Cree, a market leader in LED lighting, today announced that the board of directors has approved the following: A restructuring of the LED Products business A $500 million stock buyback authorization for fiscal year 2016 The fiscal year 2016 annual operating plan that targets: Revenue to increase to $1.8 billion +/- Non-GAAP operating margin increasing to approximately 8% Free cash flow of approximately $75 million

An innocuous looking water slide in Bad 1 pool on the German coast of Bremerhaven offers riders a trippy experience resembling interstellar travel, reported Gizmodo recently.

San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee rolled out the red carpet over the weekend for the 83rd Annual Meeting of the United States Conference of Mayors (USCM).

Dialight, the innovative global leader in LED lighting technology, announced the launch of its new 15,000 lumens DuroSite® and Safesite® Floodlight in UL, CE and C1D2 versions. The higher lumen Floodlight can replace up to 400W traditional HID lighting fixtures and represents the future of energy efficient illumination for industrial and hazardous applications worldwide.

A special UV or IR pavilion was set up at this year’s Photonics Festival in Taiwan, which took place earlier this month in Taipei, Taiwan.This is the first time that the show organized by Taiwan’s Photonics Industry & Technology Development Association (PIDA) has highlighted niche UV and IR LED applications, which has benefited attending manufacturers and visitors.

Valeo announced that it has purchased a 10.5% stake in Aledia, by subscribing to a portion of Aledia’s capital increase. Aledia is a technology start-up dedicated to the development of cutting-edge LED technology for general and automotive lighting.

Panasonic intends to halt fluorescent lights in Indonesia by the end of June 2015, and will be laying off about 700 employees at the plant, reported Nikkei Asian Review.

A recent report from BMW Blog has quashed rumors that the laser headlights would be arriving in the U.S. market by fall this year.

The retrofit and relight business is in full swing today. A variety of new LED replacement luminaires, retrofit/conversion kits and lamps are available from a variety of manufacturers and whether we are talking about a T12 to T8 fluorescent conversion or fluorescent to LED, the economic value proposition and project mechanics are well understood.

Through its Transportation Lighting and Safety program, the Lighting Research Center (LRC) at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute is evaluating the potential for new lighting technologies and approaches to improve driving safety at night, including new car headlight systems. For the study, vehicle manufacturer Audi AG has provided the LRC with an A7 equipped with adaptive high beam “matrix lights” that allow drivers to benefit from using high beams all the time while selectively dimming a portion of the beam in the direction of other drivers to prevent glare. In the Audi system, the beam pattern is split into numerous individual LEDs arranged in a grid or “matrix” that adapts to the surroundings in real-time. The lighting system is being evaluated by LRC researchers this June.

AIXTRON, a worldwide leading provider of deposition equipment to the semiconductor industry, announced today that Epileds, a leading supplier of LED chip products, has qualified the Company’s AIX R6 tool for LED epitaxy mass production.

Lighting Science Group, a leading manufacturer of LED lighting solutions, announced today the appointments of three experienced sales leaders who will add broad business and industry expertise to its global sales team. Daniel Yasi joins the company as Senior Director of Commercial and Infrastructure Channels. Oscar Ibarra also joins LSG as Director of International Infrastructure Sales. Additionally, David Rubin joins the team as a Director of Commercial Markets. Dan, Oscar and David will play key roles in supporting and growing the Lighting Science product portfolio, with specific concentrations on expanding the commercial and infrastructure channels both domestically and internationally.

Exagan, a start-up innovator of gallium-nitride (GaN) semiconductor technology that enables smaller and more efficient electrical converters,announced it has raised €5.7 million (US $6.38 million) in first-round financing that will be used to produce high-speed power switching devices on 200mm wafers.

The event organised by Messe Frankfurt Trade Fairs India Pvt. Ltd, the organisers of some of the biggest lighting shows worldwide, LED Expo Mumbai saw a strong line-up of new products, brands and launches by 117 exhibiting companies from China, Germany, India, Russia, Singapore, Thailand, and the UAE.

Molex Incorporated announces the availability of its wet-location-rated Woodhead® LED Wide-Area Portable Magnet Light. This durable solution offers contractors and maintenance, manufacturing and quality personnel a light that consumes just 40 watts of power to produce 2700 lumens output lasting 50,000 hours. This delivers significantly longer life expectancy when compared to traditional lights such as high-pressure sodium (HPS) and metal-halide (MH). The light also features a heavy-duty magnet, allowing it to be quickly, easily and securely mounted on a variety of metal surfaces.

