Haven’t decided where to welcome a shining new year? Come to Taitung seashore park in the evening of Dec. 31st, 2013, where a colorful LED lights-centered New Year party promises to give you an unforgettable experience.

Larson Electronics has released a new equipment light designed to withstand extreme operating conditions while providing powerful and reliable high output illumination. The 1830L LED light features a robust design and high output Seoul Z Power LEDs to provide a lighting solution ideal for military, law enforcement and marine applications.

The LEDinside editorial team would like to wish everyone a Happy Holiday. Before the official countdown to 2014, our team has compiled a review of 10 important topics in the LED industry in 2013. This is a sneak peak we promise there is more to come next week so please stay tuned. Coming back to our usual course, despite the Christmas holiday season this week, Apple has kept up its pace of issuing patents. The company first issued a new quantum dot patent to enhance display colors, then with a flexible sapphire substrate display cover patent. 

San’an Opto has announced on Dec. 25th that the company has signed the “Cooperation Framework Agreement” on Dec. 24th with Zijin Mining Group and Fujian Anxin Contract Energy Management Co. The company will gain an LED lighting product purchase project of at least RMB 300 million (US $49.5 million) within two years. 

Panasonic and Sony end their one year OLED TV partnership due to technical difficulties, according to a report by Nikkei Asian Review. 

In order to avoid saturation of the high-end smartphone market and increase market penetration in India and China, Samsung Display will reduce AMOLED panels and increase LCD panel production in 2014. Samsung Electronics wants to turn their focus to mid-market LED handsets in 2014, but this change in business strategy will have an impact on Samsung Display’s business performance.

There are many topologies that can be used to power LEDs.  But as you probably already know, it all starts with having the design requirements in place before you start.  Without this, you may end up with a design that is less than optimal, or worse, one that may not always operate properly. 

The market has been focused on whether Taiwan LED chipmaker Epistar’s private placement will draw large international investors. Epistar issued US $250 million (NT $7.5 billion) euro convertible bonds (ECB) to Philips in August 2013. However, the company has denied the transaction.

Seoul Semiconductor has announced on 23rd of December that the company has been recognized for its intellectual clout in semiconductor manufacturing. According to the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), among the companies which manufacture LED components only, Seoul Semiconductor was the only one to be selected in the 2013 Semiconductor Manufacturing Patent Power Ranking. Seoul Semiconductor was also selected in the same category in 2012.

GlacialTech Inc., which was established in 2001 by a team with many years of experience in thermal module design and manufacturing for internationally renowned brands including Apple, Canon, Dell, Foxconn, HP and Intel, is a diversified provider of thermal, power, optics and systems solutions.

The team at Technical Direction Company (TDC) delivered spectacular projections at multiple iconic locations during December 2013 including; St Mary’s Cathedral, Sydney, Melbourne Town Hall and the Old Post Office, Newcastle. “We are delighted to have the opportunity to transform and bring these beautiful buildings to life to celebrate the festive season”, says Kain Jones, TDC’s Special Projects Manager. “TDC are the video projection experts who work behind the VIVID festival so are familiar with lighting up and transforming...

Not content with boring black boxes that light up, tech-savvy airfy announces a new way to access WiFi easily, securely and stylishly with the airfy router, the world's first smart WiFi hotspot. The trendsetting company has just launched an Indiegogo campaign with a goal of 20,000 dollars to bring the device to market by September 2014. While other routers sit in the corner to do their jobs, the airfy takes center stage with its modern and fresh design complete with LED lights that can be configured for a variety of notifications.

Tempo Industries announced the release of a new addition to the CLiP C71 high performance linear LED product family, the C7100/HU 'High Uniformity Series'. The new offering joins the original C7100, incorporating the 'form follows function' aesthetics and robust architecture that have propelled Tempo's Configurable Lighting Platform (CLiP) to a position of prominence in the architectural linear LED lighting space. 

Like with many things in life, you can never ride the same Santa sleigh twice. Every holiday season the elves roaming labs and corridors at GE Global Research (GRC) trick out Santa’s ride with their latest technology. The need for their skills has never been more urgent than this December, with the planet’s human population above 7 billion and rocketing higher. How Santa pleaded with the elves to make him fly faster, smoother and increase his range!

