Few lawmakers have more influence in the nation’s capital than 17-term Missouri Congressman Ike Skelton, the powerful chairman of the House Armed Services Committee. Representing a district mostly of small towns and rural communities, and having national security on top of his agenda, it is no surprise that in recent years he has co-sponsored or debated for proposals to help make America more energy-independent.

AIXTRON AG announced that in the second quarter of 2010, Formosa Epitaxy Inc. (FOREPI), placed an order for a 56x2-inch AIX G5 HT MOCVD reactor which will be used for ultra-high brightness (UHB) GaN-based LEDs. Planned to be shipped in the fourth quarter of 2010 it will join FOREPI’s multiple high throughput Planetary Reactor systems at the company’s state-of-the-art facility in Lung-Tan, Taoyuan, Taiwan.

Recently, AU Optronics has reported its new organization arrangement effective. The company has been honoring the outstanding next-generation of professional managers with the promotion of four new vice presidents, to instill fresh impetus into the organization.

To better serve the needs of its customers throughout the Asia Pacific region, GT Solar has set up its new Asia operations headquarters in Hong Kong.   It has been doing business in Asia since 2002, and has played as an equipment provider, to help the region's early adopters establish their PV and polysilicon manufacturing operations. At present, many of these companies have grown to become some of the region's largest solar manufacturers in China, Korea, and Taiwan.

TDK Corp showed flexible and see-through passive matrix OLED panels at Ceatec Japan 2010 from Oct 5 to 9, 2010.   According to TDK, the flexible OLED panel is as thin as 0.3mm or less. The weights of the color-display and monochrome-display models are 1.11g and 0.96g, respectively.

Merck puts the spotlight on licristal®, liquid crystal mixtures as advanced PS-VA material and licrivue®, a range of ready-to-use reactive mesogen formulations with its advantages for 3D displays over conventional LCD technologies

Fairchild Semiconductor prepared to show its latest technological advancements for mobile applications, as well as power solutions that focus on the smart grid at electronica 2010, in Munich, Germany, 9-12 November. It's reported that Fairchild's booth (Hall A4, #506) will feature technology demonstrations that enable mobile connectivity and optimize energy usage in power supplies (AC/DC and DC/DC), mobile, LED lighting, motor, solar, computing, consumer and automotive applications.

AOC has launched its most cutting-edge design, the “Razor” Series, which is considered to be the world’s slimmest LED monitor.

Energy Smart Industry (ESI) has launched customized lighting solution for different kinds of industries and has now introduced LED Lighting retrofit for hospital lighting. With the new LED lights for hospitals, they can now get energy efficient lighting and can look forward to reduced electricity bills. The lighting solutions offered by the company are recommended by the US department of energy.

LED lighting technology developer Once Innovations has utilized its proprietary AC conditioning technology to turn out luminous flux of 1080 lumens at 11.8W and correlated color temperature of 2870 K. 50mm diameter AC LED modules are designed to connect to 120VAC, 60Hz mains without the need for additional electronics.

Cooper Bussmann and Cooper Lighting, divisions of Cooper Industries plc (NYSE: CBE), have been selected as Gold and Silver Medal winners in Consulting-Specifying Engineer magazine's 2010 Product of the Year competition. The annual reader-choice Product of the Year awards were created to provide information on the top new products in the field, with readers choosing Gold, Silver and Bronze Medal winners in ten categories.

Avago Technologies showed off a new family of high-brightness LEDs in ultra-small PLCC-6 packages at the Combined Exhibition of Advanced Technologies (CEATEC) Japan 2010. The ASMT-YTx2 surface-mount devices are encapsulated in a heat- resistant silicone material, enabling them to operate in a wide range of environmental conditions with high reliability and long operating life.

Carmanah solar LED airfield lights have been selected by the Calgary Airport Authority in a competitive bid situation as part of a massive facility upgrade.   The first phase installation includes Carmanah A704-5 solar LED airfield lights fitted with blue LEDs for taxiway edge lighting that can be easily relocated as airfield construction demands.

American 3,600-square-foot CITGO sign perched beyond the left field wall at Boston's Fenway Park has got an LED makeover. The iconic CITGO sign and its 9,000 feet of dancing LED lights, is having all of its LED lights replaced with more technologically advanced and energy efficient LED bulbs supplied by Nichia and Agilent.

LED chip maker Epistar had successfully developed a record efficacy of 168 lm/W for red-emitting AlGaInP LED chips in their lab. The small-area LED chips measure 14x14 mil (0.36 x 0.36 mm), and have an efficacy of 180 lm/W at 6mA. The red LED chips have a horizontal structure to satisfy chip-on-board (COB) packages for lighting applications which require multiple chips mounted in series on non-conductive substrates.

