This week Bridgelux announced it has sealed a deal to be acquired by CEC, but did not disclose CEC’s offer. LEDinside team believes Epistar would benefit from this recent acquisition, with LED orders being kept within affiliated Epistar companies. Bridgelux CEO also spoke to LEDinside about the impact from the recent acquisition.

Nichia is taking a very strong approach in its latest legal actions taken against Everlight. After announcing the German court has asked Everlight from refraining from using misleading or untruthful interview content about Nichia’s YAG patent status, the company followed up by enforcing its new YAG patent against Everlight in Germany a day later.

According to LEDinside’s latest report Nichia once again has the greatest market share in China’s LED package market in 2014, while U.S. LED manufacturer Cree rankings drop to fourth place. Some of the important picks for last week include the impact from China’s volatile stock market on Chinese LED manufacturers. Several major Chinese LED manufacturers including San’an Opto have suspended trade on the Chinese bourse, due to upcoming acquisitions or repurchase company shares to stabilize bourse performance.

Osram has entered talks with potential buyers of its lighting business, a couple of Chinese players Foshan Lighting, NVC, and Yankon Lighting have been named as companies that have shown interest. ABB is collaborating with Philips to bring smart lighting into homes in China. Several interesting research have emerged this week. Astronauts might be able to start their own vegetable gardens in space ships in the future, with specific wavelength LED grow lights from the University of Purdue. Another research team from Denmark are predicting nanowires could become the future technology for LEDs. Lastly, research on new optic designs and devices could enable future smartphones to be equipped with photosensors that determine whether a person has diabetes or pregnant. Epistar Chairman B.J. Lee outlined three major market trends at a shareholders meeting in Taipei, Taiwan this week. Lee projected the company’s orders would rebound in 3Q15, and that the number of newly added MOCVDs would reach 250 this year. He also shed light on Lumileds future market strategy following Go Scale Capital investment.

Cree LED business will undergo restructures, which the company estimates will cost a total US $85 million. According to Roger Chu, Director, Research Division, LEDinside, the company has been hurt by LED bulb price wars. Startup 3D LED company Aledia has successfully completed its round B financing, and has been backed by IKEA GreenTech and automotive lighting company Valeo. Valeo has a 10% stake in Aledia, and appears to be interested in using 3D LED technology in its future automotive lighting products. Merck continues to show interest in OLED technology and has invested in another manufacturing plant in Germany. The company aims to become one of the leading OLED material companies by 2018.

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.

In an exclusive interview with LEDinside, Osram Opto speaks about its outlook for LEDs in the wearable application market. LEDinside’s latest report on IR LED market for surveillance applications reaches $ 120 million in 2015. Cree recalls some 700,000 LED T8 tube lights in U.S. and Canada. Philips Hue to be included in Apple HomeKit by September this year. A GE survey indicates the UK government is not doing enough to upgrade to more efficient electronic products.

The Zhaga Consortium adds new interface Book 9 specification. GE is joining Philips low LED bulb pricing strategies in the U.S. with three 60W LED bulb pack priced under US $10. Osram highlights important lighting designs to look out for in automotive lighting. Fujifilm and imec unveil new OLED technology We wrap up LED Expo Thailand with smart and innovative lighting designs.

Editorial Note: LEDinside’s editorial team would like to apologize for the delayed weekly picks over the last two weeks, we will be back on track of posting the weekly picks on Friday this week.

LEDinside was covering one of the largest LED tradeshows in Southeast Asia, LED Expo Thailand 2015 last week, and there will be more upcoming articles on the show and market trends this week.

This has been a rather slow week for the LED industry. LEDinside has released latest reports for LED package and bulb prices. LED package prices have slid over the past months as market intensifies, and more manufacturers are moving to more profitable industries. In the LED bulb market, Chinese market is seeing a price uptick as lower quality products exit the market.

