Fairchild Semiconductor, a semiconductor manufacturer recently offered insights into how to design a flicker-free LED light source.  

Texas Instrument Product Engineer David Zhang shares insights on LED color tuning technology in a recent blog post. As Tim Sullivan indicated in an earlier blog as well, LED lighting is a relatively new technology. Engineers that used to change bulb color through the glass fixture are now finding themselves figuring out how to change or tune lighting color in high-end LED fixtures. One of the easiest ways to do this is through multiple strings of different color LEDs with dimming. I wrote a paper, “Dimming multiple LED strings enables color-tunable luminaires”, on this topic that was published recently in LEDs Magazine. As well, I included a link below to a video demonstration on this topic.

Osram have extended their range of aftermarket fit DRLs meaning drivers can now add a DRL function to their vehicle, transforming their car into an eye-catcher and ultimately increasing road safety.

With welcoming the era of lighting, LED industries are slowly switching from horizontal labor division to vertical integration development. Switching to vertical integration is Samsung’s main development strategy. Samsung LED China General Manager and Sr. Vice President Dr. Guoqing Tang pointed out that with continuing the vertical integration plan subsidiary products are concentrated in the mid-to-high power market. The company has also chosen a distributor mode to cut into the highly dispersible lighting market.

In the first quarter of the current financial year (May-July 2013) the Zumtobel Group posted a further improvement in operating earnings despite a moderate downturn in revenues. In what was still a difficult economic environment, the group’s revenue fell by 4.4% year-on-year to EUR 309.3 million (US$ 411.59 million) in 1Q13. Revenues from the sale of innovative LED products continued their progress, totaling EUR 89.3 million in the first three months. This equates to an increase of 49.7% and the LED share of Group revenues now stands at 28.9% (prior year: 18.4%). This confirms the Zumtobel Group’s strategic decision to invest in the expansion of an innovative product portfolio, despite the difficult business environment.

The Melbourne City Council in Australia has proposed a scheme to upgrade its public lighting over a period of 10 years, according to the article 'Melbourne plans public lighting upgrade' by lighting.co.uk (20th Aug). Illumination of landmarks and landscapes is hoped to enhance the city’s skyline and promote Melbourne as a 24-hour city. The council also aims to improve safety, “so that places that are attractive by day will remain safe, comfortable and engaging after dark,” states the plan.

The LED specialists behind Visiblelighting.co.uk have responded to news that a new UV LED could pave the way for portable, lower cost devices.

Every part of the world needs light in order to survive and for existence. In Malaysia, the lighting industry is among the most dynamic and fast-moving with new technologies introduced, better energy efficient products launched as well as more options becoming available for dealers, corporations and consumers.

LED lighting experts, LED Striplights, have responded to news of a bill filed in the Philippines which would make LED lighting mandatory.

As LED continues to evolve many specifiers continue to choose their LED accent fixtures by looking for lumens per watt or total number of delivered lumens the fixtures produce. The question the specifier should ask before selecting a fixture is to ask themselves, "How much of the total lumen produced, hit the intended target?"

Japanese LED manufacturer Nichia has shown no signs of making peace with Taiwan LED manfuacturer Everlight over the latest patent dispute. In a rare move, Nichia held a press conference in Taiwan to clarify the situation and criticized Everlight’s former response towards the case. Nichia’s General Manager of Legal Affairs and Intellectual Properties, Katsuyuki Akutagawa, who arrived in Taipei on Sept. 13 pointed out, Everlight had been spreading biased information regarding the patent dispute over the past year, which has misdirected Nichia clients and high ranking client officials to believe the company’s patents were worthless. Akutagawa appearance in Taipei shows Nichia has abandoned its more conservative approach from the past to a more aggressive stance. 

The ongoing patent lawsuit between Taiwanese LED packaging manufacturer Everlight and Japanese LED manufacturer Nichia heats up. The two companies have filed lawsuits in Japan, Taiwan, Germany, the U.S. and China. General Manager of Legal Affairs and Intellectual Properties at Nichia, Katsuyuki Akutagawa attended a press conference in Taiwan on September 13th. He stated that Nichia will no longer be passive during this dispute but fight back against Everlight’s patent infringement.

The maturing of the LED lighting application market has not only seen LED manufacturers aggressively increasing LED luminosity, but also gradually placing more and more attention on the importance in color rendering performance for LED products. Mitsubishi has stated that in the past most sapphire wafers included yellow phosphor in order to create white light, but that the color rendering performance was lack luster. With the evolution of phosphor technology, sapphire wafers to create white light can now also contain green and red phosphor and the same effect happens when UV wafers are paired with red, blue, and green phosphor. This has a clear improvement on color rendering.

The United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan ruled in favor of Everlight today (September 13th) over patent infringement lawsuits filed against Nichia Corp regarding U.S. patent no. 6,653,215 LED metallization technology. Everlight also demands the courts declare Nichia patent nos. 5,998,925 and 7,531,960 void.

Hammerhead Navigation, a U.S. company has started a fundraising campaign on Dragon Innovation for its LED bike navigation system that can be programmed with a smartphone. The navigation system, Hammerhead, makes cycling safer as it saves cyclists the trouble of checking their smartphones for locations and routes while on the road. The bright RGB LEDs signal different information according to its array on the device. 

