The Challenge The Allegheny County Jail, a 900,000 square foot Pennsylvania facility that opened in 1996, faced expensive power and maintenance costs associated with outdated lighting in the jail’s 35 inmate housing pods, and elsewhere in the facility. The jail also faced a security issue because the light fixtures hung from the ceiling in a manner that blocked some security camera views. The existing lights were 2x2 High Intensity Discharge fixtures (HID), using a 250 W metal halide lamp, with additional ballast wattage of 45 W.

Plunging 132 feet at 60 mph with its screaming passengers’ feet dangling in mid-air, the floorless Bizarro roller coaster at Six Flags Great Adventure has been ranked as one of the scariest rides anywhere. When the New Jersey amusement park’s management decided to upgrade and re-theme the coaster (formerly known as Medusa) earlier this year, they were looking to pump up its thrills and chills to a new level. '

Hermaphroditic Blade and Receptacle Design Promotes Fast Assembly Tyco Electronics has introduced new wire-to-board plug connectors and board-to-board connectors to its family of hermaphroditic blade and receptacle connectors. The connectors are designed to make connecting of aluminum-clad printed circuit boards, commonly used for LED lighting applications that include lighting controls and LED light modules, faster and easier.

Carmanah Technologies has introduced its new solar-powered light: the A650 aviation and obstruction light. Featuring a groundbreaking user interface, replaceable battery pack, intelligent-deployment capability and up to 10 candela of intensity (steady-on), the A650 is ideal for taxiway and apron-edge lighting, emergency airfield and helipad lighting, airfield construction barricade lighting, and obstruction lighting.

Five-year research project called “UC-Light” will take advantage of communication capabilities of lights. Imagine a world where bright, energy sipping, cheap, durable LEDs light the world. A world where if you have enough light to see, you are connected.

Today Dow Corning Corporation’s Electronics group introduced its newest silicone encapsulant, Dow Corning ®OE-6636, designed for overmolding (compression molding) and dispensing processes. The product provides for a high refractive index (RI) of 1.54 which enables better light output (see Appendix 1, below), has a low moisture uptake, improves thermal aging  and light resistance, and possesses better adhesion to typical substrate for LED packages such as Poly Phthal Amid.

Advanced Analogic Technologies Inc (AnalogicTech) is planning to diversify its product offering and a not-so secret weapon in the form of a proprietary bipolar-CMOS-DMOS process - referred to as modular BCD - which accounts for 30% of the company's revenue at present.

Management at the Renaissance on Turtle Creek parking garage in Dallas, TX recently had its lighting at the facility retrofitted with LED fixtures. The LED products used in the project were C-Series solid-state light fixtures from Albeo Technologies, an LED lighting manufacturer based in Boulder, CO. This parking garage in Dallas was recently retrofitted with LED lighting fixtures.

Expanding its popular INVISILED(TM) Tape family of energy-saving display and accent lighting solutions using the latest LED technology,WAC Lighting introduces INVISILED(TM) PALETTE and INVISILED AURA-two new color changing systems with user control. These new systems have been added to the current INVISILED 12v system. WAC Lighting is a manufacturer of track, recessed, undercabinet, decorative and monorail lighting.

Nanometrics Incorporated (Nasdaq:NANO), a supplier of advanced process control metrology systems used primarily in the manufacturing of semiconductors, solar photovoltaics and high-brightness LEDs, today announced orders for one VerteX(TM) and multiple RPMBlue(TM) photoluminescence (PL) mapping metrology systems. The VerteX system is expected to be qualified into a new HB-LED development line, and the RPMBlue systems are expected to be qualified into the high-volume manufacturing line of a different customer.

Energy Focus, Inc. (NASDAQ: EFOI) has recently announced that it is offering a 2, 3, and 4 lamp LED Parking Garage Fixture using its newest LED lighting solution - energy efficient LED Light Tubes - aimed directly at addressing President Obama and Energy Secretary Chu's recent challenge to reduce America's energy consumption for lighting to less than the current 7% of overall energy consumption.

austriamicrosystems, a global designer and manufacturer of analog ICs for communications, industrial, medical and automotive applications, expands its comprehensive LED driver portfolio with the AS1115, an easy to use user interface (UI) LED driver. The AS1115 combines display driving and key scanning to provide a complete front panel solution which eliminates the use of secondary µP or other logics plus discrete devices, reducing BOM count and cost.

Cooper Lighting has expanded its range of Axent LED downlights with the introduction of a new model that delivers energy savings of over 54% when used in place of a 1 x 32W or 2 x 18W compact fluorescent luminaire.

Recently, several efforts have been made in a number of U.S. cities to reduce energy consumption by converting street light bulbs to light emitting diodes (LEDs). In San Francisco, utilities and companies have been working with city governments to implement smart controller technologies. In March, the first 50 LED street lights were installed in the city. Helping make the city smart lights a reality are the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC), Pacific Gas and Electric, BetaLED and the Echelon Corporation.

Two new lamps from GE Consumer & Industrial—a 7-watt GE Energy Smart® LED PAR20 lamp and a 10-watt GE Energy Smart® LED PAR30 lamp—enable restaurants, retailers and other commercial customers to make significant strides toward general lighting with white light-emitting diodes (LEDs). These products of ecomaginationSM, available as spots or floods, feature advanced optical control to concentrate the white LED light on the targeted area and effectively diminish wasted extraneous light.

