Recently, Larson Electronics ' Magnalight has launched an explosion proof LED light fixture with UL certification and a Class 1 Division 1 and 2 & Class 2 Division 1 & 2 explosion proof rating. This four foot long, four lamp LED light fixture replaces traditional fluorescent equipped fixtures and provides more light with less power consumption and enhanced durability as well as better contrast and good color rendering. The EPL-48-4L-LED light fixture from Magnalight is ideal for applications such as petrochemical processing, offshore marine operations...

In much of the United States, light pollution in cities and even the suburbs is so bad that "dark sky tourism" is a rising trend, as Americans seek out the stars their ancestors took for granted. Next month, New Yorkers will get an unusual view of the night sky, without a visit to a dark sky park. 201 LED lights in the Hudson River will "reflect" the stars above New York City that no one can see. The LEDs, which are solar-powered, will be installed on the wood posts at Pier 49. The exhibition, called "Reflecting the Stars," is part of C...

A controversial new blue lighting scheme for Southampton’s iconic Itchen Bridge will be switched on tonight. The landmark 1970s bridge will turned into a beacon as it is bathed in pale blue light. The lighting scheme is part of a massive £1m-plus overhaul of the 62,000-tonne bridge which has seen street lights replaced with 34 new white-light columns that also emit blue LED background light. The lighting is being installed as part of a £28.5m contract with Southern Electric Contracting to replace around half the road signs, bollards and orange street l...

Larson Electronics’ Magnalight.com announced today the release of the HAL-EMG-48-2L-LED hazardous location LED light with emergency backup capability and Class 1 Division 2 ratings for Groups A, B, C and D. This LED fixture offers more light than comparable fluorescent fixtures, and includes a battery backup system that will continue light operation in the event of power failure. The HAL-EMG-48-2L-LED Hazardous Area LED Light Fixture for industrial and commercial lighting applications contains LED tube lamps that produce more light tha...

Power Integrations has launched a new reference design for a 25-watt LED T8 tube ballast power supply. Notable for industry-leading efficiency of greater than 91%, the design (DER-287) also meets commercial requirements for power factor (PF greater than 0.9) and harmonic distortion (EN61000-3-2 Class C). DER-287 is a single-stage converter built around LNK409EG, a member of the LinkSwitch-PH family of LED driver ICs. Single-stage technology greatly increases product lifetime by eliminating the opto-isolators and large aluminum electrolytic input bulk capacit...

LED manufacturers are developing products that integrate functions like multiple diodes for higher output, ballasts, drivers, voltage converters and interfaces for dimmers. According to Strategy Analytics GaAs and Compound Semiconductor Technologies Service (GaAs), “Compound Semiconductor Industry Review May 2011: Optoelectronics, Materials and Equipment,” captures the product, technology, contract and financial announcements for companies such as Aixtron, Riber, Cree, Philips Lumileds, GigOptix, Emcore, Opnext, JDSU, Oclaro and GT Solar ...

Sources inform that Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.’s LED subsidiary, TSMC Solid State Lighting Ltd. , is likely to acquire the GaN-on-Silicon technology recently launched by Bridgelux. Reportely, Bridgelux CEO Bill Watkins stated that the company would work with a well-known chipmaker on LED manufacturing using the latest technology to pare down cost and increase profit. Based on the statement, Taiwan’s press media associated the unspecified chipmaker with TSMC. With Bridgelux’s new technology, LED makers can produce...

Rubicon Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ:RBCN), a leading provider of sapphire substrates and products to the LED, RFIC, Semiconductor, and Optical industries, today announced that the company has completed a company-wide installation of enhancements to its proprietary crystal growth furnaces bringing all furnaces up to Rubicon Furnace Version ES2-XLG3.0. This is the latest version of the company’s proprietary furnace design for the production of high quality, large diameter sapphire material and provides even greater automation and yield consistency.   &nb...

Acuity Brands Inc. Latest bought lighting control research and development company Horizon Control Inc. for an undisclosed amount. Pennsylvania-based Horizon Control’s technology is used in lighting control consoles for theaters, theme parks, convention centers, hotels, museums, cruise ships and other public spaces. “The rapid expansion of LED lighting and other emerging technologies makes integrated lighting control increasingly pivotal in our ability to deliver high-quality, customer-focused solutions,” said Vernon J. Nagel, chairman, president and ...

The U.S. Department of Energy recently challenged the brightest minds in the light bulb industry to develop high performance, energy-saving replacements for traditional incandescent light bulbs, with an eye towards cash savings for the American public. Now Phillips Lighting North America has been the winner of this challenge, known as the L-Prize, for its LED light bulb. The L Prize competition was launched in 2008 to target the ever-so-popular 60-watt bulb, which represents roughly half of the domestic incandescent light bulb market.  According to Philips, if ev...

