LightTools 6.3, the newest release of the illumination design and analysis software from Optical Research Associates (ORA), delivers an expanded, more powerful tool set for optical system modeling and optimization. The software now features an Alternate Optimization Engine, which supplements the existing optimizer and enables users to successfully address an even broader range of design problems.

OSRAM Opto Semiconductors showcases LED solutions for indoor and outdoor lighting at Russia’s leading LED conference. OSRAM  emphasises the importance of the Russian LED market by becoming a premium sponsor of the LED FORUM MOSCOW, Russia’s leading expert conference on LEDs in lighting technologies. This year’s LED FORUM MOSCOW takes place at the Expocentre Moscow on November 11th and 12th, 2009. The programme was extended in response to the rising interest in LED applications.

Tower targets green energy sector; LED market expected to exceed $5 billion in 2012, an annual growth rate of 28% from 2008 - 2012

The next generation of outdoor area lighting is here with the GE Evolve(TM) LED Series Area Light from GE Lighting Systems, Inc. GE's new area light combines the latest in LED system electronics, thermal management, mechanical and optical design to make the advantages of LED lighting a practical reality in parking lots and general lighting applications.

Dubai, July 2009 - Individual talks and strategic sessions with the key players in the lighting industry led to the conclusion that the timing for the upcoming Light Middle East edition, which was to be held at the Dubai International Convention & Exhibition Centre from September 27-29, 2009, would instead be preferred in autumn 2010.

Under strong demand for light emitting diodes (LED), Epistar Corp., the largest supplier of epitaxial wafers in Taiwan, scored a single-month high of NT$1.147 billion (US$34.98 million at US$1: NT$32.79) in sales for June, growing by 17.16% from May and 35.7% from last June, according to the firm.

Sunovia Energy Technologies, Inc. (OTC Bulletin Board: SUNV) announced today that it has launched the first in a new line of EvoLucia(TM) brand LED cobra head products that drastically reduce both energy consumption and carbon emissions, and also lasts up to three times longer than traditional HID cobra head style lighting fixtures that are installed along roadways today. In addition, Sunovia's new LED cobra head fixture contains no poisonous elements, such as mercury.

Elgo, one of Europe’s lighting companies, shows good sales activity of bulbs using Acriche. In addition, Acriche is used in solid state lighting products manufactured by Molex, a global leading electronics manufacturer. Products from Molex will be available in the third quarter of this year. Seoul Semiconductor is expected to make serious inroads into the GU10 market which consists of about 300 million bulbs per year and is worth approximately 1.2 billion dollars.

In mid-June, Xuliang Lee, Chairman of Kingsun, expressed in Guangzhou his intentions of building a partnership with other industry players. And yesterday, he reached an "LED application development alliance" cooperation agreement with Philips.

HV9961 Achieves High Accuracy Without High-Side Current Sensing SUNNYVALE, Calif. – Supertex, Inc. has introduced the HV9961, an average-mode, constant control LED driver integrated circuit (IC) designed to drive LEDs using a buck topology. It is well suited for a variety of solid-state lighting applications.

Demand for eco-friendly home products is at an all-time high, and Kichler responds with yet another energy-saving lighting solution. Kichler’s new Design Pro LED Rail Lights incorporate tiny LED chips that use 75 percent less electricity than typical incandescent lighting. The fixtures, which easily mount into existing wall or ceiling outlet boxes, offer the same, warm white light and innovative designs homeowners have come to expect from their home lighting.

High Power LEDs (HP) and High Brightness LEDs (HB) for lighting purposes offer great opportunities for the lighting industry, as LEDs are energy-efficient and potentially highly reliable. In view of the high power density of these HP/ HB LEDs the major challenge is safe and effective heat dissipation, in order to ensure trouble free functioning, good light yield and a long service life.

Unilux will introduce a range of pulsed LED inspection lights at Labelexpo Europe 2009. Unilux will unveil LED versions of its most widely used stroboscopic inspection lights for label printers in Stand 5D95.

Innovative Quasarbrite Narrow Beam SMT LEDs from Lumex provide 93% decrease in light angle for high-intensity applications QuasarBrite Narrow Beam LEDs also generate up to 50% cost and 50% real estate savings

Some venture capital firms in the U.S. are glowing about energy efficient lighting companies and they are investing large sums of money in this sector, according to an article on Wall Street Journal. New York-based Braemar Energy Ventures and San Francisco-based VantagePoint Venture Partners are both targeting $50 million of investments at energy efficient lighting companies currently. And VantagePoint may increase that amount by another $50 million within the next year.

Hermaphroditic Blade and Receptacle Design Promotes Fast Assembly Tyco Electronics has introduced new wire-to-board plug connectors and board-to-board connectors to its family of hermaphroditic blade and receptacle connectors. The connectors are designed to make connecting of aluminum-clad printed circuit boards, commonly used for LED lighting applications that include lighting controls and LED light modules, faster and easier.