Streetlamps are the focus of Palo Alto's latest bid to lighten its load on the environment. The city announced Wednesday it will replace some traditional lights with low-maintenance induction lamps and light-emitting diodes, or LEDs, as part of a pilot project expected to last at least one year. Nine LEDs and five induction lights will be installed near City Hall and on the residential Colorado and Amarillo avenues. Both are designed to last longer and use 40 percent less energy that traditional sodium vapor lamps, according to the city.

Cree, Inc. announces that Illinois’ Joliet Junior College (JJC) is joining the LED University™ program. College officials recently renovated 12 restrooms on campus, replacing compact fluorescent and tube fluorescent fixtures with six-inch LED recessed lights, LR6s, from Cree. Energy consumption was reduced by 50 percent, from 3,384 watts to 1,692 watts. A total cost of ownership analysis, done by JJC, shows that the college expects to save more than $53,000 over the estimated 25-year life span of the LED fixtures.



Elation Professional has introduced a moving head that can move . . . anywhere. And a color-changing brick that doesn’t require a wall   to be plugged into. The company added two amazing new “wireless” fixtures to its Event Series of battery-powered DMX-compatible RGB LED portable lights: the Event MH W System and Event Brick System, a moving head and brick color wash, respectively.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has just released the second draft of ENERGY STAR performance criteria for three SSL luminaire categories: outdoor pole-mounted area and roadway luminaires, outdoor wall-mounted area luminaires, and parking garage/canopy luminaires. The Proposed Category “A” (near-term applications) additions to the Outdoor Area & Parking Garage area include the below: Minimum Light Output Luminaire shall deliver a minimum of 1,000 lumens (initial).

Diodes Incorporated (Nasdaq: DIOD), a global manufacturer and supplier of high-quality application specific standard products within the broad discrete and analog semiconductor markets, has introduced a family of three new LED drivers that provide a cost-effective and small form factor solution for small LCD screens used across a wide range of portable consumer electronics, such as portable media players, personal navigation devices and digital photo frames.

A historic light-art concert in Jena, Germany, featured a color-changing performance by 170 LED-illuminated weather balloons in a custom installation engineered by a team assembled by Future Lighting Solutions. Super-sized balloons hung throughout the concert hall changed color on a pre-programmed schedule paralleling the mood and tempo of the music, utilizing RGB LED modules built with LUXEON® Rebel LEDs as well as a closed-loop color and brightness management system to achieve color consistency from balloon to balloon.

Supertex (NASDAQ: SUPX), a provider of high voltage analog and mixed signal integrated circuits (ICs), has recently introduced the HV9985, a three channel LED driver IC designed to provide high LED current accuracy through closed loop control of the output current. The IC is ideal for driving multiple strings of backlight or edgelight LEDs in LCD televisions.

Taxpayers could save millions if governments replaced incandescent traffic signal bulbs with LEDs according to an audit released by New York State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli. The audit found that the City of Binghamton, which replaced all incandescent bulbs with LEDs in 2002, has produced average annual savings of $49,800 since 2002.  Binghamton is now paying 59 percent less for traffic signal operation than it did before 2002. The audit is part of DiNapoli's efforts to help identify ways that local governments can save energy and reduce costs.

Micrel Inc., (NASDAQ: MCRL), a provider of analog, high bandwidth communications and Ethernet IC solutions, has recently rolled out the MIC3230/31/32, a new family of dedicated high brightness LED drivers. These devices are the first in a new series of high brightness LED drivers targeting solid-state lighting and general illumination applications. This LED driver provides the flexibility of driving 1W, 3W and higher power LEDs that are available on the market today.

Avago Technologies, a supplier of analog interface components for communications, industrial and consumer applications, recently announced one of the industry’s smallest high-brightness 3-Watt LEDs for use in a wide range of solid-state lighting applications.

U.S. President Barack Obama and Energy Secretary Steven Chu announced on June 29 a $346 million investment from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) to expand and accelerate the development, deployment and use of energy-efficient technologies in all major types of commercial buildings as well as new and existing homes in the U.S. See the press release "Obama Administration Launches New Energy Efficiency Efforts".

National Semiconductor Corp. (NYSE: NSM) Monday introduced the industry's first high-side light-emitting diode (LED) driver that enables dual LED operation for the camera flash function in portable, battery-powered multimedia devices. The LM3554, a member of National's PowerWise(R) energy-efficient product family, drives one or two high-current LEDs for flash applications in handheld devices such as mobile phones, smartphones and portable scanners.

GE Lumination, the LED business of GE Consumer & Industrial, has released the new Tetra® miniMAX LED System, which is claimed to be “the brightest solution for shallow-depth channel letter applications available today”. Tetra miniMAX is over three times brighter and illuminates a surface area that is four times larger than previous generation Tetra® Mini, according to the company, making it the perfect solution for sign OEMs and business customers needing to see better results—visually and financially.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has recently released revised L Prize competition requirements. As the first government-sponsored technology competition, the L Prize is designed to accelerate development of high-quality, high-efficiency solid-state lighting products to replace the common light bulb. The competition will award significant cash prizes, plus opportunities for federal purchasing agreements, utility programs, and other incentives for winning products.

Albeo Technologies announces the retrofit of the Renaissance on Turtle Creek (Dallas, TX) parking garage with the company’s C-Series solid-state light fixtures. Albeo's C-Series LED fixtures replaced 175 Watt HID fixtures, providing a long-term sustainable lighting solution.