Universal Display Corporation, enabling energy-efficient displays and lighting with its UniversalPHOLED® technology and materials, announced today that through its wholly-owned subsidiary UDC Ireland Limited, it has acquired the OLED Intellectual Property (IP) assets of BASF SE, the world's leading chemical company. Representing 15 years of research and development, the assets include over 500 issued and pending patents around the world, in 86 patent families. Largely consisting of phosphorescent materials and technologies, BASF’s OLED portfolio has an average lifetime of 10 years. The purchase price for the acquisition is approximately EUR 87 million (US $96.26 million).

In addition to the current operations, Automotive Lighting - Magneti Marelli’s business line devoted to the automotive lighting sector - is integrating in Juárez production site in Mexico, a new assembly operation for LED modules.

India’s Ujala scheme is to start the distribution of new 9WLED bulbs at INR 75 (US $1.1) to residents and commercial consumers in Delhi, reported Times of India.

Researchers at Disney Research and ETH Zurich have demonstrated that consumer-grade light-emitting diode (LED) bulbs can, with some modifications, do double duty -- both illuminating a room and providing a communications link for devices in that room.

In manufacturing, a minute saved is money earned. Which is why building complex machines like gas turbines can be frustrating.

With OLED gaining traction on the market and rumored to be adopted in upcoming Apple iPhones and MacBook touch panels, it is surprising that the third generation Apple Watch might be switching to another innovative display technology, according to a report from Mac Rumor.

Clovis, a city located in Fresno County, California in the U.S. will be replacing 7,600 streetlights with LED bulbs in the next few weeks, announced Pacific Gas and Electric last Friday.

Concord, a city located in New Hampshire, U.S. is planning to install LED streetlights that are more friendly on the eyes of pedestrians, reportedConcord Monitor.

Eugene, a city of the Pacific Northwest located in the U.S. state of Oregon, is to review the conversion of LED streetlights as American Medical Association’s official policy statement warned about the potential harm LEDs have on citizens’ well-being, reported the Register-Guard.

A lawsuit filed by Nichia against Tachibana Eletech and E&E Japan, which companies imported and/or sold Blue LEDs manufactured by a Taiwanese company, Everlight Electronics, the Tokyo District Court found that the importation/sale of those Blue LEDs by E&E and Tachibana constituted infringement of Nichia's patent. However, Everlight refuted that it respects the court’s judgement as JP3972943 expired on July 6, 2014. Therefore, the infringement will not have negative impact on the company’s products.

JPS is announcing that its Smart LED Streetlight Project, received a major boost last week, with the official signing of a partnership, which will see over US$425,000 or more than J$50Million, being granted to JPS by the United States Trade and Development Agency (USTDA).  The grant will be used to provide technical support for the project, which will include the conversion of 105,000 streetlights across Jamaica – from the use of traditional High Pressure Sodium bulbs to Light Emitting Diode (LED) bulbs.  This development will not only be an important aspect of the Company’s energy efficiency drive, but also an underlying component of the smart grid, which JPS is developing to take Jamaica’s electricity network to a more advanced level.

Researchers from KU Leuven (Belgium), the University of Strasbourg, and CNRS have discovered a new phosphor that could make next-generation fluorescent and LED lighting even cheaper and more efficient. The team used highly luminescent clusters of silver atoms and the porous framework of minerals known as zeolites.

Universal Display Corporation, enabling energy-efficient displays and lighting with its UniversalPHOLED® technology and materials, announced today that it has entered into an agreement to acquire Adesis, Inc. Adesis is a privately held contract research organization (CRO) with 43 employees specializing in organic and organometallic synthetic research, development, and commercialization. Adesis is a critical technology vendor to companies in the pharmaceutical, fine chemical, biomaterials, and catalyst industries, and has worked with Universal Display over the last few years to help advance and accelerate a number of Universal Display’s product offerings.

Elemental LED, a leading U.S. based engineering and technology company that manufactures LED lighting solutions announced today a partnership with Focus Electrical Sales Inc. that extends its award winning Diode LED product brand into Canada. Elemental LED and its manufacturing and wholesale division, Diode LED, provides a wide variety of superior quality linear, task, and accent LED lighting solutions for both residential and commercial applications.

Following Foxconn’s takeover of Sharp, the company will start shipping panels using advanced OLED materials next year, said Foxconn Chairman Terry Guo on Wednesday.

