Taiwanese sapphire manufacturers Rigidtech Microelectronics (Rigidtech) and Aceplux Optotech have seen revenue more than double during May and June 2014, according to a CNYes.com report. The two companies benefited from soaring LED lighting demands that have led to rising Patterned Sapphire Substrate (PSS) revenue.

To achieve carbon emission reduction goals, China will be turning its focus to strengthening energy efficient and low carbon industries financial support and tax incentives, according to a recent report by Xinhua.com.

The U.S. Department of Energy has announced the competitive selection of nine projects for solid-state lighting (SSL), in response to the SSL R&D funding opportunity announcement (FOA) DE-FOA-0000973. The one- to two-year projects will focus on the areas of Core Technology Research, which involves the application of fundamental scientific concepts to SSL technology; and Product Development, which involves using the knowledge gained from basic or applied research to develop or improve commercially viable SSL materials, devices, or systems. 

The TERA fitness mat is the next design concept to a family of interactive objects consisting of VELA (cycle trainer) and NOVA (climbing wall). The three items combine fitness and fashionable living in a harmonious blend. Made of eco-friendly shear wool by premium manufacturer Kvadrat, TERA is an elegant carpet that blends into any contemporary interior. The carpet‘s intelligent surface recognizes movement patterns and transforms seamlessly into an exercise mat, activating a specially developed TERA app. 

A new 90m long pedestrian tunnel with LED integrated art-wall will open at King’s Cross at the end of June. The tunnel has been designed by Allies & Morrison and will link St Pancras International and King’s Cross St Pancras Underground stations to King’s Cross’ public spaces, restaurants, offices and homes, via One Pancras Square. 

MaxLite introduces Small LED Flood Lights with the patent-pending MaxFOCUS™ light collimator and thermal pressure plate designed to narrow light distribution and reduce operational temperatures for greater energy cost savings

Programming LED Drivers is nothing new. But it hasn’t been simple or fast. It requires expensive programmable drivers, and requires wiring and powering up each individual driver. Or it requires that cumbersome mechanical resistors be attached to the driver for just setting drive current. This just doesn’t work for high volume, reliable manufacturing in the lighting business.

At the Guangzhou International Lighting Exhibition (GILE) 2014 this week, smart lighting solutions takes the show grounds again. Other interesting trends in outdoor, retail and commercial lighting can also be seen at the show as manufacturers aim to add value to lighting products. Many reports are coming out of China this week regarding to industry subsidies as the country plans to channel more financial resources into the area to meet carbon emission reduction targets. Apple’s sapphire applications also catch headlines this week, as GTAT appears to scale up sapphire production, and iWatch’s adoption of sapphire watch covers goes official. For more info please see below:

The advent of solid state lighting has launched the lighting industry into the developmental fast lane. As solid state lighting technology evolves and advances, many manufacturers are looking towards intellectualizing lighting systems to meet increasing market demands and secure a sustainable revenue model. 

What can manufacturers do when phosphor powder prices plunge? Should these manufacturers follow others lead and slash prices to keep market shares, or should they stand on the sidelines as spectators? How can manufacturers change their market strategies?

GT Advanced Technology might be adding more sapphire furnaces at Arizona plant for Apple, according to UBS Analyst Steven Chin.

When you look at today’s smartphones, or phablets and you see that the screens are getting bigger and bigger, do you realize that the display is what is taking up most of the power in the system?  

Apple received a patent on Thursday for an advanced iPad cover that contains both illumination and communication elements that will light up to alert users of notifications, according to AppleInsider. 

Bridgelux announced a major expansion of its China operations, significantly increasing its investment and capabilities in China. To better serve its rapidly growing customer base in China, Bridgelux has opened a major R&D center in Xiamen dedicated to supporting the development and manufacture of new solid state lighting products, including extensions to its best in class V Series Chip-on-Board (COB) product line.  In addition, Bridgelux will be opening an applications lab in Shanghai’s Hongqiao district to assist its China customers with the design and enhancement of lamps and fixtures that integrate Bridgelux’s highly regarded LED light source products.

When soccer teams from Brazil and Croatia run out on the pitch in São Paulo on Thursday afternoon, they will kick off one of the biggest sporting events in history, according to a latest GE blog entry. The cumulative television audience for the world’s largest soccer tournament is estimated to top 3 billion. The final at Rio de Janeiro’s Estádio do Maracanã on July 13 could be one of the most watched TV broadcasts in history.

