A.   Developer News

·   Adaptive Micro Systems was featured in an article in Business Journal titled "Lighting the way." The article describes Adaptive's work in programmable LED displays for commercial and industrial applications, noting that factory-floor display boards for plant management are a new application with significant market potential.  Among the company's current products are displays for movie theater box offices; products for transportation applications, such as arrival/departure gates at airports, bus displays, over-the-road highway signs and lottery jackpot displays; and a 58-foot-high sign with an advertising display board at Milwaukee's State Fair Park.  [ Article in Business Journal(No URL available) ]

·   Aixtron announced its new board of directors in advance of its merger with Genus.  William Elder, 65, Genus founder, chairman, president and CEO, will join the Aixtron board as an executive VP and will oversee the silicon portion of Aixtron's expanded equipment business. Wolfgang Breme, currently CFO of Technotrans, will join Aixtron's senior management team as CFO and executive VP in March, replacing Chris Dodson.  The Aixtron board will include Breme, Elder, Paul Hyland as president and CEO and Bernd Schulte as COO and executive VP.  [ News item in LIGHTimes]

·   Aquatic Research and Development, a company focused on finding innovative ways to use LED lighting, was featured in an article in the Utica Observer Dispatch.  The three-year-old company has developed aquarium lighting using a blue LED that simulates moonlight for corals and animals that are more active at night.  The company is now looking to expand into the home lighting market, particularly with under-cabinet lighting, officials said.  [ Article in Utica Observer Dispatch ]

·   Arima Optoelectronics is talking with Samsung and a Japanese vendor about possible cooperation in the mid-range and high-end LED sector, company president TJ Wang told DigiTimes. The company wants to compete in high-luminance white LEDs, used in backlight modules and lighting, this year, according to the report.  Arima expects to reach an agreement in the first half of 2005 with the Japanese vendor, who will incorporate Arima’s blue LED chips and AlGaInP LEDs in a variety of applications.  [ News item in DigiTimes (subscription required) ]

·   AXT finalized its $1.4 million litigation settlement with Sumitomo Electric, originally announced inOctober as tentative.  The settlement includes a global intellectual property cross-licensing agreement and requires that payment be made in early January 2005, with litigation in Japan to be withdrawn shortly thereafter.  [ Press release ]

·   Barco completed a front-serviceable, 9- x3-foot LED display panel for Finish Line in Brooklyn, N.Y. Barco custom fit 12 of its DLITE 7-mm LED Display tiles above the entrance doors to create a display advertising the store's line of shoes and sports attire.  [ News item in LEDs Magazine ]

·   CameraBright announced in November of 2004 thatit would use Nichia's white LED lamps for its CameraBright!™ X1 lighting accessory.  The $30 CameraBright! accessory attaches to the tripod mount of most cameras and camcorders and gives users a constant light source to supplement the camera'sbuilt-in flash.  The 2.5 x 1.5 x 0.625-inch unit weighs 2 ounces, including four coin cell batteries.  [ Press release ]  The company then announced two new LED-based models in itsCameraBright!™ X1 lighting accessory product line in February 2005.  The CameraBright! X1-ER Extended Range provides cooler color temperatures (6,000K), a slender light beam, brightness of 72 cd, and a range of up to 20 ft.  The CameraBright! X1-W Warm White light provides a warmer temperature light (3,000K), a broader light beam, brightness of 25 cd and a range of up to 10 ft.  The accessory gives users a constant light source to frame their pictures, then usethe camera's built-in flash to take the actual picture.  [ Press release ]

·   Carmanah has established a comprehensive tier one North American distribution network for its LED-based traffic lighting products.  The company has signed distribution agreements for its solar-powered LED and LED edge-lit traffic products with 11 roadway product distributors, including Brown Traffic Products, Carrierand Gable, Electromega, Gades Sales, Ocean State Signal, Stansell Electric, Synchronex, Texas Highway Products, TrafficControl Products, Traffic Products, and Western Systems .  These distributors are expected to penetrate 35 U.S. states and all of Canada, and negotiations with other distributors to cover the remaining U.S. states are inprogress.  [ Press release ]

·   Carmanah has received two new contracts:

Ø       An additional $615,000 order for solar-powered lighting from the U.S. Marine Corps -- the USMC will use more than 1000 units of Carmanah's Model A601 and A702 airfield lights for taxiway edge, helipad edge, runway edge and obstruction lighting at its second largest air base in the Middle East.  [ Press release ]

Ø       Its subsidiary Carmanah Signs will supply about $650,000 in LED edge-lit illuminated point-of-purchase signs to a large Canadian retailer.  Carmanah Signs is also in the process of producing an additional order of 800 point-of-purchase signs for another larger US-based retailer.  [ Press release at Yahoo! Finance ]

·   Carmanah's self-contained, solar-powered LEDmarine navigation lights won a 2004 Canadian Safe Boating Award for "BestNew Marine Safety Product" from the Canadian Safe Boating Council.  TheCanadian Coast Guard used Carmanah LEDs to complete the world's first fully illuminated marine navigation system in 2002, comprising 1,650 lighted buoysalong the 23,000-km coast of Newfoundland and Labrador.  [ Press release at CNW Group ]

·   Frederick M.("Fritz") Morgan, vice president of engineering at Color Kinetics,was featured in an article titled "Fritz Morgan: LEDs into Gold"as part of a special report on "Dream Jobs 2005" in IEEESpectrum Online.  [ Feature article in IEEE Spectrum Online ]

·   Color Kinetics announced an agreement with Future Electronics for distribution of Color Kinetics' Digital Light Engines (DLEs), including controllers and power/data supplies, via Future Electronics' North American distribution network.  The agreement is intended to allow manufacturers to easily integrate Color Kinetics' LED control technology and system infrastructure into their own product lines, backed by support and services from Future Electronics.  [ Press release ]

·   Cotco was profiled in two news articles:

Ø       LEDs Magazine -- Cotco in 2004 reported a 16% increase in revenue, expanded its factory space in China by 30%, and launched the 1-W Dorado LED.  [ Article in LEDs Magazine ]

Ø       The Standard, a Chinese business newspaper -- the article discusses Cotco's strategy for taking on competitors such as Philips and the growing markets for LEDs.  Daniel Lau of the HongKong Optoelectronics Association told the reporter that because Philips has such a large business in energy-saving conventional light bulbs, the lighting giant is unlikely to let LEDs replace conventional bulbs in the near future – “They are not going to let it be done away with soon.''  [ Article in The Standard ]

·   Cree announced its most recent developmental breakthrough: 100 lm/W and 50% wall-plug efficiency from standard 5 mmLEDs and maximum luminous flux of 60 lm from its 7090 series white XLamp powerLEDs operating at 350 mA.  The announcement was made at the Strategies in Light conference.  [ Press release ]

·   Cree might be considering acquisition of ColorKinetics, according to financial analysts quoted in an article in the TriangleBusiness Journal.  Cree could see a $24 million profit from its investment in Color Kinetics and remains one of the largest shareholders of the company, with 12% of shares.  [ Article in the Triangle Business Journal ]

·   Cree and Nichia have entered intoa patent cross-license agreement relating to white LED technology, complementing a patent cross-license arrangement between the companies announced in November 2002.  According to a statement from Cree, "Nichia has developed pioneering technology in the field of LED-based white lighting and this agreement gives Cree access to this important technology.  At the sametime, the agreement recognizes the strength of Cree's intellectual property and reinforces both companies' leadership in solid-state lighting." Neither company disclosed detailed terms of the agreement.  [ Nichia Press release, Cree Press release ]

·   Crystal IS was profiled in an article in the Albany Times Union.  The company plans to begin making LEDs, to expand its aluminum nitride substrates production, and to move its headquarters, possibly to South Carolina, in 2005.  Crystal IS brought in about $1.5 million in 2004,including $1.1 million in government contracts, up from a total of about $1.2 million in 2003.  The company is now located at RPI's manufacturing incubator in Watervliet and employs 17 full-time equivalents.  [ Article in the Albany Times Union ]

·   Daktronics will build a $5.8 million scoringand display system for the new Busch Stadium, future home of the St. LouisCardinals.  The main 40 ft. x 120 ft. scoreboard will incorporate a 32 ft. x 52ft. ProStar® video display and three additional Galaxy® amber LED displays for displaying lineups, stats and other information, as well as graphics andanimation.  Rotating and stationary displays panels will recognize the team’scorporate sponsors.  Fans will also be able to watch highlights and see information on a video display on the back side of the main scoreboard, which faces a gathering area.  The entire system, which also includes displays for out-of-town game information, pitcher stats, advertising, and more, incorporates more than 2.3 million individual LEDs. [ Press release ]

·   Duraled Lighting Technologies plans a bright white LED lighting product, for which it will license Permlight’s patented thermal management technology, which is covered by U.S.Patent Nos. 6,578,986, "Modular mounting arrangement and method for light emitting diodes," and 6,712,486, "Mounting arrangement for light emitting diodes," and other pending patent applications. [ Press release ]

·   Edison Electric Institute encouraged the use of energy-efficient lighting, such as LEDs, for holiday decorations.  The organization also offers energy-saving tips for consumers and its 2004 survey of electric company energy efficiency programs.  [ Press release, consumer tips ]

·   Enfis (Wales) plans to launch a range of high power LEDs after bringing in £900,000 in venture funding.  Enfis representatives said the company will double the size of its workforce to 25.  The company's large-area LED array systems operate at 580nm and more than 35W and are used in health and cosmetic applications.  [ News item in Electronics Weekly ]

·   Enlux Lighting 's LED floodlights were featured in an overview article from Knight Ridder.  The article called 2004 "the breakthrough year for light-emitting diodes" and noted that Enlux's floodlight was awarded Popular Science magazine's "Best of What's New" in the Home Tech category.  It also won the new product "Energy Award" and the "Best of Category Award for LED Lamps" at the 2004 Lightfair International conference.  [ Article from Knight Ridder ]

·   Epistar has sued Formosa Epitaxy for patent infringement relating to its indium-tin oxide technology.  A spokesperson for Formosa Epitaxy, however, said that professionals had already identified the company’s high-luminance LED technology, with model number FI135-BLSpec: 2006DG23, as not infringing Epistar’s patent No.144, 415.  [ News item in DigiTimes (subscription required) ]

·   South Epitaxy may acquire Epitech via a stock swap, according to DigiTimes.  Epitech's main shareholders include United Microelectronics Corporation (UMC), which is also a major shareholder of LED-packaging firm Harvatek, and the acquisition will allow the UMC Group to establish a complete supply chain for its LED investment.  Formosa Epitaxy representatives said the company is seeking some sort of cooperation or strategic alliance with South Epitaxy and Epitech.  [ News item in DigiTimes (subscription required) ]

·   Farlight has applied for an international patent (WO 2005/011329) for an in-pavement directional LED luminaire, to be used as part of an airfield's lighting system.  The unit contains a light module, a thermoelectric cooler and a power controller connected to the airfield's supply.  The light module uses several high flux LEDs and a non-imaging light transformer which collects and redistributes the light from the LEDs in a predetermined pattern.  The cooler helps to control the LEDs' flux, color and intensity distribution.  The application was featured in the "Patent Highlights" section at Optics.org. [ Patent highlights at Optics.org ]

·   Harvatek (Taiwan) plans to open sales, marketing and product development offices in both the Americas and Europe.  PC Yong, formerly of Fairchild Semiconductor, will serve as president and Peter Perniciaro will be VP of sales for Harvatek International. [ News item at Compound Semiconductor ]

·   Harvatek has received orders for LEDs amounting to NT$40-50 million in sales through April, including orders for 300,000 white LEDs "for consumer electronics" products in January and another 200,000 for February, according to DigiTimes and LIGHTimes.  [ News item at DigiTimes (subscription required), News item at LIGHTimes ]

