Neo-Neon Holdings Ltd. will spend around US$30 million to open an LED chip production facility in Yangzhou, China, according to an article on Taiwan Economic News.

SemiLEDs Corporation, a Taiwan-based LED chip manufacturer, today announces the establishment of its new state of the art fabrication facility in Foshan, China. The brand new, state-of-the art facility will produce LED wafers and high power LED chips using SemiLEDs’ patented vertical LED on metal technology. The development for SemiLEDs new facility will be in three stages with the initial stage, seeing an investment of USD $96 million, set to be ready for full scale production by October, 2010.

Cree Inc., a leading provider of LED lighting, will double its chip production capacity next year to meet strong worldwide growth, the China Daily reports, citing a top executive of the company. The company Monday (Nov.9) signed an agreement with the local government of Huizhou in China, to build the world's largest manufacturing plant, with a floor area of 55,000 sqm, for LED chips. The company would further expand production capacity depending on market performance, said Chuck Swoboda, Cree chairman and CEO.

Veeco, a leading LED equipment provider, hosted a grand ceremony to celebrate the opening of its new Shanghai office on November 5th. Major upstream LED companies, including Taiwan’s Formosa Epitaxy Inc., HUGA Optotech Inc., Genesis Photonics Inc., GaN Epi, Inc., Crystal Applied Technology Inc., and mainland China-based SANAN Optoelectronics Co., Ltd., Epilight Technology Co., Ltd., Huaguang Optoelectronics Co., Ltd., Shenzhen Century Epitech LEDs Co., Ltd. and Dalian Luminglight Co., Ltd. all attended the ceremony.

China 60th National Day has just come to a spectacular end. The Tiananmen Square in Beijing was beautified by a lot of LED displays with abundant color and uniform brightness expressing the congratulations to the National Birthday. Some of these LED displays were provided by Beijing Leyard Co. and GULX Tech Co. Macroblock also shines in the ceremony with constant current LED drivers adopted in these LED displays.

Cree, Inc.  announced yesterday (Nov. 9) an agreement to purchase a 592,000-square-foot facility in Huizhou, Guangdong Province, China. The facility will be Cree’s first chip-production facility outside of North America and is targeted to also house future components manufacturing expansion.

Neo-Neon Holdings Ltd, a China-based decorative light manufacturer founded with Taiwanese capital, plans to raise US$63 million by issuing Taiwan Depositary Receipts (TDR) before the end of 2009, said its underwriter Fubon Securities Co recently.

AIXTRON AG announced that Changelight Co., Ltd., ordered an AIXTRON Planetary Reactor system for the production of Gallium Arsenide (GaAs) LED. The Changelight order is for an AIX 2600G3 system in the 49x2-inch wafer configuration. The tool was delivered in the third quarter 2009 to the company’s state-of-the-art new facilities in Xiamen (Xiang An) Torch Industry Park of Fujian Province, China.

AIXTRON AG today announced the delivery and qualification of multiple CRIUS MOCVD systems at Neo-Neon, a major customer in PR China. Neo-Neon is one of the largest LED-based lighting companies in the world. Since 2005, the company began the R&D and production of white lighting technology their vertically-integrated approach resulting in a complete supply chain from front-end (epitaxy, chip process) to back-end (LED packaging and application).

Philips Lumileds and Genius Electronic Optical Company (GSEO) announced yesterday that GSEO is developing new solid-state street lights and street light modules with LUXEON Rebel for use on roadways throughout China. The first installations of GSEO’s new streetlights are expected in early 2010.

MEGAMAN®, a leader in eco-friendly lighting solutions, yesterday unveiled its latest LED Reflector Series in the presence of over 200 distinguished guests, including top-notch architects, interior designers and real estate developers, as well as leading retail chain operators and prominent hoteliers, in an enchanting show event at Cyberport.

Philips Lumileds announced yesterday (Sep.28) that it has opened a new office in Shanghai that is being staffed with an applications team and market specialists to support the growing number of companies in China developing solid-state lighting solutions. The applications team and specialists will support customers as they design systems for reliability, efficiency and performance.

According to survey by industry research house LEDinside, LED chip industry in mainland China has been exploding in the past 10 years, with the number of LED chip makers surging from 3 in 1998 to 62 by August 2009. During this period, the year 1999 marked the beginning of the fast development of LED industry with the join of 6 new LED chip manufacturers. From 1999 to 2009, an average of 2 to 7 enterprises entered into the LED section every year.

Xodtec Group USA, Inc. announced today that its Apollo series 180W LED streetlight product line has recently completed testing at the National Lighting Test Center (NLTC) in Beijing, China.  The test report indicates that the total lighting lumen of Apollo series 180W LED streetlight is 9800lm with power factor 0.97, which makes this product one of the most efficient LED street lighting systems in the world.

