Labsphere and Orb Optronix, two light measurement companies both based in the U.S., have announced a collaboration to accelerate the development of LED measurement instruments. The two companies say they will cooperate on the development of a broad range of new LED, display and light metrology products. Also, selected Orb Optronix instruments for LED testing will be manufactured at Labsphere’s New Hampshire facility.

Last month, in the Province of Ontario, Canada, Bill 150 was given Royal Assent signing into law the new Green Energy Act, 2009. This Act is intended to build a green economy in Ontario, under the leadership of Ontario Minister of Energy and Infrastructure, George Smitherman.

Cree, Inc. announced yesterday that it has signed a definitive agreement with RFHIC Corporation (Suwon, Korea) for Cree to supply GaN-on-SiC transistors to RFHIC for their GaN HEMT amplifier product families.

LEDtronics Inc. has announced the latest addition to its series of high-power PAR30-style LED spotlight bulbs. The white-body, medium-beam PAR30 LED bulb is made up of five 3-W LEDs and replaces filament-based PAR30 bulbs, combining advanced LED technologies, a standard 26-mm Edison screw-in base and a light optimizing design, producing 337 lm of vivid warm-white light.

Wavien, Inc., a U.S.-based lighting provider, recently announced the introduction of its highly efficient "Premien" white LED technology for front projector applications. The output efficiency of the patented Premien technology is up to two times higher than competing LED technologies, with no reduction in lifetime.

Royal Philips Electronics will cooperate with BVB Substrates, a horticultural supplier based in the Netherlands, to develop LED lighting-based applications for greenhouse-based flower and vegetable cultivation. The two companies have signed a memorandum-of-understanding for combining their respective strengths in the development.

Lighting Science Group Corporation (Lighting Science), a global developer and integrator of intelligent LED lighting solutions and Martin Professional A/S, a provider of dynamic lighting systems, yesterday announced a distribution agreement that will give Martin access to Lighting Science's X16 DOTZ LED strings for global distribution. The X16 DOTZ LED string has been well-received in the market since its introduction and will be marketed under the name FlexDOT in Martin's line of LED video products.

Microsemi Corporation, a manufacturer of analog/mixed signal integrated circuits and semiconductors, just extended its comprehensive line of backlight-driving IC solutions with the production release of the company's LX24132 32-port LED backlight controller and LX23108L 8-port LED driver.

CRS Electronics (“CRS”), the operating subsidiary of Podium Capital Corporation (TSX-V:LED), an engineer, designer and manufacturer of LED lighting, today rang the morning bell to begin market trading. CRS’s President and founder Scott Riesebosch along with other company representatives were excited to meet with senior members of the TSX Venture Exchange team to celebrate their new listing in the fast growing clean technology sector.

OSRAM Opto Semiconductors is enriching the projection market with two new LEDs, OSTAR Compact and OSTAR Power Projection. OSTAR Compact is designed for small efficient systems in cell phones, PDAs and MP4 players, while OSTAR Power Projection is targeted at high-performance projection applications such as home cinema systems of 70 inches and more. The LED portfolio from this semiconductor specialist now provides full coverage of the projection sytem range from 1 W to 300 W.   

Steinel, a German manufacturer of intelligent lighting fixtures, has introduced its XLed range of security floodlights powered by LUXEON Rebel LEDs that use one-third of the energy consumed by conventional floodlights. The XLed is available as the XLed 25, with 25 LUXEON Rebel for very high luminous flux and total power consumption of about 60 watts, and the more compact XLed 10 with 10 LUXEON Rebel and total power consumption of approximately 25 watts.

Every year, Everlight Electronics Co. LTD. presents the latest and most exciting exhibition of products at Guangzhou International Lighting Exhibition, China and Photonics Festival Taipei, Taiwan. This year, Everlight maintains the role of an LED pioneer and presents multiple LED lighting fixtures. The visitors who visit Everlight’s booth can really experience the difference between LED lighting and traditional lighting, and visitors can realize how much power we can save by replacing LED lighting fixtures.

AIXTRON AG recenlty announced that the Institute of Semiconductors of The Chinese Academy of Sciences, located in Beijing, PR China, has placed an order for one Close Coupled Showerhead (CCS) 3x2 inch MOCVD system. Ordered in the first quarter and to be shipped in third quarter 2009, the new tool will be used for the research and development of semiconductor lasers and LEDs.

At the Society for Information Display’s (SID’s) Display Week 2009 conference in San Antonio, TX, Sharp Microelectronics of the Americas (SMA) announced an expansion to its LED-backlit and touch screen display product lines. Two new TFT-LCDs – one 5.0-inch panel with resistive touch and one 7.0-inch panel – deliver LED backlighting rated at 50,000 hours of operation. Additionally, both panels feature built-in LED drivers, saving engineers time, effort, and expense.