·   Harvatek received its first order for white-light diodes after licensing the technology from Osram.  Kunho Group, one of South Korea's largest business conglomerates, has agreed to use Harvatek as its top-priority supplier of the diodes.  Harvatek is also expected to begin shipping white-light products to suppliers of back-light modules for LCDs in Taiwan and mainland China this year.  [ News item from China Economic News Service (No URL available) ]

·   Honeywell's new Astreon LED systems will be used for anti-collision and navigation exterior lighting on Boeing's new 7E7 Dreamliner aircraft.  Boeing previously named Honeywell to provide the navigation package, the Crew Information System/Management System (CIS/MS) and the flight control electronics for the aircraft.  The four contracts with Honeywell may total more than $2.6 billion over the life of the 7E7 program.  [ Press release carried by CompoundSemi Online ]

·   Honeywell Electronic Materials is now offering high-quality sapphire wafers up to 100 mm for high-brightness, GaN-based LEDs.  The company is targeting white LEDs for automotive applications, as well as blue and green LEDs for traffic lights and other uses.  Honeywell now supplies all the sapphire wafers used by Lumileds and Osram.  Demand for blue GaN LEDs is increasing at an annual rate of about 20%, and this growth is expected to continue, according to company officials.  [ Article in Electronic Materials Update (No URL available) ]

·   iLight Technologies was profiled in an article in the Chicago Sun Times.  The company is competing with the $2 billion neon lighting business with its LED-based Plexineon product and is reportedly growing at a rate of 60% per year.  The product has been used by food chains such as McDonald's, White Castle, Wendy's and Applebee's, as well as a Mini Cooper billboard in Times Square in New York, the set of the Broadway show "Wicked," Carnival Cruise ships, slot machines made by Chicago-based WMS Gaming, and stage sets for country music star Toby Keith. [ Article in the Chicago Sun Times ]

·   Innovalight 's LEDs were featured in a CNBC story on cutting-edge products created with nanotechnology.  [ Story on CNBC ]

·   Intertech 2004 – performance records:  Compound Semiconductor magazine reviewed efficacy improvements of high power LEDs presented at the Intertech LEDs 2004 conference in the article "LED makers reveal performance records and high-power products.”  Included in this discussion were Cree, Nichia, Osram, and Rohm Electronics, as well as Evident Technology's progress in the commercialization of nanocrystals for phosphor converters and emitter devices.  Highlights of this extensive article include:  [ Article ]

Ø       Cree described progress with the company’s Xthin XT-27 chips for white light emission, with a color temperature of 6000 K and an efficacy of 82 lm/W at 20 mA, and a flux of 5.2 lm.  At 4600 K, efficacy and flux are improved (92 lm/W and 5.8 lm).  For white LEDs fabricated using a larger chip (900 x 900 x 250 µm), a flux of 67 lm at 350 mA, and an associated efficacy of 57 lm/W have been demonstrated.  At a higher current of 1 A, the efficacy drops to 34 lm/W but the total lumen output from a single chip is 142 lm.  Cree intends to tailor its line-up of LED chips to meet the needs of different applications, and has developed a 500 x 500 μm chip (XB500) designed to run at 125 mA with a radiant flux of 90 mW. This will bridge the gap between the XB900 (200 mW at 350 mA) and the XT270 (64 mW at 20 mA).

Ø       Nichia’s 5 mm surface mounted white LEDs exhibit an efficacy of around 50 lm/W.  Targets for 2007 and 2010 are 70 and 100 lm/W, respectively.

Ø       Osram Opto described progress with the company’s thin-film technology.  Osram uses buried prismatic structures in commercial LEDs to improve extraction efficiency.  The company has reported 614 nm LEDs with an efficacy of 108 lm/W.  Results for larger area AlGaInP devices, high performance AlGaAs thin film devices, and thin-film InGaN emitters are also described. 

Ø       Rohm Electronics exhibited a series of high-power LED packages based on chips from Cree and others; including a 35 lm white LED.  It also displayed side-emitting white LEDs with a brightness of 600 mcd at 20 mA in a surface mount package suitable for thin, full-color LCD designs.

Ø       Evident Technologies discussed its production of nanocrystals meant to replace either the emitter or color-converting phosphor.  It is now working on InP-based nanocrystals suited to LED applications, which are expected to be released commercially during 2005.  The company first expects to impact the LED market a purple LED, with color produced by mixing light from a blue emitter with the red light from down-converting nanocrystals.  The white LED market is a mid-term project for the company, two years from revenue generation.

·   Kopin has formed a joint venture company, called Ko-Brite Corp., to establish GaN materials growth capabilities in Taiwan and LED die production capabilities in China.  Kopin expects to cease all LED manufacturing activities by the end of March 2005 and to complete the transfer of its LED operations to Ko-Brite by July 1, 2005.  In addition to Kopin, the principal investors are: Bright LED Electronics Corp. of Taipei, Taiwan; WK Technology Fund, a leading global venture capital firm based in Taiwan; and KTC, a Taiwanese III-V semiconductor manufacturer which is 40% owned by Kopin.  Total capitalization is expected to be $14.5 million.  [ Press release, News item in LIGHTimes ]

·   Koyo Machine Industries (Japan) has developed a grinding machine for sapphire substrates used to fabricate blue and white LEDs.  The new machine, the DF-300G, features a fixed whetstone, against which the sapphire substrate is moved horizontally.  This reduces fissuring to cracks of just 4 um, about a quarter of the typical length, so the polishing step can be omitted and total processing time can be halved to around 4 hours, according to the company.  Koyo Machine developed the DF-300G in cooperation with parent firm Koyo Seiko Co Ltd and sister company Koyo Electronics Industries Inc.  It plans to market the machine in the first quarter of 2005 for about 30 million yen (US$285,000). [ News item in Advanced Ceramics Report (No URL available) ]

·   Keith Evans was named president and CEO of Kyma Technologies.  The company's management includes co-founders Mark Williams, COO, and Andrew (Drew) Hanser, both originally of North Carolina State University.  Evans was previously with the Wright-Patterson Air Force Research Lab, QED/IQE, Veeco Instruments, SLI, and most recently served as a senior VP at Crystal IS. [ News item at LIGHTimes ]

·   Lamina Ceramics reduced prices on its two major LED product lines, cutting by 54% the prices of its 108-lumen BL-2000 5500°K white light engine and its BL-3000 570-lumen 5500°K white light engine.  Prices have also been reduced 26 to 59% on all other BL-2000 models, and by 24 to 55% on the BL-3000 line.  [ Press release ]

·   The LED Alliance and its issues with Color Kinetics' intellectual property portfolio were featured in several articles.  The LED Alliance comprises Super Vision, Artistic Licence (UK), and others.  In LEDs Magazine, the article " LED Alliance seeks ammunition for battle with Color Kinetics" reports that the LED Alliance is gaining momentum and has issued a Call for Prior Art in its attempt to show that color-mixing applications were well known when Color Kinetics filed its patents, meaning that many of the claims in the patents lack the "novel and inventive step" essential to qualify for patent protection.  Related articles include " Patent issues cause discontent among LED lighting manufacturers" and " Color Kinetics confident of success in patent disputes." LIGHTimes published an editorial, " Super Vision vs. Color Kinetic Indicative of Typical Growing Pains," and a follow-up piece, " Follow the Lead of the Gentle Giants."  [ Feature article in LEDs Magazine ]

·   A LED Clusters Focused Interest Group (FIG) was formed in December 2002 within the Optical Radiation Measurement (ORM) Club program of the UK's National Physical Laboratory (NPL). The LED Clusters FIG has representation from LED suppliers, LED cluster manufacturers, optical measurement equipment suppliers, optical test houses, transport authorities, consultants, and NPL.  The group is to review the draft Best Practice Guide document which addresses the measurement issues specific to LED clusters.  It ultimately aims to promote the Best Practice Guide via the Commission Internationale de l'Eclairage (CIE).  [ Article in LEDs Magazine ]

·   Lighting Science and Giuliani Capital Advisors have created a joint venture intended to accelerate the deployment of Lighting Science's patent-pending Optimized Digital Lighting^TM (ODL^TM) technology under the company's Energy Saving Sharing Program, which enables organizations to use ODL products without any upfront capital expenditures and to share the energy savings with the joint venture.  The joint venture will finance and deploy the ODL technology in lighting applications owned and operated by municipalities, public utility corporations, universities, large malls, parking lots and other organizations with significant lighting requirements.  The joint venture will be 80% owned by Lighting Science and 20% owned by GCA, which will provide strategic consulting, cultivate relationships with potential customers, and raise any necessary capital for the joint venture.  [ Press release ]

·   Lighting Science Group will supply its new LEDs to a major Las Vegas hotel and casino.  The Puck Light, incorporating LSGC's Optimized Digital Lighting (ODL) (TM) technology, will illuminate the interior of armoires, cabinets and other large pieces of furniture in the hotel rooms and suites.  [ News item in LEDs Magazine ]

·   The San Jose Mercury News featured George Craford of Lumileds in its article, "Switching off bulbs for LEDs."  [ Article in the San Jose Mercury News (registration required) ]

·   Lumileds' growth was discussed in an editorial in LIGHTimes.  Although as a joint venture between Agilent and Philips, Lumileds is able to function as a private company and has no obligation to state its financials, it recently reported that its sales for 2004 were $280 million, representing a 43% annual growth and net income was $62 million, or 22% of sales.  That sales figure "equates to pure muscle and brilliance," according to the article.  [ Article in LIGHTimes ]

·   Lumileds’ Luxeon light sources have been used by lighting manufacturer LightGraphix on the luxury £14 million, 140-foot sailing yacht Gimlä.  LightGraphix, a Luxeon Certified Luminaire Manufacturer, created lighting solutions using white Luxeon LEDs to light outside steps and side decks, and on the mast to light down onto the decks.  Inside they are used as feature uplighting onto a curved, paneled ash corridor linking the saloon and the owners’ quarters, and as step lighting between decks and cabins.  [ Press release ]

·   Lumileds announced it will issue an advisory to the solid-state lighting industry regarding its intellectual property pertaining to the manufacture and assembly of mirror substrate LEDs.  The action comes in response to reports that certain die manufacturers and LED packagers are violating Lumileds' patents, according to the company.  [ Press release ]

·   Mitsubishi announced its PocketProjector™, one of the world’s smallest LED projectors.  Weighing 14 oz. and fitting into a coat pocket, the projector is lighted by three Lumileds LEDs and intended for use with a notebook computer, portable DVD player, or gaming console.  The PocketProjector has a short projection distance: users can create a 20-in. diagonal screen with slightly more than a foot of projection distance, and a 40-in. screen image in less than a yard.  It will be available in July 2005.  [ Press release ]

·   Mitsubishi Chemical has developed a new fluorescent material for white LEDs and plans to begin sales in April.  The new materials convert blue light into red and green, resulting in a natural-looking white light.  Mitsubishi expects to begin producing several kilograms of the material per month at its facility in Ushiku, Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan, and increase that rate to 100 kg per month in the second half of fiscal year 2005.  [ News item at New Materials Japan; news items from Asia Pulse and Jiji Press (No URLs available) ]

·   Nanosys was featured in an article at the Motley Fool.  The CIA's private venture-capital firm, In-Q-Tel, has invested in Nanosys, which has more than 250 patents and applications and has partnered with large companies such as DuPont and Intel.  Nanosys will receive about $5 million in the next 12 months and $18 million in the next five years in government contracts.  The company will be working on solid-state lighting, low-cost solar cells, medical coatings, electronic displays, radio frequency identification tags and more.  [ Article at the Motley Fool ]

·   Nichia announced that unnamed U.S. distributors have agreed to stop marketing certain white LED products, manufactured in Asian countries, which Nichia believes infringe on its U.S. patents.  The LED application products these distributors sell may bear labels certifying that they contain Nichia LEDs.  Nichia also announced that it intends to identify other infringing LED application products and to enforce its intellectual property rights where necessary.  [ Press release ]

