It’s reported that Stan Glasgow (president and COO of Sony Electronics) says that Sony is making progress on moving to larger OLED screen sizes. At the moment, Sony sells an 11-inch OLED TV for $2,500, which means it is hardly a mass market product. He says, the next step, will be a 27-inch version, followed by a 40-inch version. He says they are “awfully close” to selling a 27-inch OLED version commercially.

It’s retorted that Philips is offering around 1000 patents related to LED luminaires, and will charge licensing fees such as 5% of net selling price for color-changing luminaires. On June 30, Philips introduced a patent licensing program for LED-based luminaires used in the general illumination, architectural and theatrical markets. Philips has pulled together a list of about 1000 patents – including those originally filed by Color Kinetics - that it says address the basic control technologies required in a broad range of LED lighting applications.

Recently, GE Lighting Systems has debuted the first two of many upcoming outdoor LED lighting systems: the LED StreetDreams post-top fixture and an outdoor area light.

In 2008, Low-cost notebook (netbooks) are expected to become popular. However, LED players have pointed out that material costs have increased while ASPs continue to fall leading to lower-than-expected gross margins. industry players warn, orders from netbook backlight applications may contribute to LED revenues but not necessarily to profits in the third quarter.

Recently, Malaysia-based SMT LED manufacturerDominant Semiconductors Sdn Bhd is offering a brighter white LED in the DomiLED product range (DDW-PJG).

Today, Power Integrations (Nasdaq:POWI), the leader in high-voltage integrated circuits for energy-efficient power conversion, announced a series of design ideas to help designers of LED driver circuitry benefit from the company’s recently introduced LinkSwitch-II family of AC-DC power conversion ICs. The new design ideas (DI-184, DI-185 and DI-186), demonstrate that LinkSwitch-II ICs are well suited for power supplies and ballasts driving high-brightness LEDs.

It’s reported that Hitachi Ltd. (TSE:6501) and Canon Inc. (TSE:7751) have agreed to jointly develop and manufacture small and midsize organic electroluminescence (EL) displays for digital cameras within two years. The two firms plan to set up in early July to handle the project, they will transfer a total of about 100 engineers to a new organization.

Today, Samsung SDI said that it will be spending over $500 million USD to boost production of next-generation OLED displays to six times its current level by mid-2009. This latest move comes as panel makers try to get bigger shares of the growing market for OLED displays, which offer better contrast ratio, slimmer designs and better energy efficiency than current LCD or plasma displays. However, production costs are still high, too high to make OLED TVs available to the masses.

Recently, GE Lighting Systems, Inc., part of GE Consumer & Industrial, showcased its new LED StreetDreams™ post-top fixtures at the 76th Annual Conference of Mayors in Miami, Florida. From June 20-24, more than 250 mayors from cities all over the United States descended upon Miami, and GE offered them a sneak peek at one of its latest energy-efficient lighting solutions. For the event, GE provided six of its LED StreetDreams™ luminaires. The new lighting system was installed in the median along Pan American Drive leading up to Miami City Hall.

Solid-state lighting, or using LEDs instead of traditional filament incandescent or fluorescent tube designs, promises long bulb lives, energy savings, and monetary savings thanks to the lower power consumption. The light bulb, largely unchanged for decades, is finally on the verge of evolving.

It’s repoted that the Fraunhofer Institute for Photonic Microsystems (IPMS), a leading research institute in the field of organic-based materials and devices, and the Fraunhofer Institute for Electron Beam and Plasma Technology (FEP), a leader in large-area vacuum deposition on flexible substrates, have joined forces in the development of a technology for an organic devices roll-to-roll production process.

September this year, The Neo-Neo Group will start producing epitaxy wafers, becoming the first Taiwanese LED-lighting maker to be an integrated manufacturer with front-, middle- and back-end productions.

Recently, in order to diversify its business coverage and expand business scale, Formosa Advanced Technologies Company (FATC) announced it will enter into LED chip backend production, with corresponding sales contribution set to double on year.

It’s reported that Everlight has harnessed its expertise in LED manufacturing and combined it with its own leading technology in PCB population, mechanical design, optical design, and thermal management to create a highly efficient and aesthetically pleasing indoor lighting fixture.

It’s reported that advanced high intensity LED technology available from AbacusLED matches the output of incandescent panel lamps, and is specified for the most demanding applications including defence systems.

As a leader in engineered LED solutions, DDP has developed an energy-efficient LED light engine ideal for landscape and path lighting applications. DDP’s efficient 3.8 watt, 100 lumen forward-fit solution delivers 5100K light evenly over a 120 degree area.

June 24, Future Lighting Solutions, a provider of LED lighting components and solution support, announced that it has donated Luxeon Rebel LEDs from Philips Lumileds for use on a solar car being built by students at the University of Minnesota. The car will compete in the 2008 North American Solar Challenge, a 2,400-mile race scheduled for July 13-22.

