Oxford Instruments said it has acquired Technologies and Devices International Inc., which develops hydride vapor phase epitaxy (HVPE) technology and processes used to manufacture high-brightness light-emitting diode (LEDs), power ICs and other products. TDI also manufactures compound semiconductors based on gallium nitride and other "III-nitride" materials.The deal comes three months after the death of TDI founder Vladimir Dmitriev, who suffered a heart attack at age 52 in January, shortly after receiving a U.S. patent for HVPE technology.

Intersil Corporation, a world leader in the design and manufacture of high-performance analog semiconductors, today announced the release of the ISL78100, a High Power Integrated LED Driver designed for display backlighting and body electronics applications. The ISL78100 is designed specifically to withstand harsh automotive environments.

Nano-Layer Deposition Tool and Processes Will Support Advanced Development for HB-LEDs at one of the world's foremost manufacturers.

Chelsea FC is to install 250 metres of LED-based banners displays at its Stamford Bridge stadium. Philips will supply the LED panels and application system. It also supplied two 40m sq. LED video screens that were installed in 1999."Chelsea FC is a world recognised football club and Stamford Bridge is our platform to the sports world. Our ongoing partnership with Philips is helping us to achieve this," said Chris Gleeson, facilities manager at Football Club.

Nu Horizons Electronics Corp., a leading global distributor of advanced technology semiconductor, display, illumination, power and system solutions; today announced the availability of the ULE2210A LED Universal Light Engine(TM) platform from OptoElectronix, Inc., a leading general illumination and custom LED product supplier. Taking a giant step towards providing a bridge from the LED supplier to the lighting fixture designer, OptoElectronix is now manufacturing the first in a series of general illumination products to be based on their 40mm circular light platform.

A range of LED modules (LEDules2), from CML Innovative Technologies (CML- IT), is now available with an online 'designer's pack' including application notes and technical data sheets on how to incorporate drivers, heatsinking etc. The 'designer's pack' also includes full technical sales information and data sheets.

Delta Electronics announced it has developed an advanced, energy-saving High Brightness 5W/9W/12W LED Lamp, and will demonstrate the new lamp at the Light+Building 2008 exhibition in Frankfurt, April 06-11.

Avago Technologies  announced on April,9 its first 1-Watt cool white Moonstone™ power LED emitter for use in a variety of street lamps, portable, task, backlighting, and decorative lighting applications. Avago’s ASMT-MW09 LED features a low profile design and delivers high flux output of up to 95 lumens (lm) at 350mA drive current.

Lightscape Technologies Inc., a provider of large scale LED screens and installations, LED lighting design solutions, and advanced lighting products, today announced that its joint venture has completed the installation of its first mega-sized LED outdoor advertising display in Beijing, China, with another to follow by early May.

The displays were introduced as part of an ad campaign by iShares. After one month, the displays will be opened up to other advertisers.Cemusa, the out-of-home media company that holds the street furniture contract for the New York City Department of Transportation, announced Tuesday it has introduced light emitting diode (LED) display panels on 20 bus shelters. The ad displays provide current time and temperature and are capable of scrolling text.

BridgeLux has secured a hefty $40 million round to use for product development and expansion, despite facing ongoing patent litigation from giant LED maker Cree. BridgeLux, like Cree, makes the chip that is the light-emitting part of LEDs, which it then sells to other firms. The company's chips are predominantly in electronics and automotive applications, but are also being delivered for use in general lighting for homes and businesses.

Bridgelux Inc., a supplier of LED technology for solid-state lighting founded in 2002, has announced that is it has raised $30 million in private equity investment and approximately $10 million of lines of credit with banks. The financing round was led by VentureTech Alliance, while existing investors DCM, El Dorado Ventures, VantagePoint, Chrysalix Energy Venture Capital and Harris & Harris Group participated with follow-on investments.

Bocce ball is the new hip underground sport slowly becoming more mainstream as bars are including bocce courts, and its becoming a staple of any gathering. Now when the lights go low, the bocce won't have to stop when you have these LED bocce balls. Included in the set are nine colored balls in white, yellow, red, green and blue that all have embedded LEDs.

Delta Electronics, Inc. announced it has developed an advanced, energy-saving High Brightness 5W/9W/12W LED Lamp, and will demonstrate the new lamp at the Light+Building 2008 exhibition in Frankfurt, April 06-11. The LED lamp is 100% compatible with current sockets (E27) and is similar in appearance to compact fluorescent lamps (CFL) of the same wattage. The lamp is easily installed and readily replaces CFL and incandescent lamps.

The lights are a little whiter and a little brighter in part of St. Paul as part of an experiment with LED streetlights. The city's environmental policy director, Anne Hunt, says it is experimenting with the new lights because they are greener, last longer and cheaper to operate. Paul is following Austin, Texas; Anchorage, Alaska and Ann Arbor, Michigan, in installing the lights. A few smaller Minnesota cities have also tried them.

STMicroelectronics , a world leader in power applications, has introduced three monolithic step-up converters for LED backlights and lighting, providing 30mA or 85mA current sources for six rows of up to 10 white LEDs. The LED7706, LED7707 and mobile-optimized PM6600 include on-chip MOSFETs to reduce part count, and operate up to 1MHz to minimize filter components.

