Veeco Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ: VECO) announced that Thomas Gutierrez has been appointed to its Board of Directors. Mr. Gutierrez, age 62, currently serves as President, Chief Executive Officer and Director of GT Solar International, Inc. (NASDAQ: SOLR), a global provider of polysilicon production technology, and sapphire and silicon crystalline growth systems and materials for the solar, LED and other specialty markets.

It’s reported that Taiwan-based Company NuLight intends to invest $200 million (around Rs 900 crore) to build a LED manufacturing unit which dedicates to manufacture LED street lamps and household bulbs.

ANC Sports Enterprises announced the company’s continued expansion into televised entertainment through a partnership with StarGames’ special Christmas Day program The Caesars Tribute presented by Colgate Total®: A Salute to the Golden Age of American Skating.

Nexxus Lighting, Inc. (NASDAQ: NEXS) announced its Array™ Lighting LED light bulbs have recently been shipped to a number of significant private and public facilities, who are now enjoying the energy saving and sustainability benefits of LED lighting. Recent projects include the prestigious Wharton School of Business, the Hyatt Regency - Miami, the Maryland Institute of College Arts, the University of Minnesota and Presbyterian Homes in Chicago as well as the King of Prussia Mall, outside of Philadelphia.

Jiangsu Canyang Optoelectronics Co. Officially Starts Production and On-site Facility; Expected to Produce 50 Sets of Equipment in 2011

The full-year revenues for Taiwan-based LED chip maker Epistar was expected to reach NT$20 billion in 2010, up 50% compared to 2009. And Net income for 2010 will range from NT$5.5-6 billion. Meanwhile, the company would take NT$800 million for the employee bonuses, and everyone would receive over NT$200,000 on average, with 3,700 employees. Also, Epistar planed to raise salaries by 8% on average.

Digital Lumens Inc. has signed up United States Cold Storage Inc., a Pennsylvania-based refrigerated storage and logistics company to strengthen the customer base for its highly-efficient LED lighting systems. According to Digital Lumens, the company had the lighting systems installed in a new 88,000-square-foot addition in Hazleton, Pa., and expects a return on investment of 14.6 months.

According to a statement from African Standard Bank, it has bought 700,000 UN-backed carbon credits to fund a clean energy project to replace kerosene lamps with LED lamps in 31-million Tanzanian homes. The project, owned by Illumination Tanzania, will save the nation around $200 million (about Sh280 billion). And it will reduce Tanzania’s greenhouse gas emissions by 800,000 tonnes.

Lusio® Solid State Lighting, a worldwide brand and division of LightWild has introduced 80 innovative SSL fixtures for warehouses, convention centers, transportation terminals, manufacturing plants, and other commercial and industrial facilities.  

TT electronics OPTEK Technology has designed an OPI1268S optoisolator with GaAlAs LED, which can be used in harsh environments and explosion-proof applications. The UL- and VDE-rated optical isolator with 20KV isolation and 2Mbit/s data transmission rates designed to comply with ATEX and ICEex certifications for electrical equipment used in hazardous areas, as well as IP65 standards for environmental sealing. 

Georgia Lexus Retailer Replaces 70 1000 Watt Parking Lot Lights with Qnuru’s 144 Watt Auto Dealership LED Retrofit Solution  

The vertically-integrated manufacturer , Rubicon is opening a plant in Penang, Malaysia,to further demonstrate its leadership role in the production of high quality, large diameter sapphire wafers. The Malaysia facility combined with Rubicon's new crystal growth facility in Batavia, IL have been established to deliver the sapphire capacity necessary to support the growing demand for LEDs in the consumer electronics and general lighting industries.

Everlight Electronics reportedly planed to invest Beijing to expand its market share in China's LED market.

In Taiwan market, it’s said that the sales of LED-backlit LCD monitor in 3Q10 reached 125,000 units, with a 25% share in the overall local LCD monitor market. While In 1Q10, the sales were only 26,000 units and up to 30,000 units in 2Q10, with less than 10% share .