Taiwan based LED package manufacturer Everlight had successful lighting revenue growth in 2013 due to gradually maturing LED lighting applications. Although, 4Q is typically a slack season for the LED industry, the company’s revenue this quarter were 30 percent higher than 4Q last year making up 25 percent of the company’s overall revenue, similar to the revenue proportion from backlighting. Everlight’s lighting revenue is anticipated to surpass backlighting for the first time, due to market growth in 2014 LED lighting.

Chinese LED chip manufacturer Elec-Tech has been seeking partnership with Taiwan-based manufacturers. Regarding forming partnerships with Chinese LED die manufacturers, Genesis Photonics Inc. (GPI) is open to discussion, as long as it benefits the industry, company, and stockholders,  said GPI Chairman David Chung.

Apple has filed for a new patent with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office entitled “Quantum dot-enhanced display having diachronic filter” for enhancement of color accuracy in displays. This patent shows the company’s eagerness in researching next-generation screen technology to keep their products on the cutting edge.

Urban Matter Inc. has just completed installing noise interactive LED lights on the Brooklyn Queens Expressway pedestrian pathway. The lights are lit up by the New York City Department of Transportation and the Myrtle Avenue Brooklyn Partnership switched on the lights, a new public art installation located underneath the expressway, according to an Inhabitant report.

Osram Sylvania’s sixth annual SYLVANIA Socket Survey finds that 65 percent of Americans plan to switch to more energy-efficient lighting technologies, as a result of federally mandated legislation that is increasing efficiency standards. Yet, 30 percent of consumers say that they plan to buy a lot of less efficient traditional incandescent light bulbs where still available and will continue using them. 

Texas Instruments presents engineers with 12 handy engineer design tips this Christmas. Their Facebook profile offers some insights into designing power systems, wireless power charging, IC, and other designs. TI staff also gets creative with a humorous blog entry that investigates Santa’s sleigh technology.

Epoxy Molding Compound (EMC) lead frames have high thermal resistance, Ultraviolet (UV) resistance, high electric voltage conductivity, and resistance to yellowing. They offer a new choice for LED package manufactures that are continuously looking for new ways to lower costs.

LED manufacturer Lextar’s Suzhou factory has begun die manufacturing on top of existing package and wire bonding production. The Suzhou factory will introduce an estimated 16 MOCVD to produce 60,000 2 inch dies a month. Adding on the current production capacity of the company’s Taiwanese factory, 160,000 in total will be produce monthly, total production capacity increase of around 37.5 percent. The new production capacity has already entered into a trial phase and is estimated to officially begin 2Q14.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has published the findings of a new study utilizing a highly accelerated life-test method (called the “hammer test”) intended to produce failures in SSL luminaires in a reasonable test period, with the goal of providing insight into potential failure modes. EntitledHammer Testing Findings for Solid-State Lighting Luminaires, the report was prepared by RTI International for DOE’s LED Systems Reliability Consortium.

Philips LED Lighting Campus in Chengdu that has been closely watched by the industry was opened today, in the western campus of the Chengdu High-tech Industrial Development Zone (Chengdu is the capital of Sichuan Province). On the same day, Philips also unveiled its world-class Lighting Application Center that is located within the facility. 

Christmas lighting specialist Piggotts has been chosen by Covent Garden Limited to create the Christmas illuminations across the market square and surrounding streets.

In order to reduce its carbon footprint, the historical Hotel Adlon Kempinski chose GE Lighting's retrofit LED lamps to replace its current inefficient halogen lighting in its 382 suites and guest rooms.

OSRAM SYLVANIA is demonstrating how innovative SYLVANIA and Traxon lighting solutions can benefit healthcare providers, patients and families in a next-generation inpatient care environment called “Patient Room 2020.” In collaboration with NXT Health, a non-profit open innovation platform for designing new healthcare experiences, OSRAM SYLVANIA and Traxon Technologies worked to supply a variety of LED lighting technologies and controls solutions to equip Patient Room 2020 with precise, customizable and energy-efficient lighting.

LIFX created a Wi-Fi enabled, multi-color, energy efficient LED light bulb that you can control with a smartphone. LIFX gives you a completely one-of-a-kind experience with your lights, up to 16+ million color options at your fingertips. 

Lucibel closed its €15 million (US $20.5 milllion) financing operation, started in March 2013, with an additional contribution of €9 million in bonds, convertible into shares, subscribed by Bpifrance, Aster Capital and CM CIC Capital Innovation.

San’an has completed a 30 percent transition from 2 inch to 4 inch sapphire substrate, and strives to reach 70 percent and above by next year, said  the company’s Chairman Secretary Li Xuetan.