Rocky Mount is to be lit with brighter light soon, reported Rocky Mount Telegram. The recent meeting held by Rocky Mount City Council touched on full switch to LED streetlights, said Rich Worsinger, director of energy resources. The total cost of the conversion is approximately US $ 3 million, which will be full funded by the city’s electric fund, said Worsinger. The city plans to pay for the conversion with dent financing, said City Manager Charles Penny. 

Japanese display manufacturer The Semiconductor Energy Laboratory (SEL) developed a 4.38-inch hybrid display that combines OLED and LCD technologies together to create high contrast and color quality indoors, according to a Nikkei Technology and EE Times report.

Monocrystal, a leading supplier of synthetic sapphire and PV metallization pastes to the world market, signed a Memorandum of Cooperation with the Russian state corporation Bank for Development and Foreign Economic Affairs VEB during the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum 2016. The document implies VEB’s investment in the significant expansion of Monocrystal’s production capacity.

Aftermarket (AM) automotive lighting manufacturer TYC Brother recently held a shareholder meeting announcing its financial performance for fiscal year 2015, where the company revenue reached NT $15.05 billion (US $467.38 million), and net profit of NT $670 million setting a new record high over the last 12 years, reported Money DJ.

On June, 15, 2016, in a lawsuit filed by Nichia against Tachibana Eletech (“Tachibana”) and E&E Japan (“E&E”), which companies imported and/or sold Blue LEDs manufactured by a Taiwanese company, Everlight Electronics Co., Ltd., (“Everlight”), the Tokyo District Court found that the importation/sale of those Blue LEDs by E&E and Tachibana constituted infringement of Nichia's patent.

Revolution Lighting Technologies, a leader in advanced LED lighting technology solutions, today announced that its division, Value Lighting, has been recently awarded lighting contracts for multi-family developments throughout the U.S. totaling US $4 million. This includes its most recent win with Reston Station in Reston, VA, in addition to several large multi-family developments in Washington D.C. and Georgia.

Leaders in the LED industry have been supportive of Epistar’s decision to scale down production capacity, the Taiwanese company has frozen nearly a quarter of its production capacity and initiated the largest scale down since its founding, reported China Times. This move could lower increasing cost pressures from depreciating old equipment, but at several large manufacturers shareholder meeting last week, Everlight Chairman Robert Yeh and Unity Opto’s Chairman Alpha Wu supported Epistar’s move, and from a chip buyer perspective announced chip prices had reached rock bottom.

Researchers at Osaka University developed a technology to control the light wavefront reflected from a cholesteric liquid crystal - a liquid crystal phase with a helical structure. Although known for their ability to Bragg-reflect light, cholesteric liquid crystals could only be used as flat mirrors, reflecting light at the same angle as the incident angle. The new technology enables planar optical components to be made with functionality by design, contributing to the miniaturization of catoptrics devices.

A safety monitoring method called On-Site Visualization has been implemented in metro system construction sites in Jakarta, Indonesia as part of a Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) project. The technology was developed by Professor AKUTAGAWA Shinichi (Kobe University Graduate School of Engineering).

Hyderabad, the capital of the southern Indian state of Telangana, is to become the first to have LED street lighting in the city, reported Deccan Chronicle.

Politicians of Canadian city Waterloo has turned down the option of upgrading to smart LED streetlights, reported The Record.

The OEKO Institut has confirmed that there are currently no alternatives on the market that match the color performance and energy-efficiency of solutions based on cadmium selenide (CdSe) quantum dots (QDs). The extensive report can be found on the European Commission’s RoHS Exemptions website. The Commission’s consultant thus recommends the renewal of the RoHS exemption allowing the use of CdSe QDs in displays for a period of three years.

A report from Korean media ET News claimed Chinese manufacturers San’an Opto and HC Semitek joined Epistar’s lead in raising LED chip prices, which Korean media and others analyzed was a sign that plummeting LED chip prices finally rebounded. However, LEDinside found the Korean media report was not an exclusive interview with senior executives from San’an Opto, nor was it a large scale price adjustment.

Samsung Electronics aims to raise production of next-generation smartphone displays by more than 50% in 2016, as it eyes Apple’s iPhone supply chain and other manufacturers that are updating device specs, reported the Nikkei.

In its second year, CSR volunteers from PepsiCo Pakistan launched the 2016 Lighting up Lives campaign in the holy month of Ramazan to strive towards improving communities. PepsiCo Partners with local organizations to install solar lights across Pakistan.