At the recent Beijing-Taiwan Science and Technology Forum held in Taichung, Taiwan, a leader of Taiwan-based LED chip maker Epistar said, if production cost of lighting-grade LED chips would fall to US$1/500lm in the next 2-3 years, LED lighting's market penetration would reach 20-30% in 2012.

Veeco Instruments Inc. (Nasdaq: VECO), announced that it has shipped its 200thTurboDisc(R) K465i(TM) Metal Organic Chemical Vapor Deposition (MOCVD) System to a leading LED manufacturer located in Asia.

Energy & Automation Inc. (E&A) will set up a 30,000-square-foot facility which be called LED Manufacturing Inc. to manufacture and assemble LEDs in the Luling Business/Industrial Park on U.S. Highway 183 in Luling, Texas. The new plant will provide energy-efficient, long-lasting lights for residential, commercial and industrial consumers across the country.

Facility Supports Increasing Demand for High Quality, Large Diameter Sapphire at High Volume

The Mexican municipality has announced plans to install 25,507 GE Evolve LED street lights in Quintana Roo, which would be the largest installation of LED street lights in Latin America.

AIXTRON AG announced a repeat order for multiple MOCVD reactors from existing customer HUGA Optotech. The order comprises a double-digit number of AIX G5 HT 14x4-inch configuration deposition systems. HUGA Optotech placed the order in the course of 2010 and after delivery of the systems between the fourth quarter of 2010 and the first quarter of 2011, they will be used for the production of GaN-based materials for ultra-high brightness (UHB) blue LEDs.

Industry sources noted Everlight Electronics’ LED backlight products had entered the supply chain of table PCs, and the shipment for LED backlight products was expected to increase several times in 2011.

It’s reported that Taiwan-based LED chip maker Huga Optotech was accused by patent licensing company Bluestone Innovations, because Bluestone thought Huga had infringed upon its intellectual property in Group III-V nitride production process. Huga was seeking legal council to decrease the impact on its operation.

LG Innotek, a subsidiary of Korea’s LG Group, has developed a partnership with lighting firm Zumtobel Group of Dornbirn, Austria to transfer high-volume business in LED backlights for LCD screens to the field of professional lighting.

As the first power LED manufacturer in mass production on 150 mm wafers , Philips Lumileds is manufacturing millions of GaN based LEDs weekly on the larger substrates. According to Matthijs Glastra, Executive Vice President of Worldwide Operations for Philips Lumileds, “The addition of 150 mm manufacturing capacity to our existing capability leverages our epitaxy and wafer fabrication technology excellence and gives Lumileds the capacity to produce billions of LUXEON LEDs annually.”

According to Mike Bryant, CTO of Future Horizons at the Industry Forecast Seminar 2010 in London, LED TVs is the star product of the electronics industry this year. Bryant’s opinion was mainly based on the picture quality of LED TVs which is far superior to traditional LCD TV.

India's biggest LED lighting exhibition , LED Expo 2010, will be held in New Delhi on 17 - 19 December 2010.Cary Eskow, director of the Avnet Lightspeed program within Avnet Electronics marketing, is to give a keynote address at the event.

Flexible financing plans help organisations achieve more immediate energy and cost savings as well as reduced carbon emissions Dialight (LSE: DIA.L) announced that it has partnered with SME Eurofinance Group plc, asset finance and equipment finance specialists, to extend affordable and flexible leasing and lending options to customers looking to upgrade their existing lighting fixtures to Dialight’s high-efficiency, long-life LED lighting solutions.  

Phoseon Technology was reported to expand its headquarters in Hillsboro and this would increase the company‘s manufacturing capacity up 50%. The ultraviolet LED technology was Phoseon’s mainly growth momentum, which could be used to dry and cure products for a variety of industries ranging from printing to wood finishing to medical device manufacturing.

A new UK Seren Photonics Ltd has got first round of funding, which was totaled of GBP475, 000 from a number of investors, including Fusion IP (AIM: FIP), the university IP commercialization company, and IP Group. Seren planed to exploit an LED processing technique developed by Tao Wang from the University of Sheffield in UK, and it would exchange capital equipment and complete several pilot-scale manufacturing cycles involving Seren’s manufacturing processes with the funds.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) was aiming to stand in the worldwide top-five LED player position.

