Global semiconductor capital equipment manufacturer OEM Group announced today that a leading maker of LED products has placed a repeat order for an AGHeatpulse® RTP system. The system will be used for annealing gallium-nitride (GaN) films deposited on 150mm sapphire substrates, one of the critical process steps needed in advanced LED fabrication. This repeat order validates again the AGHeatpulse® RTP system's demonstrated capabilities meeting the exacting thermal requirements of new LED manufacturing technologies, and supports the LED industry's move from batch processing of smaller diameter sapphire substrates to single wafer processing of 150mm sapphire substrates.

Chinese LED manufacturer Leyard has halted trade on China’s bourse as the company prepares to acquire Mingji Electronic Technology (Beijing) (Mingji) and LEDAVENUE.

The Chinese LED industry is very familiar with subsidies, the country’s government has offered financial support to local companies since 2009. Subsidies issued by the central government over the last six years has spurred the explosive growth witnessed in the country’s LED industry. LED enterprises all want a share in government subsidies. Listed companies in particular often covet subsidies to give their financial performance a facelift. LEDinside editor Flora Wu has ranked manufacturers that have received the most subsidies in 2015 in the following order below:

According to its 2015 Chinese LED Industry Market Report, LEDinside, a division of TrendForce, finds the scale of the Chinese LED package market for 2014 reached US$8.6 billion and grew by 19% annually. The general lighting market has been the main driving force, and the rising market penetration rates of commercial and residential LED lighting products has been fueling China’s growing demands. On the other hand, demand in the medium- and large-size LED backlight sectors have fallen due to technological advances that has reduced LED usage. The downturn in medium- and large-size LED backlight sectors has also been attributed to the LED TV’s easing demand growth. 

Osram is making smartphones even smarter: Infrared technology enables mobile devices to be unlocked for the first time by scanning the iris of the user. Iris scanning is being used in the ARROWS NX F-04G smartphone from Fujitsu Limited, which is being marketed by the Japanese telecommunications company NTT DOCOMO Inc. This smartphone, which is currently only available in Japan, is the first in the world with this extremely secure functionality for consumers. Infrared light emitting diodes (IREDs) from Osram Opto Semiconductors are used as the light source. These IREDs are the only ones capable of the high power needed for iris scanning from a compact package. 

Avnet Abacus, one of Europe’s leading interconnect, passive, electro-mechanical and power distributors and a business unit of Avnet Electronics Marketing EMEA, a business region of Avnet, has signed a pan-European distribution agreement with Taiwan-based MechaTronix, an important player in the global market for LED cooling solutions.

The Edge in Amsterdam is a highly sustainable¹ building featuring a high level of intelligence thanks to the innovations and technologies it incorporates. It is the first office building in the world to be equipped with Philips’ innovative connected lighting system for offices based on ‘Power-over-Ethernet’ technology. The connected lighting system receives both power and data over a single Ethernet connection and is able to provide facility managers with an integrated view of a building’s occupancy patterns and energy usage. This enables more informed decision making with unprecedented levels of energy and operational efficiency.

Leica Microsystems has launched two instruments of the laser microdissection microscope series, the Leica LMD6 and the LMD7, with LED illumination for transmitted light. Users can now choose between halogen and LED illumination. LEDs are an energy-efficient light source providing homogenous illumination and a constant color temperature. They also save energy, and their lifetime of up to 25,000 hours is longer than that of halogen lamps. The Leica LMD6 succeeds the Leica LMD6500, the Leica LMD7 succeeds the Leica LMD7000. The upright microscope Leica DM6 B, successor to the Leica DM6000 B, is integrated in both new LMD systems.

Heat is often the enemy of performance in today’s intricate electronic systems, Techsil’s new thermally conductive, pressure sensitive adhesive tapes provide a cooling solution by efficiently transmitting heat away from sensitive components. These double-sided tapes are designed for bonding heat sinks on PCBs, LED strips and IC packages, mounting of ICs, GPUs, heat pipes and for heat sink assembly.

MaxLite expands its DirectFit line of ballast-compatible LED products with a T8 U-bend Lamp designed to upgrade fluorescent fixtures with energy-efficient lighting in a matter of seconds. 

TrueCar, the negotiation-free car buying and selling mobile marketplace, celebrates the kickoff of the Twilight Concert Series today with the launch of TrueCar L.E.D. (Light Emotion Data), a crowd-powered intelligent sensory experience that captures real-time emotive information and creatively displays data with a dazzling, interactive LED light show to transform the traditional concert experience.

Feit Electric Company filed a complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina against Cree. to curb infringement of Feit Electric Company's patents.  The complaint alleges that Cree's line of 4FLOW LED light bulbs infringe U.S. Patent Nos. 8,408,748 and 9,016,901.

Following China’s stock market nosedive in recent weeks, more domestic listed companies have chosen to suspend trade. More than 760 listed companies combined have suspended trade on the Shanghai and Shenzhen bourses as of July 7, which is roughly equivalent to 27% of the total companies listed on both bourses. More than 100 companies applied for trade suspension on July 6 alone.