·   Bill Riegler, Stephen Bruner and Rob Thomaier from NuSil Technology discuss the merits of silicone encapsulants in this article, “Silicone delivers thermal stability to LED packaging,” in Compound Semiconductor magazine.  Until recently, HB-LED research concentrated on the development of light-producing chip material.  Now, as very-high-volume applications such as solid-state lighting beckon, investigations into encapsulant technology have become equally important.  Encapsulant techniques under development or in use by Lumileds, Cree, Nichia, Osram, and Emcore are discussed.  [ Article ]

·   Shuji Nakamura and Nichia have agreed to an $8.1 million settlement of the lawsuit Nakamura brought against his former employer.  Nakamura was dissatisfied with the award, which was significantly less than the nearly $200 million settlement a lower court had ordered.  Nakamura filed suit in 2001 after Nichia patented the blue LED he invented while employed there.  The company originally had given him an award of less than $200 for his work.  Nakamura accepted the settlement on the advice of his attorneys but has said he will see very little of it after paying attorney fees and taxes.  [ Article in the New York Times (subscription required); News item at CompoundSemiconductor.com; Article in Asahi Shimbun; News item 1 and item2 in Science (subscription required) ]

·   OmniTech Lighting Solutions was awarded a seed grant from the Maine Technology Institute to conduct research and development to produce a prototype of a multifunction LED flashlight.  The flashlight is an illumination source for aviators, mariners, campers, hunters and emergency personnel with two red modes, one white mode and a rescue beacon mode.  The award was one of 25, totaling more than $230,000, made for 2005.  [ News item in the Portland Press Herald (No URL available) ] 

·   OnScreen Technologies’ RediAlert™ Rapid Dispatch Emergency Sign™ will be featured in editorials in three national trade-specific publications, Law Enforcement Product News, Police and Security News and Fire/EMS Product News.  The RediAlert product line includes highly visible, portable LED signs that can be powered and transported by any vehicle, set up by one person in a few minutes, and controlled remotely from a variety of encrypted wireless technologies.  [ Press release 1, Press release 2, product information ]

·   Opto Tech will build an LED display, apparently the largest built to date, to promote the Beijing Olympics and serve as a major focal point at the International Trade Center, according to DigiTimes and LIGHTimes.  Opto Tech intends to invest $20 million in the 200 meter by 30 meter (6,000 square meter) display.  Other major Chinese cities are likely to commission similar giant screens, according to the article. [ News item in LIGHTimes ]

·   OptoLum was awarded U.S. Patent 6,831,303, its third in the area of thermal management.  The new patent covers LEDs integrated with heat sinks in a variety of standard configurations and materials including aluminum extrusions, and notably includes the addition of active cooling either using air or liquid by way of a fan or a pump.  The patented technology allows for cooling of the brightest of LEDs packaged in small spaces or in densely packed arrays.  Some implications of this and related patents on the development of LEDs for general illumination are discussed in an article at LIGHTimes. [ Press release, News item at LIGHTimes ]

·   Oriol 's white LED intellectual property brought $1.5 million in an auction held February 3, 2005.  The winning bidder was not named.  Proceeds from the auction will enable full payment of all of Oriol's vendors.  [ Article at LIGHTimes ]

·   Osram Opto Semiconductors ' LED portfolio for general lighting was featured in a company profile article in LEDs Magazine.  The profile describes many of Osram's products and covers topics such as luminescence conversion and thin-film LEDs.  [ Feature article in LEDs Magazine ]

·   Osram Sylvania has supplied LED headlamps for the Ford Shelby GR-1 concept vehicle now on display at auto shows in the U.S.  The two-module, LED headlight system features the trapezoidal High Intensity Solid State (HISS) headlamps.  Two LED modules work together to create optimum low and high beam output.  While one module provides beam spread, the other creates the "hot spot," or beam center.  [ Press release ]

·   Osram Sylvania 's patent application for a vacuum ultraviolet (VUV)-excited device with blue-emitting phosphor ( WO2004/105070) was featured in the “Patent Highlights” column of Optics.org.  The blue-emitting, europium-activated calcium-substituted barium hexa-aluminate (CBAL) phosphor is described as ideal for use in VUV-excited products such as plasma display panels, since it has improved degradation characteristics.  [ News item at Optics.org ]

·   Perkin Elmer has acquired Elcos AG, a leading European designer and manufacturer of custom LED solutions for biomedical and industrial applications.  The transaction combines Elcos' visible LED technology platform and strong customer and application base with PerkinElmer's global sales, application and support organization, and will provide significantly greater growth opportunities for the Elcos technology, according to the company.  Based in Pfaffenhofen, Germany, Elcos had 2004 revenues of $11.3 million with more than 60% coming from health sciences applications, including blood glucose monitoring and pulse oximetry.  [ Press release ]

·   Permlight and Tempo Lighting reached a settlement in the lawsuit filed in April 2004 claiming infringement of Permlight’s U.S. patents 6,416,200, "Surface lighting system ," and 6,082,870, "Tread area and step edge lighting system." Under the settlement, Tempo will license Permlight’s patented theater lighting technology for its Sentinel and Sentry products, but terms of the license were not disclosed.  [ Press release]

·   Permlight was awarded a new patent ( U.S. Patent 6,846,093) for its thermal management techniques to increase brightness in LED systems without adversely affecting lifetime.  The patent, titled "Modular mounting arrangement and method for light emitting diodes," is Permlight's seventh for thermal management.  The patent covers a modular LED mounting configuration, including a light source module with pre-packaged LEDs arranged in a serial array.  The module includes a heat conductive body portion adapted to conduct heat generated by the LEDs to an adjacent heat sink.  A heat-conductive adhesive tape connects the LED module to the mount surface.  Multiple LED modules can be pre-wired together in a continuous fashion and provided in a dispenser, such as a roll or box.  [ Press release ]

·   Permlight has filed a patent infringement lawsuit against ElectraLED, alleging that ElectraLED's "FLEX" LED system infringes Permlight's patents, including U.S. Patent No. 6,712,486, "Mounting Arrangement for Light Emitting Diodes" and U.S. Patent No. 6,846,093, "Modular Mounting Arrangement and Method for Light Emitting Diodes." The patents are related to Permlight's RL, SL, DL, DL2, DL3, DSL, PaletteLight, PaletteLight MINI Twister and EL Blanco White LED product families.  The complaint requests damages and an injunction against infringement. [ Press release ]

·   Pro-Lite is now distributing Labsphere's SLMS-0400 Series Spectral Lamp Measurement Systems and HLMS-200P Handheld Light Measurement System.  The products enable users to easily determine the optical properties of small light sources such as LEDs, miniature lamps and laser diodes.  The SLMS-0411 and SLMS-0421 are built around a compact, 100 mm diameter integrating sphere, with a diode array spectrometer instrument, a current-regulated power supply and Labsphere SLMS software.  The systems also include a calibrated spectral flux standard for system calibration and an auxiliary lamp, used as a control to correct for certain measurement errors.  The HLMS-200P combines a 50 mm diameter integrating sphere with a handle-grip holder with built-in microprocessor.  The detector is a photometrically filtered silicon photodiode which provides maximum sensitivity at low light levels and a close match to the eye's photopic response.  [ Press release, News item in Physics Web ]

·   Rural Lighting: Canadian retirees Anthony and Faith Harckham have brought solar-powered, LED-based light to hundreds of homes in rural areas from Peru to Pakistan.  The project is financed by a mix of tourism and charity, as adventurous people who like traveling to out-of-the-way places pay for the lighting equipment and their own travel expenses, and then help install the hardware themselves.  The project was featured in an IEEE Spectrum article titled “Lighting up the Andes.”  [ News item at IEEE Spectrum ]

·   StockerYale 's COBRA™ 500 LED Line Illuminator was awarded the 2004 Photonics Circle of Excellence Award by Photonics Spectra Magazine.  The product was the first in a family of new products based on StockerYale’s chip-on-board reflective array (COBRA™) method for LED module fabrication, a technique that represents a significant improvement in both thermal and optical performance, according to the company.  [ Press release ]

·   Reports on the Strategies in Light event, held February 7 to 9, 2005, in California, were published in LIGHTimes and LEDs Magazine.  Highlights include:  [ Article in LIGHTimes item 1, item 2, item 3, Article in LEDs Magazine ]

Ø       Alan Thompson of LIGHTimes says he sees a "perfect storm" brewing for the HB-LED market, brought on by overcapacity and heavy reliance on cell phone sales.

Ø       Tony van de Ven of Lighthouse Technologies said that using video screens for billboard advertising is now financially feasible, and that the technical challenges of creating large LED screens have largely been overcome.

Ø       Sidney Chu of Cotco discussed issues with traditional backlighting using CCFL, EEFL, or FFL, including heat stress, color deterioration, non-uniform brightness due to curvature on large screens, and environmental issues, and explained how these problems can be overcome with RGB LED arrays.

Ø       Rüdiger Müller of Osram discussed growth in miniature projection systems, flat-panel display backlights, automotive headlights and general lighting, applications which require improved color uniformity, increased surface brightness and reduced cost.

Ø       Jason Posselt of Lumileds said cost targets of less than 1 cent per lumen are achievable within the next five years.  Lumileds also announced a redesign of its Luxeon high-power LED product.

Ø       Chris James of Cree showed a timeline graph detailing Cree's progress in the "lumens per wafer" metric for white LEDs.  Cree representatives also acknowledged that although production of its 100 lm/W source is not imminent, the company expects production white LEDs of 50 lm/W this year.  (See also above.)

Ø       Shuji Muguruma of Nichia outlined the company's application focus, which covers four main areas: lighting, displays, automotive and mobile, with a different product set for each and said his company has a 5 W package producing 200 lm on its product roadmap for lighting.

Ø       Bill Kennedy of Toyoda Gosei presented a new power SMD LED, due to enter production in April 2005, which includes a 1 x 1 mm chip, the phosphor, and a package measuring 3.4 mm x 2.8 mm x 1.2 mm deep that provides "superior" heat dissipation.

Ø       Representatives from Taiwan and Korea said they are committed to IP protection, but IP concerns were repeated throughout the conference. 

·   Super Vision signed license agreements with five companies for its Variable Color Lighting System and its recently acquired Laidman Technology portfolio.  The new licensees are: Illumination Management Solutions (IMS) and LED Power, both of Irvine, Calif.; Element Labs of Austin, Texas; TPR Enterprises of Mamaroneck, N.Y.; and Shine Lighting of West Jordan, Utah.  Greg Rhoads, IMS's Chief Technology Officer, said: "It is clear to us that the Super Vision '687' patent provides the earliest and broadest coverage in the industry for networking multiple color changing lighting fixtures using addressable and variable control. We are proud to be a part of the LED Alliance."  IMS is known for its advanced applications of LED technology for the production of LED light engines for industrial and commercial applications.  LED Power produces LED lighting systems for commercial applications including aerospace, automotive, commercial signage, marine, traffic control and utility control systems.  TPR is a leading manufacturer of stage lighting products for the Broadway theaters in New York City and major touring companies throughout the U.S. Super Vision's Variable Color Lighting System is covered under U.S. Patent No. 4,962,687.  [ Press release 1, Press release 2 ]

·   Technologies and Devices International (TDI) showed prototype AlGaN-on-sapphire templates at the 2004 Material Research Society meeting in Boston.  Novel AlGaN-on-sapphire materials, such as those made by TDI's patented hydride vapor phase epitaxial process, are transparent in the UV spectrum region and target substrate applications for high-power GaN-based UV LEDs. [ Press release ]

·   Texas A&M University-Commerce is involved in a research project to establish empirical de facto standards for brightness in sign enclosures based on LED lighting and power technologies.  The university's industrial engineering and technology department plans to optically measure different LEDs to determine how much brightness is needed to illuminate specific areas.  As part of the research project, a database incorporating various business tools, such as reports and statistics, will also be established and maintained.  OptoEngineering of Tulsa made a donation to the department for the purchase of light measuring equipment.  [ Article in North Texas e-News]

