Laser diode is a next generation lighting technology incubating in Shenzhen, China, giving hope that the region will emerge as a leading international laser lighting player soon.

The relighting of Detroit – a city that just three years ago was in chronic darkness – has been completed on time and under budget.

The ZigBee Alliance, an association of companies creating, maintaining and delivering open, global standards for the low-power wireless Internet of Things (IoT), and the Thread Group, an organization focused on making Thread the foundation for the Internet of Things in the home and beyond, today announced that multiple members of both organizations have demonstrated prototypes that run the ZigBee Alliance’s universal language for smart devices on Thread networks. The demonstrations, shown privately at the Thread Group’s Members Meeting in November and set for public display in both organizations’ booths at CES, are a key milestone in their liaison agreement, and highlight accelerating momentum behind an emerging ecosystem of connected products that will interoperate over Thread IP networks using the widely deployed ZigBee language.

Smart-lighting start up Gooee, creator of the first ‘full stack’ cloud-based platform that connects lighting manufacturers to the IoT, has partnered with Bajaj Electricals, the Indian manufacturer and supplier of electrical products that is part of the US$20 billion publicly listed Bajaj Group.

Foxconn subsidiary Sharp will no longer be supplying LCD panels to Samsung Electronics starting in 2017, a report from The Japan Times cited industry sources saying.

Fluence Bioengineering today announced that its LED systems have been selected by MedMen, a leading cannabis firm, for its newly renovated cultivation facility in Los Angeles. The new, state-of-the-art vertical farm replaces a traditional single-tier cultivation facility, and enables MedMen to use fewer natural resources, increase overall revenue per square foot and reduce operating cost per pound.

1 in 10 design engineers are still relying on purely physical prototypes, potentially adding significant, unnecessary costs to their designs. That’s according to new research from 6SigmaET, which surveyed over 350 engineers working in industrial, consumer and mass-produced electronics.

Lighting manufacturers are being urged to pay greater attention to lighting control detectors, in order to pass on improved energy savings to customers.

A new Chinese LED company Suijing Optoelectronics listed on China’s Over The Counter Bulletin Board (OTCCB) has become the latest company to sign a red KSF phosphor license agreement with GE Lighting.

The Jaipur Metro Rail in India will be replacing all sodium lights at the Vivek Vihar station with LED lights to cut energy consumption, reported The Times of India.

Mayor Emanuel has announced that the City is conducting a public demonstration of next-generation streetlights in seven neighborhoods as part of the Chicago Smart Lighting Project, which will upgrade streetlights across the city. Residents are being asked to provide feedback on the new lighting, which represents the latest advances in lighting technology, through the end of the year.

Idemitsu Kosan (headquarters: Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo; Representative Director & Chief Executive Officer: Takashi Tsukioka; hereinafter, “Idemitsu” or the “Company”) announces its decision to expand production capacity of the OLED materials at its 100% subsidiary Idemitsu Electronic Materials Korea Co., Ltd. (location: Paju, Gyeon-do, South Korea; president: Kazuki Maeda) to respond to the expected increase in demand for OLED materials due to increased penetration of OLED displays as well as to install additional evaluation equipment in order to strengthen technological customer support capabilities.

AIXTRON, one of the world’s leading providers of deposition equipment to the semiconductor industry, announced today that Grand Chip Investment GmbH (GCI) declared today that the voluntary public takeover offer for the acquisition of all shares, including all shares represented by ADSs, of AIXTRON SE (AIXTRON) by GCI published on July 29, 2016 has lapsed due to the non-fulfillment of an offer condition.

Nanoco Group, a world leader in the development and manufacture of cadmium-free quantum dots and other nanomaterials, announces that it has acquired a group of patents from the Eastman Kodak Company ("Kodak") in connection with the use of quantum dots in electroluminescent displays, a future display technology.

The Lighting Research Center (LRC) at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute has recently released a free, open-access circadian stimulus (CS) calculator to help lighting professionals select light sources and light levels that will increase the potential for circadian-effective light exposure in architectural spaces, utilizing the CS metric. Developed by LRC researchers, the CS metric is a new way to quantify light’s impact on acute melatonin suppression, a marker of circadian system activation.

