Recently,Sekisui Jushi Corporation, Kyocera Corporation and its wholly-owned domestic solar energy sales subsidiary Kyocera Solar Corporation have joined force to develop a multi-purpose solar power shelter called the Eco-Shell ,which combines with a Kyocera solar power generating system for the roofing material and LEDs for lighting. The new product is designed for use in bus & taxi stops, benches and walkway coverings and other public spaces. It is set to sell from July 20, exclusive to the Japanese market, targeting municipalities and private companies. And the ...

Toshiba's Tamonari Shioda has presented the company’s new discovery about the green gap in LEDs at the ninth International Conference on Nitride Semiconductors (ICNS). Currently, the green gap in LEDs is that the rapidly declining efficiency of green light emitters at longer and longer wavelengths. According to Toshiba's Tamonari Shioda, by inserting thin AlGaN layers in the active region of a conventional device, this approach could increase the output power of green LEDs by a factor of almost ten.  ...

USHIO INC. has kicked off shipping the world's first 200-mm wafer full-field projection lithography tool "UX4-LEDs FFPL 200" for manufacturing High-Brightness LED chips. Additionally, the company has completed development of the laser lift-off system "UX4-LEDs LLO 150" for volume manufacturing of vertical-structure LED chips. These latest models of the UX4-LEDs are based on the same platform as USHIO's field-proven UX series, which has an installed base of more than 1,100 systems. They will be exhibited thro...

Newly, Kyocera Corporation has developed the KVL-G3 Series LED-UV curing system, a key component in industrial printing machines. Combined with LED techology, the new product achieves a 70% reduction in power consumption compared to existing lamp-system products (metal halide). In addition, thanks to Kyocera's proprietary high-density packaging technologies, the company has succeeded in arranging LED chips on a high-density surface as opposed to in-line conventional products. With this development, Kyocera has enabled the fastest label printing capability...

Reportedly, Panasonic has teamed up with TOBU TOWER SKYTREE Co., Ltd. to support LED lighting to brighten the world’s tallest free standing broadcast structure, the TOKYO SKYTREE(R), scheduled for completion in May 2012. Only LED lighting will be used to illuminate the TOKYO SKYTREE. And Panasonic will be the sole supplier of LED lighting. There are 1,995 LED lighting fixtures and a LED lighting display system to be installed in this 634-meter tower. Panasonic’s LED lighting not only offers excellent &ldqu...

Awareness of disaster preparedness after the catastrophe in Japan, Panasonic has paved the way for the introduction of a portable solar-powered LED light on Aug. 26 and plans to produce 100,000 units a month. According the company, Solar panels are embedded on the back of the body with two AA batteries in store. The light wii last up to 60 hours on a full charge of about 15 hours under clear skies. In addition, it can also be used as a power backup, capable of supplying electricity to cellular phones and notebook computers via a USB cable. The two rechargeable batterie...

It is said that Nichia has filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Hornbach Baumarkt AG, a German DIY retailer partly owned by British retail group Kingfisher plc. in Germany at the District Court Düsseldorf. Nichia believes a Christmas decoration product including white LEDs (product number 183125) sold by Hornbach has infringed its patent EP 936 682 (DE 697 02 929), therefore it is seeking an injunction, damages, recall and destruction against the German retailer.  ...

According to the Institute of Energy Economics (IEE) of Japan, a foundation supervised by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, if LED lights replace all the fluorescent and incandescent lights used in the country, 92.2 billion kilowatts of electricity -- worth the output of 13 nuclear reactors -- would be saved, that is, the annual domestic power consumption would be slashed by 9 percent. A group of researchers led by Yoshiaki Shibata at the institute conducted the calculation. According to their survey, among an estimated 1.6 billion lights being used in Japan...

Panasonic has supported its 1,652 solar panels and a new full-color, dual-sided LED video board at the famed Northern California Infineon Raceway for energy conservation. Manufactured by Panasonic’s Sanyo division, the high-efficiency solar panels will cover 41-percent of the raceway’s energy usage. And Panasonic has also provided the raceway with a low-energy LED video board. Easily visible from Highway 37, the new board measures 5.77’ high by 17.32’ wide, and uses 57,600 LEDs to create messages brighter than the older technology. It consumes...

Phoseon Technology, the provider of UV LED solutions is about to showcase its air cooled and water cooled UV LED systems designed to be capable of curing in a wide range of UV applications at RadTech Asia 2011 conference, in Yokohama, Japan. It’s said that the company will display the three-tiered benefits of UV LED curing (high-quality, environmentally friendly, and lower total cost of ownership). Phoseon's products add additional capability with high performance, maximum UV energy, and outstanding reliability for customer's tough curing environm...