·   The Phoenix Group Corporation has changed its name to Lighting Science Group Corporation by means of a parent/subsidiary merger with its wholly owned subsidiary, Lighting Science, Inc.  The board of directors approved the merger in December and filed a certificate of merger with the state of Delaware.  [ Press release ]

·   TIR Systems announced the completion of two projects in Tianjin and Shanghai in mainland China.  TIR supplied products from its Destiny series to illuminate the 52-meter (170-foot) high Full Moon Tower at Galaxy Park, a leisure park in Tianjin, and supplied its Light Pipe product as a key feature in the exterior lighting of the Azia Center in Shanghai.  TIR’s Destiny CW and Destiny DL Solid State luminaires are part of a computer-programmed, color-controlled animated lighting show which plays nightly in Galaxy Park.  The projects follow the company’s June 2004 Asian launch.  [ Press release ]

·   TIR Systems ' Light Pipe system will provide general illumination for the Departure and Arrival levels of Chicago O'Hare International Airport's Terminal 2.  The Light Pipes, built into a new ceiling, will form the major visual element in the newly renovated terminal that services Air Canada, Northwest Airlines, and Continental Airlines.  TIR has also been chosen to replace an existing conventional lighting system in the Cobo Hall Tunnel in downtown Detroit.  The two contracts total $2.9 million.  [ Press release ]

·   TIR Systems signed a distribution agreement with The Robert Horne Group to allow its Cox Plastics division to sell TIR’s solid state lighting products, LightScript^TM and LightMark^TM, in the illuminated sign sales market in the UK.  That market has been valued by the European Sign Federation at Euro 480 million, with neon accounting for about 40%, or € 197 million.  Cox Plastics has a 30 to 35% market share in the sign supply industry in the UK.  The Robert Horne Group is owned by PaperlinX Limited (Australia).  [ Press release ]

·   Toyoda Gosei has established a new manufacturing subsidiary in San Antonio, Texas.  Toyoda Gosei Texas was set up on the property of Toyota Motor Manufacturing Texas (TMMTX) and is slated to begin production in October 2006.  Seventeen other suppliers have built plants on the premises.  The new company, a wholly owned subsidiary of Toyota Gosei North America, will produce for TMMTX.  Four executives have been appointed to the board of directors.  [ Press release ]

·   University of Illinois ’ Nick Holonyak was featured in an article entitled, "U. of I.'s Holonyak out to take some of Edison's luster."  Holonyak, called the "father of the LED," discusses progress in the field since he began working with LEDs at GE in 1962.  [ Article in the Chicago Sun Times – scroll to lower portion of page]

·   Veeco is conducting an internal investigation of improper accounting transactions recorded at its TurboDisc division, causing a postponement in the release of Veeco's earnings.  The investigation focuses principally on the value of inventory, accounts payable and certain revenue items carried on the books of TurboDisc, which Veeco bought from Emcore in November 2003.  [ Press release, news items at LIGHTimes: item 1, item 2 ]

·   Visioneered Image Systems has developed a display technology that counteracts the degradation of LEDs and ensures consistent LED brightness over the full lifetime of the display.  Two key aspects of the Visioneered approach are the detectors that sit next to each LED in the display, and the diffractive optics that concentrate the light into the optimum viewing area appropriate for the application.  [ Article in LEDs Magazine ]

B.   New Products

·   Agilent introduced an LED-based optical mouse sensor with improved tracking control that works over a wider variety of surfaces, including wood desktops and halftone images.  The Agilent ADNS-3060 LED-based optical mouse sensor features 3.3-volt operation, power-down current consumption of 30 uA, maximum clock frequency of 24 MHz, a maximum speed of 40 inches per second at 6,400 frames per second, and a resolution of up to 800 cpi.  [ Press release ]

·   Agilent announced an LED-based color management system for backlighting LCD flat-panel TVs that delivers colors 25 percent more brilliant than current fluorescent backlighting.  The new system combines the color management controller integrated circuit and color sensor to produce a complete hue (color) and intensity (brightness) control system; works with high-power Luxeon red, green and blue LEDs from Lumileds Lighting; and provides white backlighting through the combination of red, green and blue LEDs with feedback control, allowing for constant color and brightness over the lifetime of the display.  [ Press release ]

·   Allegro MicroSystems introduced high-frequency boost converters with constant current output suitable for driving white LEDs.  The A8430 is a non-inverting boost dc-dc converter, providing a programmable constant current output at up to 36 V for driving white LEDs in series.  The output current is set with an external resistor and can be varied with either a PWM signal or a control voltage at the top of the sense resistor when dimming control is required.  The A8430 comes in a 3x3 mm x 0.75 mm high, five-lead QFN package, utilizes an industry-standard pinout and equivalent SOT-23-5 footprint, and is an easy drop-in replacement for competitive products.  [ Press release ]

·   Apollo Display Technologies introduced a 6.5-inch diagonal, active matrix, VGA resolution LCD display featuring white LED edge lighting.  The display is suitable for industrial and medical instruments and features a typical brightness of 170 cd/m² at 240 mA (9.8 V) and maximum brightness of 280 cd/m² at 480 mA (9.8 V).  LEDs replace the CCFL fluorescent backlights typically used in TFT displays.  [ News item at ECN Magazine ]

·   BivarOpto introduced an ultra-thin surface-mount RGB device featuring individual addressable die for exact color mixing and matching, suitable for backlit keypads and LCDs used in handheld and mobile appliance applications.  The tri-chip RGB design comprises one AlGaInP and two InGaN/SIC chip dies, with peak wavelengths of 635, 520 and 465 nm.  The SMTC0606 RGB LED chip measures 0.059” (1.5mm) x 0.063” (1.6mm) x 0.024’ (0.6mm) in height and has a maximum forward current of 125 mA.  [ News item in LEDs Magazine ]

·   BivarOpto introduced a wedge-based warm-white LED featuring accurate color output of industry standard T-1 ¾”(5mm) wedge-based incandescent bulbs, for telecommunications, switching systems, elevators, automotive instrument panels, annunciators, indicators and use in miniature lighted push-button switches.  The device features a warm-white color temperature of 3500K, a flat faced lens design with an internal reflector for enhanced light intensity with a 180° wide-viewing angle, and is rated at 2.5 V DC to 48 V DC.  It measures 0.80 inches (20.37 mm) in length and 0.230 inches (5.842 mm) in diameter.  [ Press release ]

·   Carmanah announced two new and technically enhanced LED edge-lit roadway signs, the Model R409 Edge-Lit LED Street-Name Sign and the Model R450 Edge-Lit LED Traffic Sign.  Traffic agencies in 12 states have installed Carmanah's LED-illuminated roadway signs, including the cities of St. Charles, Mo., Camarillo, Calif., Broomfield, Colo., and Tyler, Texas.  Carmanah has been manufacturing LED edge-lit illuminated signs since 1993 and has an installation base exceeding 50,000 units. [ Press release ]

·   Color Kinetics introduced a number of new and expanded products:

Ø       The Digital Light Engine (DLE) line was expanded to include the DLE L-101, a linear module incorporating 24 surface mount LEDs at a 120° x 120° beam angle; available in 12-inch and 6-inch lengths; and the DLE L-103, a 12-inch linear module incorporating 54 surface mount LEDs at a wide beam distribution of 180° x 180°.  The new products are suitable for wall grazing, alcove lighting and marker lighting.  [ Press release ]

Ø       IntelliWhite™ products were introduced -- a series of “first-of-their-kind” products that combine digital control with advanced white LEDs to enable both traditional and new uses of high-quality white light.  The products include innovations such as variable color temperature, producing cool to warm gradients of white light from a single fixture; the ability to dim solid-state devices with standard dimmers; and the ability to dim without altering color temperature.  The series also includes lamps in color temperatures that are not available in conventional halogen or incandescent lamps.  Applications include retail displays, architectural accent lighting, art and exhibit lighting, and hospitality ambience lighting.  [ Press release ]

Ø       iColor® Cove QL was introduced, which is a lower-priced version of its previous iColor Cove product.  iColor Cove QL is an enhanced, lower-profile, 12" (30.5 cm) unit with the same beam angle (110° x 40°) of its predecessor.  Applying Chromasic™ technology, it has the capability for self-addressing, which translates to simplified installation, addressing and programming.  Intended applications include accent and alcove lighting, exhibit and display lighting, signage and other applications in confined spaces that call for saturated color and dynamic effects.  [ Press release ]

Ø       The Video System Manager was introduced -- an integrated software and hardware solution designed to produce Video With Light™ in entertainment lighting applications.  The product allows video-based, Ethernet control of Color Kinetics' intelligent solid-state lighting systems, enabling dynamic visuals and backdrops for venues such as theaters, tradeshows, casinos, theme parks, concerts, corporate events and exterior facades.  [ Press release ]

·   Custom Interconnect Ltd has developed novel LED arrays, called CoolLED, from 300x300µm bare UV LED die on a metallized ceramic substrate.  The company has formed a subsidiary, also called CoolLED, to make the devices.  CoolLED features a looser pitch than most arrays, as well as cup-shaped reflectors around the die, thus increasing light output by 80% and decreasing heat.  A mass of copper behind the ceramic acts as a heat reservoir.  Nick Edwards of CoolLED says that the usual packing of the die side by side means the light that comes out of the die's sides--46% of the light emitted--is lost.  [ News item in Electronics Weekly, News item in EETimes]  

·   Coretronic and Chi Mei Optoelectronics introduced LED backlight modules, based on Osram technology, for LCD televisions.  Coretronic became Taiwan's first monitor supplier to introduce large back-light modules with a 37-inch LCD television set.  The set uses Osram's Sixled, which features technology allowing a single diode to emit red, green, and blue light, eliminating the need to install red, green, and blue diodes to deliver mixed light.  [ News item from Taiwan Economic News (No URL available)]

·   Dortronics introduced a series of high intensity LED indicators that can be clearly seen even in bright sunlight.  The new 7201 Series High Intensity LED Indicators are available in configurations for outdoor and indoor use.  Basic units feature red and green LEDs on a single panel mountable in a standard electrical box enclosure.  [ News item in LEDs Magazine ]

·   Dubilier introduced a series of low-cost LEDs in red, yellow, orange, and green, in 3mm and 5mm diameters, with radial leads.  The line includes surface-mount chip LEDs in industry standard 0603 and 0805 sizes and high brightness units providing up to 8,000 Mcd light.  [ News item at EETimes Asia (registration required), product information ]

·   GELcore introduced a 1-W Tetra™ Power White LED lighting system as an alternative to white neon tubes or fluorescent lamps for signage.  The product is available with two or three LEDs per foot, uses 2.4 W or 3.6 W per foot, and is packaged in reel form so it can be cut to any length.  Intended applications include large signs and channel letters; box, cloud and monument signs; multi-colored signs; and reverse-halo signs.  [ Press release ]

·   Ichikoh announced a white LED-based, 18-W automotive fog light.  The lights, which use three LEDs each, will be available in Japan this summer for about US$872, slightly less than conventional high-intensity discharge versions.  [ News item at Asia Pulse (No URL available) ]

·   III-N Technology (Manhattan, Kan.) has developed single-chip power AC-LED lamps that need no power conversion and can be plugged directly into standard power outlets or lamp sockets.  Hongxing Jiang, who founded III-N Technology with his fellow Kansas State University professor Jingyu Lin, made the announcement at the recent Photonics West conference.  To overcome the problem of LEDs emitting light only when forward biased, the team created two arrays, which light up alternately when the source polarity is reversed.  [ News item in LEDS Magazine ]

·   Lamina Ceramics claims to have set another world's record with its ultra-high lumen LED array, branded Aterion™ White.  The 28,000 lumen solid-state device uses 1,120 LEDs, is 5 in. square, powered by 1,400 W, and produces a CRI of 80.  The array radiates no heat in its light beam; features instant-on, instant re-strike and fully dimmable capabilities; and is reportedly 14 times brighter than any previously demonstrated white light LED array and twice as bright as the RGB light engine Lamina announced in October.  [ Press release ]

