Led by the Minister without Portfolio J.F. Chang of the Executive Yuan, Taiwan’s Cabinet, a delegation of over 60 executives from 20 Taiwanese high-tech manufacturers recently set out for the United States to hunt for talents in Silicon Valley and Boston. It mainly recruited specialists in six sectors including photovoltaic, optoelectronics, materials, and biotech. Delegation members planned to offer a total of 1,200 jobs covering R&D specialists, market researchers, market managers, and accountants.

It's reported that the President and CEO of OSRAM Opto Semiconductors Dr. Rüdiger Müller will hand over the 22-year reins of OSRAM Opto Semiconductors to Aldo Kamper on October 1, 2010.

American Albemarle Corporation has invested in Asia Pacific region of Yeosu, South Korea. It mainly invested on two sides,one investment is in in metallocene catalysts by leveraging its breakthrough ActivCat(TM) technology for polyolefin production,the other is to leverage its 50+ years of production experience in metal organics to supply High Purity Metal Organics (HPMOs) such as TMG to the High Brightness LED (HBLED) market.

Philips has come up with a new concept of the building of livable cities with green lighting solutions to enhance sustainable development of Asian economies

It's reported that VIRIBRIGHT will showcase its LED lighting products, at the HD Boutique Trade Show on September 14-15, 2011 in Miami, Florida.

The first set of LED street lamps has been commissioned by the Zejtun local council in Malta. Mayor Joe Attard proposed this new development in street lighting technology to the council.

American lighting company ProPhotonix intends to raise about £6m on Aim. If it succeeds, ProPhotonix will become only the second US company to join Aim. Previously listed on the Pink Sheets market, ProPhotonix is hoping to attract investor interest this side of the Atlantic because its LED operations are based in Cork, Ireland, and its laser operations are in Stansted, Essex.

TESS (topco energy saving system corp.), recently made another breakthrough in upgrading luminous efficiency for LED lighting - the company announces its new product, a 12.5 watt LED bulb delivers 1400 lumen. TESS set the highest luminous efficiency of 100lm/W this April by releasing 10 watt 1000 lumen LED bulb; yet, within 5 months, TESS set a higher standard of 112lm/W for LED lighting industry.

 A few days ago, LED epitaxial wafer and chip maker Arima Optoelectronics planed to establish LED Mark Bray silicon wafer factory in the name of Arima Optoelectronics Jiangsu in Wujiang ,and Arima Opto owed a wholly shareholding with US$30 million investment. In order to expand blue light LED productivity, the company also had set another new factory in Changzhi city. Now the factory has been built, which are expected to import 15 MOCVD before the end of 2010, reaching 30 MOCVD in 2011.

Accoring to Japanese electronics manufacturer Panasonic , instead of LED sets, edge-lit LED TVs will become the standard for LCD sets. Panasonic's technical marketing manager Markus Wagenseil,pointed out that compared to slimmer and cheaper sets using edge-mounted LEDs, direct LED technology will prove to be too expensive to be sustainable. In additon, direct LED sets require many more LEDs to be mounted than the alternative option, which will prove a disadvantage due to a market shortage of electronic components.

Sensor Electronic Technology (SETI) has signed a Joint Development Agreement with Kyma Technologies, of Raleigh, NC, USA, aiming at developing low defect AlGaN substrates and high performance optoelectronic and electronic devices. It's reported that SETI will center its device development efforts on next generation high efficiency Deep UV LEDs on these novel substrates as it grows its markets in high power applications such as water disinfection.

According to the Chairman and President of China TV manufacturer Skyworth Zhang Xuebin, Skyworth is planned to cut the prices of LED flat-panel televisions in the next six months to promote the sales. Zhang added that Chinese TV producers cut prices of about 25% in old TV models between April and June.

Both Unity Opto Technology and Formosa Epitaxy had reduced their LED-backlit models in 2010 from 30% originally to 15-20% and 20-25%. The head of Epitaxy noted, affected adjustment of inventory by Samsung and LG, their ESP of ED-backlit TVs' market in 2010 would slip.

Taiwan's LED chip maker Huga's largest shareholder Epistar (with a 46% equity interest) has taken three seats on Huga board. According to Huga, it will expand its MOCVD equipment to a total of 60 sets at the end of 2010 and to 80 sets in 2011, and will adjust TV backlighting products to 10% of its total shipments at the end of the year and over 20% in 2011. High-brightness LED products currently represent 70-80% of Huga's revenues.

As fears of weakening demand for equipment such as LCD screens that use the LED bulbs, Cree closed down 8.1% to $50.18, Veeco fell 8.3% to $33.44 and Aixtron AG was 5.3% lower at $24.78. Cree and Veeco share prices are unchanged while Aixtron is down to $24.72 in recent late trading.

Unite States Federal Trade Commission had sued a California- based light bulb manufacturer, Lights of America, for misrepresenting the light output and life expectancy of its LED bulbs. It becomes the first F.T.C. case challenging LED marketing claims.  