Toshiba reportedly planed to sell two million LCD TVs in the China market in the fiscal year of 2011 ended March 2012, which was four times its current target for 2010 fiscal year ended March 2011. In order to achieve the aim, the company would introduce a broad line-up of nine series and a total of 24 models, including high value added TVs.

At the recent Beijing-Taiwan Science and Technology Forum held in Taichung, Taiwan, a leader of Taiwan-based LED chip maker Epistar said, if production cost of lighting-grade LED chips would fall to US$1/500lm in the next 2-3 years, LED lighting's market penetration would reach 20-30% in 2012.

BenQ has launched the XL2410T which is the first 3D LED backlit Full HD monitor at a press conference in India. The XL2410T has been co-developed with the help of two professional gamers Emil "HeatoN" Christensen and Abdisamad "SpawN" Mohamed.  

Enormous increase in brightness for green

TDI and Ostendo has jointly made a breakthrough on semi-polar (11-22) GaN wafers which are more than 2.5x the emission intensity of c-plane GaN based LED structures. These results have in common with the research conducted by Sumitomo Electric Industries who discovered that green laser diodes (LD) grown on the semi-polar GaN plane are more efficient than those grown on the conventional c plane.

Veeco Instruments Inc. (Nasdaq: VECO), announced that it has shipped its 200thTurboDisc(R) K465i(TM) Metal Organic Chemical Vapor Deposition (MOCVD) System to a leading LED manufacturer located in Asia.

Energy & Automation Inc. (E&A) will set up a 30,000-square-foot facility which be called LED Manufacturing Inc. to manufacture and assemble LEDs in the Luling Business/Industrial Park on U.S. Highway 183 in Luling, Texas. The new plant will provide energy-efficient, long-lasting lights for residential, commercial and industrial consumers across the country.

Cree, Inc. (Nasdaq: CREE), a market leader in LED lighting, announces the commercial availability of XLamp® XP-E High Efficiency White (HEW) LEDs. The new high-efficiency components extend the light output and efficacy of the award-winning XLamp XP-E LED family, enabling fixture designs that can use up to 50 percent fewer LEDs, which can help drive down costs for fixture and bulb manufacturers while delivering the same system performance.

Colonial Grandeur Meets Contemporary Innovation to Benefit the Home or Hospitality Environment, and The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation  

Facility Supports Increasing Demand for High Quality, Large Diameter Sapphire at High Volume

Acuity Brands has introduced the Lithonia Lighting® ALX™ line of outdoor LED area luminaires combine the classic ALX family appearance. The ALXW meets or exceeds recommended IES lighting illuminance levels, producing as much light as a typical 250 watt metal halide (HID) fixture, while reducing energy and operating costs by as much as 62%.

The Mexican municipality has announced plans to install 25,507 GE Evolve LED street lights in Quintana Roo, which would be the largest installation of LED street lights in Latin America.

AIXTRON AG announced a repeat order for multiple MOCVD reactors from existing customer HUGA Optotech. The order comprises a double-digit number of AIX G5 HT 14x4-inch configuration deposition systems. HUGA Optotech placed the order in the course of 2010 and after delivery of the systems between the fourth quarter of 2010 and the first quarter of 2011, they will be used for the production of GaN-based materials for ultra-high brightness (UHB) blue LEDs.

Industry sources noted Everlight Electronics’ LED backlight products had entered the supply chain of table PCs, and the shipment for LED backlight products was expected to increase several times in 2011.

It’s reported that Taiwan-based LED chip maker Huga Optotech was accused by patent licensing company Bluestone Innovations, because Bluestone thought Huga had infringed upon its intellectual property in Group III-V nitride production process. Huga was seeking legal council to decrease the impact on its operation.

LG Innotek, a subsidiary of Korea’s LG Group, has developed a partnership with lighting firm Zumtobel Group of Dornbirn, Austria to transfer high-volume business in LED backlights for LCD screens to the field of professional lighting.