Osram is definitely showcasing how it is exploring more profitable niche markets, such as the launch of green LEDs for heart rate monitoring in wearable devices. LEDinside thinks Osram might have been Apple Watch’s green LED supplier, due to the many similarities in the product features.

Nichia plans to appeal Michigan jury decision to invalidate LED patents. Everlight's victory in the U.S. court could take down Nichia patent barrier in the North America market, and open up the export market gates for Asian LED manufacturers, said LEDinside analysts. The company also announced it had won two patent infringement lawsuits respectively the joint lawsuit filed by Everlight and Emcore, and a second lawsuit by Bluestone Innovation.

Some bad news for manufacturers vying the lucrative European lighting market. The EU, sadly has decided to extend the halogen bulb ban to 2018, which could affect LED sales somewhat. World’s second largest lighting manufacturer Osram sent shockwaves throughout the industry with the announcement it was spinning off its luminaire business including traditional lighting business CBL and LED lamp business LLS. Osram is believed to be focusing on automotive lighting technologies, and other specialty lighting in the near future, while keeping LED chip and package business Osram Opto running, according to LEDinside’s understanding.

Two interesting market rumors about OLED applications have emerged this week, the first being OLED taillights developed by Osram might be mass produced for the upcoming BMW M2 in 2016. A Korean media report is also pointing to Apple’s introduction of OLED displays in next generation iPads to be released in 2017.

LEDinside team finally gets a chance to meet the Father of Blue LED, Shuji Nakamura, at a special Epistar event. Nobel Laureate Nakamura and Steven DenBaars, a fellow colleague at College of Engineering at UCSB, point out the future of LED lighting technology will be GaN-on-GaN, and that laser emerge as the upcoming next generation lighting to replace LEDs.

Much to the industry’s surprise, Philips Lumileds was sold to Asian consortium led by Chinese investment firm GO Scale Capital Investment. The investment firm, which also invests in several Chinese LED companies, has acquired 80.1% of Lumileds shares. This development will likely assist Chinese LED market developments.

LEDinside team was at TILS 2015 for most of this week, so apologies for the low article volume. There will be more articles coming up next week about some of the trending technologies and products at the show, so please stay tuned for more. Philips is working on a Philips Hue App for the Apple Watch, which allows the smart watch to also work as a controller.

A surprising contender has emerged in the bid for Philips Lumileds and automotive lighting business this week. Chinese startup Lattice Power seems to have submitted a bid price, which the company CEO Min Wang appears to have indirectly admitted. At the moment, the odds seem to be in favor of private equity firms CVC and KKR, who are offering to buy 80% of the lighting component business for $2.7 billion.

Nichia has announced its product lineup for 2015 will include ELEDS, its first flip chip LEDs by the end of 2015. The new chip will be much smaller than existing products on the market. The company will also be launching new UV LED, red phosphor and laser diode based products. LEDinside projects Chinese sapphire industry will pick up as Apple Watch hits the markets. The price tag for the gold Watch Edition is a bank breaking $10,000. Sharp refutes claims last week that it will be withdrawing from the solar industry, or LED residential lighting market. TrendForce PV specialist observes the company will continue solar operations, but is transiting into an integrated energy solution provider. Philips lighting component business, which comprises of Philips Lumileds and automotive lighting might be sold to private equity consortium CVC and KKR. Osram will be increasingly focused on service and maintenance business in the near future as it overhauls its traditional lighting business.

Sharp plans to withdraw from the money-losing solar business, and might be closing three LED plants as part of its electronic component business restructure plans.TCPI (TCP Lighting) general counselor Laura Hauser has filed complaints against the company CEO Ellis Yan, and the company itself for misusing UL label and other business misconduct. TCP’s shares have taken a hit since the announcement, and have plunged nearly 57%. The company is probing into Hauser’s claims.Samsung acquires YESCO Electronics and ventures further into U.S. LED display market.The upcoming Apple Spring Forward media event is putting speculation on Apple Watch spec and prices.Konica Minolta is on track to mass producing white and color tunable OLED panels, which the company claims can match LEDs energy efficacy.

