Titan LED, a leading US-based manufacturer and OEM that serves small, medium and enterprise-level customers across the nation, announced today that it has accelerated its pace to adopt the next generation chip from Philips Lumileds: Luxeon TX. The chip is now expected to be featured in select products within the company’s US-made profile by early 2014, which is several months ahead of schedule.

Power management company Eaton and its Cooper Lighting division today announced the release of the 2014 SOURCE calendar of educational classes for the lighting and design community. The SOURCE, located at the Lighting business’ Peachtree City, Ga. office, offers a wide variety of seminars designed to broaden the understanding of lighting and its many different applications.

Affected by the traditionally low season in 4Q, Taiwan LED chip manufacturer FOREPI utilization rates were down to 60 percent. However, there is a possibility for large-sized backlight demands to rebound earlier than expected, as Korean manufacturers have decided the new TV models for 2014. FOREPI projects utilization rates might return to higher levels in 1Q14.

LED industry’s supply and demand is likely to reach equilibrium sooner than predicted as price falls ease in price falls in 2013 due to exodus of Chinese LED manufacturers, said David Chung, Genesis Photonics Inc. (GPI) chairman during the Sustainable Green Development Global Green Business Outlook 2014 conference held by the Ministry of Economic Affairs on December 17th, 2013. The LED industry could see a rebound after the 2014 Lunar New Year.

San’an Opto announced the company will be purchasing  advanced 20 single chamber or five four-chambered GaN MOCVD systems from international companies for its Xiamen subsidiary on Dec. 16, 2013. Xiamen San’an Opto has received RMB 24 million (US$ 3.95 million) subsidiaries for four four-chambered MOCVD systems, or about 30 percent of total subsidiaries on Dec. 13, 2013. 

Taiwanese LED manufacturer LiteOn discussed the merger of multiple wholly owned subsidiaries during a board meeting conducted on December 16th. The merger will include LSE, LiteOn Clean Energy Technology Corp, Leotek, as well as the consolidation of three companies in Dongguan China. The company hopes to reduce operational management costs and increase operation benefit by simplifying organizational structure.

Sharp Corp. has developed a LED device for backlight in LCD panels and expanded color gamut by 25% without lowering the screen’s brightness, according to a Tech-On article. Using the LED device, the LCD panels can now reach 90% color gamut on NTSC (CIE1931) standards without making any changes to liquid crystal cells.

Intematix Corp., a leading manufacturer of phosphor solutions for LED lighting, today announced that U.S. patent No. 8,597,545 was issued on December 3, 2013 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office. This patent covers novel formulations for red emitting, nitride based phosphors and include products in the company’s XR phosphor product family. This award extends Intematix’s innovation leadership in phosphors that improve the performance of LED lighting.

For its 100th birthday, Entergy Corporation and Entergy Arkansas, together donated $2M to illuminate three bridges in Little Rock, Arkansas, with a new LED lighting solution from Philips Color Kinetics.

LED manufacturers are becoming increasingly lost in a flourishing market, with each searching for the road to transformation, according to an article by Guangming Daily. Lighting industry leader, NVC Lighting Chairman Wu Changjiang shares some of his insights on LED industry trends and future developments.

LED manufacturers are aiming to take advantage of business opportunities arising in the display market due to improvements in RGB LED package technology, increased image resolution, and growing demand driven by the upcoming international sports events. Taiwan LED package manufacturer Harvatek that launched their RGB LED product in 2013 is upgrading package specs from 2020 to 0606. The company’s current monthly production capacity for RGB LEDs is 50KK and projected to expand to 100KK in 2014.

Recent automotive orders have bolstered revenue for LED manufacturer Epistar, reported Economic Daily News on the 16th. Mid power LEDs are anticipated to drive up company revenue to 40 percent in 2014.

Philips has released a new dimmable LED with a radically different shape compared to other LEDs and incandescent bulbs. The new SlimStyle 60-watt equiv. LED, available for retail in one month, has dropped the cumbersome heat sink and flattened out with a flat circle design.

The District of Columbia has selected Citelum to manage and upgrade the city's 71,000 street lights to a state-of-the-art, sustainable system. The District Department of Transportation (DDOT) announced today that it has awarded Washington's streetlight asset management contract to the company, which already manages urban lighting for some of the world's most recognizable cities.

Revolution Lighting Technologies, Inc. announced that its Seesmart brand has been selected by the U.S. Navy’s Military Sealift Command to supply Lewis and Clark class T-AKE dry cargo/ammunition ships with 17,000 Seesmart two and four foot LED tube lamps. QuaLED Lighting, a woman-owned small business based in Scottsdale, Arizona, is the Revolution Lighting distributor on the project.