Japanese LED maker Nichia Corporation has filed four provisional injunction actions in Tokyo District Court to enjoin Tsannkuen Japan (Sankun Nihon Denki Kabushiki Kaisha) from infringing Nichia's patent. Nichia believed G.K. Seiyu and K.K. Yamada Denki, had infringed Nichia's white LED patents (No. 3724498, No. 3995011, No. 4109297, No. 4530094).

Zumtobel's LED lighting system has joined the contemporary interior design of the Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe in Hamburg. The Museum now attracts its guests in an entrance hall flooded with light. According to the museum's technical director, Thomas Frey, thanks to the professional technical support provided by Zumtobel,they have achieved a highly attractive result.

Taiwan LED maker Huga Optotech has signed a NT$ 2 bn. syndication loan agreement with Hua Nan Commercial Bank. Taiwan Cooperative Bank, Industrial Bank of Taiwan, Mega International Commercial Bank, Chang Hwa Bank, and The Shanghai Commercial & Savings Bank, also financed the deal.

Climate ESCO Ltd. (CE), a wholly owned subsidiary of Mantra Venture Group Ltd.  has secured a demonstration project using its new LED lighting products for the District of North Vancouver. The District is utilizing the Northlands Golf and Country Club for the project and CE is now under way to retrofit the entire club house LED interior lighting system. The installation is anticipated to be completed by the end of September 2010.

Acuity Brands, a market leader in innovative energy efficient lighting and control solutions, received theLEDshow's(TM) award for best interior commercial product for the Lithonia Lighting(R) RTLED(TM) luminaire. theLEDshow is a mini-convention and lighting industry consortium focused on marketing and promoting LED and solid-state lighting. The award honors LED lighting that is innovative, provides a high-quality of light output and eliminates cumbersome installation processes. Acuity Brands' Lithonia Lighting accepted the award at theLEDshow in Las Vegas in August 2010.

UV-LED curing technology is gaining worldwide acceptance and many experts predict that LEDs will replace traditional mercury based UV curing lamps. LEDs offer a green, safe, energy efficient technology that is revolutionizing visible light and changing how manufacturers are UV curing.

The  three-day SEMICON Taiwan 2010 is going to hold in Taipei and over 2,300 people have signed up to attend. It is estimated to draw around 30,000 visitors this year to shop from 500 exhibitors or so. During the show, 50 technology workshops and forums will be held to address topics including micro electro mechanical systems, 3D, advanced IC testing and packaging, LED process, eco-friendly process, chemical-mechanical planarization, and compound semiconductor.

AIXTRON AG has announced a new order for ten more CRIUS® 31x2-inch configuration deposition systems from Neo-Neon International Ltd. The China based company placed the order in the fourth quarter of 2009 and when the systems are delivered in the period between third and fourth quarters of 2010, they will be used for GaN ultra-high brightness (UHB) blue/green LED production.

Santa Fe Mayor David Coss and Qnuru™, the premier provider of energy efficient lighting solutions, held a “wire cutting” ceremony to mark the installation of solar-powered luminaires in three of the city’s public parks. The Qnuru off-grid fixtures, named the “Santa Fe” in honor of the city that inspired their design, illuminate Frenchy’s Field Park, a 17-acre “natural park” that occupies an important link in the city’s open-space network of trails and parks. 

The city of Kenosha, Wisconsin, US recently selected Amerlux's LED Acorn Retrofit lamps to retrofit 750 of its downtown area lights. It's said that the Public Works Committee of the city of Kenosha unanimously approved the Amerlux contract on Aug. 16. The City Council offered a nearly $1 million federal grant to fund the project.

Following making incentives, On September 6, the Yangzhou government of China's Jiangsu Province will convene investors in Taipei in the filed of solar, LED lighting, e-book reader and smart-grid sectors. Some based-Taiwan makers, such as Amtran Technology, Unity Opto Technology, Formosa Epitaxy and the Far Eastern Business Group will attend the meeting.

Taiwan's Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) is scheduling to use LEDs to take the place of 800,000 working mercury streetlights. It will be worth of NT$22 billion (US$687 million), and be completed in 2011. When the project is completed, it estimated to cut down around 50% of electrical consumption from current level by mercury streetlights, according to senior MOEA officials.

More and more Taiwan Electric Manufacturing Company such as TSMC, UMC, AUO and MOEA, had entered green energy industry, which made more equipment suppliers are venturing into the production of equipment for the green energy industry. Now, some companies have ready started cost in equipment production for solar and LED applications, such as All Ring Tech, Csun Manufacturing, Gallant Precision Machining (GPM), Kenmec Mechanical Engineering and Mirle Automation.

The leading global LED lighting company Philips plans to expand its LED product lineup in South Korea, the company begins releasing affordable LED lamps, targeting Korean households. Philips stressed that although the market for home LED lighting currently takes up 1 to 2 percent of the whole market for home lights, it is expected to expand at a rapid speed. Philips will do its best to boost the commercialization of LED lights.