In Fargo, North Dakota, U.S., the city commission voted 5-0 last week to put an immediate moratorium on LED signs on the premises of business properties. The sign moratorium was sought by the Hawthorne Neighborhood Association. The neighborhood group has been against plans by Steven Stremick of Select Financial to put a cube-shaped light-emitting-diode sign at the corner of 13th Avenue South and University Drive.

Norburn Lighting and Bath, Canada’s destination source for LED lighting, introduces to the Canadian market Design Pro LED Under Cabinet lighting from Kichler.

After introducing aluminum casing (CLG family) and fully enclosed plastic casing (PLN, ELN, LP family) LED power supplies, MEAN WELL launched another new product category, open frame type – PLP family, for the “low cost” and “built-in” installation of LED lighting related applications. PLP-30/60 series are 30W/60W switching power supplies with 90~264VAC universal input range.

Epistar Corp, Taiwan‘s largest LED (light-emitting diodes) manufacturer, won its appeal of a patent-infringement case in which Lumileds, the LED unit of Royal Philips Electronics, was trying to block its chips from the US market. The Appeals court lifted an import ban that had been imposed on LED chips made by Epistar.

The Taiwan-based LED chipmakers, Epistar Corp. and Formosa Epitaxy Inc., have both decided to expand their LED chip outputs to ease the supply deficiency caused by strong need for LEDs from major LCD TV manufacturers, according to Taiwan Economic News.

Seisakusho Co Ltd, a Japan-based company, was showing off an LED headlight used in Toyota's new Prius at Automotive Engineering Exposition 2009, which took place from May 20 to 22, 2009 in Japan. The low beam headlight for the new "Prius" The LED headlight for the new Prius is a low beam assembly which consists of a double projector unit for emitting a focused beam and a unit for emitting a diffused beam.

GlacialTech Inc. is launching star-bright environmentally friendly LED spotlights. The GL-SP30 LED high brightness spotlight  consumes no more than 38W of power and will replace traditional Halogen lamps which usually consume in excess of  300W per lamp. The lifespan of these LED lamps is 35,000Hrs, whereas the halogen spotlight lasts for 3,000hrs only. The predicted savings rate is 88% when compared with Halogen spotlights.

High power AC LED light bulb from LIQUIDLEDS is a new solution to lighting. With the utilization of the unique technology of Liquid Immersed Thermal Management Solution (LITMS), LIQUIDLEDS longs to provide Practical, Reliable and Affordable light bulbs to the general public.

At the Milan Furniture Fair this April, current trends in “light- emitting-diodes” or LEDs were someting to keep an eye out for.  Pictured here is the new lighting line from Philips, a Dutch company that has an edge in the industry of LED lighting. Photo by Shuli Beimel

At the new Dallas Cowboys Stadium in Arlington Thursday, the Cowboys turned on the world's two largest high-definition LED video displays, each 160 feet wide and 72 feet high.

To support the local LED makers in crucial patents, Taiwan government could invest in foreign LED companies or set up a large joint venture by coordinating local manufacturers to pool patents.

Albeo Technologies Inc., a manufacturer of white-LED general illumination lighting systems, announced that it has been granted two design patents, D592786 and D592785, for its award winning C-Series High-Bay general illumination light fixture. The patents cover Albeo’s unique designs that allow Albeo fixtures to run cooler at higher efficiencies with longer lifetimes.

Greenlight Initiative, a New York headquartered LED-lighting sales and solutions provider, announced yesterday that it has completed qualification of the LED-based replacement lamp product line from Array™ Lighting. With testing and evaluation complete, Greenlight and Array have concluded a national and municipal/public works accounts sales agreement for Array's full line including PAR30, PAR16, MR16 and GU10-type LED replacement lamp products.

In India, colourful Light Emitting Diode (LED) lights have been fixed in almost the entire ivory and textile sections of the Raja Dinkar Kelkar Museum, making the exhibits look more attractive as well as saving energy. The first LED lights were fixed in 2008 when 20 of the display cases were replaced, said Sudhanva Ranade, joint director of the museum.

In Taiwan, the government is to take five measures to cut greenhouse-gas emission and save energy at total budget of NT$1.2 billion (US$37 million at US$1:NT$33) over the next three years, according to Economics Minister C.M. Yiin. The five measures include replacing Taiwan`s 260,000 incandescent traffic lights with LED lamps, further cutting electrical-bill discount rate and enlarging the coverage of discount beneficiaries, applying solar energy to public buildings, building a solar power plant, and assisting local governments set up LED-streetlight demonstration system.

LG Display Co., Ltd. announced Tuesday that it has succeeded in developing the world’s thinnest 42- and 47-inch LCD TV panels. The 42- and 47-inch LCD TV panels employ LG Display’s edge-lit LED backlight system instead of the commonly used CCFL (Cold Cathode Fluorescent Lamp) to realize a panel thickness of 5.9mm.

