It’s reported that Japanese consumer electronics maker Sharp Corp announced it aims to generate sales of $1.8 billion from LED market by the business year to March 2013. Moreover, Sharp would enter the lighting gear market with energy-saving LED technology to establish a new earnings pillar in addition to its flat panel and solar cell businesses this month.

Recently, Matsushita Electric Works Ltd released insect-repellent lighting equipment-LED Light Up Lighting Equipment, whose "insect attraction index" is about two-thirds lower compared with the product of the same luminance. The company released two white-color types and two light bulb-color types of the lighting equipment Aug 25, 2008, in Japan.

It’s reported that the Bandai Group's Seeds Corp developed a LED lamp, through a cylindrical shade made of tracing paper or Japanese paper, looks like a burning and flickering candle.

Recently, Japan's Toshiba Corp and Matsushita joint venture to develop OLED displays with the world's longest product life span and lowest power consumption. The venture has developed the new panel in cooperation with Idemitsu Kosan Co, a Japanese oil refiner active in OLED materials development.

The use of LEDs for the backlight's light source has created new business opportunities in the maturing NB panel market. In contrast to CCFLs, white LEDs provide higher color saturation and are mercury-free and less power-consuming--making them more environmentally friendly.   

It’s reported that Showa Denko of Japan, a maker of hard disks and red LEDs, halted plans to expand production of the LEDs and hard disks.According to a Nikkei Net article, in December of 2007, Showa Denko announced plans to double its red aluminum gallium indium phosphide (AlGaInP) LED production to 200 million units per at its operations in Chichibu, Saitama Prefecture by the end of 2008, and the company was planning to spend about 1.2 billion yen to raise the red LED production capacity.

Recently, at Rubicon Technology’s 2Q08 earnings conference call with industry analysts, the company's president and CEO discussed the future of the LED market. 

It’s reported that Sharp is introducing 6 new downlights and 5 new oblong/square energy-efficient LED fixtures for factories, offices, and commercial spaces to the Japanese market.  

It's reported that a 40-inch target is mass-produced and ready for retail in the same time frame. As always, Panasonic simply confirms that they're investing heavily into the tech and goes about their business.

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. will begin test production of next-generation displays for TVs next year with plans for commercial output as early as 2011. Competition is heating up among the world's electronics makers, including Japanese rival Sony Corp. and Samsung Electronics Co. of South Korea, in OLED, or organic light-emitting diode, displays.

It's reported Toshiba Corp. and Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. Ltd. said that they will mass produce next-generation organic displays, spending roughly $140 million to cash in on the growing market for the ultra-thin screens On July 22.

It's reported TOKYO (AP) -- Toshiba Corp. and Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. will start making next-generation displays at their joint plant by the second half of 2009.

Recently, Toshiba released new LED lights that are shaped like midget reflector and beam lamps.LED-based midget Reflector and Beam Lamps can be used with the existing light bulb sockets without any special adjustment because they have the E26 base. The new lights use Nichia Corp's LED. The light source comes in two types, with one incandescent and the other white. They are expected to be used as the illumination lighting for signboards, facilities and shops.

Recently, Japanese LED maker Nichia Corporation has filed a patent infringement lawsuit in Germany against its Korean rival, Seoul Semiconductor Co. Ltd. The lawsuit claims that Seoul's Acriche series white LED product infringes the Nichia patent EP(DE)622858. Seoul's German subsidiary, Seoul Semiconductor Europe GmbH, and its German distributor, Conrad Electronic SE, are also listed in the lawsuit, which seeks injunctive relief and compensation for damages.

Recently, Intellectual Property Bank Corp (IPB) has announced its "Applicant Score Rankings" based on the company's proprietary benchmarks for technical competitiveness of manufacturers engaged in the LED lighting system business. According to IPB, a company that provides consulting related to intellectual property, Nichia Corp is the top manufacturer on a basis of competitive technology in the LED lighting system area.