·   LED drivers/charge pumps:   An alternative approach to driving LEDs, which should ultimately lead to more cost-efficient and reliable LED lighting systems, is addressed in a LEDs Magazine article, “ New drive technology addresses LED efficiency issues," by author Stewart Hough of Lynk Labs.  Another article in the same source, titled " Design considerations for implementating low-cost integrated LED drivers for lighting applications," addresses the need for LEDs to be driven properly to ensure optimal performance and long life.  Designing and implementing an effective driver is key to obtaining all the benefits of LEDs, according to author Alejandro Lara of ON Semiconductor.  In addition, the following selected companies introduced new LED drivers and charge pumps:

Ø       Austriamicrosystems introduced what it calls the world's first smart 1 A charge pump for flash LEDs in camera phones.  The new AS3682 and AS3683 high-current charge pumps drive flash LEDs with up to 480 mA and 1 A output current, respectively.  The devices achieve a peak efficiency of 95 percent (PLed/Pin) because they support automatic mode switching between 1x / 1.5x and 2x modes and through their ultra-low dropout current sinks.  The six current sinks can be used with individual LEDs connected in parallel or tied together for driving a single high-output LED.  [ Press release ]

Ø       Catalyst Semiconductor introduced a high efficiency white LED driver.  The CAT3606 regulated charge pump is designed to deliver uniform, flicker-free backlighting for large panel and dual LCD display systems.  The device can also be used to drive a main plus sub cell phone display, or a main display plus low power camera flash.  Independent control of each LED bank enables PWM dimming and standby mode of the four-LED main and two-LED sub displays.  [ Press release ]

Ø       IXYS's Micronix Division launched a white LED driver with low voltage operation and high drive current capability.  The MX841 is designed to meet low voltage single cell applications powering up to three series white LEDs at 1.1 V DC.  The device's high drive current capability can power more than 20 series/parallel white LEDs at 5.0 V DC.  The product is intended for handheld battery powered display and instrumentation panel backlighting applications.  [ News item at Compound Semi News ]

Ø       National Semiconductor introduced a fixed-frequency current-mode step-up DC-DC converter suitable for white-LED applications.  The LM3557 can drive up to five LEDs in series with 20 mA current and has a fixed 24 V overvoltage protection option, eliminating the need for an extra protection diode.  A cost-effective external feedback resistor is used to set a constant current through the LEDs.  Intended applications include color display backlighting, cellular phones and personal digital assistants. [ Press release ]

Ø       National Semiconductor introduced a complete, low noise white LED driver system for wireless handsets and other portable devices.  The LM3570 provides three constant current sources for output up to 80 mA total drive current, powering up to three white LEDs on the main display and a large number of LEDs for sub-displays.  Intended applications include portable devices using white or blue LEDs with display or keypad backlight or frontlight, and one-cell lithium-ion battery-operated equipment including personal digital assistants (PDAs), handheld PCs and cellular phones. [ Press release ]

Ø       New Japan Radio Company introduced two LED drivers, one for RGB and one for white LEDs.  The NJU6061 is an RGB LED driver with a pulse width modulation controller, LED drivers, 8-bit serial interface, and a programmable sweep function.  Each of the RGB outputs produces 128 levels individually.  The NJU6049 is a high-efficiency white LED driver with a step-up DC/DC converter, 20 mA-output driver, and a maximum 18V-output to drive up to four LEDs in serial.  It has a small footprint and is suitable for use in cell phones, PDAs, camcorders, and more.  [ Data sheet 1, data sheet 2 ]

Ø       Semtech introduced a charge pump white/color LED driver for up to six LEDs.  The SC606 can power six LEDs divided into three pairs, each of which can be programmed independently from the others.  Output range for each pair can be adjusted from 0 to 32 mA with 500uA resolution, and tight current regulation is guaranteed for a total device output up to 120 mA.  LED brightness levels for each pair can be controlled via an Inter-Integrated Circuit (I2C) serial bus that allows designers to control dimming, brightness or blinking LED applications.  The device is intended for use in PDA, cell phone or other devices that need to power a combination of functions such as display, keypad backlighting, and flash.  [ Press release ]

Ø       Sipex introduced a high-efficiency charge pump that can independently regulate up to four white LEDs.  The SP7683 functions as a linear regulator at high input voltages and as a 1.5X charge pump at low input voltages, boosting input voltage to maintain desired forward current.  The device provides a matched current source of up to 160mA total (40mA per LED) for all channels and is intended for backlighting color displays in portable applications such as cell phones, digital cameras, and PDAs.  [ Press release ]

Ø       Vishay released a one- and two-channel LED driver that is reportedly the smallest single-package device of its kind.  The FunctionPAK® FX4040G7xx delivers adjustable current control from 0 A to 2.0 A at fixed power supplies up to 35 V.  The new driver features 170-W/in.3 power density in a small 0.40-in. by 0.40-in. package with a low 0.11-in. profile.  The driver’s two independent channels, each of which features output power of 60 W and maximum current of 2.0 A, allow two LED lines to be controlled by one module, and its nine-port BGA package is rated for a temperature range of -40 °C to +85 °C.  [ Press release, product data sheet ]

·   LEDtronics announced 15 mm bayonet-based 18-LED and 19-LED lamps for direct replacement of incandescent bulbs #310 and #312.  Available colors include green, white, blue, yellow and red (630 nm), and infrared lamps in wavelengths of 850 nm, 880 nm and 940 nm.  The lamps are suitable for indicators for process controls, aircraft instrumentation, elevator panels, automobile lighting, architectural and decor applications, and more.  [ Press release at Thomasnet.com ]

·   LEDtronics introduced the Series SLL003 Ultra Slim Shoebox LED Cluster Light Module, a low-profile fixture (1.5 in high) that weighs only 14 lbs.  The module features 400 incandescent white 5mm LEDs mounted on a PCB, and consumes 20 W, emits 656 cd and 700 lumens, and has a color temperature of 3000K - 3500K.  Optional LED colors are red, green, orange, yellow, cool white and blue.  [ Press release, data sheet ]

·   Lumileds announced the expansion of its high power Luxeon line with emitters that offer 65 lm to 130 lm in white at 350mA, 185°C allowable junction temperature, and a JEDEC moisture sensitivity level of 2a.  Designed to simplify the process of incorporating Luxeon light sources into lighting assemblies and end-user products, these new emitters represent a complete redesign of the Luxeon package, according to the company.  The new products will be available this summer in white and seven colors.  [ Press release ]

·   Lumitex has developed a modular light engine that combines high-power LEDs (such as the Luxeon® III Star or Luxeon® V) with a Lumitex® woven or UniGlo® fiber optic panel to spread light from a single source over a wide, flat area.  Encased in an aluminum housing that acts as a heat sink, the assembly provides 100 Ft-L or more for a 3-in. x 5-in. fiber optic panel illuminated by a single HB-LED.  Applications include touch screens, medical devices, LCD backlighting, and more.  [ Press release ]

·   Marktech Optoelectronics announced the availability of Cotco's LP379 series LEDs with a P4 package, concave lens and viewing angle of 120 degrees.  The devices are available in red (639nm), yellow (594nm), green (520nm, 562nm), blue-green (502nm) and blue (465nm), in a 7.6-mm square four-leaded package with intensities up to 4.2 lumens.  The LP379 series employs AlGaInP and InGaN/SiC technologies and are intended for use in interior and exterior architectural lighting, entertainment and decorative lighting, landscape lighting, backlighting, display and task lighting and signage.  [ News item at LEDs Magazine, product details ]

·   Minebea will begin mass-producing midsize white LED backlights this summer.  The backlights are designed for use in LCDs measuring about 6 to 10 inches, such as those found in car navigation systems and hand-held televisions.  The company expects to produce about 10,000 to 20,000 units per month, at a Thai plant where it currently produces small backlights, and forecasts 2005 sales greater than the 16 billion yen it earned from LCD backlights in fiscal year 2004.  [ News item at Asia Pulse no URL available ]

·   My-Tronic (Germany) introduced a new RGB LED product line called Chara, which includes the Chara LED Lightball.  The new line is compatible with My-Tronic's DecoLED systems and with DMX 512.  The lights can be chained in a network and controlled simultaneously either through the DMX protocol or by other means such as computer software, Internet, Ethernet, or radio controlled remotes.  My-Tronic suggests applications in wellness studios, swimming pools and steam baths, theaters, restaurants, and more.  [ Press release, product description ]

·   Nova Electronics introduced new LED warning signals that feature Osram technology.  The SLWIC3 contains 56 wide-angle, high-intensity OSRAM Power TOPLED®s in a novel split-array arrangement and packaged in an extremely thin (0.343 in.) waterproof enclosure (6.4455 in. x 2.20 in.) that can be mounted to any surface or retrofitted to existing applications.  This technology alleviates the need to alter vehicle bodies, and installation requires only three wires.  [ Press release ]

·   OptiLED introduced its S11 LED pseudo-filament lamp, a product intended to replace incandescent S11 glass light bulbs.  The S11, which consumes less than 0.5 W, is suitable for marquees, retail, hospitality, staging and residential lighting and is available in red, green, blue, amber and white.  Using a switched mode power supply, it operates on voltages from 100 V AC to 240 V AC.  The electronics and light source sit beneath the optics with the light traveling through the Light Prescription Innovators' (LPI) primary optic to the center of the globe and the secondary LPI optic dispersing the light in a 360-degree pattern on the horizontal plane and 300-degree pattern on the vertical plane. [ Press release ] 

·   Osram announced new white LEDs for small mobile terminals.  The Micro SIDELEDs measure 0.8 mm high, compared to the previous version's 1 mm, and feature electrostatic sensitive device protection in an on-board diode.  With an operating current of 20 mA, the new device achieves 800 mcd, compared to 200 mcd for the previous recordholder.  Silicone is used as an encapsulation material to increase the device's lifetime by a factor of 10.  The devices are suitable for mobile phones, PDAs and handheld devices requiring bright light from a small device. [ Press release ]

·   Osram introduced the PointLED, with a 2 mm diameter and luminous efficacy of 38 lm/W.  At 0.775 mm high, the device can be sunk completely in the printed circuit board.  The white LED has a typical brightness of 800 mcd at a beam angle of 120°.  The device can be used as a universal light source in applications where space is tight, such as in backlighting for displays, in high-line brake lights, behind keypads on mobile phones and PDAs, or for flash photography on mobile phones.  [ Press release ]

·   Para Light introduced a line of high-power LED lamps for signage and automotive applications that can tolerate forward current up to 70 mA.  The new L-5T3XX series lamps come in a T-1 ¾ package (5 mm diameter), have a water clear lens, a viewing angle of 30 degrees, operate in a temperature range of -25°C to +85°C, and are available in blue, yellow and orange.  [ News item in LEDs Magazine ]

·   Para Light introduced an enhanced-power LED light strip module, LS07G5, made up of individual 35 mA RGB LEDs with an IC controller that enables thousands of different color combinations.  The light strip has a viewing angle of 100 degrees, total flux of 20 lm, input of 5 V, and operates in a temperature range of -20°C to +80°C.  The device is intended as a replacement for incandescent lighting in decorative and emergency lighting applications.  The standard LS07G5 includes 10 E-power LEDs on a strip 10 in. long, with custom designs available.  A single color-strip is also available. [ Press release at ThomasNet ]

·   Permlight and Chloride Systems have jointly developed an emergency LED lighting system based on patented floor, path of egress and thermal management technology.  Using Permlight's LED Light Engine technology, Chloride Systems, a division of the Genlyte Group, developed a complete emergency lighting systems package which includes LED luminaires, battery back-up and power outage detection circuitry.  The PathMaster product is a die-cast emergency-only or normally on luminaire with three 1-W LEDs mounted in a modular, replaceable housing that can accept a 12 V AC or 12 V DC input.  The integral LED driver circuit has three adjustable brightness settings and features a power loss detection circuit which increases light output during a power outage.  [ Press release ]