This weekend Royal Philips, the global leader in lighting, kicked off a new initiative with KNVB (Royal Dutch Football Association) - a series of six football clinics held at Philips Community Light Centers across Brazil during this summer’s football tournament.

Acuity Brands introduces the LDN 6-inch LED downlight from Lithonia Lighting® that is designed to provide high-quality general illumination architectural downlighting at an affordable price. The new downlights deliver specification grade features ideal for a variety of indoor environments such as office, education, retail, restaurant, healthcare, hospitality and government facilities.

Sierra Wireless announced that Philips CityTouch has selected Sierra Wireless AirPrime® embedded wireless modules to provide connectivity for the new CityTouch LightWave remote lighting management system.

The MicroSense UltraMap C200A is an automated LED Sapphire Wafer Measurement system based on MicroSense's proprietary two sided capacitive sensing technology. The system measures critical substrate parameters including Thickness, TTV, Bow, Warp and Local Thickness Variation (LTV) with high throughput. The UltraMap C200 is designed for sapphire wafer manufacturers and LED chip makers who require better wafer geometry inspection with higher measurement repeatability, compared to traditional optical metrology systems.

Opple Lighting Co., Ltd (Opple) is showcasing its newest LED products and innovative illumination ideas at Guangzhou International Lighting Exhibition, which will be held in Guangzhou from June 9-12, 2014. In its 18th year, the event gathers the most competitive and famous illumination brands. In its booth, Opple demonstrates various effects of luminaires, including wide light beam, narrow light beam and wall light, and presents shifting of light and shadow freely controlled by Opple’s independently developed system. 

What is architectural media? When we consider the building as the information carrier, that’s it. With the development of LED photoelectric technology, the technology of architectural media has made great progress. During recent years, it has been widely used in the market, but not without problems. After hard and tedious attempts, we have come up with various solutions, especially in the application of glass wall screen. Thus a new super transparent LED screen appeares.With the qualities of super transparence and ultra light, it has obvious advantages in the field of arch...

Although significant consolidation has already occurred across the LED value chain, Memoori Research remains of the opinion that further consolidation is required for the market to mature into a stable state. Achieving economies of scale, cost reductions, sustainable market share and access to innovative IP to meet rising output requirements, will all remain as drivers. This will further increase the likelihood of deal activity to 2018.

This New LIA Laboratories Unmetered Supply Measurement Certification Scheme provides an assurance of the validity of the power data measured by manufacturers when describing the performance of their lighting products for use in unmetered supply (UMS) applications.

Flexible displays developed by ITRI will be entering mass production within the next two years, a Central News Agency (CNA) report cited Janglin Chen, Vice President of the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) in Taiwan saying.

Despite China’s blooming LED industry, many LED manufacturers will be eliminated from the market, according to a report by Yicai.com.

Semiconductor Energy Laboratory (SEL), Advanced Film Device (AFD) and Sharp displayed a prototype 13.3-inch 8K (7,680 x 4,320-pixel) OLED display panel at SID 2014 in U.S., according to a report by Nikkei Technology.

State-owned power company Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) issued a notice asking consumers in Sri Lanka to choose LED bulbs and Compound Fluorescent Lamps wisely, according to a Sri Lanka Broadcast report.

ElectroniCast Consultants, a leading market & technology forecast consultancy, announced their market forecast of the worldwide consumption of organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs) in General Lighting applications. 

Power Integrations (Nasdaq: POWI), the leader in high-efficiency, high-reliability LED-driver ICs, today announced four reference designs describing drivers for dimmable PAR 30 and PAR 38 LED light bulbs. Jointly developed by Power Integrations and CREE, the designs showcase the combination of Power Integrations’ LYTSwitch™-4 driver ICs and CREE MT-G2 EasyWhite LEDs. DER-364 and DER-365 detail low- and high-line PAR 30 LED bulb drivers, respectively, while DER-350 and DER-396 address low- and high-line PAR 38 bulbs. These and other reference designs are hosted at www.powerint.com/ledrivers/cree.

Revolution Lighting Technologies announced that SL Green Realty Corp. SLG +0.25%, New York City’s largest commercial property owner, has selected its Seesmart brand LED tube lamps for an LED retrofit at nine commercial office properties to save US $370,000 annually in operating expenses.