EV Group (EVG), a leading supplier of wafer bonding and lithography equipment for the MEMS, nanotechnology and semiconductor markets, today unveiled the HERCULES® NIL—a fully integrated track system that combines cleaning, resist coating and baking pre-processing steps with EVG's proprietary SmartNIL™ large-area nanoimprint lithography (NIL) process in a single platform. Offering industry-leading productivity and throughput, the HERCULES NIL provides a complete, dedicated UV-NIL solution that is ideally suited for high-volume manufacturing (HVM) of emerging photonic devices. 

Royal Philips, the global leader in lighting, has opened its state-of-the-art GrowWise Center at the High Tech Campus in Eindhoven, the Netherlands. Research being conducted by Philips will provide tailor-made LED light growth recipes making it possible for producers to increase their yields and grow tasty and healthy food indoors, all year round.

STG Aerospace, a world leader in pioneering aircraft lighting technologies, is delighted to announce that it has opened a new U.S. manufacturing and warehousing facility in Miami. Located adjacent to the Miami International Airport runway, the new building has double the space of the company’s previous U.S.premises.

Yuehsin Electronics' Regulus line of smart luminaires has now been employed by the Kaohsiung city government. In the process of combining and streamlining the administrations of Taiwan's second largest city Kaohsiung and its surrounding county into one modern city government, new conference rooms are now enlightened by flat panel lights, spot lights and wall washers from Yuehsin Electronics' Regulus line of smart luminaires.

The new MTCS-C3 product family enables users to implement their own True Color Colorimeter into lighting, backlight, LED tests, color selection or other applications. The MTCS-C3 is ideal to measure color coordinates (XYZ), CCT or brightness levels. The sensor system is based on the JENCOLOR® standard components MTCSiCF (True Color sensor) and MCDC04 (Signal converter).  The sensor is based on the CIE1931 XYZ color standard, while the signal converter allows an output at 16/20 bit at a dynamic range of 1-to-1,000,000. The Evaluation Kit is prepared for specific customer calibrations.

The trending smart living concept has failed to enter average households because of smart devices high price tags, according to a report by ZOL.com.

NVC Lighting recently was notified by Chongqing First Intermediate People's Court that a Chinese bank has filed a plaintiff against the company for outstanding loans left by former CEO Wu Changjiang.

Chinese LED manufacturer ETI announced Monday, eight company executives will be increasing shareholdings in their company to boost investors’ confidence.

Australia’s largest online retailer of server racks, network cabling, and fiber optics, 4Cabling, has successfully acquired 5 year-old e-commerce lighting retailer OzLighting.

Mark Roush assumes the office of President of the Illuminating Engineering Society of North America (IES), the international leader in lighting education, standards, publications and professional development. Roush succeeds Paul Mercier.

LG Display will be investing 900 billion won (US$802.75 million) to build a new production line for small and medium OLED displays, reported Korean newspaper DongA Ilbo.

Nova Scotia Power (NSP), is seeking regulatory approval of CA$ 36 million (US $28.43 million) to convert its streetlights to LED, reported The Chronicle Herald.

Global semiconductor capital equipment manufacturer OEM Group announced today it has received first-in-fab and repeat tool orders for its Cintillio™ wet chemical processing system from several leading Ultra Bright LED manufacturers working in the automotive lighting market.  With these orders, OEM Group has now successfully expanded its production proven and patented ECO-Process wafer surface preparation solutions from the established markets of Power Device, CMOS IC, and MEMS manufacturing into UBLED fabrication, a new market for Cintillio™.  The tools will be used for ozone processing of some of the most sensitive layers exposed during LED manufacturing, including exposed silver, which to date has presented LED makers with difficult challenges where surface preparation is involved.

Amerlux, announced that the City of Los Angeles' Bureau of Street Lighting (BSLA) has approved the Avista for major and local street lamp retrofits.

With the evolution of LED technology, the cost of LED lighting is reducing and performance of the light is better than ever. ALT, the leading high-power LED lighting brand in Taiwan, has announced new products equipped with CREE’s latest LED chips, in order to improve the lighting quality and return the favor to its customer. ALT patterned heat-dissipation and power management technology, it can well drive the flagship chipsets CREE XPL and single light source CREE MHB and MHD, bringing the advantage of higher brightness, higher color rendering, and beautiful lighting effect.

China’s decade old streetlight standard GB7000.5-2005 has been replaced with a new standard GB7000.203-2013 that has become effective as of July 1, 2015. Changes in the new and old lighting standards will require manufacturers to make certain adjustments in their outdoor luminaire designs, according to a Shanghai Entry-Exit Inspection and Quarantine Bureau’s Electromechanical Engineering Department statement.

Acolyte LED has increased its global reach by adding David Virgona to its growing team. As the Australian National Sales & Technical Manager, David will be covering the markets of Australia and New Zealand.