According to the Taiwan Lighting Fixture Export Association (TLFEA) and Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA), Taiwan International Lighting Show 2011 will be held March 18 to 21 at the Taipei World Trade Center.   It will cover lighting for household, commercial, industrial, office and outdoor applications, as well as LED technology, parts and accessories, control systems, manufacturing equipment and instrument sections.

Taiwan Automotive Research and Testing Center (ARTC) released several proprietary LED lamps for Harley Davison motorcycles and another for general sedans. With the help of auto-lamp designer Mycarr Lighting Technology Co., the Harley Davison LED headlamp is equipped with four three-watt LED bulbs, producing up to 280 lumens of dipped beam at six watts and 560 lumens of main beam at 12 watts, bringing energy savings of more than 80% compared with halogen lamps.

Taiwan's No.1 LED chipmaker Epistar has intended to team up with China Electronics Corp. (CEC) to build a joint venture.The investment is achieved to US$70 million by Epistar, and it's considered to be Epistar's biggest investment case in the mainland in recent years.

Ludhiana, the city of India, will be the first city of the state to have LED streetlights. Energy saving companies (ESCOs) has invited tenders to light up major cities with LEDs, starting from Ludhiana and then Bathinda.   Under the ESCOs mode, the firms set up the project and recover costs from the energy saved, which is usually 50 to 60 per cent.  

SavWatt USA introduced a new 60 Watt Eco-Pole LED Street Light and Parking Lot Light powered by a patent pending unique Wind Turbine and Solar panels.   The SavWatt Eco-Pole enables to take the place of a traditional 250 watt metal halide light and requires no grid hook-ups, saving 100 percent of the energy costs, maintenance and pollution associated with the energy used to power a traditional light.

Japan Renesas Electronics Corporation launched new control IC (μPD168891) for automotive LED headlights. Below are the main specifications: (1) an integrated current-control function for constant-current drive of LEDs and a pre-driver function for driving external metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistors (MOSFETs); (2) integrated protection functions essential for automotive applications, including LED current and external MOSFET overcurrent protection;

China-based company Tongfang has ordered two AIX 2800G4 HT 42x2-inch configuration deposition systems from AIXTRON. It's reported that Tongfang has placed the order during Q1 of 2010 and after delivery in Q3 of 2010, they will be used for GaN ultra-high brightness blue LED production. The local AIXTRON support team will be responsible for the installation and commissioning of the new reactors at the dedicated Tongfang production plant.

Malaysian SMT LED manufacturer DOMINANT has designed RGB SPNovaLED (NMRTB-WSG) of its SPNovaLED series, to replace the NMRTB-USD device. The RGB SPNovaLED is capable of driving each chip in the package individually to mix and match any requested color even white; to provide balanced lighting distribution. Additionally, with an operating current of 250mA this LED features a typical luminous intensity of 9000mcd for Red, 12,000mcd for True Green and 4000mcd for Blue.

Power supply maker FSP Technology September revenues went up NT$1.553 billion (US$50.525 million), making its 3Q revenues to NT$4.482 billion to set a new quarterly record. And the strong results would keep conservative about the current quarter since most orders have been received in short term. FSP had an extensive portfolio ranging from applications in desktops, notebooks, industrial PCs, servers, LCD TV and monitors, STBs, health care, communications and LED lighting.

Backlight unit (BLU) Radiant Opto Electronics September revenues has been up 23.93% from 2009 to NT$4.248 billion (US$136.86 million) for 2010, and the first three quarters in 2010 revenues totaled NT$12.607 billion, up 3% sequentially.

Affected from inventory adjustment in the LCD TV segment, most Taiwan LED companies’ September revenues, included Everlight, Bright, Harvatek, and Lextar, had been lower compared to in August.

Hi Score Corporation has recently offered 510 Energy Saving EcoGreenBulb T5 Retrofit Kits to replace 1020 T8 fluorescent bulbs in the stairwells and facilities rooms of Trump Tower One in Sunny Isles, Florida.   The conversion will reduce the energy required to light these areas by more than 50%.  

A multi-topology LED driver ZXLD1374 has designed by Diodes Incorporated , to increase the performance of high brightness automotive, industrial and commercial lighting systems.   With the integrated 60V power MOSFET switch, the ZXLD1374 LED driver can produce a maximum LED current of 1.5A.

Thanks to amid vendors actively replenishing inventory and launching promotions ahead of schedule to boost market demand, Amtran Technology reported September revenues had been up 22.2% sequentially to NT$5.53 billion (US$180.06 million) and 4.1% compared for 2009.Revenues for 3Q had totaled NT$15.2 billion, up about 5% sequentially. In September, LED-backlit LCD TV shipment share increased from 12% in the first half of 2010 up to 20% of its total shipments, overall flat-panel TV shipments in 3Q reached 1.05-1.1 million units.

Sweden nanowire semiconductor LED developer GLO AB has closed an SEK 170 million investment round (approximately USD 25 million), and set up a California-based engineering center to supplement its current efforts in Sweden and Denmark.