·   Semiconductor Technology Research released a new software tool, HEpiGaNS, for modeling of GaN crystal growth by HVPE.  The tool is intended to provide information about heat and mass transfer in the reactor, including information on the distribution of temperature, species fractions, mixture velocity, heat fluxes and other parameters, providing information along all boundaries of reactor parts.  The program employs an original heterogeneous chemistry model that provides an efficient description of the interaction of multi-component vapor with the reactive surface, an approach that allows description of the chemical processes at the gas-solid interfaces at a wide range of temperature and pressure, according to the company.  [ News item at CompoundSemiconductor.net; product information ]

·   Semiconductor Technology Research offers a software tool, Simulator of Light Emitters based on Nitride Semiconductors (SiLENSe), for modeling band diagrams and characteristics of group-III nitride LEDs.  The software features a band structure diagram of a nitride LED for various bias voltages, information concerning the distribution of electron and hole concentrations in the device structure, the electric field distribution across the device and the LED's current-voltage characteristics.  The software is also able to simulate the internal light emission efficiency as a function of current density, describe the wave functions of electrons and holes in a quantum-well active region, and calculate the light emission spectra of the LED.  [ News item at CompoundSemiconductor.net ]

·   Seoul Semiconductor introduced the Z-Power series of high-power packaged LEDs, available in white, red, green, blue, amber, cyan, warm white and full color.  The white Z-Power LED has a luminous flux of 140 lm at 1.4 A (5 W), corresponding to 28 lm/W, with a luminous efficacy of 40 lm/W at 350 mA.  In addition, the Full Color Z-Power LED, which the company says is the only multi-color packaged LED product containing three high-power (350 mA) RGB chips, emits any required color or white light with a luminous flux of 60 lm.  This Full Color LED does not require color filters, unlike the existing CCFL technology.  [ News item, product data sheet at LEDs Magazine ]

·   Seoul Semiconductor introduced the "LED for AC," an LED that runs on AC without a converter and can be used in existing lighting systems without modification.  The device was developed using technology described in a base structure patent owned by Nitride Semiconductor and invented by Dr. Sakai of Japan's Tokushima University.  The single chip device operates at 220 V, draws 15 mA for a total power consumption of 2 W, has a claimed lifetime of 80,000 hours, and produces 40 lumens with a luminous efficacy of 20 lm/W.  SSC expects this value to increase to 30 lm/W during 2005.  [ Press release, News item in LEDs Magazine ]

·   Shenzhen Hongli Opto-Electronics introduced a new series of LEDs available in white, blue, green, yellow, or red.  The HL-508 series features luminous intensities of 8 cd to 10 cd (white), 1.8 cd to 2.5 cd (blue), 10 cd to 15 cd (green), 4 cd to 6 cd (yellow) or 4.5 cd to 5.5 cd (red).  The devices have a rated voltage of 1.9 V to 3.8 V, 20 mA forward current and 5 V reverse voltage.  [ News item at EETimes Asia (registration required) ]

·   Shenzhen Mason Technology released 5mm LEDs with brightness ranging from 40 mcd to 0.4 cd.  Rated at 1.9 V to 2.5 V, the LEDs have a rated forward current of 20mA, viewing angle of 120° and a lifespan of 80,000 hours, and are available in a variety of colors.  [ Press release at EETimes Asia (registration required) ]

·   Shenzhen Refond announced its new series of surface-mount LEDs for mobile phones.  The devices in the FH05 series provide 45 lumens brightness, measure 5 mm x 5 mm x 1.53 mm, are made with PPA or ceramic, and feature a rated current of 150 mA.  They are available in orange, yellow, green, blue, and white.  [ Press release at EE Times Asia (registration required), product data sheet ]

·   Tokyo Denpa began mass-producing ZnO single crystals for use in the fabrication of blue LEDs.  The company is investing 400 million yen (US$3.9 million) to introduce four furnaces for growing ZnO single crystals that can be sliced into 2-inch wafers, and eventually plans to have up to 10 furnaces in operation.  Samples of the ZnO single crystals have been supplied to the Iwate Industrial Research Institute and several companies.  Tokyo Denpa expects to generate annual revenue of 900 million yen to 1 billion yen from the sale of ZnO single crystals when its initial four furnaces are operating.  [ News item at Asia Pulse no URL available ]

·   Tri-O-Light (Netherlands) introduced its LED Mini Flood Light, a waterproof spot suitable for lighting objects or for indoor or outdoor decorative lighting purposes.  The spotlight uses Luxeon high power LEDs and is equipped with a 45-degree lens.  It uses 1 W at 350 mA and is available in amber, red, green, blue, white, and warm white. [ product information, data sheet ]

·   Waldmann Lighting Company introduced a line of waterproof, high-output LED industrial lighting products.  The compact 1.14 x 3.7-in. ABLL-1 LED features an aluminum housing, which is protected from water-based fluids and metalworking coolants by a corrosion-resistant coating.  The luminaires are suited for various machine applications including metalworking, food processing, pharmaceuticals, and woodworking.  [ Press release ]

·   Zhongshan Silsmart Optoeletronics released super-bright LEDs designed for use in traffic signal applications.  The JMtraffic-G LEDs emit at 505 nm, feature luminous intensities from 4 cd to 8 cd, and offer viewing angles of 15°, 30° or 40°.  [ News item at EE Times Asia (registration required) ]

C.   Novel or Interesting LED Applications/Uses

·   Artistic Licence announced a joint venture with starcloth specialist Acre Jean to create Pixi-Cloth, an LED starcloth that provides individual control over each pixel with a full spectrum of color mixing.  The pixels can be arranged in symmetric or random patterns.  Pixi-Cloth is available in size multiples of 3m by 3m and can be controlled using any DMX512 source.  [ News item in LEDs Magazine ]

·   The Boston Ballet's use of LED lighting in its holiday production of the Nutcracker is discussed in an article in Laser Focus World.  The ballet chose the lighting system, which included products from Color Kinetics and Osram, in part to save floor space in the smaller theater it used this year.  Four hundred feet of 12-in.-long, 6.2-W color-controllable LED strips were integrated into four arches that spanned the stage.  [ Article in Laser Focus World ]

·   The British Columbia Wildlife Park chose LEDs for its holiday display, the B.C. Hydro Power Smart Wildlights 2004, which featured 400,000 lights synchronized to seasonal and classical music to mimic the feel of the Aurora Borealis.  The display was expected to attract 25,000 visitors.  [ News item in Evalu8]

·   A Carnegie Mellon University researcher is using a grid of LEDs as an input device.  The touch-sensitive LED prototype acts as both a touch button switch and a display capable of showing prompts.  The researcher's technique uses at least two LEDs, one that senses light and one that emits light.  When a translucent or reflective object such as a finger makes contact, it reflects light from the emitting diode onto the sensing diode.  The research was presented at the User Interface Software and Technology 2004 conference.  [ Article at TRNMag.com, refers to Scott Hudson’s presentation on “Using Light Emitting Diode Arrays as Touch-Sensitive Input and Output Devices” at UIST 2004]

·   The Cartier store in New York City was decorated with bows and tiaras made of LEDs for the holiday season.  The decorations, designed and specified by the London-based Metropolis Group of Companies, included two pieces of red "ribbon" wrapping the entire building and meeting at a 14 ft wide LED bow and two giant LED tiaras, measuring 5 by 16 feet each, above the building's entrances on 5th Avenue and 52nd Street.  The entire display contained more than 17,000 LEDs, including 2,340 red Luxeon LEDs from Lumileds in the ribbon and 1000 white Luxeons in each tiara, with the remainder being a mixture of red and white 5mm LEDs from Plus Opto.  [ Article in LEDs Magazine ]

·   The 140-year old Clifton Suspension Bridge, a landmark in Bristol, UK, will be lit with more than 3,000 white LEDs in time for the 200th anniversary of its designer, Isambard Kingdom Brunel, in 2006.  Architectural lighting designers Pinniger & Partners have developed a lighting scheme with four main elements, one involving the use of LEDs, to emphasize the aesthetics of the bridge, cut down on light pollution and provide a visual connection between the bridge and the gorge below.  [ Article in LEDs Magazine ] 

·   LED-based products from Daktronics and Cadillac were used during the U.S. presidential inauguration.  Four Daktronics ProStar® mobile large-screen LED video displays provided close-up images at the events in Washington, D.C., and the Cadillac DTS limousine used to convey President George W. Bush along the parade route down Pennsylvania Avenue featured LED tail lamps.  [ Article in LEDs Magazine ]

·   LED lighting adds to the ambience at an ice skating rink suspended in the Eiffel Tower.  The ice is lit from beneath by 100 LED lights, which change the color of the ice without producing heat.  The rink, which is on a platform lodged between two of the tower's legs, 188 feet above the ground, can accommodate up to 80 skaters at a time.  [ News item in LEDs Magazine ]

·   Element Labs ' VersaTUBE linear LED effects fixtures were used on the set of a leading UK television show.  About 240 m of the tubes were supplied by Projected Image Digital to Creative Technology, to be used as fixtures for the current series of ITV1's top-rated talent show, X-Factor, being recorded at Fountain TV Studios in Wembley, London.  [ News item in LEDs Magazine ]

·   G-LEC 's LED frames were used to celebrate the anniversary of an automobile factory.  Two giant displays measuring 245 square meters (more than 2,600 square feet) each were attached to the facade on each side of the 14-story Mercedes Benz office building as part of the celebration of the 100-year anniversary of the company's Untertuerkheim plant near Stuttgart, Germany.  The displays showed live video feed from events on the main stage during the celebration.  [ News item in LEDs Magazine ]

·   A teenage inventor has developed the "Glo-Glove," a glove fitted with 13 LEDs whose beams can be directed using the hands and fingers.  Ethan Fowler, 14, of Manchester, England, won the regional heat of the Audi Innovation Award and will compete against 23 others for the national title.  The glove's lights are light-sensitive, so they turn on only in the dark, and a device fitted inside the glove permits them to switch on only when the glove is worn.  [ News item in Manchester Online ]

·   LED holiday lights from Holiday Creations were featured in an article with suggestions for an "eco-friendly" holiday in National Geographic News.  The article cites a DOE study that estimates that if conventional holiday light strings were all replaced with LEDs, it would save at least 2 billion kWh of electricity per month.  [ Article at National Geographic News ]

·   Investor's Business Daily featured an article on the use of LED lighting for illumination on a New York City street. "NYC Street Shines Light On LED Use" describes the revitalization project, which was organized by OSRAM Sylvania and the nonprofit Atlantic Avenue Local Development Corp. and funded by private property owners.  The LEDs are being installed in the doorways of stores, eateries and residences along Atlantic Avenue to welcome customers into the businesses.  Sylvania is donating the LEDs and LDC pays for installation.  Each doorway costs about $500 to install.  [ Article in Investor's Business Daily (free trial subscription required to view article) ]

·   James Thomas Engineering provided exterior illumination on an historical building in Bristol, UK.  Color-changing LED fixtures highlight the West Gate building, a prominent feature of the city center which was designed by renowned British architect Sir Giles Gilbert Scott, who also designed Bankside power stations (now the Tate Modern gallery) and the classic red British telephone box.  The building now houses an insurance company, Royal & SunAlliance.  Because of the building's "listed" status, no signage could be attached to the exterior.  The 12 fully-weatherized PixelPAR 90s supplied by James Thomas Engineering are mounted on a ledge around the bottom of the building's curved front fascia, beaming upwards.  [ News item at LEDs Magazine ]

·   LEDs Magazine has featured case studies in the use of LEDs in various applications in numerous articles in the past several months:

Ø       " LED design wins New York City streetlight competition":  The City Lights competition to design a new streetlight for the City of New York was won by an entry using LED lighting technology.

Ø       " Designing high-power LEDs into real applications": Kai Klimkiewicz of Future Electronics Europe explains electrical design aspects of using power LEDs in industrial lighting, general lighting, automotive and mobile camera phone flash applications [ Part 2]

Ø       " LED traffic signals save money, time and energy":  LED traffic signal projects in cities in Indiana, Kentucky and South Dakota are described.

