD TVs.

Xodtec LED, Inc., a Taiwan-based LED lighting solutions and products provider, has appointed Yuan-Fu Cheng as its new Chief Financial Officer. It reported that Mr. Yuan-Fu Cheng previously served as chief financial officer of SiPix Group, a producer of electronic paper and display solutions, from September 2005 through July 2010.

Recently, the United States Coast Guard has ordered totaling over $1.1 million from Carmanah Technologies Corporation as part of an ongoing Coast Guard initiative to replace incandescent lanterns with self-contained solar LED lanterns.   More than 2,500 Carmanah/Sabik M700 series solar LED marine lanterns are scheduled for delivery to Coast Guard stations in 25 US states along the Atlantic and Pacific coasts, and the Mississippi, Gulf of Mexico and Great Lakes regions. 

Larson Electronics added a new four foot, four lamp explosion proof LED light, with UL 844 Class 1 and Class 2 ratings for hazardous locations. The 96 watt explosion proof LED light produces more light than the same configuration equipped with T5HO bulbs. While the EPL-48-4L-LED is available for pendant or surface mount, the EPLC-48-4L-LED is configured on a cart with four casters, protective wire guard and switch and cord.

Toyoda Gosei Co., Ltd., Epistar Corporation, and Twin Hill Co., Ltd., a sales agent for Toyoda Gosei, have formally agreed to establish a joint venture in Taiwan to develop, manufacture, and market light emitting diodes (LEDs).

State-of-the-art LED Illuminators define the next generation of backlit graphic illuminators for ceilings and walls in Healthcare applications

Sunovia Energy, manufacturer of LED lighting products, announced that DePaul University has installed its high-performance EvoLucia LED lights. The university replaced 210 W metal halide lights with 90 W EvoLucia LEDs in the Sheffield parking garage at Lincoln Park campus.  The LED lights consume less than 50% of the energy consumed by the metal halide lamps. The LED lamps will provide significant savings in terms of maintenance and energy use, and will offer enhanced visibility, uniform light distribution and security to the campus.

With the official opening of Oak Ridge National Laboratories ZEBRAlliance project, Seoul Semiconductor (CEO Mr. Chung Hoon Lee, www.seoulsemicon.com) demonstrated how LEDs can help illuminate and define a home’s living area using a fraction of the energy consumed by traditional incandescent and compact fluorescent light bulbs.

NKK Switches, designer and manufacturer of innovative electromechanical switches, announced the availability of the KP Series of illuminated miniature pushbutton switches. The series provides design engineers with an array of options that enhance and complete front panels needing an innovative and modern look and feel.

The Lighting Change is Anticipated to Save Chili’s $3.7 Million Per Year Brinker International, parent company of Chili’s Restaurants and Maggiano’s Restaurants, has recently installed Eco-story LED lighting (www.eco-story.com) as part of a re-lamp project in all of its corporate restaurants. The project, which involves installing 125,000 LED lamps in the interior and exterior of all 827 corporate restaurants, will be the largest U.S. roll-out of LED lamp technology to date.

AIXTRON AG announced a new order for six new generation CRIUS II 55x2-inch configuration deposition systems from existing customer Genesis Photonics Inc. The Taiwan based company placed the order during the second quarter of 2010. After delivery of the systems between the fourth quarter 2010 and the second quarter 2011, they will be used for gallium nitride (GaN) green and blue LED production. The local AIXTRON support team will commission the new reactors in Genesis Photonics’ dedicated facility.

New Production Line Will Enable Larger LED Wafers, Increasing Output and Production Efficiency

 

Taiwan's LED lighting manufacture Neo-Neon revenues reached HK$730 million (US$94 million) in the first half of 2010, up 31.7% compared 2009. Gross profit reached HK$240 million, and net profit increased 134.56%r to HK$99.29 million. Recently, Neo-Neon focused on opening LED lighting market in Taiwan and china through its own brand LED lighting products and building flagship retail stores. The company firstly planed to start from indoor 7W and 9W light bulb applications.

Golden DRAGON Plus and OSLON SSL LEDs with their efficiency of 37% are among the most efficient light sources on the market in the deep red range (660 nm wavelength). Operators of commercial greenhouses will benefit from the high efficiency and the associated energy savings the new LEDs can deliver. In cooperation with Fionia Lighting A/S in Denmark a pilot project covering several thousand square meters of planting achieved energy savings of 40%.

The U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Office of Science has given a grant to Luminus Devices to develop low cost, high efficiency drive electronics to enhance its big-chip LED technology for next-generation commercial and consumer lighting applications

LED North America has acquired a new technology that extends the life of light-emitting diode lamps from DOE's Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The firm plans to use the graphite foam to passively cool components in LED lamps. Cooling LED lamps is critical to increasing their efficiency, considering that each 10-degree decrease in temperature can double the life of the lighting components.

The subsidiary of China Trends Holdings Limited (China Trends) ,Boss Information Systems Limited will cooperate with the subsidiaries of TCL Corporation, Huizhou TCL Lighting Appliance Technology Limited and Dooda Innovation invested by China Innovation to establish a strategic cooperation on R&D, production, sales and distribution of energy-saving LED products under CEM business model to achieve the mutual sharing on resources.

Applied LED technology specialist, Dialight has been invited to present at Strategies in Light Europe taking place from 27-29 September 2010 at the Sheraton Frankfurt Hotel & Towers Conference Center, Germany. Held for the first time in 2010, Strategies in Light Europe builds on the success of the flagship Strategies in Light event in California, USA, now in its 11th year, bringing together LED and Lighting technologies from all sectors and all stages of the supply chain, providing one event for people within the industry to find the solutions they need.

Nualight has developed a more energy efficient line of glass door lighting Porto 600, to step into the North America market at the Food Marketing Institute Energy and Store Development conference in Minneapolis this week.   With wattages for center mullions at 16 watts and end mullions at 8.5 watts, the Porto 600 line is one of the lowest energy usage LEDs on the market.

Cree continues to lead the LED Lighting Revolution with the announcement of a new 150-mm LED wafer production facility in Research Triangle Park (RTP) that is targeted to create hundreds of green jobs in North Carolina. The new LED wafer production line will be located in Cree's existing RTP production facility, and will allow Cree to produce 150-mm LED wafers that are more than double the size of current ones, increasing the number of LEDs from a single wafer, helping to make LED lighting more cost-effective.

Sensor Electronic Technology, Inc. (SETI) has shifted the power of UV LEDs operating in the germicidal wavelength range from 30 mW up to 100 mW. At present, this level of single chip performance is not yet available in SETI's production LEDs, high power UV LED lamps are available under the UVCLEAN® trademark with germicidal powers up to 50 mW.

San Francisco-based LED lighting retailer Elemental LED has engineered and manufactured a new line of wall-mountable, LED dimming switches.