New developments in gallium nitride (GaN) LEDs could lead to a revolution in lighting for the home and office in five years, says a leading UK materials scientist, Professor Colin Humphreys of Cambridge University.

Barco, a global leader in creative LED technology, has recently announced the world's first transformable LED screen for U2's latest world tour. With its 360° shape, the LED screen surrounds the band while performing and can change shape in all directions during the concert. The screen has 500,000 pixels of video, making it the biggest LED screen ever used in concert touring.

Philips Lumileds yesterday announced immediate availability of its breakthrough LUXEON Rebel phosphor converted amber (PC Amber) LED. The new LUXEON Rebel sets performance standards for color stability and light output performance. Users will see 2-5 times more light output and dramatically less color shift compared to typical amber LEDs. LUXEON Rebel PC Amber delivers typical flux of 70 lumens at 350mA.

austriamicrosystems has added the AS1115 to its LED driver portfolio, which combines display driving and key scanning functionality to provide a simple front panel solution. This eliminates the need for a separate microprocessor to provide the front panel display, making the AS1115 well-suited to seven-segment or dot matrix user interface displays for set-top boxes, VCRs, DVD players, washing machines, microwave ovens and other white good or personal electronic applications.

LSI Industries Inc. (Nasdaq:LYTS) yesterday announced the following two developments:

European and U.S. Manufacturers in the Exhibition Cree Cree, the leading U.S.-based LED manufacturer, had its booth in Exhibition Hall 1.1. The major products exhibited by the company were LED components, which attracted a number of visitors. As the company’s featured product on the show, the XP-E,MC-E series, boasts its compact size and high luminous efficacy. The MC-E series, on the other hand, emphasizes multi-chip technology with its color-adjustable function.

The new LED series from Sharp encompasses eight new white SMD chip LEDs in PLCC2 packages. Their main feature is the high color rendering index of 80 and a light efficiency of up to 90 lm/W, depending on model. Sharp offers herewith its high brightness LEDs with an optimized light quality.

In Britain, a student from Brunel University has developed an LED spotlight that can vary its beam without the need for a lens or reflector. The principle of the lamp, invented by Matthew Nourse, is to mount LEDs on a series of leaves. These can then be collectively tilted towards - or away - from the beam axis by turning a collar on a screw thread. Linkages connect the collar and the leaves. 

The UK-based Lighting Association is holding a one-day seminar entitled “LEDs — Time to Engage?” on July 7, 2009 in Stratford upon Avon, UK. The seminar is with the purpose of helping lighting manufacturers better understand the current position of LEDs, where the future lies and to evaluate if the time is right to engage with LED technology.

The innovative lighting of low energy bulb manufacturer Megaman performs like traditional halogen spotlights, but uses a fraction of the power. The new range of mains voltage are direct plug-in replacements for traditional halogen spotlights.



Traxon Technologies, a subsidiary company of Osram, announces that it has joined the cross-licensing program between Osram and Philips for LED-based technology used in luminaires.

An image being projected by the OLED panel-based small projector Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Optics and Precision Engineering (IOF) of Germany exhibited an OLED-based small projector at SID Display Week 2009.

PR Lighting Ltd of Guangzhou, China (which supplies intelligent stage lighting, architectural lighting and LED lighting products) said recently that it had chosen Golden DRAGON LEDs from Osram Opto Semiconductors for its XLED 590 intelligent wash light. XLED 590 intelligent wash light, incorporating Osram'’s Diamond DRAGON RGB LEDs for high-power stage lighting.

CIL, the electronics design and manufacturing services company based in UK, has been appointed as a Future Lighting Solutions Integration Member.  This means the company is approved to provide design and manufacturing services in the integration of solid-state lighting systems for customers of Future Lighting Solutions.  This appointment followed a detailed assessment programme during which CIL demonstrated its extensive experience in LED and optoelectronics design and manufacture.

Royal Philips Electronics will cooperate with BVB Substrates, a horticultural supplier based in the Netherlands, to develop LED lighting-based applications for greenhouse-based flower and vegetable cultivation. The two companies have signed a memorandum-of-understanding for combining their respective strengths in the development.

