Regarding application and cognition of light, there are completely different opinions from technological and design aspects. CN (Alexander) Sun, Principal of GUANG Lighting Design in Taiwan, talked about the application of LED in hotels and grand residences and discussed the “quality of light” in LEDforum 2013. This way of aesthetical thinking is from our right brain.

With big smartphone manufacturers such as Apple and LG introducing sapphire substrate into smartphone camera lens protector caps and home buttons, the market predicts that in 2014 sapphire substrate will also be used to replace glass in smartphone screens. Glass substrate manufacturer Corning, however, maintains a guarded opinion towards the replacement as production costs for sapphire substrate are high and sapphire substrate, which is as thin as glass substrate Gorilla Glass has a higher damage rate. 

Mid-power LEDs performance in 2013 has been stellar. Mid-power LED has become the mainstream for interior lighting, including retrofit bulbs, remarked Sean Zhou, Asia Regional Marketing Director, Philips Lumileds during the LEDforum Taipei 2013. Large volume of mid-powered LED are applied in downlights and panels.. Indoor lighting applications for downlights and panels is hoped to turn to mid-powered LEDs in the future. The Philips Lumileds flip-chip high voltage currents and small sized packaging can achieve better luminosity (lm/w) and price/performance ratio (lm/$) through. The company plans to introduce flip-chip technology into the mid-power LED market in the future.

Taiwanese LED packager High Power Lighting Corp. has alleged fellow Taiwanese LED packager Lustrous for violating trade secrets laws. Lustrous announced on Oct. 25, 2013 that the Taiwan Taipei District Court plans to schedule the preliminary hearing for the case on Nov. 14, 2013. Lustrous has hired lawyers to defend them at court.

Dramatic advances in the field of quantum dot light emitting diodes (QD-LEDs) could come from recent work by the Nanotechnology and Advanced Spectroscopy team at Los Alamos National Laboratory.

To make the case of Glasses Free 3D Displays in public areas viable, the size and quality of displays are critical. Thanks to Osram Opto Semiconductors’ cutting edge technology, a recent Glasses Free 3D Display introduced by Atech Korea Co., Ltd. measures up to 500 inches. These video display walls are intended to be used in indoor public areas, such as shopping mall and exhibition hall. With a contrast ratio of 4000:1 and screen brightness at 4,500 cd/m2, the viewing distance can be up to 30 meters.

Mighty Bright, designer and manufacturer of innovative personal LED lights, has launched Baby Bright, a unique line of LED Nursery Lights with nursery-friendly designs and utilitarian features to enhance and enlighten both parents’ and infants’ lives. Baby Bright lights provide nursery-essential lighting for furniture and changing tables, and are available at //www.mightybright.com, an online shopping destination for LED lights for everyday life.

A 7W LED bulb that will not suppress the production of melatonin is now available from Photonic Developments LLC at //www.lowbluelights.com for US$ 34.95. This compares with US$ 69.95 for a competing LED good night bulb that only cuts blue light in half.

The LED industry has seen some interesting progress this week, starting off with projections by Monocrystal and GT Advanced Technologies (GTAT) about possible sapphire substrate shortages triggered by non-LED applications. Adding on top to the good news of LED applications, New York has announced a major overhaul of 250,000 existing streetlights to LED. Interesting technology applications have also emerged this week as Chinese scientists find a way to transmit Internet signals using LED lights. Other interesting news this week as follow:

Shenzhen Refond Optoelectronics (Refond) recently reported large increases in LED sales led to revenue growth of 26.76% in 3Q13. 

Streetlights in the Big Apple are getting a major makeover to more energy efficient LEDs, according to Wall Street Journal (WSJ) and Newsday news reports. New York will be replacing 250,000 street lights with LED lamps by 2017, said the city mayor Michael Bloomberg. The LED replacements are expected to help the city cut US$ 14 million in electric and maintenance costs. 

Philips revealed Bollywood actor Ranbir Kapoor as its brand ambassador at a press event in the city today. The market leader in LED lighting – Philips, is drawing attention to its LED lighting solutions by going for the brand’s first ever celebrity endorsement. The biggest ever marketing campaign by Philips Lighting will feature Ranbir, who will endorse Philips’ range of LED Lighting solutions, which are dynamic in both style and performance.

Pro-Teq Surfacing (UK) Ltd, developed and patented a world first for spraying a liquid based product in combination with either soft or hard media. This innovative pathway re-surfacing methodology called STARPATH is the result of an extensive period of chemical trials. Comprising a multitude of product samples, mix ratios and application techniques. STARPATH is currently being trialled in Christ’s Pieces, a well-known park in the east side of the centre of Cambridge by Cambridge City Council.

LayTec is proud to announce that Epistar Corp. has qualified LayTec’s in-situ metrology Pyro 400 for its GaN LED production. The LED manufacturer based in Taiwan will not use high accuracy GaN surface temperature sensing with Pyro 400.

Cree, Inc. introduces two new XLamp LED Arrays to enable high-lumen applications ranging from wallpacks to canopy lighting with one CXA LED family. The new CXA3590 LED Array delivers up to 16,225 lumens at 85°C, 68-percent more lumens compared to Cree’s previous brightest array. The CXA3590 LED Array is the ideal light source to replace 250-watt metal-halide fixtures — using 40-percent less power and designed to last twice as long. 

After the launch of 60W~120W AGLAIA-12AC Bay Light series products, which was widely well received across the market, in February 2013, Alliance Optotek specifically focused on high ceiling large space industrial lighting application and further launched higher power AGLAIA-12AC High-Bay Light series products which offer a more comprehensive solution to global illumination on shopping floor, factory or warehouse. 

As lighting technology improving, people begin to be aware of the importance of good lighting surroundings. In order to give stages to people who work in lighting related industries and exchange their great ideas, Reed Exhibitions organized “Lighting Japan” in Tokyo, Japan. In this internationally open exhibition, you can meet manufacturers, contractors, designers and end-users as well as the newest discovery, technology, products and lighting design concepts.

The imbalance in sapphire substrate supply and demand is being overcome by increased demands in LED lighting applications and strong demands for non-LED applications. GT Advanced Technologies (GTAT) is optimistic about the rapid growth in smartphone demands for sapphire substrates.  As a result, the company’s Advanced Sapphire Furnace (ASF) might grow and expand production capacity in the future.

The Zhaga consortium, an international organization for industry standards for interchangeable LEDs, is once again coming to Taiwan. This time Everlight will be hosting the international conference

  The recalls of LED lighting products from European RAPEX (The Rapid Alext System for Non-food Consumer Products) were much more frequently in the past months, according to a report by global certification auditing institute DEKRA. The second quarter report of RAPEX shows that total 32 recalls of LED lighting products were due to safety issues. Among those recall list, you can see that even famous international brands were reported, it thus reveal a truth that quality of LED is a big concerned by both authority and consumers. The recalls list of Q2 report are:

LEDs provide consumers with many benefits and advantages, but there are still some drawbacks that need to be worked out. Inventors David Horn and Chris Vogdes have released a patent (no. 8558436) for one problem in particular that they hope to counter, which is the contamination that can occur in the thermally-conducive liquid in some LEDs.

Investment Funding Enables to Focus on Material Business Platform for World’s Leading Company in Electronic Material Business Cheil Industries took a big step towards professional Electronic material company along with Novaled, holding core-technology of OLED.

German LED manufacturer Tridonic announced recently it has appointed David Barnby as the company's new Global Sales Function Manager. 

Kateeva Chief Technology Officer and OLED co-inventor Steven Van Slyke was inducted into the 2013 Consumer Electronics (CE) Hall of Fame for his contributions to the advancement of the consumer electronics industry. Van Slyke was one of 15 industry leaders honored last night at the CE Hall of Fame dinner held in Los Angeles. He joins an elite group of inductees that includes the founders of eBay and TiVo, as well as the inventor of the microprocessor, and others.

Light and plants expert Tessa Pocock, Ph.D., recently joined the Lighting Research Center (LRC) at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute as a senior research scientist, leading the development of a new plant physiology lighting program. Her research focuses on plant photosynthesis, and plant development and regulation by light for traditional greenhouse crops and the emerging field of medicinal plants.

Californian photographer Royce Hutain has come up with a very creative Halloween costume for his two year old daughter. The father has created a stick figure LED suit for his baby girl and is plans to reveal a DIY video later, according to his Facebook Interest. This is the second time the photographer has designed stick figure LED suits, the last project he worked on was LED snowboard suits. The video below shows the toddler dressed up in the suit:

XNOVA delivers world-class performance, quality and value Luminus Devices, a wholly owned subsidiary of Lightera Corporation, will be launching its XNOVA line of high performance LEDs for professional and general lighting at the Hong Kong Lighting Fair, October 27-30, 2013. XNOVA consists of a family of LED chip-on-board (COB) arrays and emitter products designed to provide best in class, solid-state light sources for applications including professional lighting fixtures, replacement lamps, portable illumination and camera flash. Exceptional efficacy,...

With the unchanging trend of falling LED prices, chip manufacturers are constantly improving LED chip production process and technologies to lower costs. Semiconductor equipment company GT Advanced Technologies (GTAT) has developed Hydride Vapor Phase Epitaxial (HVPE) system that can replace nGaN and uGaN growth process in MOCVD. In the future, LED chip manufacturers can add HVPE systems to speed up epitaxy growth rates. Compared to adding MOCVD to expand production capacity, using HVPE system can increase production capacity and help LED chip manufacturers cut up to 25 percent of costs.

In the latest development of Foshan Electrical and Lighting Co., Ltd. (Foshan Lighting) investor lawsuit, the company has contested jurisdiction causing a six months postponement of the court hearing. In late Sept. this year, 515 investors filed compensation lawsuits against the company due to misrepresentation of company finances. The case’s first court hearing was scheduled for Oct. 22, 2013 at Guangzhou Intermediate People’s Court, China.

For the past three years, Seoul Semiconductor’s main product had been the mid-powered 5630. However, the company has recently turned its attention towards 3030 LED in 2013, to compete with Nichia’s better price/performance (P/P) 767 series on the market, said Scarphen Sun, Principal Engineer for Korean LED package manufacturer Seoul Semiconductor at the company’s LED Lighting Application Seminar on October 22nd.