Ø       " Brooklyn's main street revitalized by LED lighting":  An innovative scheme using Osram Sylvania LED-based lighting of building doorways has renewed the historic Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn, New York.

Ø       " Case study: LED panels highlight Lagotronics headquarters":  LED panels manufactured by Lagotronics now illuminate the facade of the company's new headquarters building in Venlo, the Netherlands.

Ø       " Dialight LED light engine demonstrates future possibilities for theatrical applications":  Dialight and Rosco have demonstrated an LED-based high-flux-density lighting instrument that eliminates color fringing effects.

Ø       " Case study: Safety lighting for Prague tram stations":  An ambitious tram project in Prague, Czech Republic, employs LED lighting to improve the safety and aesthetics of the stations.

Ø       " Case study: Overture Center for the Arts":  Color, light and architecture converge at Overture Center for the Arts in Madison, Wisc., where a central multi-story rotunda glows by both day and night.

Ø       " LEDs transform department store in Seoul":  Xilver has supplied 5,000 color-changing LED fixtures to provide a unique exterior for a department store in Seoul.

Ø       " Case Study: Orpheus Theatre, Apeldoorn, the Netherlands":  A theatre in the Netherlands has used LED light strips from Tri-O-Light for functionaland decorative lighting.

Ø       " Case study: Canopy border lighting for gas stations":  TIR's LightMark border tube system has been used extensively by two major petroleum retailers, BP and Petro-Canada.

·   Optek Music Systems has developed a guitar with LEDs in its fretboard to help players learn where to put their fingers to produce desired notes, chords or songs.  The guitar connects via USB to a PC and is controlled by Windows-compatible software.  [ News article at Modern Guitars magazine]

·   OptiLED 's Linear Optical Array LED lamps lit Jacksonville's Main Street Bridge as part of the city's beautification effort in anticipation of the Super Bowl in Florida.  Spanning 1,680 feet over the St. Johns River, the bridge, which was completed in 1939, carries traffic traveling on Route 1.  The project is a joint effort between the JTA, the City of Jacksonville, the Florida Department of Transportation and the First Coast Metropolitan Planning Organization. [ Press release ]

·   The architectural review committee of Philadelphia's Historical Commission gave conditional approval to an LED lighting plan for the city's Boathouse Row.  Committee members expressed concern that the new scheme might not retain the incandescent tone of the original lighting system, and directed the petitioner, Fairmount Park; to mount a mock-up on one of the boathouses before full approval would be granted.  [ News item in the Philadelphia Inquirer (registration required) ]

·   Philips Design has collaborated with the Helen Hamlyn Research Centre at the Royal College of Art (UK) to develop public seating that glows, dims, flashes and changes color. "Glowing Places" consists of transparent seating units embedded with LED strips and sensors which measure the presence of people over time, and is intended to stimulate social interactions in public spaces.  The project was originated in order to design a responsive environment in which social patterns of activity influence the ambient quality of the lighting on a larger scale.  Designers dubbed this the "emotional building" because light levels vary in the rhythm of people going about their usual activities, making it seem as if the building is responding to their moods and needs. [ Press release at EETimes, Article at Philips.com ]

·   The city council of Port Angeles, Wash., approved a "streetscape" including LED lighting for its new Eighth Street bridges.  The aesthetic features of the two bridges will include 17-foot-tall light poles along the length of each bridge, widened pedestrian viewpoints, 5.5-foot-high railings, decorative paving, indirect LED lighting, and bike lanes in both directions.  The estimated cost is $973,000 for both bridges.  [ News item in the Peninsula Daily News ]

·   Pro-Lite introduced XPression LED name badges, which use red LEDs to display up to 120 software-controlled characters.  The name badges attach to a shirt pocket via a micro magnet and are intended for use by salespeople, tradeshow exhibitors, fast food employees, waiters/waitresses, bank tellers, and more.  [ News item in LEDs Magazine, product information ]

·   Berlin's Transmediale international media art festival opened with Sky Ear, a project involving LEDs, helium-filled balloons and electromagnetic fields.  Tethered together to form a floating cloud 100 meters in the sky, the balloons were equipped with ultra-bright LEDs that changed color and intensity as they interacted with electromagnetic waves from television broadcasts, police radios and other wireless communication devices.  Mobile telephones were attached to Sky Ear, so visitors could manipulate the electromagnetic field with a call or text message. [ Article in DW-World ]

·   A Japanese team has invented a cylinder that uses LEDs to display a holographic image.  Professor Susumu Tachi of the University of Tokyo and researcher Tomohiro Endo of the University of Nagoya developed the device, called the SeeLinder, by combining fiber optics, electronics and white LEDs.  The SeeLinder is intended to allow the 3-D image of a person standing inside a booth to be transmitted to remote viewers.  [ Article in Japan Times ]

·   The Vincent Thomas Bridge at the Port of Los Angeles is one of the few bridges in the world to be illuminated by LEDs and, according to developers, the first such bridge installation in the world to combine LEDs with a solar PV system.  The bridge is now lit by 160 solar-powered, LED light fixtures.  [ Article in Renewable Energy Access News, Vincent Thomas Bridge Lighting website, LEDtronics page, Article at LEDs Magazine ]

D.   Market Information

·   An Agilent executive said he expects RGB LED backlighting to take 10% of the LCD-TV market within two years, according to DigiTimes.  The company also expects LED backlighting to gradually replace cold-cathode fluorescent lamp (CCFL) lighting altogether, said Lee Soo Ghee, VP and general manager of Agilent's Optoelectronic Products Division.  Lee also said that the ICM system can be applied in areas other than LCD TVs, such as automotive lighting, building lighting, LCD monitors, car navigation systems and mobile appliances.  [ News item in DigiTimes (requires subscription) ]

·   Compound Semiconductor magazine featured several articles on the markets for LEDs in display applications:

Ø       " LCD backlighting continues to thrive as pricing pressure bites”: Cell phone applications continue to keep LEDs for backlighting in demand, but new applications of ultrahigh brightness sources will be what drives future market growth.

Ø       " LEDs attempt the jump from small screen to large screen”: LCD manufacturers are increasingly interested in using LED modules as the backlights in larger screens for PCs and televisions, but the market may not grow as rapidly as some predict

·   Frost & Sullivan published a market study indicating that LEDs will continue to penetrate the North American automotive market, according to an article at LEDs Magazine.  According to the study, titled " Analysis of the North American Automotive Lighting Technologies Markets," by 2010 nearly 55% of automobiles are expected to have LED center high-mounted stop lamps, while more than 10% will have LED rear combination lamps (those using LEDs only or LED/incandescent combinations).  Forward lighting using white LEDs is not expected to break into the North American market until after 2010.  [ Article at LEDs Magazine ]

·   Taiwan's optoelectronics industry production value is expected to rise 34% year-on-year to US$47.17 billion in 2005, due to increased global demand for optical display and optical storage products, according to the Industrial Technology Research Institute.  [ News item from Asia Pulse at Yahoo (Australia) News ]

·   Eddie Effron of Permlight discussed the challenges to acceptance of LEDs in lighting markets in an interview with LEDs Magazine published in the article, "Pulling LED products into the market." Understanding the requirements of the lighting design community and assuaging specifiers' concerns about predictability, reliability and stability are some of the challenges Effron addressed.  [ Feature article in LEDs Magazine ]

·   In an article in the February 2005 issue of LEDs Magazine titled, "LEDs for heavy trucks and commercial vehicles" author Newel Stephens of Grote Industries writes that the proportion of LED lamps used in commercial vehicles continues to increase and LEDs will largely replace incandescent lamps in a few years.  Detail on the severe environment encountered by headlights in such vehicles and the advantages that LED lights present in these difficult circumstances is discussed in the article.  [ Article]

·   Highlights of the Compound Semi Industry Outlook conference held in Dallas were reported in LIGHTimes, in the article “Business Outlook for 2005 Much Better than Expected.”  Companies described as "doing especially well" in 2004 included Cree, Color Kinetics and Skyworks, with Lumileds, GELcore, Aixtron, Nitronex and Emcore mentioned as having especially good prospects for success in 2005.  Intellectual property issues were hot topics at the conference, according to the report.  [ Article at LIGHTimes ]

·   South Korea's LED industry grew by 61% in 2004, and is starting to compete with Taiwan in various markets for packaged LEDs, according to data from Yano Research Institute and Taiwan's Photonics Industry & Technology Development Association (PIDA) as reported in LEDs Magazine.  South Korea's LED industry reached $708 million in 2004, while the value of Taiwan's LED packaging industry was $1.08 billion in 2004, according to the report.  In addition, DigiTimes reported that South Korea-based LED makers are eyeing the high-luminance LED sector for lighting equipment, by switching their focus from production to packaging and testing, according to sources at Taiwan LED chipmakers.  [ News item in LEDs Magazine, News item at DigiTimes (subscription required)]

·   Taiwan's photonics industry's output increased by 36% in 2004, to $27.3 billion, according to a report from the Photonics Industry and Technology Development Association (PIDA).  The industry's output accounted for 14% of the world's total in 2004, up two percentage points from the previous year, and is expected to continue to increase.  The total production of Taiwan's photonics industry is expected to reach the NT$1 trillion mark this year, according to the report. [ News item at Photonics.com ]

·   Taiwan’s Science and Technology Information Center (STIC) predicts that demand for handset-use LEDs will grow from 5.2 billion units in 2003 to 9.4 billion units in 2006 with a total CAGR of 21.9%, according to DigiTimes.  STIC projects that LEDs used in mobile phones will increase from the current average of 10 units per phone to 12 by the end of 2006.  LEDs used in handsets provide four functions: indicator lights, camera flashes, LCD backlights and keypad lights.  A basic model phone uses about 9 or 10 LEDs, but high-end models with color displays and built-in digital cameras use 19 to 20 LEDs, according to STIC.  [ News item at DigiTimes (subscription required) ]

·   Strategies Unlimited 's Bob Steele has forecast that the HB-LED market will nearly double by 2009, to about $7 billion.  Steele also reported that the market grew 37% to $3.7 billion in 2004, and that white LEDs for backlighting of full-color displays saw 75% market growth in 2004.  White LEDs and mobile phone applications dominated the high-brightness LED market in 2004, but growth is likely to slow as the handset market saturates.  The report was made at the Strategies in Light conference.  [ News item at CompoundSemiconductor.net, Article at LEDs Magazine ]

·   A study by ZING Communications indicates that architects and lighting designers tend to specify fixtures with LEDs to create entirely new applications, while engineers more often specify traditional fixtures that use LEDs as the primary light source, according to an article at LEDs Magazine.  The "2004 LED Specifier Study" explores attitudes in the specification sales channel by providing and analyzing survey data from architects, lighting designers, and engineers.  The study found that all specifiers consider cost to be a major barrier to specification of illuminator LEDs, and that lighting designers and engineers also consider insufficient light output to be a major barrier.  All specifiers consider “bad experience with LED products” to be least significant as a barrier.  Findings were based on a survey distributed to 3,225 specifiers with a 7.5% response.  [ Article at LEDs Magazine ]

E.   Overview Articles

·   LEDs Magazine published a summary of the recent Bright Ideas investor-oriented conference in Boston, including discussion of interest by the financial community in investment opportunities, their need to understand the dynamics of the supply chain, and discussion of influence of Asian LED manufacturers and the trend towards commoditization of LEDs in the handset market.  The conference, organized by Strategies Unlimited and Adams Harkness, was attended by more than 100 members of the financial community, including venture capitalists and institutional investors. [ Article in LEDs Magazine ]

·   EDN published an extensive overview article, "A thousand points of bright: turning up the volume on solid-state lighting."  The article, by technical editor Joshua Israelsohn, covers topics such as automotive applications, video displays for outdoor signage, and camera phone flashes, and includes a sidebar on recent R&D developments titled "LEDs in the lab."  [ Article at EDN.com ]

