Reportedly, John G. Rice, a GE vice chairman since 2005, was appointed to lead the company’s global operations by the board of directors.

Rubicon Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:RBCN), a leading provider of sapphire substrates and products to the LED, RFIC, Semiconductor, and Optical industries, today celebrated the completion of the first sapphire boule produced in the company’s newest facility. Located in Batavia, IL, the new 135,000 square foot sapphire crystal manufacturing facility was established to increase capacity to support the growing demand for LEDs (light emitting diodes) in the consumer electronics and general lighting industries.

Watertight, Daylight-Viewable Indicator for Industrial Equipment Provides Unprecedented Clarity, Durability and Variety of Options to Suit Wide Range of Applications To better meet the needs of industrial equipment manufacturers, Dialight (LSE: DIA.L), the global leader in LED lighting technology, today announced the expansion of its 556 Series LED Panel Mount Indicators to include certification for use in Class I, Division 2 Hazardous locations.

~ Nordson ASYMTEK and LG forge ongoing relationship ~  

America retail industry leader Walmart continues its LED lighting innovation with a 22-store, island-wide move toGE Lights. The  Newly constructed Walmart stores in Puerto Rico will feature the energy efficient GE Evolve LED Area Lights.  

Recently, Taiwan-based LED companies reported their October revenues.

A leader of MJC Probe (MPI) reported that its LED production orders had extended to 1Q11. As growing adoption of LEDs for large-size backlighting and general lighting applications, MPI expected sales of its LED-testing tools to grow in 2011, and the company thought the market penetration rate for LED applications in the global lighting market would reach 50% by 2015.

In 2011, Technology licensing company Rambus planed to start quantity production of an LCD TV backlight unit (BLU), with MicroLens' edge-type single-side (on the bottom) LED technology. It is possible that the mount of using LEDs in a 40-inch model would reduce to 142 unite from 240 units at present.

As the ensuing demands for LED backlights, the world's first-tier manufacturers of brand computers have scheduled to tap into tablet PCs in the first quarter 2011, therefore Taiwan's industry executives predict it will create business for Taiwan's LED makers when the market for TV backlights started losing growth steam in the third quarter. According to Taiwan's industry executives, tablet PC backlights are particularly suitable for manufacturers specializing in small and medium backlights for uses in mobile phones and digital photo frames.

Benicia has acquired $146,000 from the U.S. Department of Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant program to retrofit 160 streetlights with LED and induction technology fixtures. The new lights will be installed on First Street and Military West between First and West 13th streets. The project is expected to be completed in 2011 spring, following a bidding process to award a construction contract.

The 12th H.K. Int’l Light Fair Autumn Edition has been successfully completed on October 30th. Aeon Lighting Technology Inc. (ALT) has achieved great success on this fair. The exclusive “One Dollar LED Lighting Experience” campaign has received tremendous supports from visitors around the world. Also, brand new Q3 products, which were first launched in H.K. Light Fair, have gathered lots attention and orders.

Matrix Lighting, a subsidiary of Matrix Holding Limited will showcase VIRIBRIGHT LED lighting products at the Greenbuild Expo Trade Show from November 17-19, 2010 at the McCormick Place West Convention Center in Chicago, IL.

Reportly, the PEPSI REFRESH PROJECT has chose LED Light Energy of Chicago as a candidate for one of its $250,000 REFRESH awards. The LED Light Energy project will relamp the Chicago Navy Pier, the largest tourist attraction in the mid-west with LEDs. So far, Navy Pier has over 4,000 incandescent bulbs, 50 metal halide streetlights and more than 1000 halogen PAR lamps.

Taiwan LCD TV maker Amtran Technology October revenues were NT$6.12 billion (US$202.65 million), up 10.7% sequentially and 13.4% on year. The whole revenues in the first ten months of 2010 totaled NT$49.01 billion, down 5.28%. Its consolidated revenues for October go to NT$7.2 billion, up 14.44%. The whole revenues in the first ten months of 2010 totaled NT$57.77 billion, up 8.74%.

Recently, affected from tight supply, it is said that sapphire as a material for making LED chips price may reach 40% in 4Q10. Market estimated that sapphire ingot shipments for 2010 would reach 22 million millimeters (mm) from 17 million mm in 2009 and shipments for 2011would be projected to total 35-37 million mm.

It’s reported that Taiwan Delta Electronics has made a contract with Osram for LED light bulbs using chipmaker Epistar `s high-voltage chip, a solution to making LED luminaires adaptable to household 110-220V power outlets.