IMS Research has released the MOCVD chapters of its 300-page “Quarterly LED Supply and Demand Report” which reveals significant shifts in MOCVD adoption for LED manufacturing. In June, the previous quarter’s report lowered the annual GaN LED revenue growth forecast to just 4% to $8.7B on rapid 1H’11 ASP reductions from a rising surplus, slower LCD and LED panel growth and the lighting market not yet cost competitive. With growth slowing, margins shrinking, the oversupply worsening and credit in China tighter than expected,...

LUXEON Rebel LEDs are at the heart of the winning L Prize bulb from Philips as well as dozens of different retrofit bulbs being sold around the world today. “Our success with the L Prize is tangible proof of superior performance under real-world operating conditions,” said Steve Barlow, Sr. VP Sales and Marketing at Philips Lumileds. “LUXEON has quickly become the LED of choice when quality, efficiency, reliability, and performance, are essential to our customers’ retrofit bulb requirements.” The company’s Illumina...

American Lighting, an innovative manufacturer and distributor of lighting technologies for residential, commercial and specialty markets, has added a slim, low profile LED tape light to its growing LED product line – the LED FlexForm 30 and 60. With a price point of at least 40 percent less than similar LED linear lighting options, the versatile FlexForm’s low-cost makes it a viable option for many lighting applications. Suitable for under cabinet, cove, and back lighting, the LED FlexForm’s slim 3/32-inch high by 13/32-inch wide profile mounts e...

Cree has made a one-off light bulb technology demonstrator, pulling out all the stops to exceed performance goals set by the US Department of Energy (DOE) for its '21st century lamp' concept, writes Steve Bush. Made by the firm's research and development team, the lamp delivers more than 1,300 lumens at 152 lm/W with good colour rendering and warm white emission. "Not long ago, fixture efficacy of 100+ lm/W was impossible, but Cree is shipping fixtures at 110 lm/W today," said Cree co-founder Neal Hunter, "We calculate that if fully deploy...

Bridgelux, the trailblazer of white LEDs grown on 200 mm silicon, has recently made tremendous progress in improving device efficacy. 1.5 mm by 1.5 mm cool-white LEDs produced in the labs of the Californian outfit can now deliver 160 lm/W at 350 mA, a gain of 25 lm/W compared to the company’s best devices reported this March. What’s more, warm-white LEDs of the same size show an even bigger improvement at the same drive current – efficacy is now 125 lm/W, compared to 85 lm/W five months ago. “The performance levels that we have announced are t...

SmartWatt Energy recently completed a LED lighting retrofit at Americold’s temperature-controlled storage facility in Russellville AR. The project generates higher-quality lighting while reducing overall lighting-related energy consumption by 690,000 kilowatt-hours—this is equivalent to removing more than 95 cars from Arkansas roadways. Not only has Americold generated better lighting with significant, ongoing cost savings, but these upgrades to its lighting system are also eligible for incentive payments from Entergy Arkansas Inc’s Large Commercial &a...

Bridgelux expects to begin making LED chips on silicon wafers in about two years, a technology transition which promises to slash LED lighting costs. The company today announced it has met performance targets for the new process which it projects could lower the cost of end-user lighting products by roughly 20 percent to 30 percent. Bridgelux manufactures LED light sources, or chips, which are fitted into lamps and fixtures made by lighting companies. LEDs are more energy efficient and last longer than other lighting technologies, but the higher cost remains a barrier to...

Acuity Brands, Inc., a market leader in innovative energy-efficient lighting and control solutions, is pleased to announce that its acculamp™ AR111 LED Lamp has received TheLEDAward for Best Specialty Incandescent Replacement Lamp at the recently concluded “TheLEDShow” 2011 in Las Vegas. “TheLEDShow” has become an annual event showcasing the lighting industry’s technology progress and expanding selection of products with LED light sources. TheLEDAward was established to recognize participating LED manufacturers tha...

AVX Corporation, a manufacturer of advanced passive components and interconnect solutions, has developed two new series of connectors for LED lighting systems that maintain the same luminosity and light intensity as florescent strip lights. The standard length of most fluorescent lights is 1.2m, and currently it is impossible to reflow-mount LEDs on such a long printed circuit board placed in the fitting. As a result, the lighting strip is divided into shorter lengths joined by connectors. AVX's new 9608 Series LED lighting connector and 9609 Series LED backlight c...

Lumenpulse, a manufacturer of high performance, architectural LED-based lighting solutions for commercial, institutional, and urban environments based in Montreal and Boston, announced today that it has completed a $16 million Series A equity and debt round, which includes a loan and line of credit from Silicon Valley Bank. Participants in the equity portion of the filing included the company’s management, the board of directors and private investors. Founded in 2006, Lumenpulse is establishing a leadership position within the LED fixtures market based on significan...

