Sharp is Japan’s LED vertical integrated firm，from LED wafer, package, to luminaires. As for lighting market development, Sharp starts from LED lighting, rather than conventional lighting field. In regard to LED lighting development, what kind of plan and opinion does Sharp have? How will they find the company’s position and quickly realize lighting market development? LEDinside had the opportunity to interview Uemura-san in order to understand Sharp LED lighting history.   Sharp Showcased Zenigata-shaped COB Package, Being Easy Fo...

A famous Japanese lighting manufacturer, Toshiba has continued to put great effort in the development of the lighting industry since they sold their first incandescent light bulb in 1890. In the initial stages of LED lighting development, Toshiba designed a series of LED lighting replacement projects for the Louvre, and also announced that they will no longer produce incandescent lights starting from 2010. Over the years, Toshiba has continued to eliminate inefficient lighting sources and has been dedicated to energy saving and LED lighting. What are their plans for future ...

Toshiba Corp and Toshiba Lighting & Technology Corp exhibited a see-through OLED lighting panel and an OLED lighting panel supporting wireless power transmission at Lighting Fair 2013, from March 5 to 8, 2013, in Tokyo. 'Window lamp' that does not waste light In general, see-through OLED panels look transparent when they are off because transparent electrodes are used for both of their positive and negative electrodes. There are many OLED panels that become transparent when they are off. But Toshiba's see-through OLED panel has a d...

Hitachi Research Laboratory (HRL) of Hitachi Ltd exhibited a prototype of an OLED lighting panel made by using a coating process at Lighting Fair 2013 from March 3 to 8, 2013, in Tokyo.   For the panel, HRL used the "spontaneous multilayer light-emitting layer formation material," which enables to make an OLED lighting panel just by applying HRL's own red (R), green (G) and blue (B) light-emitting materials once. In general, white OLED lighting panels made by using a coating process are made by applying RGB light-emitting material...

According to LEDinside, a research division of Trendforce, investigation on the latest LED light bulb retail price showed that global LED light bulb retail price remained volatile in January 2013. The retail price of 40W equiv. LED lamps increased by 4% to USD19.4. Fewer new products were introduced in each region, and fluctuation in the price of original products increased. The average price of 60W equiv. LED lamp fell by 4.3% to USD29.6. Prices declined most significantly in the Japanese market.

Sharp has announced to add a 100W COB LED, known as GW7GAL50SGC LED to its Zenigata family. The new LED will output 14,000 lm, and achieve efficacy of 143 lm/W for SSL lighting applications such as street lights and high-bay lighting. Compared to the existing family members, the new LED will be larger and also be hexagonal in shape, whereas the existing Zenigata products are rectangular. The 50W Mega Zenigata LEDs measure 20×24 mm. The new 100W device is 86.8 mm measured from one point of the hexagon to the opposite point, and 75 mm measu...

Japanese Chemical engineering firm Showa Denko K.K. has cooperated with Masayoshi Shigyo, a professor at Yamaguchi University’s Faculty of Agriculture, to develop new LED lighting technology to spur plant growth in factory controlled conditions, by changing the blue-red ratio through each stage of a plant's development. The technology shortens the growth period of leaf lettuce, for example, to two weeks from three weeks using conventional methods. With growing corporate interest in the vegetable factory business, Showa Denko said the new technique offers si...

IDEC Corp has utilized blue LED elements and yellow fluorescent materials to develop pseudo white LED modules. Under IDEC’s new method, an LED device can be packaged just by covering it with a gel-like silicon resin sheet containing a fluorescent material and heating it. Compared with a conventional method that packages an LED device by inpouring liquid resin, the new method can reduce the time used for packaging process to 1/9. With the conventional method, a "dam" is formed around an LED device on the substrate to keep the resin. Then, t...

Intematix Corporation, an innovator of patented phosphors and phosphor components for high-quality LED lighting, provided an update on its patent infringement litigation in South Korea with Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation.

Recently, at Lighting Japan 2013, Panasonic Idemitsu OLED Lighting (PIOL) Co Ltd exhibited OLED lighting panels developed for residences. The company showed a panel that looks like shoji (paper screen) in a Japanese room, a panel designed for wash stands, etc. It plans to release the panels in the spring of 2013. Meanwhile, it announced its line of products scheduled to be launched by fiscal 2018.   The exhibited OLED panels were the "100 x 100" series, a 10 x 10cm OLED lighting panel that PIOL released in November 2012, and the "...