LEDs can destroy skin cancer cells by bathing cream-applied skin with red light, according to a recent article in the British national newspaper the Daily Mail. A plastic strip embedded with LEDs from Polymertronics can patch up wounds and destroy skin cancer cells by zapping them with light, said the report.

In London, LED lighting has been introduced to replace the conventional lighting at all of the city’s roadside ticket machines, reducing 75 per cent of the energy consumption, according to Transport for London (TfL).

According to the industry research institute LEDinside, total revenue of Taiwan’s listed LED manufacturers in April, 2009 was NT$5.361 billion, growing by 9.1% (YoY -13.4%) comparing with March, 2009. The total April revenue of LED chip manufacturers was NT$2.089 billion, up by 4.4％ than a month earlier; and the revenue for LED packagers was NT$3.27 billion, growing by 12.4％comparing with March.  

Power Integrations, a manufacturer of high-voltage integrated circuits for energy-efficient power conversion, just released a new engineering report (DER-212) describing a 92%-efficient power supply for LED streetlight applications.

Taiwan is focusing on solar power and AC light-emitting diodes (LED) as the main drivers of the nation’s green technology initiatives, and is seeking to become a world leader in AC light-emitting diodes (LED), according to the Taipei Times. The AC LED Alliance of Taiwan, under the direction of the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI), is ready to submit the world’s first AC-powered LED technology standard proposal to the International Commission on Illumination.

Macroblock launches a new 16-bit PWM LED driver with 8-bit digital dot correction, MBI5040. To provide uniformed LED brightness and accurate LED color for high-end LED display panels, “matched LEDs” are insufficient, and dot correction of each LED pixel becomes necessary. However, it is costly and complex to process dot correction through controllers for the increasing loading of the controllers and the limited control of LED pixels.

UPEC Electronics Corp. introduced their new product – CP150 series, which used Aluminum oxide to replace for original LTCC package materials. Utilizing UPEC’s superior ceramic packing technology for high power LED, CP150 is packed with the smallest size and still can keep excellent thermal conductivity and higher CTE (coefficient of thermal expansion). Furthermore, the heat dissipation of high power LED will no longer be an issue for CP150 series and the lifetime can reach 50,000 hours.

Scientists have developed a method to make lettuce darker and healthier using ultraviolet (UV) light-emitting diodes (LEDs). Steven Britz of the U.S. Department of Agriculture and his colleagues used low-power LEDs that exposed lettuce to ultraviolet B (UVB) light for 43 hours. The lettuce was noticeably darker than plants not exposed to the UVB. They have not quantified this effect, but the lettuce darkening increased with the intensity of the light. Darker lettuce, like spinach, is known to be more nutrient dense than its lighter counterparts, such as iceberg.

In Japan, a digital signage system using OLED panels is being tested at Ebisu station this week. The test is carried out by JR East Group's JR East Mechatronics Co Ltd and East Japan Marketing & Communications Inc. Last year at the same ticket gate, the two companies tested a digital signage using color electronic paper modules made by Hitachi Ltd and Fujitsu Ltd, and the pixel counts of the modules were 320 x 640 and 400 x 600, respectively.

Intematix Corp., a leading innovator in phosphors, LED components and solid state lighting modules announced today that it has completed a pan-European franchise agreement with Rutronik Elektronische Bauelemente GmbH. The agreement provides Rutronik distribution rights to Intematix' entire product portfolio of chip-on-ceramic power LEDs, arrays and modules. Rutronik will also have access to Intematix full-solution line of control systems, secondary optics and heat management technologies.

IST Lighting, a UK-based designer and manufacturer of LED lighting technologies, announces that it has established a strategic partnership with Lighting Science Group Corporation to develop and produce dimmable LED fixtures which utilize its iDrive range of LED drivers. The company plans to launch the new 45W iDrive MultiDIM mains dimmable LED driver and mains dimmable LED downlight ranges in cooperation with Lighting Science Group Corporation, according to IST.

Welland, Canada has recently approved the resolutions to require developers to use LED fixtures in new streetlight installations, and is looking at the replacement of existing fixtures with LEDs. Located in the Niagara Region of Ontario, Canada, Welland became an LED City in September 2008, and is leading the way in new initiatives.

San Jose, Calif., plans to convert 125 lights in the city’s Hillview North neighborhood by June 2009 in its second LED streetlight pilot project. The new streetlights will use energy efficient LED lamps equipped with the locally based Echelon’s power line networking technology and segment controllers. The LED Streetlights connected with the Echelon’s intelligent controls for smart networks can help reduce energy and maintenance costs while improving light quality, decreasing light pollution and providing increased safety, according to the company.

TT electronics Optek Technology has developed a new family of visible LED backlighting strips that offer high intensity, reliable and cost-effective backlighting solution. Designated OPA775 and OPA776, the "Jacob's Ladder" series of backlighting strips are offered with daylight white LEDs and designed specifically for illumination of small- and medium-size display applications where lighting intensity and reliability are imperative.