The LED industry was volatile throughout 2016, but started to rebound during first half of the year following soaring upstream chip prices. Despite positive growth in the industry, companies were still shutting down or exiting the market, while more were paying attention to industry developments. Under current market situations, leading manufacturers’ development strategy also come under the lime light.

Chinese equipment manufacturer Jiangsu Huasheng Tianlong Photoelectric sealed a large monocrystalline silicon growth furnace order from equipment manufacturer SuperBrain valuing RMB 186 million (US $29.95 million).

Idemitsu Kosan (headquarters: Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo; Representative Director & Chief Executive Officer: Takashi Tsukioka; hereinafter, “Idemitsu” or the “Company”) announces its decision to expand production capacity of the OLED materials at its 100% subsidiary Idemitsu Electronic Materials Korea Co., Ltd. (location: Paju, Gyeon-do, South Korea; president: Kazuki Maeda) to respond to the expected increase in demand for OLED materials due to increased penetration of OLED displays as well as to install additional evaluation equipment in order to strengthen technological customer support capabilities.

China’s capital Beijing has installed 28 streetlights enhanced with advanced graphene material technology in Tongzhou District, which can slash energy consumption by 20% to 30% compared to current lamps on the market, reported China Daily.

For a mid-afternoon snack, NASA astronaut Shane Kimbrough cut some of the "Outredgeous" Red Romaine lettuce leaves he nurtured during the past month aboard the International Space Station as part of a gardening harvest technique termed “cut-and-come-again.”

AIXTRON, one of the world’s leading providers of deposition equipment to the semiconductor industry, announced today that Grand Chip Investment GmbH (GCI) declared today that the voluntary public takeover offer for the acquisition of all shares, including all shares represented by ADSs, of AIXTRON SE (AIXTRON) by GCI published on July 29, 2016 has lapsed due to the non-fulfillment of an offer condition.

Nanoco Group, a world leader in the development and manufacture of cadmium-free quantum dots and other nanomaterials, announces that it has acquired a group of patents from the Eastman Kodak Company ("Kodak") in connection with the use of quantum dots in electroluminescent displays, a future display technology.

Leviton announced the acquisition of ConTech Lighting, a leading, Chicago-based manufacturer of high-performance and sustainable lighting solutions and fixtures. Through this acquisition, Leviton continues its strategic growth in lighting and expands its product offerings and solutions with ConTech Lighting’s high-quality, innovative designs.

The Lighting Research Center (LRC) at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute has recently released a free, open-access circadian stimulus (CS) calculator to help lighting professionals select light sources and light levels that will increase the potential for circadian-effective light exposure in architectural spaces, utilizing the CS metric. Developed by LRC researchers, the CS metric is a new way to quantify light’s impact on acute melatonin suppression, a marker of circadian system activation.

LED technologies are rapidly growing in terms of market share for roadway lighting systems in the U.S., with about 15% of roadway lights using LED sources. Unlike the yellowish glow of high pressure sodium lamps found in most of the other U.S. streetlights, LED illumination usually is white in color. This difference has sparked concerns about health and wellbeing from the American Medical Association (AMA).

Incandescent globes have long been a staple of all buildings, lighting our way at all hours of the day. Unfortunately, incandescent bulbs are also terribly inefficient and their lifespan makes them an unsustainable choice for your office. Costs build up when using incandescent or fluorescent bulbs as light providers, and the wastage your company produces is also significant when compared to greener companies. What all this points to is a choice, either becoming a greener company or falling further and further behind modern company standards. Maybe it’s time to get commercial LED lighting installed, or solar panels, or rain water tanks for use in company toilets. We have assembled a list of five compelling reasons to make the switch in 2017.

Cree expands the market-leading LS Series LED surface ambient portfolio with the introduction of the new LS-FD™ High Efficiency linear luminaire. The new luminaire delivers excellent light quality and energy efficiency at 130 lumens per watt for greater savings and faster payback, and serves as an ideal replacement for linear fluorescent lighting in retail, industrial or commercial spaces. The LS-FD High Efficiencyproducts provide customers more choices from Cree, adding to the original LS Series TrueWhiteÒ products, which offer exceptional 90-plus CRI color rendering for applications in which color accuracy is the driving consideration.

Hubbell Lighting, a world leader in lighting innovation, announced today that it has formally introduced SiteSync™ Lighting Control to the market, further enabling its customers to reduce their total cost of ownership while improving quality of light for their exterior spaces.

The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, this evening announced that a team led by the internationally acclaimed American light artist Leo Villareal and renowned British architects and urban planners, Lifschutz Davidson Sandilands, have won the Illuminated River International Design Competition.

Lighting manufacturer Osram, which celebrates its 110-year brand anniversary this year, is joined by another famous institution: the Westin Excelsior Hotel in Rome was opened in 1906 and is therefore celebrating its 110 years anniversary. To mark the occasion, Claypaky – a company of the Osram group – illuminated the venerable hotel, whose past guests have already included celebrities like Pablo Picasso, Elizabeth Taylor and the Rolling Stones, in a particularly spectacular fashion from November 5 to 20. Following the video projection shown at the Patent Office in Berlin during the Festival of Light in October, this was the second lighting installation being presented by Osram for its brand anniversary. 

