The Apple iPhone 6/ 6 Plus might not be featuring sapphire screen display, but Chinese smartphone manufacturer Dakale has went ahead in using the material in its latest model Dakale 3, which is priced at a mere RMB 1,499 (US $241.61) reported Chinese online media Forward.

The efficient conversion of light into electricity plays a crucial role in many technologies, ranging from cameras to solar cells. It also forms an essential step in data communication applications, since it allows for information carried by light to be converted into electrical information that can be processed in electrical circuits. Graphene is an excellent material for ultrafast conversion of light to electrical signals, but so far it was not known how fast graphene responds to ultrashort flashes of light.

Orion Energy Systems a leading designer and manufacturer of high-performance, energy-efficient lighting platforms, today announced that it recently received a contract award of approximately $1.0 million to retrofit a Northern California-based location of a globally-known designer and manufacturer of mobile devices, tablets, and personal computers. The award represented repeat business for Orion from this customer, which was upgrading fluorescent fixtures with a comprehensive lighting solution that included Orion’s ISON LED High Bay lighting fixtures (approximately 660 units), solar light pipes (approximately 1150 units) and Orion’s InteLite control system.

STG Aerospace, a world leader in pioneering aircraft lighting technologies, is delighted to announce that its safTglo® photoluminescent emergency floorpath marking system has been chosen by Shanghai Airlines as a replacement for the combination of electrical and photoluminescent lighting systems previously installed in its fleet of Boeing 767s. Four of the airline’s seven-strong fleet have now been retrofitted with safTglo®.

Top automotive lighting manufacturers gave LEDinside team some insight about the market outlook and challenges at the 31st Taipei International Auto Parts and Accessories Show (Taipei AMPA), which ran from April 8-11, 2015 at TWTC Nangang Exhibition Hall and TWTC Exhibition Hall 1 Area A in Taiwan.

Los Angeles based Lucera Labs has developed an IR sensor equipped alarm clock that wakes up people gently with a focused beam of LED light.

Following up on promising results from pilot work, researchers at the VA Boston Healthcare System are testing the effects of light therapy on brain function in Veterans with Gulf War Illness.

Corning Incorporated today announced a collaborative agreement with OLEDWorks to develop unique, flexible, and conformable OLED lighting solutions using Corning® Willow® Glass as an integrated substrate.

Plessey Semiconductors announced that it has entered into a sales representative agreement with ROM Electronik, an electronics distributor and provider of advanced complete solutions headquartered close to Istanbul, to expand its European network with coverage in the Turkish market for its GaN-on-Silicon LED products.  

STG Aerospace, a pioneer in aircraft lighting technologies, is delighted to announce that it has established an official presence in China with the launch of a Wholly Foreign Owned Enterprise (WFOE), STG Aerospace (China) Co., Ltd. based in Shanghai. This new initiative is a reflection of the importance of China as a market for STG Aerospace. According to a recent IATA report, the country is expected to overtake the United States as the world’s largest air passenger market by 2030.

LEDinside team finally gets a chance to meet the Father of Blue LED, Shuji Nakamura, at a special Epistar event. Nobel Laureate Nakamura and Steven DenBaars, a fellow colleague at College of Engineering at UCSB, point out the future of LED lighting technology will be GaN-on-GaN, and that laser emerge as the upcoming next generation lighting to replace LEDs.

Philips is  introducing a new logo which licensees can use to show they are a member of the Philips LED Luminaires and Retrofit Bulbs Licensing Program.

The future of lighting will be laser, said Nobel Laureate in Physics Shuji Nakamura and fellow colleague Professor Steven DenBaars of University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) at an exclusive forum hosted by Taiwanese leading chip LED manufacturer Epistar on Wednesday at the company headquarters in Hsinchu, Taiwan.

AIXTRON SE, one of the world’s leading manufacturers of deposition systems for the semiconductor industry, today announced that it has acquired privately held Silicon Valley-based PlasmaSi, Inc. effective 1 April 2015. The purchase price is US $16 million and will be paid in cash.

Scientists at the MPI-P Mainz, BASF Ludwigshafen, the University of Ulm, and Innovation Lab Heidelberg have developed a simulation toolkit for evaluating properties of organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs) based solely on their chemical composition. The package is integrated in the free software VOTCA and helps to pre-select suitable organic molecules for lighting and display applications.

Inspired by professional technologies like lasers and the first-ever wearable mask devices, new products help fuel consumer interest and the at-home beauty devices market, which globally increases by nearly 14% in 2014, reveals Kline & Company, an international market research and management consulting firm in its recently released study Beauty Devices: Global Market Analysis and Opportunities. The market continues to be remarkably dynamic, nearly doubling in size since first tracked globally in 2014.