Panasonic Electric Works is to display its “ECOOL” high thermal conductive glass composite circuit board materials at the Guangzhou International Lighting Exhibition (June 9-11, 2011) and the LED Lighting Taiwan exposition (June 14-16, 2011). From the commencement of sales in April 2009, “ECOOL” has continuously expanded the sales for use in high thermal radiation circuit board applications including LED lighting and backlights. Now we intend to actively engage in global sales promotions of ECOOL products with the particular aim o...

Due to greater consumer interest in electricity conservation stimulates the market, prices of LED lights are plummeting in Japan. An okohama-based chain of home appliance stores, Nojima Corp. has released its own line of LED lights that until the end of August will be priced at 980 yen each--less than half the average market price. Industry observers estimated that LED prices will likely continue to fall with strong demand. And LED manufacturers have scaled up production to meet the demand. Panasonic is said to increase production in Indonesia and China in rec...

TDK Corp recently has released the structure of the see-through OLED panel which started mass production in March 2011. The see-through OLED panel features a passive-matrix type and has a screen size of 2.4 inches. Its pixel count is 240 x 320 (QVGA). It can display color images. The brightness and transmittance of the new see-through OLED panel are 150cd/m2 and 40%, respectively.   TDK used metal electrodes as negative electrodes so that the company's proven manufacturing technologies can be used to start volume production as soon as possible. Then...

Currently, Japanese conglomerate Mitsui Group has made a $3.5 million investment on LED lighting control developer Redwood Systems which computerized direct current lighting control systems aimed at improving energy efficiency. The system is capable of gathering data on things like temperature and room occupancy with sensors or motion detection cameras. That data can then be used to adjust lighting under the system's control. The system can also be set on a schedule via a Web-based platform. It uses servers to supply electricity to light fixtures via Ethernet cables usi...

It’s said that Hawaii Energy has developed a partnership with Toshiba on providing an opportunity to qualifying Hawaii small Businesses and nonprofit organizations to receive free, energy efficient LED lamps at no cost. This offer will be available while supplies last. Participants must agree to install the LED lamps prior to June 30, 2011. Through participation in Hawaii Energy’s Lighting the Future offering, participants will be able to see first-hand the energy and cost savings available through the use of LED lighting. Hawaii Energy is a rate...

Mitsubishi Electric Corporation recently is announced to install a six-meter OLED globe at the National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation in Tokyo, Japan. The OLED "Geo-Cosmos" display will be unveiled at the museum as the world's first large-scale spherical OLED screen on June 11. Hanging 18 meters from the floor, the globe is an aluminum sphere covered with 10,362 OLED panels, each measuring 96 x 96 millimeters. Mitsubishi Electric used its scalable OLED technologies to create the globe, which replaces a globe comprising LE...

Toshiba developed a new portable OLED lamp - and they will make 100 units of this lamp, and donate these to quake-hit areas (50 units were already donated to the evacuation center in Kesennuma City, Miyagi Prefecture). Toshiba has no plans to sell these to consumers. The lamps run from either four AAA alkaline batteries or from the embedded rechargeable battery - and Toshiba bundle the lamp with a solar-panel (it can also be recharged via a USB port). The lamp measure 146x100x18.5mm (at the thickest part) and weight 180g without the batteries. There are no details abou...

Toshiba has released a flexible OLED panel driven by oxide semiconductor TFTs at the 49th SID International Symposium, Seminar & Exhibition (SID 2011). The company is able to use plastic substrates with lowering the highest process temperature in the formation of oxide TFTs to 200°C. The prototyped flexible OLED panel has a screen size of 3 inches and a pixel count of 160 x 120. To realize color display, Toshiba formed white OLED elements and color filters on oxide TFTs. The oxide semiconductor constituting the TFTs is indium gallium zi...

Recently, Panasonic has showcased its 200-foot wide LED display at a special event at the Charlotte Motor Speedway. During the Friday night NASCAR Education Lottery 200 truck event,the screen was only used with a moving background and an 80-foot (or so) image taking up residence in an inset position. Panasonic released the full power of this operational 200 foot wide video screen, it looked very professional and clear. The camera's LCD panel forming a mismatch with the LED screen's individual pixels.  ...

Nichia had filed an provisional injunction action in Tokyo District Court against Koyo Business Services, Inc.(Koyo Business Service Kabushiki Kaisha) . Nichia believes white LEDs used in 3 inch LED warm white color downlighting products (product name: "PICASONA"; model number: K-CL3-WA5) which Koyo claims to be manufactured by a Korean LED lighting product manufacturer LumiRich pursuant to an OEM arrangement with Koyo and imported to Japan and sold by Koyo, infringe Nichia's patent (No.3700502).  ...