The latest notebook from Toshiba, the Portege R500-SP209C, includes a number of proposed "world's firsts", including a 128 GB solid-state drive, transreflective LED display, and 7 mm DVD SuperMulti drive.

Four consumer electronics companies, including Sony and Sanyo Electric, have settled a complaint that they were infringing a patent on semiconductors related to LEDs and laser diodes used in products such as mobile phones, billboards, Blu-ray disc players and data storage devices, according to lawyers for the patent holder.  

TFT LCD Modules Feature Replaceable LED Backlights, High Brightness and Low Power Consumption

It's reported that Toshiba America Electronic Components Inc. (TAEC) has rolled a new color active-matrix TFT-LCD module product lineup for industrial applications that incorporates long-life LED backlighting systems.Developed by Toshiba Matsushita Display Technology Co. Ltd, the modules are designed to meet the requirements of a broad range of industrial applications, such as test and measurement equipment, medical equipment and portable handheld computing devices utilizing the latest LED backlighting technology.

Future Lighting Solutions, a division of Future Electronics, Inc., with NEC Electronics America, Inc., today introduced the world’s first intelligent constant High-Current Driver (HCD) with microcontroller (MCU). The new HCD/LED MCU can be used in lighting applications that employ multiple LEDs, in addition to industrial control applications such as stepping motors, solenoid drives, and switch-mode power supplies.

Mitsubishi Electric, the Official High-Definition Television and the Official Large Outdoor Video Display Provider of the PGA TOUR, is supplying 11 additional state-of-the-art Diamond Vision(TM: 105.66, +0.54, +0.51%) LED high-definition scoreboards for PGA TOUR events. This completes the TOUR's initiative to upgrade the scoreboard technology to provide a better on-site experience for fans.

LED and CCFL NB have a price gap of 50%, but such gap is expected to narrow soon. LEDinside recently has gathered further information about NB with LED backlight on the market. Until February 2008, prices of LED NB range from US$2,100 to US$3,100, while CCFL NB equipped with similar hardware cost $1,280 to $2,000. CCFL NB and LED NB have a price gap of at least 50% (indicated in Figure 1), says LEDinside. Although with advantages in weights, sizes and energy consumption, it is still quite costly to have an environmental, energy-saving and light LED NB.

With industry restructuring and energy-saving awareness, LED applications have extended to handset backlights, auto lighting, notebooks, LCD TV and even indoor lighting. However, several challenges remain. LED for notebooks are still waiting for technical breakthroughs, and only first-rate manufacturers have the capability to produce LCD TV with LED backlights. Affected by budget cell phone program inventory, LED market in 2006 was mediocre, and the legacy has lasted to 2007.

The Consumer Electronics Show (CES) show, a lot of product launched withLED backlight technology, which is energy saving and better color capacity.LED backlight technology-based LCD screen will be will be new focus product this year, the future desktop computer screen will be lighter, thinner and more energy-efficient.

Since the second half of 2007, NB panels with white LED backlight has been increasingly popular because it’s thinner, lighter and more energy-saving and more portable. Environment protection is another concern among customers, which encourages many NB manufacturers to adopt LED without mercury as backlight. Especially since Apple announced to produce all NB with LED backlight in May 2007, many others follow suit.

Currently, LCD panel’s market is facing fluctuating on its pricing. After those dominate manufacturers are competing each other to promote themselves to next generation product line, the trend is increasing their ratio on using LED backlight module.

In CEATEC JAPAN 2007 exhibited recently in Japan , Japanese electronics giant SONY Corp announced the LED LCDTV back light module technology used in the latest 70-inch module of BRAVIA LCD TV . As one of the leader brands of LCD TV, SONY’s choice of back light module technology will certainly cause some influence to the industry, especially the trend of LED modules used in high-end LCD TV and designs of periphreals. It’s possible that the most common strategy might be mimicking SONY, SAMSUNG and SHARP.