Thailand has seen a drop in energy consumption of one percent over the past four months, said Zhang Shuncai, Department Head of Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (EGAT). This drop in energy consumption correlates directly to the current economic situation. There is a chance for a further decrease to 2 percent by the end of the year if political instabilities continue. 

As LED TV market penetration rates reached 95 percent in 2013, the product’s market penetration rates are close to full saturation this year. With high LED TV market penetration rates, LED-backlit TVs are close to overtaking CCFL backlight modules in 2014. In 2014, direct-lit LED TV penetration rates are expected to exceed 50 percent, and clinch the leading position from edge-lit type TVs for the first time.

LED chip manufacturer Epistar has received orders from large European manufacturers including Philips after the launch of their new HV LED products in Germany earlier this year, according to Economic Daily News. The company has had an increase in orders due to the efficiency and cost advantage of the HV LED products. Production capacity operations this quarter have already reached maximum. 

Osram’s latest 2013 financial report revealed LED sales had a 29 percent revenue share, however, the German company projected the figure will “exceed 50 percent” by 2017.

The smart lighting industry involves the use of lighting control systems that deliver correct amount of light when needed. It deals with the technology where lights can automatically perform various operations at set times or under set conditions. It makes use of intelligent lighting control systems to intelligently control light, based on various parameters such as; occupancy, movement, color temperature, amount of natural/daylight and so on. The customers of lighting control systems apply a set of such lighting control strategies using specific technologies and methods to control consumption of light energy. 

EMCORE Corporation, a provider of compound semiconductor-based components and subsystems for the fiber optics and space solar power markets, announced that it has settled the patent infringement case brought by Nichia Corporation before the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas.

Optic inspection is still the mainstream wafer defect detection method in the inspection and metrology field, while E-beam will continue to be a niche market, said KLA-Tencor Chief Marketing Officer Brian Trafas during the opening ceremony of the new training facility held at the company’s Hsinchu branch on May 23, 2014.

This week, Osram announced a new LED assembly plant in Wuxi, China. The new plant will expand the company’s backend LED capacity as well as boost their presence in the world lighting market. Additionally, lighting market demand growth has spurred LED chip market demand to further increase, resulting in expanded market size, according to the latest LEDinside report. India’s LED industry could become the next big market player as the new prime minister pushes for cleaner energy, bringing massive opportunities to the LED industry.

Global process control and yield management product leader KLA-Tencor’s newly launched Taiwan Training Facility continues to reflect the market’s important role in the company’s business strategy.

The U.S. Department of Energy's CALiPER program has released Report 21.2, which is part of a series of investigations on linear LED lamps. Report 21.2 focuses on the performance of three linear (T8) LED lamps and a benchmark fluorescent lamp in five different troffer types. Also included are the results of a subjective evaluation. The LED lamps were intended as alternatives to T8 fluorescents and were chosen for the study primarily based on their luminous intensity distributions (narrow, medium, and wide beam angles).

GE Lighting introduces its most incandescent-like consumer LED portfolio yet, including more than 40 new LED products and fixtures, to meet consumer demand to adequately fill every socket in their homes with energy-efficient LED lighting.

Royal Philips, FC Bayern Munich, the German soccer champions, and its home stadium Allianz Arena, today announced a partnership that will make the stadium the first in Germany and the largest in Europe to feature a dynamic light show made possible by energy efficient connected LED lighting. As part of a three-year agreement, Philips will also become a sponsor of the Allianz Arena and the official lighting partner for FC Bayern Munich. 

Everlight Electronics Co., Ltd. ("Everlight") brought an invalidation trial on September 5th, 2011 against the Japanese Patent No. 4,530,094 ("JP'094") owned by Nichia Corporation ("Nichia"). Everlight recently received a prevailing decision from the Japan Patent Office.

In a further move to strengthen its leading position in the market for LED, Osram today officially opened its LED assembly plant in Wuxi, China. The factory has a floor area of about 100,000 square meters and will employ as many as 2,100 people by 2017. Osram is investing a low three-digit-million euro amount to set up the plant.

Women on average are earning 40 percent less than their male counterparts in the optic and photonics industry, according to findings published by The International Society for Optics and Photonics (SPIE) in its latest 2014 Optics and Photonics Global Salary Report.