Illumitex, Inc. announced today that it has signed a Strategic Alliance Agreement with Gerard Lighting Group Limited(ASX:GLG). In addition, GLG has invested $3 million into Illumitex for a small minority interest as part of the LED company’s latest round of private equity financing. Under the strategic agreement, effective immediately, GLG will become the exclusive general lighting integrator and distributor of Illumitex’s innovative LED products in Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific Islands. “Gerard Lighting’s commitmen...

Energy Focus has been awarded a $23 million Navy supply contract to provide LED fixtures and its proprietary IntelliTube LED lamps for use on the U.S. Navy fleet. "EFOI's advances in LED technology will allow the Navy to save 50-90% of their lighting energy cost," said Roger Buelow, Energy Focus CTO. The majority of the contract includes sales of fixtures using the company's new IntelliTube(TM) lamps, which are intelligent plug and play LED lamps to replace the existing linear fluorescent tube lamps used in most of the Navy's ...

Lunera is borrowing a page from California's fast-growing rooftop solar industry. On Thursday, it plans to unveil a lease-to-purchase program that lets commercial building owners retrofit their lighting for no money down. The lease is believed to be the first in the commercial lighting sector. Lunera offers a five-year lease-to-purchase agreement with fixed monthly payments. The tenant or building owner owns the lighting fixtures, which means they, not Lunera, reap the benefits of tax depreciation. Lunera sees a strong market for its lease in cities along the East and We...

Bridgelux Inc. has raised $60 million in a Series E round of venture capital funding. They would use the money to accelerate R&D in key areas including GaN-on-Silicon development and LED chip-on-board packaging. "Craton Equity Partners is a top growth-stage investor in clean tech, and we welcome their support as we work to expand the market for solid state solutions for general lighting - which we expect to triple this year to over $3 billion," said Bill Watkins, Bridgelux's CEO, in a statement issued by Craton....

Kyma’s  new n+ GaN substrate product line will boast a bulk resistivity specification of  < 0.02 Ω -cm, which is two orders of magnitude lower in resistivity than Kyma’s previously offered n-type GaN. What’s more, Kyma has successfully produced n+ bulk GaN wafers with measured carrier concentrations of up to 6 x 1018cm-3and corresponding bulk resistivities of < 0.005 Ω –cm.  The firm’s n-type GaN product is still being offered and, for distinction, is being relabelled as n- GaN (“nminus” GaN). I...

Cree revealed a new LED light bulb that boasts the same output as a 75-watt incandescent bulb while consuming about one tenth of the electricity. The bulb produces 152 lumens, producing around 1,300 lumens using Cree’s new “TrueWhite” technology, exceeds the performance goals set by the U.S. Department of Energy’s L Prize competition. They could reduce energy usage in the United States by 16.5 percent. Cree did not indicate how much the new light bulb would cost. In general, LED lighting is still much too expensive for typical consumers ...

Recently, Cree has revealed a new XLamp XT-E Royal Blue LED, which is optimized for use in remote-phosphor lighting and other applications with similar requirements. XLamp XT-E Royal Blue LED Cree says its new XLamp XT-E LED delivers the industry’s tightest wavelength bins to simplify remote-phosphor designs and lower system costs. What’s more, Cree is announcing a remote-phosphor-component patent licensing program, providing access to Cree’s pioneering remote-phosphor patents. The program is to drive the LED lighting revolu...

More electrical contractors are publicizing their knowledge of LED to offer new lighting options. With 60 to 80 percent of electrical contractors now directly influencing or specifying lighting brands, a creative blend of traditional lighting with fast-emerging LEDs solves lighting challenges and meets green requirements. According to John Maisel, publisher, Electrical Contractor by the National Electrical Contractors Association (NECA), 40 percent of our readers’ lighting projects are design/build. They educate how to bring value to their customers. MS E...

LUXEON Rebel LEDs were recognized with in Paris, France with the Electron D’Or award from ElectroniqueS. Thirteen innovative products in different categories were recognized for excellence. With new combinations of correlated color temperature (CCT) and color rendering (CRI) for white LEDs as well as a broadening of the color portfolio, LUXEON Rebel LEDs are uniquely positioned to meet the needs of the lighting community. Complete information about the LUXEON Rebel portfolio, the award winning LUXEON A and LUXEON S illum...

Currently, Las Vegas is replacing 6,600 conventional streetlight bulbs with LED fixtures. According to the City officials,the change will cut the city energy bill by $400,000 each year and reduce the city's annual electricity use by 8 million kilowatt hours. The first phase is beginning in the Ward 2 neighborhood near Charleston Boulevard and Durango Drive. The city plans to replace 50,000 bulbs in all six wards over the next four months. Funding comes from $2.9 million in federal energy conservation bonds and $400,000 from a state of Nevada federal stimulus gra...