For travelers visiting Japan this Christmas, a couple of design websites have compiled some must see lighting decoration sites. According to a Philips Lighting blog entry,while Japanese do not celebrate Christmas they are quite keen on creating a festive atmosphere with lights. Design website Spoon and Tamago gives a comprehensive guide to some must see locations in Japan: Sapporo, Hokkaido On top of the design website list is northern city Sapporo, the capital of Hokkaido Prefecture in Japan. Sapporo was the first Japanese city to introduce illumination in 19...

AwoX, a company based in Montpellier, France is expanding its collection of connected solutions to the U.S. with the StriimLight B-10. This LED light bulb features an integrated Bluetooth speaker that makes it easy to play digital music throughout your home for a simple “smart home” upgrade. The AwoX StriimLight offers an affordable solution to achieve your wireless audio goals. AwoX StriimLight and the full AwoX Striim collection will be on display at LVCC, South Hall 3 – 31658 at the 2014 Consumer Electronic Show, Jan. 7-10.

PhotonStar LED Ltd formally announced a collaboration with controls specialists Lutron at Lux Live 2013 in order to enable "seamless compatibility‟ between products. The London lighting event took place on Nov. 20-21, 2013 at Earls Court 2, London, UK.

Another Taiwanese LED manufacturer aside from Everlight has joined in patent wars against Nichia, this time Harvatek Corporation (Harvatek), according to a report by Taiwan’s Science and Technology Policy Research and Information Center (STPI). The company has reignited patent wars against Nichia on Nov. 5, 2013. Harvatek filed a complaint against Nichia and its U.S. subsidiary Nichia American Corp. (Nichia) that their LED products had infringed its patents at the U.S. District Court Eastern District of Texas Tyler Division. 

Philips showed off their new smart bulbs Hue at this year’s 25th Taipei International Building, Construction, and Decoration Exhibition. The company  showcased the future trend of LED smart lighting, according to the Economic Daily News on December 13th. The new wireless color tunable LED ceiling lamp can be remotely controlled for mood lighting, with plans of being launched in the beginning of 2014. The already released Dynalite series uses wireless smart lighting concepts to illustrate the company’s innovative thinking as well as the future possibilities for LED lighting

San’an announced on December 13th after market hours that the company’s subsidiary Fuzhou San’an received RMB 13.60 million (US $2.34 million) sapphire substrate subsidy under “three technology projects” from Anxi County Ministry of Finance

The new Hengqing district in Zhuhai City is considered a prime real estate location, but why is property here being sold at base prices? Bidders for the property are required to be parent companies of enterprises, and auction conditions are very stringent, analyzed He Bing, General Manager of Zhuhai Real Estate Company. The property here is suitable for office buildings, he said. "Great Aim Group plans to invest and develop LED visual light communication (VLC) technology in this area, so it’s easy to understand why they are capable of acquiring land at low prices."

Hon Hai Industry Co. (also known as Foxconn Technology Group) new demonstration plant in Guiyang, Guizhou Province, China has begun production on Dec. 15, 2013, according to a report by Chinanews.com. The new plant which took four months to construct will be establishing production lines for TV, LED streetlamps and electronic whiteboards.

Samsunng Display has integrated the company’s OLED dicision and LCD division according to an announcement on December 11th.

Taiwan’s Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. (also known as Foxconn Technology Group) will begin developing a kind of high-precision OLED panels designed for current smartphones and tablets with narrow frames and mass produce the new panels in 2015, a OFWeek report quoted sources saying. The report noted Innolux Display Group, the world’s third biggest panel plant is a subsidiary of Hon Hai. Hon Hai’s entry into the OLED panel market is expected to intensify competition.

The Lighting Research Center (LRC) at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute has launched a new collaborative initiative—the Light and Health Alliance—to bridge the science of light and health to practical applications, and to provide objective information based on basic and applied research. The Alliance is led by Dr. Mariana Figueiro, LRC Light and Health Program director and associate professor at Rensselaer.

Aqua-Quip manufactures a range of underwater LED lights to suit both concrete and fibreglass pools in flush-mounted and surface-mounted applications. The lights are simple to install and are suitable for new pool construction or for upgrading from existing lights.

This week the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announces injecting US$ 10 million in energy-saving lighting technologies. In the Chinese market, will sapphire substrate stock prices continue its upward climb? Guoqing Tang, China President of LED BU, Samsung also projects future industry developments in 2014, while analyzing the “Three Worlds” phenomemnon in the LED industry. For more info please see below:

How long can LED lasts? As product prices are reduced, are LEDs lifespan also becoming much shorter? Some in the LED industry have boldly stated: “A person only needs a single LED lamp through their entire life. But in this fast paced consumerism era, do we really need such long lasting products? This is an issue the LED industry has repeatedly encountered during its development, so should we not reconsider LEDs market positioning? Is one LED lamp per person that can last through a person’s entire life span suitable for a consumer product like LED?”

Nationstar announced the company’s acquirement of two LED manufacturing patents as well as two district government subsidies for subsidiary Foshan Nationstar Optoelectronics totaling RMB 10.24 million (US $1.7 million) in a report on Dec, 12, 2013.