Taiwan No.1 LED chipmakers Epistar Inc. pay over NT$8.6 billion for a 47.88% stake in Huga Optotech Inc to boost strength of Taiwan’s LED industry. Epistar will acquire the Huga shareholding through stock swap, with an Epistar share for 2.23 Huga shares, and cash pay combined.

SmartFader is now available in North America providing customizable interactive LED flooring and wall tiles. TAL North America announced the availability of the SmartFader interactive floor lighting system for the North American market.  An instant hit at Light+Building in Frankfurt this April, the SmartFader utilizes LED technology in recessed “tiles” which will interact with their environment and is suitable for floor or wall applications.  

Universal Display Corporation (UDC) has unveiled its latest UniversalPHOLED technology and materials for energy-efficient displays and lighting at the Society for Information Display (SID) International Symposium 2010. Universal Display also reported advances in performance of its white OLED on a commercial-scale 15 cm x 15 cm lighting panel using its efficient phosphorescent OLED technology and materials.

Diodes Incorporated has announced a multi-topology LED driver IC designed to increase the reliability of high brightness lamps in automotive, industrial, and commercial lighting systems. The ZXLD1370 LED driver controller operates in buck, boost, and buck-boost modes. It combines patent pending control loops and high-side current sensing to ensure accurate current control of LED strings.

Taiwan’s TV brands as Tatung, Teco, Chimei, BenQ and Heran will introduce new LED-backlit TVs to meet expected surging demand in the second half of 2010.

Osram appointed Don Klase to take over for Shottes as CEO of Osram Opto Semiconductors Inc. Osram reports that both of the changes will go into effect June 1, 2010. Shottes' responsibilities will include heading the new Professional Lighting, Solid State Lighting and Light Management System groups as Senior Vice President.

It’s reported that Sujana Energy Limited, a subsidiary of the city-based Sujana Group, entered into a strategic partnership with Nichia Corporation of Japan. The two companies will collaborate to produce LED Lighting and Display Products, according to the agreement.

The Chinese Company LongDeXin, a joint venture by Zhejiang Longfei Industry Co., Ltd., and China Delixi Holding Group Co., Ltd., founded in October 2009 for the purpose of strategic cooperation, has ordered AIXTRON AG MOCVD systems.

Computex Taipei 2010, the largest B2B professional computer exhibition in Asia and the second largest in the world, will be held at the Taipei World Trade Center from June 1 to June 5 2010. This year marks the 30th anniversary of the establishment of Sunon, which also coincides with the 30th anniversary of Computex Taipei.

Sony now shows off its new flexible OLED display that is 4.1-inches and just 80 μm thick. The screen is able to display the image even when fully rolled up and can be rolled around a pen or pencil in the office. Sony said the screen can provide 432×240 pixel resolution, but there are no plans to release it to market.

GE Lighting Solutions has introduced its new white Tetra(R) MAX LED Lighting Systems. Similar to the existing Tetra MAX LED line, the white color LEDs evenly illuminate medium-size channel letters with minimal installation effort, but now offer 43 percent more lumens per foot and a 43 percent wider viewing angle than the previous generation.

Cree, Inc., announces that the University of Central Florida (UCF) has joined the Cree LED University(R) program with the installation of energy-efficient LED lighting in the student union. UCF estimates it can save at least $10,000 a year in energy and maintenance costs in the Key West Ballroom simply by replacing recessed downlights and troffers with energy-efficient Cree LR6(TM) LED downlights and LR24(TM) LED troffers.

Luminus Devices and Avnet Electronics Marketing Asia, part of the global technology distributor Avnet, Inc., announced a partnership through which Avnet Electronics Marketing will distribute Luminus PhlatLight LEDs to customers in Asia.

The Research Center for Silicon Nano-Science (SNS) of the Advanced Research Laboratories (ARL) at Tokyo City University developed a silicon-based LED. It is made by embedding Ge microparticles (quantum dots) with a diameter of several tens of nanometers to 100nm in the i-layer of a Si-based device with a pin structure. The university claims that the light emitting device will help realize a silicon (Si) photonics because it can be produced by using a manufacturing process compatible with a CMOS process and possibly is capable of laser oscillation.

Ringdale of Austin, Texas USA, has signed an exclusive licensing, manufacturing and distribution agreement for the region of Japan with Sojitz Systems Corp. Under the terms of the agreement, Sojitz manufactured lighting fixtures for streets, parking structures, billboards, building exteriors, warehouses, offices, retail spaces, parks and restaurants will be based on Ringdale's ActiveLED technology.

