Cree, Inc. and Ningbo Liaoyuan Lighting Co., hosted the 2009 LED Lighting Fixture Promotion Conference last week in Guangzhou, China. The conference featured government officials and leaders from city street lamp management offices.

Underwriters Laboratories (UL), a world leader in safety testing and certification services, Monday announced the publication of ANSI/UL 8750, Safety Standard for Light Emitting Diode (LED) Equipment for Use in Lighting Products. The first edition standard creates a global platform of safety requirements for LED lighting equipment as well as the entire supply chain of components used in lighting products employing LED technology.

Infineon Technologies AG introduced the new BCR320 and BCR420 LED driver families to address the burgeoning market for LED lighting solutions. According to the company, the new products are specifically designed for driving 0.5W LEDs with a typical current of 150mA to 200mA, and feature a negative thermal coefficient contributing to a long lifetime of LEDs and a digital interface for a pulse width modulation (PWM) signal for dimming.

Epistar, one of Taiwan’s leading LED maker, has reportedly signed a contract to supply more LED chips to Samsung for LCD TV backlights in 2010, according to industry sources.

Right on time for the first of Advent, the big Christmas tree in front of Copenhagen's City Hall sparkles in the glow of 800 LED lamps supplied by OSRAM. With this move, the company is taking a stand on energy-saving lighting on the occasion of the UN climate summit to be held in the Danish capital from 7 to 18 December 2009. The energy required is intermittently generated by 15 muscle-driven cycles which are in daily operation at set times. All in all, this saves 9 tonnes of CO2.

When the switch is flipped the day after Thanksgiving, hundreds of thousands of lights will illuminate Temple Square and some of them will be energy-conserving LED lights. Within the next three to five years, all of the trees and greenery on Temple Square will be lit with LED lights. The LED lights are low energy, according to Eldon Cannon, group manager for Temple Square’s Ground Services. “They do not use nearly as much electricity, and as a result we will be saving energy and saving costs.”

Continuing its “green” city initiatives to reduce energy use and greenhouse gas emissions, the City of Boston is updating its streetlights with LED technology on Boston Common. The City recently installed LED lights along the “Mayor’s Walk” as part of an effort to showcase the technology and solicit community input. The temporary installation features “acorn” style streetlamps from six different manufacturers. The City has also joined the national LED City program, an international initiative to deploy and promote energy-efficient LED lighting.

Philips Electronics Tuesday announced a $500,000 investment in Canlyte, for the development of Light Emitting Diode (LED) products, including the construct of a state-of-the-art Clean Room in its Montreal plant. The Canlyte division of Philips will be one of the first in Canada to use a controlled environment for the production of this new lighting technology.

OKI Digital Imaging Corporation, a subsidiary of OKI Data Corporation, a subsidiary that develops, manufactures, and markets LEDs, today announced it has succeeded in developing a 1.1 inch QVGA LED display while reducing power consumption to one-tenth that of conventional LCDs.

OSRAM Opto Semiconductors has introduced the first OLED light source for functional lighting. Orbeos, the new energy-efficient surface-emitting panel, is especially suited to applications for architecture, hotels and catering, offices, private homes and shops. The Orbeos OLED panel has a round lamp surface of 80mm diameter, is only 2.1mm thick and weighs 24g. These limited dimensions ensure plenty of different usage options. With an efficiency of 25lm/W, the panel beats that of conventional halogen lamps.

Seoul Semiconductor Co., Ltd., the world’s No. 4 LED manufacturer, and its affiliate company, Seoul Optodevice Co., Ltd. announced today to raise $248 million in capital. Seoul Semiconductor issued 6.9 million shares at 33.565 dollars per share for a total of $232 million dollars and Seoul Optodevice issued 2.7 million shares at 5.870 dollars per share for a total of $16 million dollars.

Larson Electronics’ magnalight.com unveiled their latest LED light, the LED10W-10R. The 9000 lumen, 100 watt LED light offers spot and flood beam patterns and is available in black or white aluminum housings. Measuring 20 inches long and less than 3 inches tall, the sleek LED10W-10R LED light contains 10 individual 10 watt LEDs, each producing 900 lumens, for a total of 9000 lumen output.

GlacialLight, a division of GlacialTech, has launched a series of LED grow light products — the GL-SP15, GL-SP27 and GL-BR8W. Each product uses 15W, 27W and 8W of power respectively, and can be used to supplement plant growth in hydroponic agriculture, Green-house lighting, Herb gardens, home gardens and any situation where plants don't get enough light in which to thrive.

The second day of LEDforum 2009 mainly highlights the exhaustive analysis of LED TV, automotive LED, and the global LED market reports, and probes into China’s market in depth. Dr Jun Ruan, Vice Secretary-General of China Solid State Lighting Alliance, said that the cross-Strait can develop standards mutually in the future, constructing a demonstration area of the semiconductor lighting project together.

