For every man that dreamed of becoming James Bond and launching a career in espionage, it might not be as easy as thought. A commercial spy group comprising mostly of Win Semiconductor engineers were caught by Taiwanese authorities from stealing sensitive trade secrets. The group led by a Taiwanese engineer working for a Chinese semiconductor company was very close to smuggling Win Semiconductor’s guarded secrets back to his employer. For more please see below:

Taiwanese police have busted a group suspected of stealing business secrets from leading international GaN wafer supplier Win Semiconductors, reported CNA.

The lighting industry has been steadily developing over the last two decades, with China becoming one of the largest manufacturing base and consumer market. According to data compiled by Hong Kong Trade Development Council (HKTDC) lighting products manufactured in China was up 10.7% YoY to RMB 418.5 billion (US $) in 2014.

In 2015, LED industry has entered the crucial stage of its development, full of merger & acquisition and bankruptcy, scale and price competition, as well as quality troubles and recall issues, industrial problems further emerged. Affected by the tide of reshuffle, more enterprises lacking of competitiveness go into liquidation. On the other hand, there are frequent opportunities in Southeast Asia and other emerging markets, also the segment markets like intelligent lighting, automotive lighting and UV LED have enormous potential. Many LED companies seek opportunities ...

Royal Philips, the global leader in lighting, today announced that the City of Los Angeles (LA) will be the first city in the world to deploy 100 Philips SmartPoles – connected LED street lighting that includes fully integrated 4G LTE wireless telecommunications technology by Ericsson. The collaboration between Philips and Ericsson delivers on the latest Internet of Things (IoT) innovation and provides a double benefit to LA citizens: high quality, public lighting that is energy efficient as well as improved network performance in dense urban areas.

Orion Energy Systems, a leading designer and manufacturer of high-performance, energy-efficient retrofit lighting platforms, announced Goshen Local School District in Goshen, Ohio, recently installed over 3,900 Orion LED Troffer Retrofit (LDR) fixtures. This installation, completed by C.M. Mockbee, marks the first complete school system in Ohio to be retrofitted with the LDR product line. Goshen Local School District is a Pre K-12 public school district serving 2,800 students high school, middle school and two elementary schools.

The LED industry survived the economic downturn, and has started to rebound in 3Q15. Their financial results will reveal whether manufacturers are in the lead with a overflowing treasury, passing, or in the red zone.

GT Advanced Technology and Apple reached an agreement that will settle the sapphire supplier’s $439 million outstanding debt, reported Wall Street Journal, AppleInsider, and other media reports.

Large private-equity firms might be proposing to acquire Philips lighting unit for EUR 5.5 billion (US $6 billion), a Bloomberg report cited a person familiar with the matter saying.

The Abu Dhabi City Municipality has accomplished the project of replacing traditional lighting on the Sheikh Zayed Bridge by an LED lighting system.

A city located in the Bay of Bengal in East India reports has cut its energy bill by about INR 5.5 million (US $) after upgrading 96,000 streetlights to LEDs, reported The Times of India.

Solid State Supplies has announced a franchise distribution agreement for the UK with Luminus Devices, a global manufacturer of high-performance LEDs.

Dialight, the innovative global leader in LED lighting technology, today announced its SafeSite® LED Area Light is now IECEx/ATEX Zone 2, 22 certified for use hazardous locations, namely chemical, petrochemical, power generation and mining applications.

The U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Office of Science plans to announce a funding opportunity on November 30, 2015, for the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Programs. Under this grant opportunity, DOE will seek applications for funding directed toward FY16 Phase I, Release 2 projects. Topics for this funding opportunity were released on schedule on November 2, 2015, and can be downloaded at //science.energy.gov/sbir/funding-opportunities. The topic title is “Buildings,” and the subtopic title is “Energy Efficient Solid-State Lighting Luminaires, Products, and Systems” (see topic 11a, page 42).

India’s LED bulb retrofit incentives under the DELP program implemented by Energy of Efficiency Services (EESL), a joint venture of Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs) of the Power Minister have slashed LED bulb prices significantly, reported theEconomic Times.