Philips plans to issue IPO for lighting division, and implement a separate spin-off strategy for Philips Lumileds (lighting component business). Osram has appointed Jes Munk Hansen as the head for U.S. Classic Lamps and Ballast System Business. Opple’s is customizing products to grab market share in India. Crompton recalls its LED dimmable GLS Opal light bulbs over shock hazards.

LEDinside’s Senior Analyst Figo Wang gives an in-depth analysis of the sapphire substrate market trends in 2015. Despite of the blows from GTAT’s bankruptcy last year, the sapphire market will continue to grow next year. Korean manufacturer Samsung Display has not given up on OLED TVs yet, and will be injecting millions into the technology. MLS has recorded a very successful IPO recently, with shares being oversubscribed by nearly 88 times. The U.S. court has started investigations into whether Feit Electric and Unity Opto have infringed Cree patents as claimed in the complaint.

Last week leading Chinese LED chip manufacturer San’an Opto approved new MOCVD purchase methods, which will greatly boost the company’s production capacity to 200 MOCVDs (based on 2-inch sapphire wafer production capacity). Major European lighting brand Philips has added its 500 member to its LED luminaires and retrofit bulbs licensing program, while Osram is seeing a revenue uptick in 2015. For more please see below:

This week U.S. President Barrack Obama scales up nationwide LED streetlight upgrade plan, aiming for conversion of 1.5 million streetlights. Things don’t look too bright for Cree, as the company slashes 300 contract worker jobs. Philips is also facing a challenging year ahead, as the company’s 4Q14 revenue falls short of expectations, despite its LED business reporting consistent growth. On the bright side, Taiwanese and Chinese LED manufacturers have cast a fairly optimistic outlook for 2015, while Korean electronic company LG has made new breakthroughs in OLED technology.

TrendForce, which operates four research divisions including LEDinside, announced this week it has acquired Topology to become the biggest private technology market research institute in Taiwan. The U.S. DOE has been fairly active this week, having announced another round of funding opportunities for SSL industry. The Father of Blue LEDs, Shuji Nakamura, is betting on laser diodes to replace LEDs in the near future, while Japanese LED manufacturer Toyoda Gosei signs a white LED patent license agreements with Chinese LED manufacturer Jufei Opto. In terms of innovative applications, Japanese designer Kiyoyuki Amano has designed a skirt that highlights ladies thighs with LED lights.

Cree is bringing another Taiwanese LED manufacturer to court, as the company aims to maintain market dominance in U.S. The company has sued Unity Opto and its luminaire client Feit Electric for violating eight LED patents. By the end of the week, Cree created a huge shock in the LED industry with its low-priced new LED smart bulb, which is one of the first in the industry aimed at resolving long term incompatibility issues among different smart bulb operating platforms.

The Chinese central government’s policy of clamping down on local government subsidies in early December is expected to affect the LED industry subsidies too. LED industry insiders project the new policy will restore order to the overtly competitive Chinese LED market by edging out uncompetitive LED chip manufacturers. LEDinside has also released a series of reports this week that recap some of the major events and trends in the LED industry in 2014. For more please see below:

As 2014 comes to an end, a lot of Chinese LED manufacturers have found it increasingly difficult to survive. One Chinese manufacturer has even taken desperate measures to clear out inventory to repay debts by selling LED bulbs at less than US $1 per kilogram. Market rumors have also surfaced about Epistar’s acquisition of a major Samsung backlight order.

This week, LEDinside releases top 10 market trends to look out for in 2015. LG has decided to stick to OLED technology through thick and thin, and has established a new division dedicated to manufacturing OLED panels. Harvatek counterattacks Cree by filing a patent lawsuit against the leading U.S. manufacturer in court. In China, there are rising cases of people selling counterfeited luminaires, and CEOs on the run as companies become deeply indebted. For more please see below: