Cree, a market leader in LED lighting, and Lextar Electronics Corporation (TAIEX: 3698), today announced that the companies have entered into an agreement whereby Cree will make an investment in Lextar and the companies will enter into a supply agreement for sapphire-based LED chips. As part of the agreement, Cree will invest approximately US $83 million to purchase 83 million Lextar shares at a price of NT$30 (US $1.00) per share. 

Earlier this month, Chinese smartphone manufacturer Huawei’s Chief Executive Officer Chengdong Yu showed a brand new sapphire glass cover smartphone during a press conference, according to a Chinese-language TechWeb report.

In the last article, LEDinside summarized upstream Chinese LED manufacturers performance during first half of 2014, now it is time to inspect midstream and downstream sectors.

India’s Union ministry of urban development has requested the country’s state governments to fully replace to LED streetlights, an India Times report cited ELCOMA India saying.

LG is showing its ambition in the OLED TV sector, as it begins receiving pre-orders for 65-inch Ultra OLED TVs, according to a Yonhap report.

SORAA Chief Technology Officer (CTO) Mike Krames sheds light on U.S. Department of Energy’s latest MR 16 CALiPER report and the impact of lumens on lighting.

Jan Willem Vogel, who is responsible for global business development and marketing at NXP, delves into LED grow light applications in this latest blog entry.

GlacialLight, a division of the Taiwanese technology manufacturer GlacialTech Inc., is introducing an energy-efficient 10” Surface Mounted Down Light - GL-DL10-SM to its indoor lighting product lineup. This 10” Down Light features a sturdy yet light die cast aluminum housing which is easily mounted to walls or ceilings. With up to 91 lumens per watt and a 110 degree beam angle, bright yet energy efficient indoor lighting is easily available with the GL-DL10-SM.

Bycatching, defined in the fishing industry of accidentally catching unwanted fish and marine species are a threat to the marine ecosystem and endangered marine species.

The Razavi Hospital is situated in Mashad-Iran and caters to medical needs on 56,000 square meters . The hospital offers a high quality of medical service s such as Cardiac ward, Cardiac Surgery ward, Plastic Surgery ward, Radiology, Laboratory, IVF and check-ups. 

The City of West Hollywood, through its Arts and Cultural Affairs Commission, presents Illumetric—a triptych of massive diamond, cube and rectangle-shaped sculptures brought to the city by Shana Mabari.

Longtime leader in commercial and industrial grade lighting equipment Larson Electronics has announced the release of a 300 watt hazardous area LED light fixture designed for recessed panel mounting. LED technology and a compact design make this lamp an excellent replacement upgrade option for paint booths and hazardous locations where flammable chemical vapors are present.

With many LED manufacturers releasing their latest revenue performance in August 2014, LEDinside will now review and rate their performance as “excellent”, “pass” or “fail”.

LED bulb prices stabilized in July 2014, according to a latest report from LEDinside, a research subdivision of TrendForce. The research organization noted, in general the global market underwent small price fluctuations. Only a few markets had seen large price fluctuations because of sales promotions, and overall bulb prices declined the most in Germany.

As the global LED lighting demand kicks off, patent wars are becoming the inevitable. There are, however, tricks in patent applications. U.S. LED manufacturer Cree for example cast an encompassing network with its proposal of “my patents include all light emitting products.” In comparison, Taiwanese LED manufacturers have been too conservative in their approach, which can easily be avoided.

In the Western hemisphere, Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi has earned a reputation of being an Apple wannabe. Whether it is in the phone’s exterior design or operation system interface, Xiaomi tends to mimic Apple’s every detail (TechCrunch even made a graphic comparison last week to deliver the point), so it probably is not too surprising that it now wants sapphire glass for its premium smartphones too.