Ever view your body as a power generator? This tiny flashlight does. The flashlight called Lumen has raised more than US $100,000 on Kickstarter with the figure growing. Designed by, Ross Zhuravskiy, an engineer with a big vision, the flashlight does not use any batteries and can function for a very long time if properly used. According to the founder, it’s an “eternal” flashlight that functions forever.

Eaton has silently absorbed U.S. stadium and sports lighting specialist Ephesus Lighting, according to a Syracuse report.

After suspending trade for four months, Mason Technologies announced its reconstruction plan of acquiring two companies to expand its presence in the internet advertisement industry.

More than 800 rural villages in Uttar Pradesh, India’s most populous region, will be lit with 76,000 solar street lighting units provided by Philips Lighting, as part of a government initiative to drive sustainable electrification in rural areas in the country.

Silver Spring Networks announced financial results for its third quarter ended September 30, 2015.

If LED manufacturers were a K-pop group releasing a catchy song with a repetitive chorus, it would probably be “price wars are killing me slowly.” It has been a recurring subject in LED manufacturers presentation at LEDforum in the last three years. Intense price competitions in the LED market over the last few years has caused manufacturers a lot of pain, with the worse still to come in 2016, said Sean Zhou, Regional Marketing Director Asia, Lumileds.

Georgia Power announced that roadways across the state will benefit from higher-quality lighting thanks to a new multi-year partnership with local governments. The company, which owns and maintains approximately 400,000 roadway lights for local governments, is in the process of converting thousands of high-pressure sodium (HPS) roadway lights to new energy efficient LEDs. The LED lighting upgrade is available to cities and municipalities upon request.

Citi Field at Times Square Mets Fan Experience to Feature Stationary Citi Bikes Fans Can Ride to Generate Power to Light the "Crown" of Queens' Tallest Building in Orange and Blue.

This is the first of a two-part, illustrated blog from Haksun Kim, Executive Vice President, Samsung Display on the functionality, attractiveness and popularity of curved TVs. 

Plessey announced today that it will be demonstrating the potential uses of its GaN on silicon MAGIC™ LED technology with a new smart lighting product called Totem. Totem was developed in collaboration with the Manchester based product design firm inventid. Totem is an original concept based on the use of LED lighting solutions in the Internet of Things (IoT) -- an increasingly favoured solution for the development of smart homes and cities.

Most of the smart color tunable LED bulbs on the market at the moment require smartphone apps to control the light, but a duo from Amsterdam plans release a simple interactive cube free from buttons, Bluetooth and WiFi connections.

OLEDWorks, the leading U.S. OLED light engine and panel manufacturing company, today announced that it has completed the acquisition of key OLED assets and relevant intellectual property from Royal Philips, the global leader in lighting.  Manufacturing will continue in the existing facility in Aachen, Germany with the establishment of OLEDWorks GmbH.OLEDWorks announced this acquisition in April, 2015.

Several factors have caused manufacturers to flood emerging blue sea markets, such as China’s soon to be implemented 13th five-year plan; drying up LED subsidies; price wars in lighting industry that have resulted in pricing and selling bulbs per kilogram; and industry restructures which have benefited the expansion of big players on the market. SMEs in the industry have been treading on thin ice.  When the UV LED emerged as a blue sea market in the LED industry, only a few manufacturers were competing in the market sector. Fast forward to present, manufacturers once standing on the sidelines speculating are starting to jump in. In the near future, it is possible that this niche market might be on the same road as blue LEDs and become another hotly contended red sea market.

The U.S. Department of Energy's GATEWAY program has released a report describing four exterior SSL projects that have been completed at Princeton University, which has long recognized SSL’s potential benefits. These projects show how the school’s approach to solid-state lighting has evolved as its knowledge has broadened and as the products available have improved in performance and sophistication:

Gooee, the original ‘Full-Stack’, smart lighting ecosystem provider, has created the world’s smallest sensor for LED lighting and the Internet of Things (IoT) that now includes the latest Artificial Eye technology following an exclusive agreement with DELTA Microelectronics, a European leader in fabless ASIC design, sensor systems, lighting and optics.