Minnesota-based Seasonal Impressions has launched new LED retrofit bulbs that will give commercial and recreational users more flexibility in their lighting displays.

Researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) have developed and demonstrated a new type of LED with significantly improved lighting performance and energy efficiency. The researchers worked in collaboration with Samsung Electro-Mechanics to develop the new polarization-matched LED that they say exhibits an 18 percent increase in light output and a 22 percent increase in wall-plug efficiency, which essentially measures the amount of electricity the LED converts into light.

Microsolar Corp. provides a copper-aluminum bonding Service and products. With the state-of-the-art technology called copper-aluminum bonding, Microsolar's LED lamps are allowed to input over 1.5Amp current into a 40milx40mil single chip with over 250 lm brightness.

Luna Road Ltd, specialized in the design, manufacture, supply, and installation of the new high-tech "cat's eyes," now known as Luna Road Lights, is working to unveil their new Eco-Friendly Luna Road Light technology to countries all around the globe.

Incandescent light bulbs could soon become a thing of the past. The Ministry of Knowledge Economy is pushing a "15-30" move aiming to replace 30%of lights in the country with more energy-efficient LEDs by the year 2015. The European Union and Australia have announced plans to ban sales of ordinary light bulbs and halogen lighting within the next four years.

The 14th annual Guangzhou International Lighting Exhibition to be held June 9-12, 2009 at the China Import and Export Fair, Pazhou Complex, in Guangzhou, China, is adding a second LED exhibit hall this year. The LED booths were very popular last year, perhaps due in part to complement the growing interest in the China LED market in China.

Energy efficient lighting pioneer BluGlass Ltd and Itochu Plastics Inc. (CIPS), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Japanese trading company Itochu Corp. have signed a sales and distribution agreement. That means CIPS has won the sole rights to market BluGlass’s gallium nitride (GaN)-based LED manufacturing technology in Japan.

Hisense, as China's leading home appliance brand, was awarded the "Global TV Brand Top7" due to its 42 inch LED LCD TV at CES 2009. Hisense has now become the most famous Chinese color TV brands by winning this honor. Hisense was also awarded "Top 10 CE Brand From China" for the third consecutive year. At the same time, Hisense also successfully defended "Global CE Brands Top 50" award.

OQO Inc. of San Francisco unveiled the first computer with a screen of organic light-emitting diodes last week at the International Consumer Electronics show. The company touted this technology would be as the future of both displays and lighting.

Wyked Illuzionz, the Maryland-based motorcycle LED light company, has been increasingly growing in popularity over the past several years and now they have two more “successes” under their belt.

Everlight announces that it will re-organize its Business Group structure to better position themselves to more aggressively pursue and support the requirements of the fast growing, global LED environment. The company will be divided into two divisions – a Production Business Group and Sales and Marketing Business Group.

Eclatorq Technology Co., Ltd, as the first professional digital hand tool in Taiwan, has integrated the leading hand tool companies and IT resources into the production of digital hand tools.

Orb Optronix has measured commercially available solid state lighting products (SSL) that exceed risk group category RG-1 blue light hazard limits in the ANSI/IESNA RP-27.3-07 ‘Recommended Practice for Photobiological Safety for Lamps, Risk Group Classification and Labeling’ standard along with IEC 62471:2006. The RG-2 categorization cautions against direct viewing of light sources with the human eye.

Taiwan LED driver IC leading provider Macroblock presents its newly developed MBI5037, a 16-channel constant current LED driver with smart power-saving modes and advanced error detection. MBI5037 is especially designed for long use of LED traffic sign applications with power saving up to 99%.

Lustrous International Technology, a lighting-class LED packaging company in Taiwan,is proud to announce the launch of two new series of high power LED products,Diamond and Crystal. Both two new series of high power LED are active and orders accepted from Jan, 2009. Both Diamond and Crystal are designed to meet energy star standards for manufacturinglighting-class LED fixture or light source at a significantly competitive cost.

Pacer International Ltd. announces the opening of a new sales office based in Cork, Ireland, continuing the company’s ongoing expansion.

High Power LED applied for automotive, aviation, decorative lighting, architectural lighting, theme parks, utility plants, street lighting, emergency lighting, safety lighting, industrial lighting, LED sign, Traffic signaling, LED lighting. Focusing on this market trend, Chang-Yu Technology has announced new competitively Sorting & taping machine for high power LED.

