Cree, Inc. today announced increased revenue and earnings targets for its fiscal fourth quarter ending June 28, 2009. Cree now targets revenue in a range of $143 million to $150 million with GAAP earnings of $0.07 to $0.09 per diluted share and non-GAAP earnings of $0.15 to $0.17 per diluted share, based on an estimated 89 million diluted weighted average shares. Targeted non-GAAP earnings exclude expenses related to the amortization of acquired intangibles of $0.03 per diluted share, and stock-based compensation expense of $0.05 per diluted share.

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.

Seiko Epson Corporation today announced it has established inkjet technology that enables the uniform deposition of organic material in the production of large-screen organic light-emitting diode (OLED) televisions. The new technology is said to represent a major step toward the realization of 37-inch and larger full-HD OLED TVs by resolving the uneven layering that had previously been an issue with the inkjet method.

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.

At Tokyo's Beautyworld Japan Expo 2009, the U.K.-based company Energist introduced the latest ReGen Light Treatment system.

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.

The Lindenplatz in Hamburg's St. Georg district, a city landmark and also the place the German company Siemens is based, has recently been redesigned with LED solutions by the company in collaboration with the city of Hamburg as well as some local businesses. The lighting manufacturer OSRAM, part of Siemens' industry business unit, has provided the LED lighting modules used in the project.

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.

In Fargo, North Dakota, U.S., the city commission voted 5-0 last week to put an immediate moratorium on LED signs on the premises of business properties. The sign moratorium was sought by the Hawthorne Neighborhood Association. The neighborhood group has been against plans by Steven Stremick of Select Financial to put a cube-shaped light-emitting-diode sign at the corner of 13th Avenue South and University Drive.

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

After introducing aluminum casing (CLG family) and fully enclosed plastic casing (PLN, ELN, LP family) LED power supplies, MEAN WELL launched another new product category, open frame type – PLP family, for the “low cost” and “built-in” installation of LED lighting related applications. PLP-30/60 series are 30W/60W switching power supplies with 90~264VAC universal input range.

Epistar Corp, Taiwan‘s largest LED (light-emitting diodes) manufacturer, won its appeal of a patent-infringement case in which Lumileds, the LED unit of Royal Philips Electronics, was trying to block its chips from the US market. The Appeals court lifted an import ban that had been imposed on LED chips made by Epistar.

The Taiwan-based LED chipmakers, Epistar Corp. and Formosa Epitaxy Inc., have both decided to expand their LED chip outputs to ease the supply deficiency caused by strong need for LEDs from major LCD TV manufacturers, according to Taiwan Economic News.

Seisakusho Co Ltd, a Japan-based company, was showing off an LED headlight used in Toyota's new Prius at Automotive Engineering Exposition 2009, which took place from May 20 to 22, 2009 in Japan. The low beam headlight for the new "Prius" The LED headlight for the new Prius is a low beam assembly which consists of a double projector unit for emitting a focused beam and a unit for emitting a diffused beam.

GlacialTech Inc. is launching star-bright environmentally friendly LED spotlights. The GL-SP30 LED high brightness spotlight  consumes no more than 38W of power and will replace traditional Halogen lamps which usually consume in excess of  300W per lamp. The lifespan of these LED lamps is 35,000Hrs, whereas the halogen spotlight lasts for 3,000hrs only. The predicted savings rate is 88% when compared with Halogen spotlights.

High power AC LED light bulb from LIQUIDLEDS is a new solution to lighting. With the utilization of the unique technology of Liquid Immersed Thermal Management Solution (LITMS), LIQUIDLEDS longs to provide Practical, Reliable and Affordable light bulbs to the general public.

At the Milan Furniture Fair this April, current trends in “light- emitting-diodes” or LEDs were someting to keep an eye out for.  Pictured here is the new lighting line from Philips, a Dutch company that has an edge in the industry of LED lighting. Photo by Shuli Beimel

At the new Dallas Cowboys Stadium in Arlington Thursday, the Cowboys turned on the world's two largest high-definition LED video displays, each 160 feet wide and 72 feet high.

To support the local LED makers in crucial patents, Taiwan government could invest in foreign LED companies or set up a large joint venture by coordinating local manufacturers to pool patents.

Albeo Technologies Inc., a manufacturer of white-LED general illumination lighting systems, announced that it has been granted two design patents, D592786 and D592785, for its award winning C-Series High-Bay general illumination light fixture. The patents cover Albeo’s unique designs that allow Albeo fixtures to run cooler at higher efficiencies with longer lifetimes.

Greenlight Initiative, a New York headquartered LED-lighting sales and solutions provider, announced yesterday that it has completed qualification of the LED-based replacement lamp product line from Array™ Lighting. With testing and evaluation complete, Greenlight and Array have concluded a national and municipal/public works accounts sales agreement for Array's full line including PAR30, PAR16, MR16 and GU10-type LED replacement lamp products.

In India, colourful Light Emitting Diode (LED) lights have been fixed in almost the entire ivory and textile sections of the Raja Dinkar Kelkar Museum, making the exhibits look more attractive as well as saving energy. The first LED lights were fixed in 2008 when 20 of the display cases were replaced, said Sudhanva Ranade, joint director of the museum.

In Taiwan, the government is to take five measures to cut greenhouse-gas emission and save energy at total budget of NT$1.2 billion (US$37 million at US$1:NT$33) over the next three years, according to Economics Minister C.M. Yiin. The five measures include replacing Taiwan`s 260,000 incandescent traffic lights with LED lamps, further cutting electrical-bill discount rate and enlarging the coverage of discount beneficiaries, applying solar energy to public buildings, building a solar power plant, and assisting local governments set up LED-streetlight demonstration system.

LG Display Co., Ltd. announced Tuesday that it has succeeded in developing the world’s thinnest 42- and 47-inch LCD TV panels. The 42- and 47-inch LCD TV panels employ LG Display’s edge-lit LED backlight system instead of the commonly used CCFL (Cold Cathode Fluorescent Lamp) to realize a panel thickness of 5.9mm.

LEDs can destroy skin cancer cells by bathing cream-applied skin with red light, according to a recent article in the British national newspaper the Daily Mail. A plastic strip embedded with LEDs from Polymertronics can patch up wounds and destroy skin cancer cells by zapping them with light, said the report.

In London, LED lighting has been introduced to replace the conventional lighting at all of the city’s roadside ticket machines, reducing 75 per cent of the energy consumption, according to Transport for London (TfL).

Power Integrations, a manufacturer of high-voltage integrated circuits for energy-efficient power conversion, just released a new engineering report (DER-212) describing a 92%-efficient power supply for LED streetlight applications.