Traxon Technologies Ltd. introduces its innovative Shield XB range for applications in extreme environments. The new high power LED lighting fixture range enlarges Traxon’s XB Luminaires line. The Shield range comprises the Wall Washer Shield XB-18 and XB-36 as well as Liner Shield XB- 18 and XB-27. IP66- rated and equipped with texture finished die-cast aluminum, the XB Shield range is able to perform in most extreme environments like snow, ice, and desert heat as well as heavy rain.

Cree Inc. and the China Associate of Lighting Industry (CALI) announce that the first Cree Cup – Creative LED Lighting Design Contest has officially launched in Mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan. The contest, the first of its kind among university students in these regions, seeks to cultivate innovation and support promising talent in the field of LED lighting design.

As one of the first cities taking part in the LED lighting plan of 10,000 lights each in ten cities initiated by China Ministry of Science and Technology, Shanghai is gradually expanding LED energy-saving lights and signal lights. It is estimated that in Shanghai, LEDs will finally replace traditional lights in the next 3 to 5 years.

Delta Electronics, Inc. has replaced the most important interior lighting locations in the lobby, front entrance, and restaurant of the 5-star Tongli Lakeview Hotel in Suzhou, China by its LED lighting products.

Tony Blair and Jet Li have launched the 1,000-Village Solar LED Initiative in Guiyang, China. The five-year project, which is a joint initiative between The Climate Group and the Jet Li One Foundation, will engage 400 villages in China in the first two years, and 600 villages in China, India and African countries on the second stage.

Philips Lumileds today announced Alvin Tse, a fifteen-year veteran of the lighting industry, has joined the company as its Vice President of Sales in Asia Pacific. Mr. Tse will lead its growing team of technical, marketing and sales professionals in the region which is widely expected to be among the fastest growing for solid-state lighting adoption.

Foxconn International Holdings Ltd., a company in which Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd. holds a controlling stake, will invest US$500 million to build a LED factory in Jinan, Shandong, according to Jinan government and a local newspaper.

Inventronics announced today that another six of its new lighting driver families have now been approved to the UL 8750 safety standard. This new standard, specifically written for solid state lighting applications, incorporates requirements from a broad array of standards each of which have some applicability to the LED lighting industry.

Diguang International Development Co., Ltd. recently announced that a press conference was held exclusively for Diguang to introduce its LED display products at the Yangzhou New Light Public Service Center in Yangzhou, Jiangsu province in July.

The National Development and Reform Commission of China (NDRC) and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) signed a joint agreement “Green Lights Project” to promote the use of energy-saving lamps (ESLs) in China. China has announced that it plans to gradually phase out incandescent lamps in three years. As a majority of LED chips in China are acquired from Taiwan, this project will certainly serve Taiwan LED chip makers a long-term order on a silver platter.

OPTIS France SAS, the developer of scientific light simulation and visualization software, today announces the opening of a wholly owned subsidiary in Shanghai, China. This new facility will deliver expert technical and sales support and a wide range of training courses for Chinese customers and is conveniently located close to key customers in China’s automotive, aerospace/defense and electronics industries.

China can act as a model for developing countries and the wider world by investing in environmentally friendly growth and prioritizing the creation of cleaner energy, Ban Ki-moon, Secretary-General of the United Nations said recently, urging the leaders of the planet’s most populous nation to “serve as the vanguard of tomorrow’s economy", according to a report on the UN News Centre website. Chinese government this year has launched in Beijing a new energy-sav

In the picture below, you will notice the warm glow that shows in the sky deep into the night. This happens in every city. Scientists call this phenomenon – sky glow!

Since the first light bulb was invented in the 1800’s new lamp technology has evolved. When the fluorescent tube was invented in 1929, sales of traditional light bulbs plummeted, and then in the 1970’s along came the compact fluorescent, since then new variations have evolved, sales of the former types have virtually disappeared, but the fundamental lamp design has remained unchanged, using a heating element to ignite gases and produce light. The use of a heating element results in energy being wasted as heat as opposed to generating light.

Tower targets green energy sector; LED market expected to exceed $5 billion in 2012, an annual growth rate of 28% from 2008 - 2012

OSRAM Opto Semiconductors’ Golden DRAGON Plus LEDs are used by Guangzhou Zhonglong Communications Technology Co. Ltd. for the Yangzi River tunnel luminaire project in mainland China. With an internal diameter of 12.7m, the tunnel is 8.9km long in a twin-tunnel complex and each of the bores with 3-lane of traffic. 5,886 tunnel luminaries with over 410,000 pieces of OSRAM Golden DRAGON Plus LEDs will be installed in two bores. The Yangzi River tunnel will be the longest in the world to have brilliant LED light.