Samsung Electronics recently defied previous reports that the company was abandoning OLED production expansions in 2014. According to a Yonhap News Agency report, industry insiders analyzed the Korean manufacturer might be spending up to 25 trillion won (US$ 24.39 billion) in facility investments this year to raise OLED panel production by 8.6 percent compared to 2013.

LEDforum 2014, organized by LEDinside, Cnledw.com and Guangzhou International Lighting Exhibition, will be held on June 11, 2014. Top executives from the first-tire international manufacturers like Philips Lumileds, Osram, Samsung, Seoul Semiconductor, Toyoda Gosei, LED chip giants such as Epistar and Sanan Optoelectronics, China leading LED enterprises like Honglitronic, Refond and MLS Lighting will be invited as speakers, dissect the current situation of LED industry on the theme of LED market trends and the development strategy, to create an audi...

Memoori estimates that revenue from the global LED Lighting market for buildings hit US$ 8.1 billion in 2013 and will rise to around US$ 10.3 billion by the end of 2014. The market will have grown still further to total almost US$ 23 billion by 2018.

Barcelona City Council and Royal Philips have signed a collaboration agreement on the subject of Smart Cities. The agreement will seek to make the city more energy efficient through connected LED street lighting. Working with the City Council, Philips aims to make Barcelona a trailblazer in the field of Smart Cities for the economic, environmental and social benefit of citizens. Philips will also provide defibrillators to the city of Barcelona as part of this collaboration.

American artist Katy Perry is no stranger to experimenting with Avant-garde and futuristic clothing. Having being spotted onstage and at a Met Ball in 2011 in flashy LED outfits, the artist has added a new LED sneaker to her lineup of brightly colorful wardrobe.

The new Indian prime minster is setting out to fix India’s energy problems, which could bring massive business opportunities for the LED and solar industry. Newly elected prime minister, Narenda Modi, wants every household across India to have at least one light bulb by 2019. 

GE Lighting Solutions, LLC, a business unit of GE Lighting, today announced that it has granted Jasco Products Company, LLC, a license to a pioneering portfolio of patents relating to remote phosphor applications in LED lighting. 

The Lighting Research Center (LRC) at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute has launched a new collaborative initiative, the Lighting Energy Alliance, to increase the benefits of lighting while reducing its environmental and monetary costs.

French designer Vivien Muller has created an ecofriendly solar mobile phone charger and LED lamp, Electree Mini, that resembles a bonsai tree.

This week more info is shed on Chinese lighting market trends, as more LED manufacturers contend for larger market share in China, according to latest LEDinside report. China’s growing smart city projects are expected to bring smart lighting market to US $200 Billion by 2018. LED chip price upticks in May due to tight supply in China has been refuted by chip manufacturers, while Shanghai LED quality test lab SQI recommends the country make national lighting standards mandatory.

Earlier this week, a securities firm reported that several areas in China will begin raising LED chip prices in May due to recent adjustments to the LED chip market infrastructure in China. The report continued that the supply shortage is anticipated to intensify, which will cause a price hike in all LED chips. LEDinside reporters questioned several Chinese chip and package manufacturers to see if this is truly the case. 

Lately, several prominent Japanese and Korean manufacturers have dropped OLED TV projects. Japanese manufacturers Panasonic delayed OLED display mass production plans, Sony halted OLED TV R&D, while Korean manufacturer Samsung decided to stop investing in OLED displays in 2014. LG Electronics is the only North Asian manufacturer still active in OLED R&D, according to a recent report by Chinese-language ENorth Netnews.

Macroblock anticipates LED lighting demands to grow, especially in the residential replacement lighting sector, said Chairman LC Yang at the company’s latest investor conference held on May 14, 2014. The company reported revenue of NT $457 million (US $15.1 million) for the first quarter of fiscal 2014. 

UK design firm, STUDIO BANANA THiNGS, has collaborated with The Innovation Quarter at Bangor University (UK) has created a flexible LED light for bag interior, Kangaroo Light.

In an earlier report, Shanghai Institute of Quality Inspection and Technical Research (SQI) tests conducted on 27 LED luminaires showed most were safe to use and had low blue-light hazards. In the second part of the   LED lighting product’s blue-light hazard detection, blue-rich light analysis and recommendation report” by Yu Anqi, Vice Presidentreport of SQI offers recommendations to LED manufacturers in China.