Japanese component manufacturer Rohm Semiconductor will begin selling LED-based lighting fixtures for offices and commercial facilities in March, according to a recent report. It’s disclosed that the company will sell five types of LED light fixtures, each shaped like an incandescent or fluorescent light and containing several hundred of Rohm's 1-3 mm sq. LED chips. The company had prototype versions of the fixtures on its booth at the Electronica tradeshow in November 2008 (see photo).

Opto Tech Corp. and Nichia Corp. will go further on LED cooperation, with Nichia pledging to increase supply of LED chips to its partner in return for Opto Tech’s commitment to making its chips on a contract basis and selling more of Nichia-branded chips to packagers.

Cree, Inc.announces that it has entered into an exclusive patent license agreement, subject to some exceptions, with Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation (MCC), a well-known and respected materials supplier.

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.

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.

Rohm Co Ltd has developed the SML-L1 and SML-J1 series of side-view and top-view high-output surface-mount LEDs designed to provide autofocus flash functionality and auxiliary lighting in low light conditions for increasingly compact digital still and video cameras.

AIXTRON AG, a leading provider of deposition equipment to the semiconductor industry, is pleased to announce an order for a MOCVD system from Showa Denko K.K., a Japan based leading manufacturer of Ultra-High-Brightness (UHB) LEDs received in the first quarter 2008.

Cypress Semiconductor Corp. announced its intelligent lighting solutions - PSoC Designer(TM) 5.0 visual design software and the CY3265N-RGB evaluation kit support the Power LED series from Nichia Corporation.

Lumidas Japan Co Ltd exhibited a number of "LumiDas" series LED lighting products developed and manufactured by Fawoo Technology Co Ltd of Korea at Eco-Products 2008 (from Dec 11 to 13, 2008, at Tokyo Big Sight in Chiba Prefecture, Japan).

Recently, Japan semiconductor manufacturer Rohm developed LED backlight driver ICs that incorporate an ultra-compact wafer-level chip scale package (WL-CSP), which are designed for small 1.6- to 4-inch LCDs in portable devices requiring high efficiency for maximum battery life.

Yesterday, Panasonic Electric Works Co Ltd released a trimless LED lighting device — "Everleds Trimless Universal Downlight" in Japan.

Panasonic Electric Works Co Ltd is gearing up to stimulate demand for LED lighting, to replace incandescent lamps used in commercial facilities with bulb type fluorescent lamps and LED lamps.

The biggest obstacle of improving LED NB's penestration rate is the high cost of LED backlight modules. The price of LED backlight modules is still 70% higher than CCFL backlight. The reason why a LED backlight module remains highly priced is the issues of its brightness and patent. Therefore though LED NB has created a big market, not every LED maker can take advantages from it. LED VS.CCFL

It’s reported JVC will unveil its new LED billboard next month that will be the first true 720p high definition display in New York’s Times Square.

It’s reported that Sharp Corporation and Nichia Corporation have entered into a patent cross-licensing agreement covering LEDs and laser diodes to respond to market demand for LED lighting products and Blu-ray Disc recorders.

Last Saturday, 4.5 million LEDs lit up the Nabana no Sato theme park of Kuwana, Japan, kicking off their annual Winter Light Show that runs until March 8th. The theme of this year is one of flowers, illuminated in 64 billion colors that actually resemble a river more than a field of blooming plants.                

It’s reported that Panasonic Electric Works Co Ltd will launch about 300 kinds of new LED lighting products in spring 2009 to strengthen its LED lighting business.

Recently, Tokyo Electron Device Ltd has launched an RGB LED control driver - the TE7118PF, for LED control applications such as LCD backlights, indoor LED lightings, and LED illumination lights. The TE7118PF can handle high voltages and has a constant-current output in the range 5mA to 30mA which can be configured via an external resistor.

Though in 2008 the penetration rate of LED NB is lower than expected, but in order to make their notebooks lighter, thinner and more energy-saving, many big branded manufacturers speed up to bring LED backlight into their NB. LEDinside projects the penetration rate of LED NB will be as high as 60.3% in 2010. The progress of LED backlight ‘s application on NB is slower than expected

It’s reported that Nittoh Kogaku KK exhibited an LED light source module for use in low-power advertising signage as a reference at Kogen (light source) 2008, an exhibition that took place at Pacifico Yokohama from Oct 22 to 24, 2008.

The residential zone, "Azabu no Oka," is located in Miyoshicho, Aichi Prefecture, Japan, and developed by Toyota Smile Life Inc. The roads and pathways in the zone, which has 204 housing plots, will be illuminated by LED lamps. It will take some time before the entire subdivision is completed, but LED lamps have been used since the start of the project.

It’s reported that India's US$1.5 billion lighting industry is growing 15% a year and bringing in new technologies. At the Light India International Exhibition and Conference early in 2008, the focus was on saving energy in lighting and the spotlight was on LEDs.

It’s reported that Taiyo Yuden Co Ltd exhibited a high-speed wireless communication system at CEATEC JAPAN 2008. It’s disclosed that utilizes a white LED.

It’s reported that Sumita Optical Glass Inc and Toyoda Gosei Co Ltd developed a glass-packaged white LED and showcased it at CEATEC JAPAN 2008.

it’s reported that Sony has an entire wall of its 11-inch XEL-1 OLED TVs set up here at Ceatec 2008, but in contrast with past gadget shows, it's not the only company showing off OLED prototypes. Panasonic may have said earlier this week that OLED is still far from becoming a mass-produced mainstream technology for use in big-screen TVs, but other electronics makers are plowing ahead with their own research on the organic, thin film technology: NEC, Sony, and KDDI showed off what they've been doing with OLED in their research labs.

On October 1, 2008, Korea Intellectual Property Tribunal ("KIPT") ruled that a patent, related to LED element, (Patent # KP 491482, hereinafter "'482 patent") owned by Nichia Corporation ("Nichia) is invalid based on lack of inventiveness.

In the IFA 2008, many manufacturers introduced LED TVs to show their capability of combining LED and TV technology.SamsungFor example, Samsung introduced the A950 series, which supports Full HD(1920*1080) with screens made 46 or 55 inches, and adopts LED back light, which can control the brightness more efficiently.Sony

Why use LED backlight？A few days ago in the IFA 2008 hosted in Berlin，many of the branded TV manufacturers introduced LED-backlighted TVs(LED TV)，aimed at the top layer of customers. Some leading manufacturers such as Sony and Samsung already introduced LED TV in 2006，but with the costs of LED have decreased and the LED technology has progressed rapidly, LED TV has moved toward a real product rather than just a demonstration of technology.

Sharp Corporation will introduce into the Japanese market two models of solar-powered LED street lights that combine Sharp’s proprietary solar (photovoltaic) modules and high-intensity, long-life white LEDs (light emitting diodes). The LN-LW3A1 Solar-Powered LED Street Light delivers brightness at the industry’s highest level (instrument-measured luminous flux: 1,800 lumens) rivaling the light output from a regular 32-W fluorescent security light (which uses six compact fluorescent tubes) that is becoming the dominant product for this application.

Recently, Sony Corp announced a new product line of Bravia LCD TVs including the XR1 series, which has an RGB LED backlight unit. The company said that the XR1 series offers "the highest picture quality in the history of Bravia," and also has an extremely wide color gamut of 122% NTSC. It is scheduled for release on Oct 10, 2008, many of the details have yet to be released.