As a leading national supplier of occupational, health and safety equipment, MedSafe’s primary distribution facility near Houston, TX is strategically located to provide critical disaster relief supplies in the aftermath of a hurricane or tropical Gulf Coast storm. But, this optimum location frequently puts the facility itself in the direct path of severe weather.

Recently, Japan's Sumitomo Electric Industries Ltd. is said to develop the world’s first 6-inch diameter gallium nitride (GaN) substrates for white LEDs. Presently, the white LED market has been growing using 2- to 4-inch sapphire substrates. As an alternative to sapphire, Sumitomo Electric began production of 2-inch diameter GaN substrates designed for use in white LEDs.

Based on low quality of all holiday LED light strings sold between Oct. 1 and Nov. 18, 2010, Home Depot has declared a voluntary recall.

Semtech Corp., has utilized its patent-pending, smart Automatic Dropout Prevention (ADP) technology to develop the industry’s first smart current sink LED backlighting platform , SC667 and SC668,with on-chip digital lighting effects for high-end handheld displays. This new platform is designed to replace boost converters and charge pumps in high-end handhelds, while providing high-quality display backlighting.

San Francisco-based LED lighting company, Elemental LED will kick off its first Cyber Monday sale which will discount all products by 35% for one day only, on Monday, November 29th, 2010, expecting to reduce costs of their products in order to make LED lighting accessible to a larger public.

The right lighting in stores has a very significant effect on how shoppers perceive merchandise and its attractiveness. Also exhibits in museums and galleries and at trade fairs only really show themselves to advantage when they are staged with the right lighting. With Startrack from OMS, OSRAM Opto Semiconductors equips a luminaire for the retail sector using high-performance Golden DRAGON Plus LED. These LEDs have impressive specifications and are small.

Solar LED lighting manufacturer Carmanah terminated merger with Lightech, a driver manufacturer based in Israel, but the reason was not clear. A leader of Carmanah said, the decision to terminate the Lightech agreement was a very difficult one, but after due deliberation, the Board of Directors determined that it was the only decision that could be made in light of the fact that the financing condition is incapable of being fulfilled by December 31, 2010.

Recently, Lite-On Technology (2301) reported that it has completed the world's first Optoelectronic Semiconductor Product Carbon Footprint Declaration and Environmental Product Declaration Type III, which a comprehensive Environmental Product Declaration and can be used as a base for improving the environmental impact of Lite-On's optoelectronics (LED) products.

Recently, a leader of Taiwan-based PTTC (passive device maker Polytronics Technology) noted, with lower demand, the company would delay the scheduled expansion to the end of 1Q11, which had planed to expand its monthly production ability for TCBs (thermal conductive boards) used in LED backlight units of LCD TVs to 100,000 square meters in the end of 2010.

Amtran Technology planed to enter the LED lighting market and would emphasize on family lightings. But until now, the company has no specific schedule for product release. It was said that LED had a share up to 10% in 2011 from 5% in 2010 in the global lighting market. Meanwhile, LED lighting market would start to strong competition in 2011.

Recently, it was reported that the time of BenQ’s launching own-brand products would move back to the first half of 2011 from the end of 2010. With the BenQ Group's original plan, it was to make Lextar Electronics set up an LED lighting brand and develop LED light bulbs, light bars and other products. But, Lextar has become an OEM partner. So, BenQ Group has chosen BenQ to run the LED lighting brand without conflict.

American Lighting has announced the launch of the good selling new, bright under-cabinet LED lights called the PRIORI PLUS LED. The energy-efficient LED offers a complete continuous dimming control for a light output of 100% to 0%.

IXYS Corporation has introduced an innovative inductor-less, high efficiency 1.2 A WLED driver, LDS8991, which is ideal for HB LED photoflash and torch for digital cameras, video cameras and smart phone. It can drive a HB LED at 1.2 A in FLASH mode or at 200 mA in TORCH mode, and provide full output power from a single-cell Lithium-Ion battery or supply voltage in the range from 2.7 to 5.5 V.

ON Semiconductor has announced the release of the CAT3649, a 6-channel, high efficiency Quad-Mode(R) LED driver coupled with Content Adaptive Brightness Control (CABC), to ensure market leading efficiency in LED backlighting using only external capacitors.

Luger Research e.U. announced that a new, international LED symposium and exhibition focusing on LED lighting science and technology will be held annually in Austria. “Since LED technology is developing so quickly it is essential for companies today to identify the key trends, recognize winning technologies and establish their own technology networks”, said Siegfried Luger, founder and CEO of Luger Research e.U.