Merck, a leading company for innovative, top-quality high-tech products in healthcare, life science and performance materials, laid the cornerstone for a new OLED materials production plant in Darmstadt today. Production of high-purity OLED materials for use in state-of-the-art displays and lighting systems is scheduled to start in the approximately 2,000 square meter building in July 2016. With the investment, which amounts to around EUR 30 million (US$ 33.78 million), Merck is strengthening its position in the OLED business. Merck aims to be a leading supplier of OLED materials by 2018. The company wishes to make use of its experience in the liquid crystals business, where it is the global leader.

Transphorm, an early stage semiconductor company focused on redefining power conversion, today announced a US $70 million investment round led by global investment firm KKR. KKR’s investment follows initial rounds of funding led by funds affiliated with Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers, Foundation Capital, Google Ventures, Soros Quantum Strategic Partners, INCJ, Fujitsu, Transphorm will use this funding to support its growth, product innovation and expansion.

How do you make skydiving even more thriling? Do it at night, toss in some wingsuits equipped with LED lights and do it all choreographed to the beats of drum and bass duo Camo & Krooked. The result? A project entitled "GRAVITAS."

In December 2012, following a US $135 million renovation that united three disparate buildings into one seamless museum, the Yale University Art Gallery opened to the public.  Steven Hefferan of Hefferan Partnership Lighting Design (Boulder, Colo.) managed the lighting for 70,000 square feet of gallery space, and the illumination for more than 4,000 works of art in the galleries.

Rubicon Technology, a leading provider of sapphire substrates and products to the LED, semiconductor and optical markets,announced it will exhibit its high-quality optical sapphire, including the largest sapphire window ever produced, at the LASER World of PHOTONICS trade show from June 22-25 at the Munich Trade Fair Center. Rubicon will showcase its line of sapphire products in booth B1.418.

At the New York Blue Light Symposium press conference, the Blue Light Society will bring together renowned ophthalmologists, sleep specialists and researchers from the U.S. and abroad to discuss the latest studies on the effects of natural blue light and blue light emitted from LED devices on the human body.  

Everlight Electronics, a leading player in the global LED and optoelectronics industry, will exhibit the complete range of LED products like lighting, backlight, flash, signage and infrared LED at the LED EXPO KOREA 2015, including new products in this quarter. EVERLIGHT expects to meet one-stop demand for our customers based on the complete product combination.

CSP technology will lead the emergence of new LED package material demands, said Kaz Maruyama, Global Marketing Director, Dow Corning Lighting Solutions at LEDforum 2015 Guangzhou, which took place earlier this month at China Import and Export Fair Pazhou Complex in Guangzhou, China.

A source within Egypt’s Electricity Ministry has disclosed plans of distributing 1.7 million LED bulbs in the next four months, reported The Cairo Post.

Aledia, a developer and manufacturer of next-generation 3D LEDs based on its Gallium-Nitride-on-Silicon platform, announced today the closing of its Series B financing round and the execution of development and supply contracts with major LED buyers. 

EarthTronics offers a full line of Energy Star rated LED Recessed Retrofit downlights in 4- and 6-inch diameters, providing 550 to 1200 lumens for architectural/décor lighting applications. The energy efficient LED Recessed Retrofit downlights easily replace popular, less proficient 4-, 5- and 6-inch aperture fixtures and produce a full flood light with a 90° beam angle. They are ideal for use in medical and long-term care facilities, hotels, resorts and restaurants as well as light commercial properties.

Epistar keeps building innovating products and technologies and continues to bolster its global IP position. In addition, Epistar strives to strengthen the value of its Co-activation Service.

Direct View lighting is a growing application space as architectural building materials are shifting more and more to glass and steel, requiring fixtures that integrate directly into the façade structures and cladding elements.

Over the past 2 years, a new type of LED packaging often referred to as “filament” LEDs has been gaining popularity fast. These LED packages enable the manufacturing of incandescent style LED bulbs, combining the traditional look and feel of the well-known incandescent bulbs with the user benefits of LED lighting such as extended life and energy savings. These types of lamps are expected to take the market by storm as mass retailers all over the world will be introducing these lamps in the coming lighting season.  LED Filaments are usually construc...

LEDinside team would like to wish everyone in advance a Happy Dragon Boat Festival! We will be on holiday tomorrow, so apologies if there are no further article updates this week.