Labsphere Inc.,  a world leader in the design and manufacturer of light measurement solutions, has released new packages for LED and light source characterization to satisfy a wide range of light test needs.

Railways will install LED boards on trains, at railway stations and parking lots for disseminating information to passengers. Announcing these measures in the Railway budget on Tuesday, Lalu Prasad said his Ministry has decided to install online coach indication display boards on over night mail and express trains by March 2009.

Spotlight on Digital PowerCatalyst Semiconductor has received a patent for a stepdown switching regulator circuit architecture applicable for driving high-brightness LEDs. The patent, titled "LED current bias control using step-down regulator" (patent number 7,323,828), was developed to simplify the design of high-brightness LED lighting in emerging household, commercial and automotive lighting applications.

Cree has announced that Tiajin Economic Development Area (TEDA) has joined its LED City program. TEDA and Tianjin Polytechnic University are collaborating with Cree to introduce LED lighting initiative in mainland China. Cree has previously taken the LED City program to Raleigh, North Carolina USA, Toronto, Canada, Ann Arbor, Michigan, and Austin, Texas. The LED City program is an international initiative to promote and deploy energy-efficient LED (light-emitting diode) lighting.

Abacus has teamed up with LED lighting specialist Osram to create a distribution business division to address the solid state lighting market.Called AbacusLED, the venture will market the Osram range of discrete LEDs and LED lighting systems together with electronic driver and thermal management technologies.It will carry other distribution lines including Everlight, Texas Instruments, National Semiconductor, ST Microelectronics, Power Integrations, 3M and Aavid Thermalloy.

A real godsend for those of us in need of constant visual stimulus, the Oakland-based group Because We Can has devised a way to interact with your coffee table. The "Design-Build studio" teamed up with the tech whizzes from Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories to create an LED Coffee Table dubbed The Wave. They fitted the table with 480 bright LED lights, along with 32 near infrared optical sensors. The result is a surface that reacts to any motion by following it with a cascade of glowing light.

Mount these battery-operated lights along a stairwell, in a closet, outside your side door…wherever you need some light but don't need the hassle of electrical work.  Loud or sharp sound will turn the four bright LED lights on; they'll turn off automatically 10 seconds after last sound heard. Manual on/off option. Pivoting bracket directs the light where you need it. Weather-resistant for outdoor use.

Superclub Noxx has used 300m2 of Chroma-Q Color Web 125 to provide a stunning LED video ceiling in its main dance room.Noxx's founders wanted to create some unique, cutting-edge visual effects for the 2000-capacity venue and turned to Luc Peumans of digital lighting specialists Painting with Light.The biggest challenge involved specifying an LED video surface to cover the entire ceiling of the large, asymmetrical main dance room.

Mitsubishi Chemical Corp, a unit of Mitsubishi Chemical Holdings Corp, of Tokyo, Japan has agreed to acquire the near-ultraviolet LED business of Mitsubishi Cable Industries Ltd (including the facilities and the technology to produce the chips) at the end of March for ¥1.5bn (about $13.9m), reports Nikkei Net. The Mitsubishi Cable near-UV LED manufacturing operations in Amagasaki, Hyogo Prefecture will be moved to Mitsubishi Chemical’s facilities in Ushiku, Ibaraki Prefecture.

On Mon, 25 Feb 2008, OKI Printing Solutions announced that its revolutionary Epi Film Bonding (EFB) technology has been awarded the most prestigious New Machinery Promotion Award by the Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) in Japan. EFB has been specifically designed to support OKI Printing Solutions' unique LED printheads. EFB provides an enhancement to the existing LED technology and it reaffirms the company’s position as an innovator and pioneer for adopting LED technology for printers. Benefits of EFB technology:

1. Luminance Units1) The unit of Illuminance: Lux (lx)2) The unit of Luminous Flux: Lumen (lm)3) The unit of Luminous Intensity: Candela (cd)The candela is the luminous intensity, in a given direction, of a source that emits monochromatic radiation of frequency 540 ×1012 hertz and that has a radiant intensity in that direction of 1/683 watt per steradian.The energy density striking an object is given in lumens per square meter, generally known as lux.

Recently named "PoE-Powered Device of the Month" by industry experts, Inova Solutions' OnAlertTM appliance supports mass notifications that save lives and reduce risks during natural disasters and other emergency situations.

For now, LED light fixtures are substantially more expensive than their glass competitors. But LED lighting brings significant advantages that Ruud Lighting executives think will steadily steer the industry toward LED — and toward Ruud.Those advantages include:A Energy savings. LEDs are about 50 percent more efficient than high-pressure sodium or metal halide, 35 percent more than fluorescent and 80 percent more than incandescent, said Christopher Ruud, executive vice president for national accounts at Ruud Lighting.