Lighting Science Group Corporation (Lighting Science), a global developer and integrator of intelligent LED lighting solutions and Martin Professional A/S, a provider of dynamic lighting systems, yesterday announced a distribution agreement that will give Martin access to Lighting Science's X16 DOTZ LED strings for global distribution. The X16 DOTZ LED string has been well-received in the market since its introduction and will be marketed under the name FlexDOT in Martin's line of LED video products.

OSRAM Opto Semiconductors is enriching the projection market with two new LEDs, OSTAR Compact and OSTAR Power Projection. OSTAR Compact is designed for small efficient systems in cell phones, PDAs and MP4 players, while OSTAR Power Projection is targeted at high-performance projection applications such as home cinema systems of 70 inches and more. The LED portfolio from this semiconductor specialist now provides full coverage of the projection sytem range from 1 W to 300 W.   

Steinel, a German manufacturer of intelligent lighting fixtures, has introduced its XLed range of security floodlights powered by LUXEON Rebel LEDs that use one-third of the energy consumed by conventional floodlights. The XLed is available as the XLed 25, with 25 LUXEON Rebel for very high luminous flux and total power consumption of about 60 watts, and the more compact XLed 10 with 10 LUXEON Rebel and total power consumption of approximately 25 watts.

AIXTRON AG recenlty announced that the Institute of Semiconductors of The Chinese Academy of Sciences, located in Beijing, PR China, has placed an order for one Close Coupled Showerhead (CCS) 3x2 inch MOCVD system. Ordered in the first quarter and to be shipped in third quarter 2009, the new tool will be used for the research and development of semiconductor lasers and LEDs.

Some 64m2 of Martin Professional LC Series™ LED panels are being used as dynamic, movable set columns for “The Visit of the Royal Physician” (Livlægens Besøg) at the Copenhagen Opera House, one of the most modern opera houses in the world.

OSRAM Opto will show the latest developments for CCTV and night vision systems in Nuremberg at the Sensor+Test, the international trade fair for sensor, measuring and testing technologies. At the joint “Cluster Sensorik” booth in Hall 12/233 OSRAM will present their flagship, the infrared OSTAR Lighting and also the infrared OSTAR Observation, Golden Dragon and Power TopLED with lens.

Cree, Inc. today announced increased revenue and earnings targets for its fiscal fourth quarter ending June 28, 2009. Cree now targets revenue in a range of $143 million to $150 million with GAAP earnings of $0.07 to $0.09 per diluted share and non-GAAP earnings of $0.15 to $0.17 per diluted share, based on an estimated 89 million diluted weighted average shares. Targeted non-GAAP earnings exclude expenses related to the amortization of acquired intangibles of $0.03 per diluted share, and stock-based compensation expense of $0.05 per diluted share.

Obducat’s new lithography system is ready to be launched. The system, named Sindre 400, is the world’s first fully automated system for high volume manufacturing of LEDs. Sindre 400 is a vital contribution to the development within CleanTech, since, thanks to greatly increased energy and material efficiency, it reduces the use of natural resources.

At Tokyo's Beautyworld Japan Expo 2009, the U.K.-based company Energist introduced the latest ReGen Light Treatment system.

AIXTRON AG yesterday announced that Hualei Optoelectronic Ltd., based in Hunan Province, P.R. China, has issued a purchase contract for multiple CRIUS(R) MOCVD systems. The tools for production of high brightness LEDs will be shipped from Q2/09 through Q4/09. This contract represents AIXTRON's largest ever single order for MOCVD systems from China. Part of this order has been recorded as order intake in Q1/2009.

The Lindenplatz in Hamburg's St. Georg district, a city landmark and also the place the German company Siemens is based, has recently been redesigned with LED solutions by the company in collaboration with the city of Hamburg as well as some local businesses. The lighting manufacturer OSRAM, part of Siemens' industry business unit, has provided the LED lighting modules used in the project.

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

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).

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.