LED technologies are rapidly growing in terms of market share for roadway lighting systems in the U.S., with about 15% of roadway lights using LED sources. Unlike the yellowish glow of high pressure sodium lamps found in most of the other U.S. streetlights, LED illumination usually is white in color. This difference has sparked concerns about health and wellbeing from the American Medical Association (AMA).

Since the launch of its Smart Energy Savers Program® in 2009, Baltimore Gas and Electric Company (BGE) has been educating customers on simple ways to reduce energy use and costs. Today, BGE marks two major milestones. First, BGE customers have bought more than 25 million energy-saving LED and CFL light bulbs, saving nearly $40 million at checkout with instant discounts. Second, BGE has performed 200,000 Quick Home Energy Check-ups in its service area, helping customers better understand their homes’ energy use and suggesting ways to save energy and money.

Analog Devices. (ADI) announced the acquisition of a solid-state laser beam steering technology from Vescent Photonics, Inc., a privately held company based in Golden, Colorado. Vescent’s innovative non-mechanical beam steering technology enables more robust integrated LIDAR1 systems that overcome many of the major drawbacks associated with today’s bulky mechanical offerings such as reliability, size, and cost. This acquisition strengthens ADI’s position as a major automotive safety system technology partner for next generation ADAS and autonomous driving applications and builds on ADI’s 20-year history in advancing automotive safety.

Japanese consumer electronics manufacturer Panasonic is in talks with Austrian headlight maker ZKW Group, a Bloomberg report quoted person familiar with the matter saying.

Technavio analysts forecast the global automotive adaptive front lighting system market to grow at a CAGR of almost 13% during the forecast period, according to their latest report.

According to Nature World News, more than 18 million people in Japan suffer from hair loss, a figure about three times that of U.S., which led a Japanese company to come up with an innovative idea to regenerate hair growth: red LED helmets.

Xicato, an established manufacturer and thought leader in intelligent, connected light sources, and EnOcean, the global leader in energy harvesting wireless technology, announced out-of-the-box interoperability between the Xicato Intelligent Module, Generation 4 (XIM Gen4) and the EnOcean 2.4 GHz BLE portfolio of battery-free, energy-harvesting switches. Together with complementary sensors soon to be available from Xicato and others, these products create a simple, cost-effective solution for California Title 24 and other building code requirements. This solution will be demonstrated in the EnOcean booth #40464 at the CES show in Las Vegas on Jan. 5-8, 2017.

Taiwanese LED chip manufacturers that successfully transitioned from blue LEDs to red LEDs have set new revenue records from their budding AlInGaN LED business.

Samsung Electronics is determined to step up its efforts in quantum dot technology by acquiring U.S.-based QD specialist QD Vision, reported The Korea Times.

The slowdown in LED backlight market including smartphone displays continued to trend on into 2016 that even top player in the industry Nichia is looking beyond this particular market sector in its 2017 roadmap.

Boston Electronics Corporation (BEC), a leader in the distribution and advanced electro-optical products and solutions, announces a new partnership with Nikkiso USA.  This partnership combines Boston Electronics’ presence in the ultraviolet (UV) market with Nikkiso’s advanced ultraviolet light emitting diode products (UV-LED).  Under the new agreement BEC will distribute Nikkiso’s UV-LED products into the North American market.

Apple is asking some of its key iPhone suppliers including Foxconn and Pegatron to shift production to U.S. following President Donald Trump’s policies promoting “made in America,” reported Nikkei Asian Review.

Philips Photonics, a wholly owned business of Royal Philips announced that it is doubling capacity at its laser-diode facility in Ulm, Germany, to provide the key components for some of the latest developments in data communication, consumer sensing and industrial thermal processing.

Littelfuse  announced that Gordon Hunter, Chairman, President, and Chief Executive Officer, will transition to the role of Executive Chairman, effective Jan. 1, 2017. Dave Heinzmann, Chief Operating Officer, will assume the position of President and Chief Executive Officer at that time and will join the company’s board of directors, bringing the size of the board to eight members.

Last night at the Printed Electronics USA conference in Santa Clara, Calif., Kateeva’s YIELDjet™ FLEX inkjet printing system was named the winner of the prestigious Technical Development Manufacturing Award. Presented annually by conference organizer IDTechEx, the award honors the most significant development of a manufacturing device process or production plant in the printed electronics industry over the previous 24 months. In particular, manufacturing developments that optimize the process of lab-scale or mass-scale production by improving productivity, quality, reliability, uniformity, or scale.