Silvair, a pioneer in Bluetooth-based smart lighting technologies for commercial applications, today announced that it has completed a US $12 million Series A round of funding. The new investment will enable the company to commercialize its end-to-end smart lighting platform, as well as to grow its marketing and customer support capabilities internationally.

Orion Energy Systems, a leading designer and manufacturer of high-performance, energy-efficient lighting platforms, announced financial results for its fiscal 2017 second quarter ended Sept. 30, 2016.

Heliospectra, a world leader in intelligent lighting technology (https://www.heliospectra.com/) for controlled environments horticulture, forecasts that America’s growing public support of legalized medicinal and recreational cannabis use will push industry to more sustainable cultivation practices and cost-effective LED light strategies.

Thermal management specialist Cambridge Nanotherm today announces it has built significant additional capability and capacity into its MCPCB manufacturing base to meet rising demand for its award-winning thermal management solutions. The company has established partnerships with a wide network of PCB and thin-film manufacturers to offer a broad range of options in terms of circuitization, quality, volume and standards.

Veeco Instruments announced financial results for its third fiscal quarter ended Sept. 30, 2016. Results are reported in accordance with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles ("GAAP") and are also reported adjusting for certain items ("Non-GAAP"). A reconciliation between GAAP and Non-GAAP operating results is provided at the end of this press release.

There has been stable growth in the global LED lighting market supply chain and distribution channels, the plateaued LED backlight market has ushered surging innovative LED applications in the market. How has soaring demands in new LED applications affected Taiwanese LED manufacturer’s Epistar’s LED shipments?

GE Lighting Solutions and Samsung Electronics announced the signing of a worldwide patent license agreement. 

In 2016, Epistar lead the Taiwan LED industry business model transition from unprofitable product portfolio to refocusing on more profitable client orders. Other LED companies have caught onto this trend, such as Unity Opto, which slashed LED bulb production capacity by 70%, reported China Times.

Samsung is supplying more than just OLED screens for iPhones to Apple, reported Korea ETNews.

With effect from  1 November 2016, Guido van Tartwijk has become the new Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Tridonic, a company belonging to the Zumtobel Group. He succeeds Alfred Felder, who has been appointed to the Group’s Management Board back in April this year. 

At the 2016 Los Angeles Auto Show, Audi of America will debut its first US production laser light on the 2017 Audi R8 V10 plus exclusive edition. The R8 exclusive edition utilizes full LED headlights, which are now supplemented by a laser high beam module in each headlight.

After numerous LED manufacturers forecasted their future earnings, Chinese LED enterprises finally released their financial results for 3Q16. For those with irrational fear that the LED industry is still in the phase of “increasing revenues but stagnant profits,” LEDinside has collected third quarter earnings from 32 LED companies for further evaluation of the credibility of market claims about current development.

Osram recently announced the latest developments about the acquisition transaction of its LED general lighting business sales to a Chinese investment  consortium headed by IDG Capital.

OSRAM Opto Semiconductors has recently entered into LED technology and patent license agreements with a multinational company based in Japan. The technology license encompasses certain proprietary LED epitaxy, chip and package technologies of the Japanese company. It is accompanied by a comprehensive LED patent license for Osram.

Plummeting LED lighting prices and net profits in the LED industry, has allowed LED filaments to emerge as the black horse in the market, placing it under the market spotlight. LED filaments were formerly plagued with manufacturing technology and yield rate issues, and in the past few years Epistar’s patent suits has placed LED filaments under the lime light again.

The U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Loan Programs Office (LPO) has announced an opportunity that may be of interest to the solid-state lighting community. The LPO invests in the power of American innovation to accelerate the deployment of innovative clean-energy projects across the U.S. in order to avoid, reduce, or sequester greenhouse gases. To date, it has supported a large, diverse portfolio of more than US $30 billion in loans, loan guarantees, and commitments that have covered more than 30 projects nationwide, generating over US $50 billion in total project investment, supporting job creation, cutting pollution, and enhancing American competitiveness in the global economy.

Materials manufacturer Covestro continued its successful half-year trend in the third quarter of 2016 with high Free Operating Cash Flow and strong earnings. Adjusted EBITDA rose significantly by 21.9% year-on-year to EUR 574 million, mainly driven by higher volumes combined with higher margins. The Group’s core volumes (in kilotons) were up by 9.1% on the prior-year period.

Company continues to provide high efficiency LED lighting solutions to reduce operating costs and improve light quality within public schools; has completed more than US $13.3 million in education work throughout 2016

ClearLight Technology®, a division of American Machine Vision LLC announces its US $60,000 in 60 days Kickstarter campaign to fund the certification and final engineering of their low-power, low heat, energy efficient LED retrofit module for fluorescent tube fixtures.

China Electric or better known for its lighting brand Toa Lighting in Taiwan issued a statement on Oct. 31, 2016 rebutting Taiwanese media reports about ongoing company financial investigations were exaggerated and fabricated.

Sharp President Tai Jeng-wu confirmed last Saturday market rumors that Cupertino-based Apple will be adapting OLED screens in its next generation iPhones, reported Nikkei Asian review.

U.S. OLED manufacturer Universal Display Corporation’s office in Ireland reported a US $21 million loss in 2015 on revenue of US $98.2 million, reported Irish media Independent recently.

Blackbird Technologies (//www.blackbird-tech.com), a company dedicated to helping independent inventors and small companies realize value from their patents, has settled a patent infringement lawsuit with Kobi Electric and filed new cases concerning LED bulbs.

Philips Lighting, a global leader in lighting,announced that it signed a patent license agreement with GVA Lighting Inc., a designer and manufacturer of LED lighting systems for architectural and commercial markets. The license provides GVA Lighting with full, worldwide access to a wide range of basic LED control, color-mixing, and system-level technologies.

Another UAE emirate Ras Al Khaimah announced it will be rolling out a major streetlight replacement project along major roads to the airport, public parks and others, reported Khaleej Times.

There is increasing German government interference in LED and semiconductor related transactions this week, Osram’s decision to sell its general lighting business to Chinese consortium headed by IDG Capital and included lighting company Forest Lighting (MLS) has been delayed and put on hold.

The German government has temporarily halted Chinese consortium headed by strategic investor IDG Capital Partners (IDG) to acquire Osram’s general lighting business LEDVANCE, and have put the deal under review, Reuters cited German magazine WirtschaftsWoche recent report.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has released CALiPER Report 24: Photometric Testing, Laboratory Teardowns, and Accelerated Lifetime Testing of OLED Luminaires, which is the first CALiPER report evaluating the performance of OLED luminaires based on independent procurement and testing. Among the findings:

At LEDforum 2016 hosted by LEDinside in late September in Taipei, Taiwan, industry insiders were all focused on innovative technologies including Quantum Dot (QD), Micro-LEDs and other new technologies. Saturation in the LED backlight market, while the LED lighting market might have high market potential, but requires specialization has ushered development of new applications in the LED industry. Some of these include small-pitch LED displays for billboards, large indoor displays, automotive LEDs, non-visible LED light (UV and IR applications), grow lights and other important emerging applications. Future technology developments include integrating QD technology with micro-LEDs to optimize LED performance.

U.S. intelligence services warned Germany that a Chinese takeover of German semiconductor manufacturing equipment maker Aixtron could give Beijing access to technology for military purposes, reported German paper Handelsblatt on Wednesday.