It's reported that Texas-based United Supermarkets LLC has retrofitted low-temperature and medium-temperature refrigerated display cases in all of its 47 stores with a GE ecomagination product, an LED solution from Lumination, a GE Consumer & Industrial business. In all, United retrofitted more than 3,600 doors in its reach-in door merchandisers by replacing traditional T8 and T12 fluorescent lamps with the GE LED lighting.

It’s reported that Philips has used LED fixtures to light an entire office building in Paris. The office, owned by Generali and located at 100 Champs-Elysées Avenue, Paris, "marks a milestone in lighting history" according to Philips. The company claims that, for the first time, functional office lighting powered entirely by LEDs goes hand in hand with scenic and atmospheric effects that are also based on LEDs.

In China, A government crackdown on white-box handset shipments has affected LED shipments from LED packaging company Harvatek since the beginning of 2008, with the effect becoming increasingly worse, according to industry sources.In the fourth quarter of 2007, revenues from China's white-box market accounted for 27% of Harvatek's revenues. In the first quarter of 2008, that proportion fell to 15% and will drop to 5-10% this quarter, the sources noted. For all of 2007, 25% of Harvatek's revenues came from China's white-box market.

According to market sources, Taiwan LED packaging companyLedtech Electronics has received LED light bar orders for 200 Taiwan convenience stores. Throughout the convenience store chain, over the next 3-4 years, a total of 2,880 refrigerator lighting units will be replace to LED light bars. Ledtech won the first round of orders, while rivals including Coretronic, Zenitron and Advanced Optoelectronic Technology (AOT) are competing to enter the supply stream.

It’s reported that Avago Technologies has added half-watt cool white and warm white devices to its series of Moonstone power LEDs. Available in one of the industry's thinnest packages, Avago's ASMT-Mx60 LED provides solid-state lighting application designers with a package that provides high brightness illumination and easy installation.

Recently,Chi Mei Optoelectronics Corp. announced it would buy a 3.4% stake in China Electrical Mfg. Co., Ltd. and a 40% stake in TOA Optronics Co., Ltd., a China Electrical affiliate, for NT$850 million (US$28 million at US$1:NT$30).The acquisition makes Chi Mei the largest institutional shareholder of China Electrical, Taiwan`s No.1 lighting manufacturer, entitling it to hold seats on TOA`s board. TOA is 100% owned by China Electrical and produces cold cathode fluorescent lamps (CCFLs) as well as hot cathode fluorescent lamps (HCFLs).

Because of strong demand from OEM clients, Taiwan-based Star World Technology's monthly shipments of small-size AMOLED modules have increased sharply to 100,000-200,000 units recently compared to the beginning of the year, according to the company.Star World said despite the present opaqueness shrouding the panel market, its shipments have see little affect. Star World remains optimistic about the small- to medium-size panel market in the second half of the year, during which utilization rate will come close to full capacity.

Optoma Corp., a world leading vendor of own-brand projectors, is scheduled to start delivery of world`s first household LED (light-emitting diode) DLP (digital light processing) projector at the end of this year, according to company sources.

According to Chi Mei Optoelectronics (CMO) vice chairman Peter Chen, Chi Mei EL (CMEL) expects that its AMOLED TV-panel technologies, which are being developed with help from Kodak and DuPont, will see a breakthrough next year, and volume production may start in 2010 or 2011.

Recently, LED packaging company Bright LED Electronic has received LED tunnel lamp orders from China for lamps of 50W, 100W and 200W, according to sources, who estimate that the company will ship 8,000 unit starting from the third quarter, helping Bright LED achieve its annual LED street lamp shipment goal of 35,000 units.

According to the Chinese-language Economic Daily News (EDN),Taiwan PC case maker Casing Macron Technology has entered into the LED ODM industry.Casing Macron Technology received LED street lamp ODM orders from China Aerospace Science and Technology (CASC) and Hutchison Whampoa (HWL) for the China Guangshen highway project, and the paper estimates the revenue contribution from the projects will add NT$2-3 billion (US$65-98 million) to Casing Macron Technology 's annual revenues.

According to market sources, LED chipmaker Formosa Epitaxy has successfully increased its LED brightness to meet the requirement for use in notebook backlighting applications, which is 1,800mcd.Formosa Epitaxy has achieved a blue LED brightness of 1,800mcd this quarter and the sources estimate Formosa Epitaxy will reach a brightness of 2,000mcd by year-end. Formosa Epitaxy is only the second Taiwan-based LED chipmaker to achieve a brightness of 1,800mcd. Epistar reached a brightnesss of 2000mcd in the first quarter of this year.

Advanced Analogic Technologies, Inc., a developer of power management semiconductors for mobile consumer electronic devices, announced today the AAT2860, a new I(2)C-based Lighting Management Unit (LMU) that integrates up to seven LED drivers and three Low Dropout (LDO) linear regulators in a single IC. By offering these power functions in a variety of configurations, the new IC offers designers a single compact lighting solution for a wide variety of high performance camera phones.