Sharp has released new 17-mm chip-on-board (COB) Mega Zenigata LEDs that are come in 15W, 25W, 35W and 50W versions, and have the same footprint as previous versions of Zenigata LEDs . The offer luminous efficacy of up to 108 lm/W. Sharp's GW6DxxxxNFC LEDs come in 2,700K, 3,000K, 3,500K, 4,000K, 5,000K, and 6,000K color temperatures with a CRI of 80 or more depending on the performance class. The 50W version of the LEDs have an output of 4780 lm with a typical drive current of 950 mA. However, the design apparently allows users to can...

Japanese companies from Tamura Corp and Koha Co Ltd have created a white LED using gallium oxide (β-type Ga2O3) and exhibited it at Lighting Japan 2013 from Jan 16 to 18, 2013. The LED consists of a blue LED chip made on a β-type Ga2O3 substrate by using GaN-based semiconductor and  a fluorescent material. Compared with a case where a common blue LED chip formed on a sapphire substrate is used, the new LED realizes a higher optical output. At the show, Tamura and Koha showcased two kinds of white LEDs that use 0.3 x 0.3mm and 2 x 2mm...

Japan's LED lighting market is expected to account for around 40% of the global LED lighting market from 2012-2013 with penetration rate expected to exceed the global penetration rate, according to Toshiba Lightech. Furthermore, thanks to rapid decreases in price and market growth in Europe, the US, and China, the CAGR of the global LED lighting market from 2010-2020 to reach 31%, Toshiba Lightech adds. According to president and CEO of Toshiba Lightech, Tooru Shibuya, the firm introduced LED light bulbs in 2009, and in 2011, the LED light bulb ...

Japanese researchers Akinori Koukitu and Yoshinao Kumagai, who are professor and associate professor, respectively, at the Division of Applied Chemistry, the Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology (TUAT), and researchers of Tokuyama Corp. , have made breakthroughs on a deep ultraviolet LED that has the world's highest levels of output characteristics. With a forward current of 150mA, its output and external quantum efficiency are 20mW and 3.0%, respectively. There were two problems in the development of the deep ultraviolet LED: developing a high...

A Japanese research team has announced on January 10 that it developed a new efficiently deep ultraviolet sterilization LED lamp, featuring small volume, electricity saving, environmentally and long lasting ,compared to traditional low pressure mercury lamp. Currently, low pressure mercury lamps are widely used in medical and food application. Because of the environmental harm caused by mercury, researchers are seeking for substitutes. Deep UV is an ultraviolet ray that has short wavelength with high efficient of killing bacteria. And the substrate crystallization has influ...

At CES 2013, Panasonic has exhibited a 56-inch 4k OLED display. The company applied its own printing process to the display and cooperated with Sony in the development of the display's oxide semiconductor. Panasonic President Kazuhiro Tsuga stressed the large size, vivid color and slimness of the display in a keynote speech, however, the company has not disclosed when to mass-produce the display or its expected price....

Panasonic now has sixteen new LCD TVs for 2013, many of which featuring IPS displays and 3D. The top four of the six lines are 1080p and feature the latest Viera Connect with personalized home screen and Swipe & Share (for sharing photos and video from your smartphone or tablet with the flick of a finger). The same four also feature the accessibility feature, Voice Guidance, but only the WT60 and DT60 can be controlled by voice -- although it isn't full on voice control. They will start to become available this spring, with the top-of-the-line WT60 setting...

Nichia developed deep UV LED at shorter than 310nm and will be providing evaluation samples upon request.

In the patent infringement lawsuit in Germany at the Düsseldorf District Court which Nichia filed against Hornbach-Baumarkt-AG ("Hornbach"), the court found following the main hearing on November 27, 2012 with judgment of December 20, 2012 (File No. 4a O 112/11) that Hornbach infringes Nichia's patent EP 936 682 (DE 697 02 929) (hereinafter called "YAG patent") concerning the accused white LED Christmas illumination products. The court rendered a judgment, although it is not final and can be appealed by Hornbach, in favor of Nic...

Toshiba Corporation will start sales of white LED packages this month. Production of LED chips is typically done on 2- to 4-inch wafers with an expensive sapphire substrate. Toshiba and Bridgelux have developed a process for manufacturing gallium nitride LEDs on 200mm silicon wafers, which Toshiba has brought to a new production line at Kaga Toshiba Electronics Corporation, a discrete products manufacturing facility in northern Japan. Mass production of packages using the new line's output starts this month. Deployment of Toshiba and Bridgelux's new GaN...