Solomon Systech Limited today announced that it has successfully developed China’s 1st qHD AMOLED display driver IC with Visionox. Solomon Systech is a leading international semiconductor company providing display IC products and system solutions.  It is also the global market leader of PMOLED.  Visionox is a leading display panel manufacturer focusing on the development of OLED technology and products.

NEC Display Solutions of America, a provider of commercial LCD display and projector solutions, announced today its new 21.5-inch AccuSync™ AS222WM desktop monitor targeted to small-to-medium-sized business users.

Human centric lighting is intended to promote a person’s well-being, mood and health. It can improve concentration, safety and efficiency in workplaces or educational environments. It can support healing processes and prevention of chronic diseases among persons with irregular daily routines or in elder care. For the first time, a joint study by LightingEurope, the German Electrical and Electronic Manufacturers’ Association (ZVEI), and the global management consulting firm A.T. Kearney shows that human centric lighting can become a multi-billion-euro business, covering around 7% of the general lighting market in Europe. 

Ideal for the hospitality industry, OSRAM SYLVANIA is offering a full portfolio of SYLVANIA ULTRA 25™ LED lamps that offer energy and cost savings and the inviting 2500K color temperature that creates a warm, relaxing atmosphere for customers.

Taiwan LED wafer manufacturer Epistar announced more good news for its market layout in LED lighting. According to a report by global financial service firm Morgan and Stanley, Epistar’s infiltration into CREE’s supply chain, controlling production of high efficiency red LED chips and mid-to-low watt sapphire wafer orders, lighting proportion within the company will continue to rise for 4Q.

In late August, LEDinside introduced a portable LED light cube for filmmakers and photographers from Australian online solutions company 1C12. The company’s flexible fund raising project with a target of US$ 60,000 launched on Indiegogo just a month ago has seen funds flow in at an exponential rate to US$ 119,302. Having nearly doubled its estimated funding requirements, the Australian company has announced the addition of an adaptor range in a recent update on Indiegogo.

Freudenberg displays a variety of energy-saving solutions for vehicle applications, including a  flexible printed circuit board technology to incorporate 64 tiny LED lights for the new Opel Adam headline. it took Freudenberg 18 months to develop the LED solution, a first according to the company to use a customized flexbile printed circuit board technology.

Quantum Materials Corp. announced it has shipped Tetrapod Quantum Dots in sample quantities to a diversified leading Asian-based electronics manufacturer. Quantum Materials recently developed tetrapod quantum dots to meet the client's performance specifications.

The newest addition to the Apple family, the iPhone 5S/5C will be launched later this month. The addition of fingerprint recognition technology incorporating sapphire crystal has greatly benefitted substrate manufacturers. Crystal Applied Technology hit record highs with their August revenue at NT$194 million (US$6.5 million) with a monthly growth of 26.79 percent. Crystalwise Technology revenue for August was NT$170 million, an increase of 3.6 percent.

Future Lighting Solutions LED department announced completing renovations of National Wet Land Museum of China’s night lights in a joint project with Yajiang Applied Technology (YAT).When the museum was established in 2010 it came with night lights, but the design did not include its landmark tourist tower. The new LED design uses energy saving “green” lighting systems produces purer colors with warmer color temperature and more distinctive night view effects from a distance. The design used in total 144 LED linear wall washer lamps, and 36 1W LED bulbs were installed at an interval of one meter.

Dialight, a global LED manufacturer that specializes in transportation, infrastructure, industrial, and hazardous areas, announced a new line of Vigilant® aircraft obstruction LED lighting that offers a number of advancements on their already superior obstruction product line. With FAA certification for all tower and aircraft obstruction heights, the new Vigilant obstruction lighting line provides lower power consumption, smaller size, less wind load and lighter weight.

The bar has been raised with the latest Cree, Inc. innovation – the Cree® TW (TrueWhite®) Series LED Bulb. The revolutionary bulb emits natural LED light – setting a new standard with a Color Rendering Index (CRI) of 93. Cree is the first company to meet the California Energy Commission (CEC) LED bulb specification. The new TW Series bulb looks like a light bulb, lights like a light bulb and gives consumers another reason to switch to LED. The new Cree bulb is available for US$ 19.97 for the 60-watt replacement.

Seoul Semiconductor, a global LED manufacturer, has announced that Acrich2 LED modules powered by AC are now achieving luminous efficacies of 140lm/W, nearly a 20% upgrade from previous versions. The technology has been incorporated into lighting fixtures already being sold in major North American lighting retailers and has become the world’s best luminance efficacy AC LED module in the global solid state lighting market.

China has a huge market demand for conventional lighting. The country’s market for incandescent light and CFL in 2012 reached 1.18 billion lamps and 1.27 billion respectively. Fluorescent tube light market demands reached 830 million, while circular fluorescent lamp market demand was at 800 million. In addition, the nation’s halogen lamp market demand was at 755 million. If all these lights are replaced with LED luminaire products, it would be a massive market. Cree CEO Charles Swobodo once made a statement that the company’s goal is to replace every single incandescent light bulb.

According to predictions by the Japanese Machinery Federation, by 2030 LED/OLED lighting will reach a penetration rate of 30 percent in the Japanese indoor lighting market, making up 20 percent of energy consumption.