Luna Road, a company that specializes in the design, manufacture, supply and installation of the new high-tech solar powered LED road studs, illuminates the dangerous road leading up to the infamous Tunnel Zurqui in Costa Rica. The Tunnel Zurqui, also known as “The Tunnel of Death” is one of the most dangerous roads in the entire country of Costa Rica.  Many drivers frequently get into serious and fatal accidents on this winding, narrow and dark mountainous road.

Carmanah Technologies has introduced its new solar-powered light: the A650 aviation and obstruction light. Featuring a groundbreaking user interface, replaceable battery pack, intelligent-deployment capability and up to 10 candela of intensity (steady-on), the A650 is ideal for taxiway and apron-edge lighting, emergency airfield and helipad lighting, airfield construction barricade lighting, and obstruction lighting.

SemiLEDs Corp., a Taiwan-based manufacturer of high power LEDs, has recently announced the opening of its third production facility in Hsin-Chu Science Park, Taiwan. This new production facility brings SemiLEDs’ capacity to 15 million 1x1mm high power LED chips per month.

Today Dow Corning Corporation’s Electronics group introduced its newest silicone encapsulant, Dow Corning ®OE-6636, designed for overmolding (compression molding) and dispensing processes. The product provides for a high refractive index (RI) of 1.54 which enables better light output (see Appendix 1, below), has a low moisture uptake, improves thermal aging  and light resistance, and possesses better adhesion to typical substrate for LED packages such as Poly Phthal Amid.

Advanced Analogic Technologies Inc (AnalogicTech) is planning to diversify its product offering and a not-so secret weapon in the form of a proprietary bipolar-CMOS-DMOS process - referred to as modular BCD - which accounts for 30% of the company's revenue at present.

Expanding its popular INVISILED(TM) Tape family of energy-saving display and accent lighting solutions using the latest LED technology,WAC Lighting introduces INVISILED(TM) PALETTE and INVISILED AURA-two new color changing systems with user control. These new systems have been added to the current INVISILED 12v system. WAC Lighting is a manufacturer of track, recessed, undercabinet, decorative and monorail lighting.

Nanometrics Incorporated (Nasdaq:NANO), a supplier of advanced process control metrology systems used primarily in the manufacturing of semiconductors, solar photovoltaics and high-brightness LEDs, today announced orders for one VerteX(TM) and multiple RPMBlue(TM) photoluminescence (PL) mapping metrology systems. The VerteX system is expected to be qualified into a new HB-LED development line, and the RPMBlue systems are expected to be qualified into the high-volume manufacturing line of a different customer.

Energy Focus, Inc. (NASDAQ: EFOI) has recently announced that it is offering a 2, 3, and 4 lamp LED Parking Garage Fixture using its newest LED lighting solution - energy efficient LED Light Tubes - aimed directly at addressing President Obama and Energy Secretary Chu's recent challenge to reduce America's energy consumption for lighting to less than the current 7% of overall energy consumption.

austriamicrosystems, a global designer and manufacturer of analog ICs for communications, industrial, medical and automotive applications, expands its comprehensive LED driver portfolio with the AS1115, an easy to use user interface (UI) LED driver. The AS1115 combines display driving and key scanning to provide a complete front panel solution which eliminates the use of secondary µP or other logics plus discrete devices, reducing BOM count and cost.

Due to increasing global demand of LED (light emitting diode) for TV backlights, Unity Opto Technology Co., a Taiwan-based LED supplier, had recorded a single-month high of NT$340 million (US$10.378 million at US$1: NT$32.76) in sales for June, up by 78% from last June or 5.52% from May, according to company sources.

Samsung Electronics, currently the world’s top TV supplier, is estimated to buy US$7.5 billion worth of components from Taiwan this year for its LED backlit LCD TVs, according to the company, reported The Taiwan Economic News. Samsung plans to ship 2,000,000 units of LED TVs by the end of 2009, a volume estimated to account for 10% of its total TV shipments of the year. The company has delivered 400,000 units in three months after the launch in April, snatching up 90% of the global market.

Cooper Lighting has expanded its range of Axent LED downlights with the introduction of a new model that delivers energy savings of over 54% when used in place of a 1 x 32W or 2 x 18W compact fluorescent luminaire.

South Korea plans to spend 107 trillion won ($84.5 billion), or 2 percent of its annual GDP, in green industries over the next five years, the presidential office said in a statement on Monday. The investment, mainly for encouraging environment-related industries and technologies such as renewable energy, LEDs (light-emitting diodes), smart power grids and hybrid cars, is expected to create up to 1.81 million jobs, the government said.

Two new lamps from GE Consumer & Industrial—a 7-watt GE Energy Smart® LED PAR20 lamp and a 10-watt GE Energy Smart® LED PAR30 lamp—enable restaurants, retailers and other commercial customers to make significant strides toward general lighting with white light-emitting diodes (LEDs). These products of ecomaginationSM, available as spots or floods, feature advanced optical control to concentrate the white LED light on the targeted area and effectively diminish wasted extraneous light.