Idemitsu Electronic Materials Korea Co., Ltd. a wholly owned subsidiary backed by Idemitsu Kosan Co., Ltd. has completed construction of a plant for manufacturing OLED materials in Paju, near Seoul, and plans to begin production. Commercial shipment of the products will be started at next spring, after completing the quality inspection and production processes.   The products manufactured in the plant is expected to sell the products in markets including Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Europe and other markets in addition to South Korean market. Idemitsu Kosa...

Instrument Systems GmbH, a Munich company specialized in lighting measurement equipment, is sold by the Company founder and President Richard Distl to Konica Minolta Optics, Inc. The subsidiary company Optronik Berlin GmbH is also included in the sale. The company was established in 1986, and it will expand the sensing division of the Japanese Group with its successful product range. The Instrument Systems brand and the locations in Munich and Berlin will be retained. Additionally, the previous owner Richard Distl will continue as President and CEO. Th...

Panasonic Eco Solutions, a division of Panasonic North America has developed a strategic alliance with Lighthouse Technologies in distributing the latter’s LED video display solutions for the North American market. According to Panasonic, it will not only offer Lighthouse's LED video display technology, but also offer Lighthouse customers new products and services not previously available. It contends that the new alliance will create new solutions that incorporate Panasonic's array of product technology, including professional displays and broadcast...

Everlight filed an invalidation action with the Japan Patent Office against Nichia Corporation’s blue LED patent No. JP2780691. The Japan Patent Office rendered a decision in favor of Everlight on Nov. 12, 2012, holding that Nichia’s patent JP2780691 is totally invalid. Following Nichia’s YAG white light LED patent No. JP3503139, which was found invalid by Japan Patent Office this May, JP2780691 is another one of Nichia’s core patents that have been declared as invalid. Everlight believes that this decision is entirely rea...

Taiwan LED maker Formosa Epitaxy Inc. (FOREPI) has entered into  the Japanese and global markets under the help of Japanese shareholder Mitsui & Co. Ltd., which is taking orders for the Taiwanese manufacturer using its shops in Japan and overseas. As San’an Optoelectronics of mainland China is approved by Taiwan government to buy into FOREPI in a private equity placement, Mitsui's stake in FOREPI will be watered down to 12% and becomes  the No.2 shareholder of FOREPI. According to Mitsui executives, for the time bei...

Sharp has announced on Wednesday that it will start to sell an 32-inch ultrathin IGZO 4K LED display with  a Full HD 3,840x2,160 resolution on February 15, 2013. and it has a production target of 1,500 units a month. No pricing was given. The most  salient feature is the use of IGZO technology -- something Apple has had its eye on for the iPad because IGZO can yield very-high-resolution yet thin displays. Including the chassis, the model PN-K321 display is 35mm thick and compatible with DisplayPort and HDMI connectors. Sharp also plans to ...

Toshiba America Electronic Components (TAEC)  has introduced  its new  family of photocouplers, the TLP700A and TLP705A. They are housed in small packages (SDIP6),  half the size of conventional 8 pin DIP packages, and consist of an AlGaAs infrared LED, optically coupled to an integrated high-gain, high-speed photodetector IC chip. About  TLP700A Its TLP700A can directly drive a middle-capacity IGBT or power its MOSFETs. With a guaranteed transmission delay skew, ideal for designing dead time for inverter...

Sumitomo Metal Mining Co., Ltd. has set up a production line for large sapphire substrates at its fully-owned subsidiary Okuchi Electronics Co., Ltd., and has started mass production. Sapphire substrates are used as a substrate for fabricating gallium nitride for use in white and blue LEDs. As the market for white LEDs expands from backlighting for large-size liquid crystal televisions to include general purpose lighting, demand from LED manufacturers for large sapphire substrates which offer an opportunity to improve productivity has also increased. Since the start o...

Toshiba International Corporation is introducing a new six-inch Toshiba TLS-DMT6 LED Downlight with a replaceable LED light module. The LED module, which provides the light source, can be changed easily without having to replace the entire downlight - making color temperature and lumen output changes easier for the likes of retailers, hoteliers, restaurateurs or homeowners. The module is a complete lighting unit comprised of an integral driver, LED array and built-in heat sink. The heat sink dissipates the heat generated by the LEDs, thus controlling the op...

Japan’s winter light show has taken place at a botanical garden on the island of Nagashima in Kuwana since Nov. 3 and will be on display until March 31, 2013, dazzling visitors with its display of 7 million LED lights. The illuminated wonderland is considered the best lightshow in the country.   This year’s theme is “nature.” Displays feature breathtaking scenes inspired by Japan’s famed Mt. Fuji at sunrise, as well a rainbows across the sky and landscapes resembling an aurora. Previous shows have also featured many beloved Japanese cha...