NEC LCD Technologies, and its sales and marketing channel in the Americas, NEC Electronics America, Inc., last week announced the development of a new amorphous-silicon color thin-film-transistor (TFT) liquid crystal display (LCD) module that achieves an ultra-wide color gamut for 100 percent of the Adobe® RGB color range by incorporating a newly developed LED light-source unit into the backlight system and a newly developed color filter.

UPEK®, a global provider of enterprise and consumer biometric fingerprint solutions, yesterday unveiled its TouchLight™ technology which integrates light emitting diodes (LEDs) for user prompting and feedback directly into the company’s broadly adopted fingerprint sensors. UPEK is demonstrating TouchLight integrated LED technology at the Computex Trade Show in Taipei, Taiwan June 2-6, 2009.

Dow Corning has established a new silicone production unit exclusively for LEDs in Jincheon, Korea, to support the global LED market and meet the needs of its customers in Asia. The Jincheon site will manufacture silicone intermediate materials and encapsulants for use in LED packaging applications, protecting LEDs from environmental elements such as humidity and moisture, and providing stress relief and UV resistance. Silicone encapsulants thereby increase light output and minimize heat build-up.

HPLighting has devoted substantial R&D effort on enhancing its proprietary technologies and has successfully renovated a revolutionary substrate structure and proprietary automated packaging process to produce a series of cost effective new generation compact sized high power LEDs. The new proprietary automated packaging process enables SHOCK series to offer accurate and stable manufacturing yields and shorter lead time for a competitive edge over cost and delivery. 

In order to complete the Primax product portfolio and fulfill lighting market demand, DOMINANT is now extending this series with high Color Rendering Index (CRI) products in 0.2-Watt white and warm white versions, NA2W-PSC and NA2F-PSC. These high CRI products are compliant to United State Energy Star guidelines; fulfilling minimum CRI required of 75.

DuPont Displays Inc announced that it developed new OLED materials designed for coating process. The OLED panel manufactured using DuPont Displays' new material

OSRAM Opto will show the latest developments for CCTV and night vision systems in Nuremberg at the Sensor+Test, the international trade fair for sensor, measuring and testing technologies. At the joint “Cluster Sensorik” booth in Hall 12/233 OSRAM will present their flagship, the infrared OSTAR Lighting and also the infrared OSTAR Observation, Golden Dragon and Power TopLED with lens.

A new report from Strategies Unlimited says that increasing demand for blue-violet laser diodes, UV LEDs, and other devices will provide significant growth of advanced substrates such as GaN and AlN.

Solomon Systech Ltd, a semiconductor company providing display IC products and system solutions based in Hong Kong, has announced the SSD1306, an OLED driver designed for saving total system cost. With only three capacitors and a built-in charge pump, the device can support the OLED module at high performance using a low voltage supply of 3.3V to 4.2V.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit issued a ruling on May 22, 2009 that rejected Epistar's appeal of the International Trade Commission's (ITC's) interpretation of the claims in Philips Lumileds' U.S. Patent No. 5,008,718 (the '718 patent).

Luminus Devices Inc., developer and manufacturer of PhlatLight LEDs, today announced the appointment of Keith T.S. Ward as its President, Chief Executive Officer and member of the Board of Directors.

Obducat’s new lithography system is ready to be launched. The system, named Sindre 400, is the world’s first fully automated system for high volume manufacturing of LEDs. Sindre 400 is a vital contribution to the development within CleanTech, since, thanks to greatly increased energy and material efficiency, it reduces the use of natural resources.

AIXTRON AG yesterday announced that Hualei Optoelectronic Ltd., based in Hunan Province, P.R. China, has issued a purchase contract for multiple CRIUS(R) MOCVD systems. The tools for production of high brightness LEDs will be shipped from Q2/09 through Q4/09. This contract represents AIXTRON's largest ever single order for MOCVD systems from China. Part of this order has been recorded as order intake in Q1/2009.

Sony plans to launch its 9.9mm-thin Bravia ZX1-series in Singapore in June. The super-slim KLV-40ZX1 is Sony’s answer to the latest LED TVs from Samsung. Unlike the Korean comany's 29.9mm-thin offerings, this Japanese concoction uses an A/V media box that communicates wirelessly with its full-HD LCD panel. In addition, the screen has a 10-bit color reproduction to render a billion discreet hues, plus Motionflow 100Hz and image blur reduction technology for smoother and sharper motion.

Eastman Kodak Company has been named by Frost & Sullivan as the recipient of the 2009 OLED Lighting Enabling Technology of the Year Award in the field of Organic Light Emitting Diode (OLED) Solid State Lighting (SSL) Technology. According to Frost & Sullivan, the Enabling Technology of the Year Award is presented to a company that has developed a technology that can benefit or revolutionize the industry.

Norburn Lighting and Bath, Canada’s destination source for LED lighting, introduces to the Canadian market Design Pro LED Under Cabinet lighting from Kichler.