Chinese LED manufacturer Lianovation filed a suit against Hanen Digital Interconnect Culture (Hanen Digital) for not returning earnest money after the two organizations canceled an acquisition deal, reported Chinese-language media Sinai.

Sharp has developed green laser diodes, and are running pilot projects of the lasers in its facilities in Mihara, Japan, reported Nikkei.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ‘Make in India’ initiative, to promote local manufacturing of LED bulbs fell flat when suppliers could not keep up with the large volume of demands, reported The Quint.

 LEDinside, a division of TrendForce, reports that the global average selling prices (ASPs) of LED light bulbs saw greater monthly drops in November than in October as branded light bulb vendors started to offer year-end promotional discounts and released new low-price products on the market.   “Compared with the prior month, the global ASPs of 40-watt and 60-watt equivalent LED light bulbs fell 2.9% and 2.7% respectively in November to US$9 and US$12.3,” said LEDinside analyst Allen Yu.

Using LED lights flickering at a specific frequency, MIT researchers have shown that they can substantially reduce the beta amyloid plaques seen in Alzheimer’s disease, in the visual cortex of mice.

Gallium nitride (GaN) has emerged as one of the most important and widely used semiconducting materials. Its optoelectronic and mechanical properties make it ideal for a variety of applications, including light-emitting diodes (LEDs), high-temperature transistors, sensors and biocompatible electronic implants in humans.

GE is working to unleash the ultimate living experience through a suite of connected products designed to make your life simpler and help you do more. First on that journey is a contemporary LED table lamp that embeds Amazon Alexa Voice Service (AVS) directly inside, allowing you to use a light to order your dinner, listen to the latest headlines, preheat your oven or give a host of other voice commands.

To highlight the impressive styling of the new 2017 IS, Lexus today unveiled a custom vehicle wrapped in 41,999 programmable LEDs that turn the car into a screen capable of broadcasting dynamic graphics and videos. The car, which is designed to send a bold signal, is featured in UK chart-topping artist Dua Lipa’s new music video for her hit song “Be the One.” The first-of-its-kind collaboration pairs Dua Lipa’s powerful vocals with an ethereal storyline, featuring the vehicle as a character and visual anchor in a story that also casts actor Ansel Elgort (“Divergent”; “The Fault in Our Stars”) as Dua's former love.

Since the launch of its Smart Energy Savers Program® in 2009, Baltimore Gas and Electric Company (BGE) has been educating customers on simple ways to reduce energy use and costs. Today, BGE marks two major milestones. First, BGE customers have bought more than 25 million energy-saving LED and CFL light bulbs, saving nearly $40 million at checkout with instant discounts. Second, BGE has performed 200,000 Quick Home Energy Check-ups in its service area, helping customers better understand their homes’ energy use and suggesting ways to save energy and money.

LED Engin, a manufacturer of high flux density LED products, announces the market’s most comprehensive range of high-power color and white LED emitters for horticultural lighting. Alongside the typical colors used in horticultural applications (Blue 450nm, Deep Red 660nm and Far Red 740nm), the company is adding custom solutions that include 3 new direct colors (Violet 415nm, Royal Blue 436nm and Cyan 500nm), a phosphor-converted green and full white CCT options (2200K-6500K). Together with the already vast selection of standard LED emitters spanning from UV 365nm to Infrared 940nm and unrivaled packaging technology, this means all types of purpose-built lighting solutions can be easily created to deliver optimized spectra for improved crop productivity.

WAC Lighting has unveiled an architecturally scaled family of luminaires engineered with precision that has resulted in sophisticated lighting designs. The new 4.5-inch Volta LED downlight series represents an innovation in design and technology for retailers. This high lumen family of fixtures enables lighting designers an advanced system for a clean, uncluttered ceilings with Invisible Trim™ options in high illuminance retail, hospitality and residential applications where comfortable ambiance is desired.

2nd Ave Lighting introduces the Anillo Ellipse 5 Light Cascading Pendant. This modern sophisticated system featuring extraordinary adjustable elements of ambient light including five elliptic spectral halos which appear to rotate in space and create a stunning visual effect and breathtaking drama.

The chances of Chinese investor Grand Chip Investment (GCI) acquiring Aixtron are looking rather slim, following U.S. President Barack Obama recent order that bans the business transaction, reported Bloomberg.

Combining silicon with a light-producing semiconductor may help develop micrometer-scale lasers, shows Doris Keh-Ting Ng and her colleagues from the A*STAR Data Storage Institute1.

Poorly maintained air conditioning systems cause mold or other bacteria to spread; they often also generate drafts and are costly to operate. An alternative technology that uses ceiling panels covered in special heat-conducting film operates well below the dew point. Designed by Fraunhofer researchers, the system offers hygienic cooling even in tropical climates, and uses up to 70% less energy. The multifunctional system will be launched at the BAU trade fair from January 16-21, 2017 as part of the Fraunhofer Building Innovation Alliance’s special show, “Fraunhofer CityLaboratory – creating living spaces” (Hall C2, Booth 538).