A fully optimized production concept for LED components and light modules in which all the process steps are coordinated with one another could give rise to completely new types of LED and also reduce their manufacturing costs. The declared objective of the “InteGreat” project is therefore to research new approaches to the production of high-efficiency light emitting diodes along the entire production process, to remove the boundaries between the individual value-added stages and as a result to create new functionality and high flexibility. 

Royal Philips, the global leader in lighting, today announced that the City of Los Angeles (LA) will become the first city in the world to control its street lighting through an advanced Philips management system that uses mobile and cloud-based technologies. The new technology confirms LA’s Bureau of Street Lighting as a trailblazer in next generation LED street lighting with a new solution that saves energy, reduces maintenance and provides quality lighting that makes streets safer for LA residents. The technology also supports Mayor Garcetti’s Great Streets initiative, promoting the revitalization of neighborhoods through more pedestrian-friendly streets for LA’s citizens.

The Lighting Research Center (LRC) at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute is expanding its research, education, and industry activities to organic light-emitting diodes, also known as OLEDs, by establishing the OLED Lighting Education and Application Program (OLED-LEAP) at the LRC. The goals of this new program are to help New York-based companies develop energy-efficient OLED lighting products and to help create market demand for lighting products that deliver value.

Acuity Brands and Key Equipment Finance announced that the two companies have teamed up to provide flexible financing solutions to qualified Acuity Brands customers converting to energy-efficient LED lighting and installing smart lighting networks. Key Equipment Finance is one of the largest bank-held equipment finance companies in the U.S. and an affiliate of KeyCorp.

Deco Lighting has joined forces with Daintree Networks, the leader in open networked wireless control and operation solutions for smart buildings, to create a cost-effective, fully-integrated LED Troffer solution with a wireless-enabled LED driver to be used with Deco LED fixtures. 

Jordan Valley, a leading supplier of X-ray based in-line metrology systems for advanced semiconductor manufacturers and equipment suppliers, today announced that it received a strategic order for its QC3 High Resolution X-ray Diffraction (HRXRD) System for strain & thin films metrology from AIXTRON R&D center in the U.S.

Veeco Instruments announced today that KaiStar Lighting, based in Xiamen, China has ordered multiple TurboDisc® EPIK700™ Gallium Nitride (GaN) Metal Organic Chemical Vapor Deposition (MOCVD) systems. KaiStar, a joint venture between Epistar Corporation and Shenzhen Kaifa Technology Co., Ltd., will use the EPIK700 systems to ramp production of light emitting diodes (LEDs) for the general lighting market.

LEDinside recently interviewed Kevin Lucido, Director of Global Marketing Communications at Lumileds, Philips, about the company’s business and technology developments after Go Scale Capital acquires the company.

Much to the industry’s surprise, Philips Lumileds was sold to Asian consortium led by Chinese investment firm GO Scale Capital Investment. The investment firm, which also invests in several Chinese LED companies, has acquired 80.1% of Lumileds shares. This development will likely assist Chinese LED market developments.

Philips kicked off the smart bulb market nearly three years ago with its pricey Huebulb, but at this year's CES a horde of new entrants emerged.  The transition from incandescent to more energy efficient bulbs is an opening through which smart bulbs – LED bulbs with wireless radios built in, which can be controlled remotely – are gaining a foothold according to Strategy Analytics' Smart Home Strategies latest report. Belkin, GE and Philips are joined by Awox, Cree, LIFX, Sengled and a host of others are profiled in "Smart Light Bulbs: The Competitive Landscape".

Rival Korean consumer electronics manufacturers LG and Samsung have finally agreed to bury the legal hatchet, reported BBC and PC Magazine.

LED grow light module markets at US $395 million in 2014 are forecast to reach $1.8 billion by 2021.  Rapid growth is anticipated as green house and plant factory growers find the LED grow lights improve agriculture, projected WinterGreen Research.

Until now, the wearables revolution in technology has centered mostly on health and fitness devices. Today it enters the realm of music with the Soundbrenner Pulse, the world’s first wearable device designed specifically for musicians. Engineered in Berlin by a team of entrepreneurial musicians and designed to help musicians keep the beat and become better performers, the Soundbrenner Pulse is available now to pre-order at //indiegogo.soundbrenner.com with special pricing of US $129. The retail price will be $149.

The promising new material molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) has an inherent issue that’s steeped in irony. The material’s greatest asset—its monolayer thickness—is also its biggest challenge.