Validity Sensors, Inc., a privately-held biometric sensor company specializing in convenient, secure and reliable fingerprint authentication solutions, launched their latest innovation LED fingerprint sensor. Validity offers bi-color LEDs in fingerprint sensors, which enhances end-users’ experience by alerting them when a finger swipe is required and whether a swipe was accepted or not. The LED feature also allows for improved aesthetics and user experience for Notebook PCs and other consumer electronic devices.

Orb Optronix has measured several solid state lighting products that cause retinal injury if viewed directly. The products that exceed risk group category RG-1 blue light hazard limits in the ANSI/IESNA RP-27.3-07 ‘Recommended Practice for Photobiological Safety for Lamps, Risk Group Classification and Labeling’ standard along with IEC 62471:2006. The RG-2 categorization cautions against direct viewing of light sources with the human eye.

Luminus Devices, Inc. is showcasing its patented PhlatLight LED products at CES from January 8 to 11. The company will demonstrate PhlatLight technology that combines the benefits of both LED and laser technologies at CES 2009. This unique solid state lighting technology is ideal for display and illumination applications that require high brightness and the efficient harnessing of light from a small point source. Luminus’s patented PhlatLight® LED products are the brightest. The following products are on display:

Vivitek Corporation, a leader in the environmentally responsible manufacture of today's most innovative visual display and presentation products, will be showing its first 1080p LED projector at the 2009 CES this week in Las Vegas. The quiet, new HC7500A, breakthrough projector, provides the growing HD home theater market with the industry's brightest, pure-color, video to-date.

Moritex Corp developed a bar-shaped LED lamp ”SpectraTrue” in cooperation with Schott AG of Germany, its parent company, that has already released a bar-shaped LED. Moritex says with a high color rendering property, it can precisely reproduce the colors of products and showpieces.

Samsung Electronics showed off a new line of high-end, ultra-slim, energy-efficient televisions at CES 2009 and planned to increase the proportion of TVs it makes using LED technology. The company has put a big emphasis on LED-backlighting on this year's LCDs, and its LN-B8000 series are the most souped-up models at CES 2009.

LED lighting manufacturer Albeo Technologies introduces its SecurityLED line of general illumination light fixtures. The SecurityLED product family, built with Albeo's white-LED TEMPR(TM) thermal technology, provides high-efficiency, "zero" maintenance, general lighting solutions for demanding applications.     SecurityLED Sloped Surface Light Fixture

Ushio Lighting Inc. has started sample shipment of the "LED Filament Bulb," a light bulb that uses LEDs as its "filaments." The company says the bulbs have a color temperature of 2,500K and a transparent glass bulb.

Epistar Corp., a leading LED chipmaker in Taiwan, estimates a 38% drop in December 2008 revenues to about NT$400 million, according to a recent report. Epistar had revenues of NT$647.9 million in November 2008, down 28.3% from NT$903.7 million in October, and down 36.43% compared with last year. The company's accumulated revenues from January to November were NT$9.86 billion, up 5% compared with last year, according to data from the Taiwan Stock Exchange.  

Recently, LEDinside paid a visit to UPEC, a Taiwanese LED packaging manufacturer. Our analysts interviewed Mr. David Lee (LEE Shao Tang), the general manager of UPEC, to get a view of UPEC's current state of operation and it's outlook for 2009. Mr. Lee is very experienced, as he previously worked for IBM, Oracle Taiwan, Dopod China, and HTC. He was once the president of Dopod China and the vice president of HTC for the Asia-pacific region. We were very curious about the reason why Mr.

Philips will showcase its latest solid-state lighting systems at ARC 2009. The lighting solutions featured combine the many advantages of LEDs with proprietary technologies to generate millions of colors, high-quality white light, and customizable lighting effects without the cost and complexities of some traditional lighting methods.

Austriamicrosystems, a leading global designer and manufacturer of high performance analog ICs, has extended its portfolio of specialized LED drivers and controllers for the latest generation of LCD TV backlighting with the AS3693B 16 channel LED controller IC.

Avago Technologies has announced a new competitively priced 1-Watt high power LED emitter for use in solid-state lighting applications. The company said this LED emitter is ideal for use in architectural, contour, retail display, decorative and garden lighting applications. The ASMT-Ax00 LED features a low-profile package design, wide 130-degree viewing angle, and the ability to handle high thermal and drive currents. It comes in a variety of colors.