Seoul Semiconductor Corporation has signed an agreement with Singapore-based Vertex Venture Management to join force to seek and invest in companies with advanced capabilities in the areas of LED technology development, expecting to create synergy effects from effective investments and asset management.

Cree has provided its LED Module LMR4 with Cree TrueWhiteTM Technology and versions featuring Cree EasyWhite TM solutions with Digi-Key Corporation to extend Digi-Key’s inventory. The Cree LED Module LMR4 uniquely integrates driver electronics, optics, and primary thermal management, making the compact module drop-in ready.

At present, BenQ invented a 3D LED-backlit LCD monitor-- the XL2410T, with formality entering the professional gamer market. BenQ noted that the monitor was specifically designed for professional gamers and had invited the champion of the World GameMaster Tournament (WGT) to join product development.

There are traffic lights used the concept LED Sand Glass, which can help you know exactly how much time is left.   LED lights trickle down in a virtual sand glass that countdowns how much more Red and Green there will be. When it approaches 3 seconds left, the LEDs switch to yellow and give you an exact count on what's left.

SEMI has set up a HB-LED standards committee, which initiated standards task forces on four critical areas of LED manufacturing: wafers, carriers, assembly and automation.   According to SEMI, ''Unlike silicon wafers used in semiconductor manufacturing, there currently are no industry standards addressing wafer geometries, surface characteristics, wafer ID, wafer orientation, and other features, resulting in costly proliferation of wafer types and styles. ''

Tokyo-based OKI Data Corporation has received the "15th Annual, Fall 2010 BERTL's BEST Awards" for four of its new digital LED printers.   Among these four printers ,the C530 and C330 color LED printers received the Best High Performance Color Printer Award and the Best High Performance Monochrome Printer  have given to the mono LED printers, B431 and B411.

Ultratech is about to set up a new international headquarters in Singapore on December 6, 2010 to better serve its large customer base in Asia. And it is scheduled to begin shipping lithography systems to customers in Q1 of 2011. The Singapore facility will engineer and manufacture its lithography systems and other related products, including lithography steppers for advanced packaging and HB LEDs and modules for the laser spike anneal systems.

Due to Samsung’s plan to roll out new LED-lit liquid-crystal display TVs in December after nearly half a year of suspension to clear its stock of CCFL TVs, Taiwan Unity Opto Technology, the major TV backlights supplier to Samsung and LG, schedules its revenue with an estimated NT$12 billion (US$400 million), to soar 70% in 2011 over 2010, aiming to control over 10% of the world market for L

Linktec Technologies, manufacturer of various professional electronic connectors, teams up with world-class LED lighting firm, Applied Quantum Bright Technologies Co., Ltd., a company with rich professional expertise, for vertical integration and alliance. Linktec obtained sole distributorship of AQBT’s high power lighting fixtures in Taiwan. This alliance enriches Linktec’s product lines and services.

The Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC), international NGO the Climate Group and HSBC reported that they would start India’s largest LED Street-lighting pilot program in Kolkata, which installed over 270 lights on several of the city’s arterial roads.

With the LED TV development, the demand for LCD TV became weaker, which brought a price war for vendors to stimulate market demand. In North America market, it is reported that LCD TVs vendors started to cut down the price for a 32-inch LCD TVs, especially in Wal-Mart, the price for a 32-inch model was only US$199.

As report goes, Taiwan’s biggest manufacturer of silicon ingots, Sino-American Silicon Products Inc., plans to buy furnaces that GT Solar will build to grow sapphire ingots to promote sales related to LED manufacturing. At a recent institutional-investor conference, executives from Sino-American disclosed the company will rise the output current output 60,000 wafers up to 180,000 wafers a month by the end of 2011,  fueling speculations that the company would buy GT Solar`s equipment.

Reportedly, Samsung Electronics showcased a prototype of a 19-inch TV equipped with an OLED panel made by using an inkjet printing method at FPD International 2010, a trade show on LCD and OLED flat-panel displays (FPDs).

Recently, LED chipmaker Epistar thought those reports was a rumor, that Epistar, Lumens and backlight unit (BLU) maker Hansol LCD would set up a joint venture in eastern China, with 10 billion won (US$8.84 million), 30 billion won and 10 billion won investment respectively. Epistar spokesman Chang Shie-Shien noted that Epistar hadn』t known anything about the deal and nothing related to it was being discussed.

Nuventix, Inc., LED industry thermal management specialist and electronics cooling innovator, announced it is seeing significant adoption of its SynJet technology across Europe, most notably in store installations of the region's largest retailer. SynJet LED coolers maximize lumen output and extend the life of LEDs in the stores of Carrefour's new hypermarket concept, Planet Carrefour. With SynJet, Planet Carrefour stores are bathed in bright light while using less energy.