Jesco LED has released its new DL-Flex-Up series, a flexible 3/8" X 1/8" X 12" PCB with high output, 110 degree or 65 degree LEDs in three color temperatures. The colors available include 3000K, 4100K, and 6000K white with an outstanding evenness of distribution. The strips are modular with flat mini-plugs eliminating in-field soldering, and special controllers that provide the designer the means to install these mini-light sources in the tightest locations.

Energomera Corporation of Russia, owner of sapphire substrate manufacturer Monocrystal, has acquired Atlas PCF of Belgorodskaya obl, Russia. Like Monocrystal, Atlas also manufactures sapphire substrates for HB-LED and RFIC applications. Vladimir Polyakov, president and chairman of Energomera said, "The acquisition of Atlas gives rise to the largest synthetic sapphire crystal growing and processing company in the world in terms of production capacity. This is a part of our strategy to develop stronger presence in compound semiconductor market."

On April 4, 2008, Avago Technologies today announced its first 1-Watt (1W) high power Moonstone(TM) LED emitter for use in a variety of architectural, garden and decorative lighting applications. Available in one of the industry's thinnest packages, Avago's ASMT-Mx00 is an energy efficient LED emitter that's encapsulated in a heat and UV resistant silicone compound for high reliability and long life.

LED-backlit LCD TVs, enabled by Dolby Laboratories' High Dynamic Range (HDR) technology, produce stunning pictures. Unclear, though, is how much consumers will have to pay for that kind of picture quality. "These products have been screaming to get out to a mass market," said Eric Haruki, research director for TV markets and technologies at IDC. But he cautioned that unless LED manufacturers can achieve the economies of scale and cut the cost of LEDs, "this could still remain a great white hope for awhile."

Marumi's little ring-light uses LEDs instead of a flash tube, which has a couple of advantages. You can preview the light's effect on the image, and batteries will last a lot longer. Digital photography means that the color of light doesn't matter nearly as much as it did with film, but mixed lighting can still cause problems. The LEDs on the Marumi are daylight balanced.

It's reported that St. Paul is trying to take on a whole new light. A block of St. Paul's Iowa Avenue, between Chatsworth and Milton Streets, is lit with light-emitting diode, or LED, streetlights. The lights are brighter and save on energy costs, but some worry about the lighting levels. The city is testing them to see whether they can cut energy use and maintenance costs.

Seekway has put together this spectacular 3D LED display, which is capable of displaying images in full 3D (duh) at an amazing, 30 fps. The prototype consists of a 16 x 16 x 16 grid of interconnected colour LEDs and if our mathematics doesn't fail us, that's 4096 individual diodes.

Carmanah Technologies Corporation has received an order to supply solar-powered portable airfield lights for Bariven S.A. in Venezuela, a subsidiary of PDVSA. The order, valued at over $800,000 USD, will provide the tools to equip Venezuela's Carupano Airport with a stand-alone system of solar-powered LED (light emitting diode) aviation lights.

Ann Arbor is installing its new energy-efficient LED streetlights one block at a time in its downtown district. Tree Town is also testing new ways to save more energy in the way it provides public light. One block at a time. That's how quickly Ann Arbor is changing its downtown street lights to more energy-efficient LED lights this year.The city's energy department recently started relamping the street lights and so far has three blocks (on Washington Street between 5th and Ashley streets) of new LEDs in place.

Sim2 Multimedia and Dolby unveiled here Monday evening one of the first prototype LCD TVs to employ LED backlighting driven by Dolby Labs' set of High Dynamic Range technologies for local dimming control.Representatives from Sim2 USA and parent Sim2 Multimedia present the first prototype of a Sim2 LED-back-lit LCD TV using Dolby's High Dynamic Range (HDR) local dimming technology to produce deep black levels and high brightness. From right: Sim2 USA's Giorgio Corazza and Charlie Boornazian and Sim2 Multimedia's Domenico Toffoli and Marco Rampin.

The World's Largest LED and Free-Hanging Chandelier will be illuminated by Meyda Lighting on Wednesday, April 2nd, at 6 PM, at the Stanley Center for the Arts in Utica, New York. Meyda Lighting, a Meyda Tiffany company and nation’s leading manufacturer of decorative lighting, recently installed the chandelier after nearly one year of planning and production in its manufacturing facilities.

Recently, Dolby and SIM2 shew off their LED Dynamic Backlight technology, which gives a TV extreme contrast. The 46-inch prototype shown in New York was an LCD panel with an LED backlight instead of a regular (CCFL) one. In fact, the set uses 1,838 LEDs to illuminate the picture, each individually controlled and able to dim in areas so black areas stay black (instead of dark gray, like on most other LCDs).

Multimode charge pump features low-noise constant-frequency operation, automatically optimising efficiency based on the voltages across the LED current sources.The LTC3220/-1 is an inductorless low-noise high-efficiency LED driver for cellphone displays and other programmable lighting applications. The Linear Technology IC provides 18 individually configurable LED current sources for complete flexibility in programming multiple displays. The display currents are set via a precision internal current reference.

Taiwan-based maker of backlight units (BLUs) for use in small- to medium-size panels, Shianyih Electronics, expects to increase its shipments of LED BLUs from 1.3 billion units in 2006 to 1.51 billion units in 2008, and the company has already received orders of LED BLUs for use in 2.5- and 3.5-inch backlights for car mirror applications this year.