It’s reported that Lenovo would focused on a larger proportion of shipments of 13.3-inch super-slim models for its notebooks in 2011. Industry source noted, Asia Pacific was Lenovo's most important market, in which 13.3-inch LED-backlit notebook was popular in the family market. In early December, the panle price for a 13.3-inch LED-backlit notebook panel was US$46-50 while it’s for 14-inch and 15.6-inch models was US$39-44 and US$40-45.

Taiwan semiconductor and panel equipment maker Gallant Precision Machining (GPM), reported November revenues of NT$610 million (US$20.3 million), which was of NT$319 million in October. GPM's revenues for the first 11 months of 2010 increased 57.4% from a year earlier to total NT$2.96 billion. The company estimated its equipment for panels, solar energy products and semiconductor would account for 40%, 25% and 25%, respectively, of 2010 revenues.

Extending the uses of their technology into yet another application, GlacialLight, a sub-division of the experienced technology manufacturer GlacialTech Inc., announces a totally brand-new product, an LED panel light series named Pollux. Designed to be both fashionable and functional, the very first Pollux series LED panel lights are ideal for replacing traditional tube lights or grid lights.

Ameresco has signed an agreement on the installation of traffic signal LED lamps with the City of Phoenix Public Works and Street Transportation Departments. According to the agreement, Ameresco will provide lighting retrofit services, materials, and equipment for the installation of traffic signal LED lamps.   The Phase I with 335 intersections to be installed, is expected to be completed in early 2011. And the proposed Phase II project is anticipated to include 525 additional intersections.

America Macy's stores intends to replace over 117,000 43-watt halogen-based bulbs used for accent lighting in 86 department stores with 17-watt custom-designed Philips EnduraLED PAR38 SP15 lamps, which makes it the first department store to use LEDs on a wide scale.

GE Lighting Solutions announced it would create 50 jobs in Cleveland and give the city $150,000 a year during the proposed 10-year contract in exchange for the right to sell the city LEDs.

Dialight picked up the Elektra award for Solid State Lighting Applications at the European Electronics Industry Awards 2010 in the Lancaster Hotel, London on Thursday 9 December 2010 The company beat off stiff competition in the form of finalists Marl International, Osram and TT electronics OPTEK Technology to scoop the award for which solid state lighting products were judged on their performance, design flexibility and suitability for an application.

Taiwan-based LED chip maker Lextar Electronics expected the ratio for LED lighting applications would reach over 10% of its revenues in the end of 2010, from less than 5% at the beginning of 2010. And the company was to reduce product development time from 2-6 months to 1-3 months through integrate vertically.

AIXTRON AG has announced a new order for an MOCVD reactor from new customer APOLLO Precision. The order comprises one CRIUS® 31x2-inch configuration deposition system.

In Taiwan's LCD monitor market, it’s expected that Asustek and Acer was in the first position and second position respectively.

In 4Q10, backlight unit (BLU) makers had cut down small- to medium-size BLUs’ price to grab orders. And most small- to medium-size BLUs’ customers expected the price would decrease more than 5% in 4Q and LED players would continue to feel pressure to reduce prices in 1Q11. Market sources estimated that LED-backlit TV market would have a 50% share in the total LCD TV market in 2011 and LED chips prices were expected to drop by 30% in the next two quarters.

Recently, SemiLEDs Corporation (NASDAQ: LEDS) was listed for transactions on the NASDAQ Global Select Market, with the symbol “LEDS.” The company’s IPO (initial public offering) was priced $17.00 per share with 5,250,000 shares. The company develops and manufactures LED chips including blue, green and ultraviolet (UV) LED, and LED components, which were primarily for general lighting applications, such as street lights and commercial, industrial and residential lighting.

With the strong demand, Royal Philips Electronics expected LED lighting revenues to reach 15% of its total lighting revenues for 2010 and over 20% in 4Q10. And in 2015, the company aimed to reach 50% of its total lighting revenues.

Some Taiwan LED companies strengthened their development on the LED lighting segment, as LED lighting market was expected to increase about 50% in 2011 by industry sources. Epistar estimated that the ratio of LED lighting products to its total production would grow up to 30% in 2011 from 20% in 2010, while Tekcore and Formosa Epitaxy both were expected to add ratios to 30% in 4Q10.