Light Transformation Technologies LLC recently filed two patent infringement lawsuits against a number of companies. It claims to be the exclusive licensee under U.S. Patent No. 6,543,911 issued April 8, 2003, for a Highly Efficient Luminaire Having Optical Transformer Providing Precalculated Angular Intensity Distribution and Method Therefore. In the complaint, LTT alleges several companies are infringing the '911 Patent. The defendants listed in the complaint are: Anderson Custom Electronics Inc. Dialight Corp. Digi-Key Corp.

In a breakthrough that could lead to accelerated adoption of LEDs in demanding applications such as LCD display backlights and pico-projectors, scientists at 3M have developed technology that doubles the efficiency of green LEDs.

iWatt, Inc., a provider of digital power IC systems products and technology, recently announced the release of the iW3610 Digital Controller for dimmable LED lighting applications. It is the industry’s first digital LED driver IC with primary side regulation which eliminates the need for an opto-coupler thereby reducing bill-of-material costs, and increasing the mean time between failure (MTBF). The iW3610 eliminates flicker and improves efficiency and reliability for dimmable LED lights of 25W or lower wattage.

Nexxus Lighting, Inc. Tuesday announced that Mellina LLC, the design-builder for the Marco’s Pizza’s Atlanta-area franchisee, has installed its Array™ Lighting PAR 30 and PAR 16 LED lamps into what is expected to be the first of 80 new franchise locations across Georgia to be lit entirely with LED’s within the next 3 years. The Array™ lamps replace the front service counter PAR lamps and are also featured in sconces, pendants and bathroom fixtures throughout the restaurant.

ON Semiconductor, a global supplier of high performance, energy efficient, silicon solutions for green electronics has launched two new GreenPoint® reference designs that will speed and simplify the development of high-efficiency LED-based lighting applications.

The two-day LEDforum 2009 debuts today in Taipei. Today’s topic is about the market trend of LED Epitaxy, packaging, and lighting. The forum focuses on the detailed analysis of LED globalization and development of lighting market. The forum also indicates that current clients’ demands have gradually shifted from brightness and cheapness in the past to high-quality, eco- and user-friendliness.

Philips Color Kinetics recently announced it is now a reseller of the complete portfolio of Pharos control solutions. Ranging from scalable lighting playback controllers to audio/video controls, all that utilize simple-to-use designer authoring software, Pharos controllers extend the comprehensive portfolio of LED lighting solutions from Philips Color Kinetics.

Larson Electronics’ magnalight.com announced the addition of a 4320 lumen LED light available with a choice of colors, including red, blue, green and amber. Producing a spot beam reaching 900 feet, the LEDLB-24C LED light with colored LEDs offers operators in outdoors, industrial and military applications alternatives to traditional white light LED output. The LEDLB-24C operates on 9-32 volts DC for vehicles, boats and equipment and is available with surface or magnetic mounting.

Wembley Stadium in London, was transformed into a National Football League venue for the third straight season on Oct. 25 for the NFL International Series game. For three seasons, Daktronics Inc. of Brookings, S.D. has worked with the NFL in a rental agreement that includes the setup and tear down of a mobile and modular integrated light emitting diode (LED) video and scoring system to help create an NFL experience within the United Kingdom’s most renowned soccer stadium.

Applied LED technology specialist, Dialight plc recently announced that it is to be the lead sponsor of the 2009-10 Sustainable Cities Programme for the UK’s Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment, CABE.

Northeast Energy Efficiency Partnerships (NEEP) and the DLC, along with assistance from their project team at the Lighting Research Center (LRC), has developed a new independent listing of qualified solid state lighting (SSL) products.

Outdoor Lighting Perspectives, a provider of residential and commercial outdoor lighting systems, announces it is now offering homes and businesses LED fixtures as part of their full service outdoor lighting design, installation and maintenance offering. DG Lights of California will be OLP’s manufacturer and distributor of these new LED light fixtures.

Philips Color Kinetics announced two powerful LED floodlights specifically designed to withstand the rigors of the rental and entertainment environments. ColorReach TR Powercore and iW Reach TR Powercore are the road-ready versions of ColorReach Powercore, the flagship high-performance floodlight from Philips Color Kinetics. These rental-friendly floodlights generate enough light output to replace multiple flood and wash fixtures for large-scale and long-throw applications.

Daktronics Inc of Brookings, S.D., announced that the National Basketball Association (NBA) has approved a test trial of Daktronics courtside light emitting diode (LED) scorer’s tables. Until recently the NBA had approved digital light processing (DLP®), but not LED, technology courtside.

Konica Minolta Holdings, Inc. has been developing organic light-emitting diode (OLED) lighting as one of its promising new businesses in the field of energy and environment. The company recently announced a construction of a new roll-to-roll pilot coating line to manufacture OLED lighting within its Hino facility in Tokyo. The pilot line is dedicated to establish production technology toward mass-production and to sell the product on the limited basis.

Avnet Electronics Marketing Asia announced that the company and Seoul Semiconductor are organizing a series of seminars in November and December to help Chinese firms participate successfully in the potentially huge LED market.