When revelers watched the Times Square New Year's Eve ball drop in New York City on December 31, few would have realized that light-emitting diodes, the light bulbs festooned to the ball, would one day bring light to their homes and offices. LEDs have become popular recently for more than just electronics. They're used in traffic signals and automotive lighting, and now some enterprising startups have turned their gaze indoors.

Whever attention needs to be gained, it’s normal practice to flash LEDs. In addition to attracting the eye, flashing LEDs also considerably drops battery consumption.

Martin will be taking a wide range of indoor and outdoor color changing luminaires and color control systems to what some consider the world's most important retail trade show.

LED stripCoolon  has designed and patented a technology that allows for a seamless and uninterrupted connection of LED strips into a single continuous strip. The manufacturing of continuous LED strips has presented various technical problems such as the size limitations of PCBs, processing and assembly equipment, etc., and transportation to the distribution or installation site.

Cree has signed a definitive agreement to acquire privately held LED Lighting Fixtures (LLF) in a cash and stock transaction valued at approximately $77 million, plus up to an additional $26.4 million over a three-year period.

A lamp that uses gravity to power light emitting diodes (LEDs) has been given a green award.The Gravia lamp designed by Virginia Tech student Clay Moulton earned second place in the Greener Gadgets Design Competition.Electricity to power the 10 high-output LEDs is generated by a weight that spins a rotor as it falls to earth.The weight is housed in an acrylic column, with the LEDs at its base shining through the acrylic to provide a diffuse glow.

Shuji Nakamura is the man who discovered the blue light emitting diodes (LEDs) used in the newest DVD players.Later research by Nakamura led to white LEDs, which may eventually replace much of the world''s lighting.His work earned him the 2006 Millennium Technology Award, the tech world equivalent of the Nobel Prize.In 1989, Nakamura was virtually alone in his work on LEDs when his supervisor at Nichia Chemical Industries in Japan suggested he quit because his research wasn''t going anywhere.

Buck convertor can drive up to ten 50mA LEDs in a single series string from a 48V input, making it ideal for industrial and LED signage applicationsThe LT3590 from Linear Technology is a 48V buck-mode DC/DC convertor designed to operate as a constant-current LED driver. An internal 55V, 80mA switch and Schottky diode enable it to drive up to ten 50mA LEDs in a single series string from a 48V input, making it ideal for industrial and LED signage applications.

It's reported that the total revenues of Taiwan LED makers listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange (TSE) reached NT$5.7 billion (US$177 million) in January, up 1.8% from NT$5.6 billion last December. Downstream packaging makers saw their total revenues reach NT$3.36 billion, up 3% sequentially, while LED chip makers totaled revenues of NT$2.34 billion, up 0.1% sequentially.

A metal core printed circuit board (MCPCB) laminate for LED applications has been announced by Laird Technologies. The innovative environmentally-friendly new T-lam SS LLDlaminate is designed to keep bright and ultra-bright LED light engines burning brighter, longer and uniformly, says the company.T-lam SS LLD features a copper circuit layer and aluminium base plate bonded together with the company's T-lam LLD dielectric. T-lam SS LLD laminates are processed through standard circuit board manufacturing and assembly processes.

On February 19, Leadis Technology announced sample availability of the LDS8860, a new charge-pump based 6-channel LED driver that implements the company's proprietary PowerLite(TM) Current Regulator to deliver up to 91% power efficiency for longer battery life.

Although LED’s power saving efficiency is higher than ordinary light sources, it can not be connected directly to public grid voltage like those ordinary ones. It should be configured with special voltage switching device which can supply it with rated voltage and current, providing a sound condition for it to function in normally. That is the so-called special power supply for LED.

The inventor of the light emitting diode (LED) is set to join the inventor of the original light bulb when he is inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame.Nick Holonyack, who developed the first practical LED, will enter the pantheon which welcomed Thomas Edison when it first opened in 1973.

Strategies Unlimited predicts that the LED industry is emerging from a slow growth phase, and that the total market size in 2012 will exceed $11bn. According to a market update presented by Bob Steele at the 2008 Strategies in Light conference in Santa Clara, California, the market for packaged high-brightness LEDs is set to grow by 12% in 2008. Steele said that the market grew by 9.5% in 2007 to reach $4.6 billion, somewhat higher than the 6% growth in 2005 and 2006.