Panasonic Electric Works Co., Ltd. presents a flexible substrate (ECOOL-F) that achieves the same level of heat dissipation as aluminum substrates, allowing for use in applications that require thinner, lighter, and flexible substrates. This flexible type uses a thin, uniform polyimide film as an insulating layer, achieves low thermal resistance levels, and also possesses high electric strength. Panasonic is to exhibit at the Guangzhou International Lighting Exhibition (GILE) on 9-12 June 2011, and the LED Lighting Taiwan on 14-16 June 2011....

Verbatim Americas, a subsidiary of Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation (MCC), will release its LED and OLED products at LightFair 2011 in Philadelphia. Designed as hiqh quality, energy efficient replacements for incandescent and halogen lamps, Verbatim retrofit LED lamps feature clear, uniform light distributions that are fully dimmable. Verbatim LED lamps can reduce energy consumption by over 70% and late up to 40,000 hrs. Now including a new UL wet-rated outdoor/security PAR 38 lamp. Verbatim retrofit LED lamps are available in popular sizes and warm c...

Recently, Nichia had filed a provisional injunction action in Tokyo District Court to enjoin Koyo Business Services, Inc. (Koyo Business Service Kabushiki Kaisha) from infringing Nichia's patent. Considering white LEDs used in certain LED lighting products (product name: “PICASONA”; Type 20 straight tube lighting product and 3 inch downlighting product) which Koyo claims to be manufactured by a Korean LED lighting product manufacturer LumiRich pursuant to an OEM arrangement with Koyo and imported to Japan and sold by Koyo, infrin...

Considering LED-application products containing LEDs marketed by WILMAR CORPORATION (a U.S. marketing and distribution company) used White LEDs that infringe at least one of Nichia’s U.S. patents, Nichia demanded that WILMAR discontinue marketing the infringing products. Nichia has filed a patent infringement lawsuit in September 2010, and in March, 2011, WILMAR acknowledged patent infringement and agreed to stop marketing infringing products and to change to new products using non-infringing White LEDs. The lawsuit is dismissed ...

Cree has signed a license agreement with Nippon Steel Corporation on silicon carbide (SiC) materials. According to the agreement, Nippon Steel Corporation, and affiliates including Nippon Steel Materials Co., Ltd., have been given the right to manufacture and sell silicon carbide materials for electronic device applications. For Cree, it will receive certain financial considerations from Nippon Steel over the lifetime. It was also granted rights to Nippon Steel’s relevant SiC-related patents.   Other terms of the agreement were not disclosed. No t...

It’s said that targeting to advance the market penetration of photovoltaic-powered lighting technologies, Sharp Electronics has joined hands with Carmanah Technologies, Inovus Solar andSolarOne Solutions  to set up a new industry consortium, the Consortium for Solar Lighting (CSL). According to their statement, “The mission of this group is to accelerate the adoption of reliable solar lighting technology through the development of universal specifications intended to support customers’ fair and comprehensive evaluation of commercial-scale lighting ...

Affected by power shortages in Japan’s eastern and northeastern regions, Seven-Eleven Japan has planed to replace in-store and signboard lights with LED lighting at 5,000 outlets of its convenience store chain as part of a 10 billion yen program to cope with this problem. At present, Seven-Eleven Japan has some 6,000 outlets in Tokyo Electric Power’s service area alone. And it’s estimated that power saving of per store is125 kilowatts a day. The company expects to cut the consumption of electricity by 25 percent in the July-September period. It also i...

According to the Nikkei business daily, Sharp is about to team up with the housing equipment producer JS Group Corp to construct a 50-50 joint venture as early as this year to develop and sell energy-saving housing equipment. The new company will make products like roofing with built-in solar cells and easy-to-install LED lighting fixtures. They may announce this deal this week....

It’s said that Samsung LED has decided to team up with Japan’s Sumitomo Chemical to build a sapphire ingot plant in Daegu. They plan to break the ground in the 11,000 square meter site on April 20, with the target date for completion in coming October. According to their plan, the plant is going to begin production next year. The joint venture’s capacity is expected to reach 100,000 sheets of four inch ingot a month, which translates into five million sheets of two inch ingot a year.   If additional investments are made as planned, the capacity i...

Reportedly, Toshiba International Corporation (TIC) has released its newest dimmable LED lamps primarily for commercial use. These newly updated LED lamps are designed to meet Energy Star standards and are currently undergoing testing for final certification. They include enhancements such as dimming capabilities and a broad range of color temperatures and beam angles.  ...