Diodes Incorporated (Nasdaq: DIOD), a leading global manufacturer and supplier of high-quality application specific standard products within the broad discrete, logic and analog semiconductor markets, today introduced the AP1695. This LED lamp driver optimizes the design of sub 12W triac dimmer-compatible LED lamps by featuring a dimming range of 1 to 100% and up to a 30% reduction in bill of materials (BOM) cost.

Wearable devices are still in its early phases, where manufacturers can be creative in design. Ritot, a Ukraine-based startup has abandoned screen designs, who needs a LED or OLED screen displays if all the information you need can be projected onto your wrist?

LEDinside posted a short piece about the breathtaking LED basketball court Kobe Bryant used to coach young Chinese players during his summer tour with Nike, more details about the high-tech basketball court were revealed recently by the sport attire giant and Gizmodo.

Dell Children's Medical Center of Central Texas selected integrated LED luminaires and controls from the Acuity Brands healthcare solutions portfolio to help achieve its goal of becoming LEED Platinum® certified for Healthcare building design and construction. The new lighting system addresses the unique needs of the hospital's facilities - including multiple dimming options for nighttime lighting and automatic illumination in hallways and patient rooms when emergency buttons are activated.

MaxLite brings greater power and versatility to the outdoor lighting market with the newest generation of StaxMAX LED flood lights.

Untrue market rumors claiming China’s Ministry of Commerce was planning to raise LED tariffs disrupted the stock market in both China and Taiwan yesterday. Sources from the ministry not only noted the rumor was false, but that the ministry was not responsible for implementing or deciding whether tariffs should be imposed. Where the market rumor came from? We don’t know. But Taiwanese manufacturers and investors have already taken a blow.

Taiwanese LED stocks plunged on Aug. 21, 2014 over rumors of Chinese government’s intention to raise LED tariffs. To clarify market rumors, LED manufacturers Lite-On, Everlight, Epistar and Unity Opto all stated they did not receive any notices regarding increased tariffs from Chinese authorities, and an uptick in tariffs would have limited impact since they all had LED factories in China. These Taiwanese LED manufacturers also emphasized delivering good revenue performances for August 2014.

Intensified market competition in the Chinese market caused local manufacturers to turn their attention to emerging oversea markets. Russia has become a dark horse in China’s LED industry, quickly ascending to second largest export market status in less than one year. In 2013, the country could not even be found among China’s top five LED export markets.

The State Key Laboratory of Solid State Lighting (SKLSSL) under China’s Ministry of Science and Technology has recently set up a meeting to discuss publication of LED standards in Beijing, China. The organization has mainly been responsible for drafting semiconductor lighting specs.

A new holistic and interactive approach has been incorporated into the LED professional Symposium +Expo 2014 (LpS 2014). Multidisciplinary expert talks, hands on workshops and interactive group discussions will take place in Bregenz, Austria, from September 30th to October 2nd. Attendees will be inspired to create new designs and engineering concepts for future LED lighting systems in order to transform innovations to the next level.  

A group of researchers from University of Illinois have found in a study that windowless offices had a negative impact on workers health and could cause sleep issues, according to a report by Co. Design.

Huayue Electronics (Huayue), a manufacturer and international distributor of LED lighting products announced that Slovenia’s second largest city Maribor intends to use greener LED streetlights. The Chinese manufacturer has submitted a proposal through wholly-owned subsidiary, Changzhou Huayue Electronics, to retrofit the city streetlights is still under review.

Imagine if you could light up all the dark, shadowy areas in your city, allowing people to move around freely and safely wherever they wanted. Imagine if you could illuminate the city center, parks, and main urban traffic routes flexibly, as lighting needs change over time. You could decide how to switch and dim the lights in selected areas of your city, delivering light exactly when and where it is needed — all by a simple mouse click. 

Hubbell Lighting, a world leader in lighting innovation, announced today the release of two new LED floodlights from Hubbell Outdoor Lighting—the FLL and FXL. The two high lumen output fixtures round out a versatile floodlight offering for office buildings, facades, safety/ security and other applications.