QD Vision, a USA company, has purchased a patent portfolio from Motorola pertaining to the use of quantum dot technology in display and lighting products. QD Vision is a developer of Quantum Light nanotechnology-based products for solid state lighting and displays. Included in the acquisition is U.S. Patent No. 5,442,254 of James E Jaskie.

Silicon is a lower cost raw material, and it has greater economies of scale in manufacturing than sapphire wafers most often used. Hong Kong University and Taiwan National Chiao Tung University researchers attempted to grow (380-450nm) indium gallium nitride LEDs on Silicon. The researchers previously developed micro-scale patterning using a silicon nitride (SiN) mask. Now they find Silicon also has a higher thermal conductivity which gives it better thermal control than sapphire.

Singapore Institute of Manufacturing Technology (SIMTech) has ordered AIXTRON AG 6-inch Black Magic Nanomaterial deposition system. The system has been installed and commissioned in the Materials Joining Laboratory.

Sunon, the world famous mini fan leader, has been granted Taiwan Excellence Silver Award 2010 for its world leading innovative mini heat sink technology, making Sunon Mighty Mini Fan & Blower 1cm Series the only innovative product prize-winner in the electronic parts and components industry. Shih Yen-Shiang, the Minister of MOEA, emphasized in his speech at the award ceremony the importance of mini motor solutions to global industries. Mr.

El Dorado Ventures has awarded the 2010 Bourne Technology Award to Bridgelux, Inc., a leading developer and manufacturer of technologies and solutions transforming the global lighting industry.

Philips Electronics NV launches a new range of consumer lighting products in North America include LED Line. Lighting products include a fixture and are intended for other applications, such as recessed-can lighting. Many of the announcements were made earlier this month at the Lightfair International convention in Las Vegas.

LED manufacturers are shining at 2010 Shanghai Expo in China, showcasing innovations such as the world’s largest LED screen at the grand opening. At the exhibition, Neo-Neon International Ltd is providing the LED lighting techniques seen in the 2,300-unit system on the Expo Culture Center’s performance stage.

The city’s Department of General Services selected LED lighting as part of the city’s overall effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. It is reported that the city of Durham joins a growing global community working to evaluate and deploy LED lighting technology across municipal infrastructure. It is in the process of retrofitting three City-owned parking garages with 573 new LED lighting fixtures using Cree LEDs.

Vanity, a high profile nightclub at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas, has a stunning, custom-made chandelier made up of 20,000 LED points driven by a Martin Maxedia Compact media server. The Maxedia media server drives 25 universes of pixelmapped Artnet output across the chandelier, creating highly unique floating graphic effects with a unique three-dimensional feel.

It is reported that Optogan Group of Finland has acquired the industrial facility of CJSC Elcoteq in St. Petersburg, Russia. CJSC Elcoteq is a subsidiary of Elcoteq SE of Russia. Elcoteq started the production of electronic devices and telecom equipment on its plant in St. Petersburg, Russia in 2006. Total area of the fab is 15 500 m2, and its production area is over 5 000 m2.

Veeco Instruments Inc., announced Epistar Corporation of Taiwan has qualified Veeco's TurboDisc(R) K465i(TM) gallium nitride (GaN) Metal Organic Chemical Vapor Deposition (MOCVD) System for high volume LED production.

Cree, Inc. plans to demonstrate a variety of new GaN HEMT RF packaged amplifier and switch products at the IEEE MTT-S International Microwave Symposium (Booth #836) to be held in the Anaheim Convention Center May 25 through May 27, 2010. The products to be demonstrated include a SPDT MMIC switch (300 MHz to 3 GHz); a 25 W MMIC power amplifier (10 MHz to 6 GHz); a 75 W MMIC power amplifier (2.7 to 3.5 GHz); and a 240 W transistor (2.9 to 3.5 GHz).

In November of 2009, Nichia Corporation filed a lawsuit in the Eastern District of Texas alleging that certain white LED-application products marketed Jiawei and its international corporate subsidiaries contain patent infringing white LEDs.

Visual Photonics Epitaxy Co. Ltd. (VPEC) of Taiwan has ordered AIXTRON AG eight 2600G3 IC MOCVD tools. In the fourth quarter 2009 VPEC placed its order for multiple additional epitaxial growth reactors making it the single largest purchase of its kind for the company this year. The systems will be commissioned at the company’s modern facility in Ping-Jen City, Taoyuan, Taiwan during the second and third quarters of 2010.

Edison Opto has introduced a new energy-saving product - LED high low bay module in 2009, to satisfy market demands, Edison Opto developed four different angles of the high low bay in order to satisfy various market demands, such as 40°, 60°, 90°, 120° and the floodlight.