OSRAM is presenting a completely updated product range for signage and illuminated advertising at Viscom 2010. New products for the major applications of light boxes and signage letters as well as the new IP-protected Linearlight Flex Protect offer customers flexible and high performance solutions for various applications.

Halo chosen in all four lighting categories including Brands Used Most

From November 9 to 12 at the 2010 electronica fair in Munich OSRAM Opto Semiconductors will be showing just how extensively opto semiconductors are now being used in our everyday lives. In Hall 3, booth 107, the company will be showcasing LEDs, infrared and laser components for a wide variety of applications in the commercial, industrial and residential sectors. The slogan this year is “Follow the band of inspiration” – and there is plenty of scope for inspiration!

The Smart Lighting Engineering Research Center (ERC) at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) has cooperated with campus officials to fix LED retrofit lamps instead of 119 incandescent bulbs in the 9-story George M. Low Center for Industrial Innovation (CII) building. The Smart Lighting ERC thought it took 12 to 16 months to do the investment in SSL (solid-state lighting).

AIXTRON AG today announced an order from Jiangxi Changda, a new customer in the southern province of PR China. Jiangxi Changda has ordered two AIX 2800G4 HT 2 inch MOCVD tools. The new HB GaN LED growth reactors have been successfully installed and commissioned by the local AIXTRON support team at the company’s facility.

Toshiba America Electronic Components (TAEC) published four new 16-channel driver ICs for LED-backlit applications ranging from notebook PCs to large TVs. The TC62D722 targeted high-end displays in TVs and offered a 16-bit pulse-width-modulation (PWM) mode that reduced display flicker in features specific to the application. And the new TC62D776 targeted applications in idle-mode power consumption such as battery powered devices.

Momentive Performance Materials has developed a partnership with Lee&Lee Hi-Tech Co., a manufacturer specializing in liquid silicone rubber (LSR) injection molding, to utilize Momentive’s Silopren* LSR 7000 Series to designed LED lens parts for flat-panel, LCD TVs. LSR 7000 is a family of highly LSRs, which is capable of achieving highly complex optical components that surpass those made with traditional thermoplastic materials or glass.

Working with a $2 million US Department of Energy (DOE) Phase III Xlerator grant, Acuity cooperated with Universal Display to design and fabricate OLED lighting fixtures, which was an energy-efficient and color-tunable phosphorescent OLED lighting system. The two partners said that the system would build on the Universal’s OLED technology and Acuity’s experience designing and building solid-state-lighting (SSL) fixtures.

Dialight plc, the UK based leader in Applied Light Emitting Diode ("LED") Technology, today publishes its Interim Management Statement relating to the period from 1 July 2010 until 3 November 2010, in accordance with FSA Disclosure and Transparency Rule 4.3. Signals/Illumination The Board is pleased to report continuing good performance in the Signals/Illumination segment which is showing a strong revenue increase over 2009.

Recently, Oxford Instruments-TDI, has entered into a licensing agreement with The Fox Group. This agreement focuses on the acquisition of certain intellectual property, allowing Oxford Instruments-TDI to offer hardware and processes for the production of LEDs and p doped layers, in addition to the hardware and process already offered for the growth of III-Nitride materials.

It’s reported that Taiwan Delta Electronics is about to sell LED Lighting products on its own Brand in Taiwan’s retail stores at the end of 2010 as well as likely in overseas markets . According to Delta, regulation, standardization and modulization are made up its three main criteria for LED lighting market growth. Besides, product designs in not only aesthetics and light but also color control will also play major roles.

A president of Lextar Electronics estimated, usually, market demand growth will increase significantly when market share reaches 15-20%, and LED-backlit TV market share will reach around 20% in 2010.

In 3Q10, AUO was the only profitable panel maker in Taiwan due to its leading shipments of LED-backlit TVs, in which LED-backlit TV panels accounted for 30% of its total TV panels. But look into 4Q, the company was expected to slow down result from vendors adjust LED-backlit TV shipment goals due to high product prices.

Recently, a leader of Epistar noted, LED-backlit TV market penetration would reach 40% in 2011 from 20% in 2010, and Epistar planed to ramp up capacity by 30% in 2011 after already raising its capacity by 30-40% in 2010. The leader pointed out that because of upstream material shortage, seasonal impacts, downstream LED TV customers adjusting inventory and in the process of transferring to newer models, 4Q10 may become a difficult time for LED backlight companies.