·   EDN Europe published an overview of the state of LED technology, "LEDs make the spotlight." The article covers topics such as luminous efficiency, heat dissipation, drivers, and more, and includes a sidebar on "Demystifying the data sheet."  [ Article at EDN Europe ]

·   III-Vs Review published an overview of the HB-LED industry in Taiwan in its article, "Taiwan refocused." The article covers developments in the compound semiconductor industry since the late 1990s and includes sidebars on "White LED patent dealings" and "LED epi and chip makers diversified."  Epiwafer makers have refocused from electronic to opto devices:  Taiwanese LED makers initially bought epiwafers from Japan, but in the mid-1990s established their own epi processing.  Companies mentioned include Highlight Optoelectronics, Shin-Etsu Opto Electronic Co., United Epitaxy, Epistar, Uni Light Technology, Advanced Epitaxy Technology, Highlink Technology, Arima Optoelectronics, and Formosa Epitaxy.  [ Article in III-Vs Review  ]

·   Advances in HB-LEDs were featured in "Illuminating Achievements," a year-end summary of technical achievements in optoelectronics, in Laser Focus World.  The article mentions recent advances made by high brightness LED companies Lumileds, Cree and Lamina Ceramics. [ Feature article at Laser Focus World ]

·   AdvanceTransformer launched a website, LEDcentral.com, featuring a variety of information on solid-state lighting.  The site includes case studies, news, white papers, and events, as well as interactive forums, webinars, tools such as a product selector, and more.  [ Website ]

·   Joel Dry, president and CEO of OptoLum, says the solid-state lighting industry needs to settle on using lighting industry metrics and standards, and emphasize a total cost of ownership metric, according to an editorial at LIGHTimes.  Dry recommends using lumens per watt, rather than simply watts or lumens, as a metric, and says the most important metric is Total Cost of Ownership, a compilation of upfront cost, power cost, and maintenance cost over time.  [ Editorial at LIGHTimes ]

·   LEDs Magazine's January 2005 issue included the feature " Benefits and drawbacks of LEDs":  The editors have compiled a comprehensive listing of issues from maintenance and efficiency to designability and environmental concerns.

·   The LRC's latest newsletter features articles on automotive headlamps; lighting in healthcare facilities; biological effects of light; and more.  [ Newsletter ]

·   New Scientist published an overview of solid-state lighting, "The search for viable white-light LEDs," in its Dec. 25, 2004, issue.  The article discusses current obstacles to using LEDs as home lighting and quotes Fred Schubert of RPI and Jeff Tsao of Sandia National Laboratories.  [ Article in New Scientist (subscription required) ]

·   LEDs were featured in a January 27, 2005, segment of All Things Considered on National Public Radio.  Reporter David Malakoff noted that although LEDs will likely replace incandescent bulbs, the industry still needs to address not only issues of price but also of quality: one of the sample LEDs sent to NPR didn't work, he said.  [ Audio program at NPR ]

·   Optoelectronics Report published an article titled "LEDs, solid-state lasers fuel new display trends." The article describes new technology such as pocket projectors and big-screen televisions.  [ Article in Optoelectronics Report (No URL available) ]

·   A technique to achieve a wide illumination pattern using LEDs is described by Steve Terlep of Terlep Lamp Company in the article, “Omni-directional lamps widen the illumination pattern of LEDs."  Use of omnidirectional lighting in various warning and emergency lights, marker lights and general illumination applications is discussed.  [ Article in LEDs Magazine]

F.   Research Results

·   A Japanese research team has developed an inexpensive, ZnO-based blue LED.  The team, including members from the Institute for Materials Research, Tohoku University, reported its results as "Repeated temperature modulation epitaxy for p-type doping and light-emitting diode based on ZnO," by Atsushi Tsukazaki, et al., Dec. 19, 2004, in Nature Materials.  [ Abstract, News item at Australian Broadcasting Corp. Online ]

·   The Journal of Crystal Growth devoted its Dec. 10, 2004, issue to proceedings of the Twelfth International Conference on Metalorganic Vapor Phase Epitaxy held in May and June 2004 in Lahina, Hawaii.  The volume was edited by R.M. Biefeld of Sandia National Laboratories and G.B. Stringfellow of the University of Utah.  [ Table of contents ]  

·   Researchers at Konan University in Kobe, Japan, have developed a simple chemical method for tuning the color of semiconductor nanocrystals.  The method, developed by Kensuke Akamatsu and colleagues, involves a chemical treatment using 1-decanethiol that gradually blueshifts the emission from nanoparticles of cadmium telluride without affecting the particle size.  The research is published as "Band gap engineering of CdTe nanocrystals through chemical surface modification" in the Journal of the American Chemical Society.  [ News item in Nature (article available by purchase or subscription), abstract ]

·   "HVPE offers alternative route to AlGaN-based UV emitters” was a feature article in the December 2004 issue of Compound Semiconductor magazine.  The combination of higher growth rates and a lower defect density gives HVPE an edge over techniques such as MOCVD for the growth of UV LEDs.  TDI and the Fox Group outline their progress. “TDI's HVPE development has enabled the fabrication of an entire family of III-N devices and structures, including HVPE-grown p-n diodes, p-type GaN and AlGaN layers, and low-defect AlN and AlGaN epitaxial layers. … Commercialization of UV LEDs will be pursued by the Fox Group, which has already successfully launched production of blue LEDs on customized, automated epitaxial reactors based on designs pioneered by TDI.”  [ Article]

·   Researchers at the University of Cambridge have developed a controversial theory to explain how InGaN LEDs emit light.  Professor Colin Humphreys says observations made by the Cambridge materials science team, which specializes in electron microscopy; suggest the indium clusters previously thought to be responsible for light emission are actually an artifact of the microscopy used by other researchers and not inherent in the heterostructures.  In addition, the Cambridge materials science department has set up a 15-member team to investigate the inefficiency of green LEDs.  [ Article at ElectronicsWeekly.com ]

G.   Selected Events of Interest

·   The 2005 CLEO/QELS conference will include a plenary talk by Shuji Nakamura of UCSB on future prospects for solid-state lighting; an invited talk by Jeff Tsao of Sandia National Laboratories on "Solid-state lighting: lamps, chips and materials for tomorrow"; an invited talk by Jingyu Lin of Kansas State University on "III-Nitride Ultraviolet Micro- and Nano-Photonics"; a short course on solid-state lighting by Ghassan Jabbour of Arizona State University and Fred Schubert of RPI; and a tutorial session on high-power LED packaging by Robert Karlicek.  The conference is set for May 22 to 27, 2005 in Baltimore.  [ Plenary speakers, invited speakers, short courses, tutorials ]

·   Light Fair International, the world's largest annual architectural and commercial lighting trade show, conference and institute, is set for April 10 to 14, 2005, in New York City.  The program includes several workshops and seminars on LEDs, including "LED Technology," "LEDs with Architectural Applications: Wallwashing," and "LEDs…Innovation, Application, and Product Evolution."  [ Press release, brochure ]

·   LRC will hold its next LED Lighting Institute April 27 to 29, 2005.  The program includes sessions on LED basics, lighting design, fixture development, hands-on sessions, and more.  [ Program information ]

·   Photonics Cluster (UK), in association with LEDS Magazine, will present a two-day event focusing on the technology and applications of high brightness light-emitting diodes, "LEDs - Lighting the Way Forward." The seminar is set for April 20 to 21, 2005, in Birmingham, UK.  The event intends to bring together leading manufacturers, component and equipment suppliers, lighting designers and major end-users to discuss the latest opportunities and advances in LED technology.  Speakers will provide technical insight into areas such as high-power LEDs and arrays, thermal management, optics, and test and measurement.  The second day of the event will include discussion of the use of LEDs in applications such as automotive lighting, displays, signals and architectural lighting, as well as the challenge of moving LEDs into mainstream lighting markets.  [ Event information ]

H.   Government Funding News and Opportunities

·   The editors of LEDs Magazine have compiled a listing of information on solid-state lighting programs and initiatives around the world.  [ See “ Solid-state lighting programs and initiatives” webpage ]

·   China’s Initiative:  An initiative in China to promote and support the use of semiconductor lighting has been the subject of several extensive articles.  China's government sees LED manufacturing as a key part of the country's future as its rapid economic expansion puts an increasing strain on power.  Gordon Liu, president of China-based Lumei Optoelectronics, estimates that LEDs could save China 400 billion kWh of energy over the next decade.  Ling Wu, director of the China Solid-State Lighting Program Office, estimates that China could save 100 billion kWhr annually by 2015, if LED lighting achieves a 40% share of China’s incandescent lighting market and if LEDs achieve 150 lm/W.  The requirement for greater energy efficiency, along with the Chinese government’s “motivation to compete with Taiwan’s successful entry into the global optoelectronics industry, has propelled LEDs to the top of the political agenda.”  The country’s national program began in June of 2004 when the government pulled together the activities of a several regional development groups – see chart on LED manufacturing in China supplied by Compound Semiconductor magazine – with industrial bases in Xiamen, Dalian, Shanghai, and NanChang.  In addition, in October of 2004, the China R&D and Industry Alliance for SSL was formed to improve the competitive ability of the country’s industry.  The China National SSL program has received 140 RMB ($17 million) already, and major investment in SSL is expected when China’s 11^th 5-Year plan is unveiled later this year.  Thus far, 15 research institutions and 50+ enterprises are involved.  Ling Wu estimates that more than 600 enterprises (~40,000 employees) are directly related to the LED industry.  China’s domestic chip industry was able to supply 20% of LED demand in 2004, up from only 5% in 2003.  Chinese companies are also supplying GaN epiwafers.  (China already has voluntary programs supporting the use of energy-efficient lighting, including the China Green Lights project - in effect since 1995 - and the Efficient Lighting Initiative, which resumes in 2005.  The World Bank has also been involved in a project to bring solar-powered LEDs to families not on the grid in rural China.)  China’s SSL roadmap is set to be unveiled at the China SSL Forum in Xiamen in April 2005.  [ See Feature article in Compound Semiconductor magazine, and Article1 and Feature article from LEDs Magazine ]

·   Climate Change Central and Natural Resources Canada are offering a rebate to building owners in Alberta, Canada, who replace incandescent or fluorescent-lit exit signs with LED signs.  The new program, running until April 30, 2005, gives a $25 rebate for each of the first 100 signs replaced in a multi-residential building and $15 for every sign thereafter, to a maximum of 1000 signs.  LED units now comprise about one-third of the three million exit signs in Canada.  [ Resource page from Energy Solutions Alberta ]

·   DARPA's Advanced Technology Office (ATO) has issued a Broad Agency Announcement (BAA 05-13) soliciting proposals for the performance of research, development, design, and testing that directly supports ATO.  Two topics involve LEDs: Topic 19 covers solid-state lighting devices and systems; topic 40 includes programmable LEDs that blink at nanosecond intervals and that can withstand launch from a medium velocity gun [NOTE – this latter topic was later removed from the solicitation, see Modification 3.]  The BAA will remain open from January 1, 2005, through December 31, 2006.  [ Solicitation synopsis ]

·   DOE signed a memorandum of agreement with the Next Generation Lighting Industry Alliance to establish a partnership that will help support the development and commercialization of SSL technology.  The Next Generation Lighting Industry Alliance, administered by the National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA), is an alliance of for-profit corporations formed in 2003 to accelerate SSL development and commercialization through government-industry partnership.  The alliance provides the SSL industry with a forum for communication and collaboration, offers feedback to DOE on the Department’s SSL research and development strategies, and promotes SSL interests through collaborative advocacy to the federal government.  Alliance members include 3M, Corning Inc., Cree Inc., Dow Corning, GELcore LLC, General Electric Company, Eastman Kodak Company, Lumileds Lighting LLC, Osram Opto Semiconductors Inc., and Philips Electronics North America Corporation.  [ Information on agreement, memorandum of agreement, NEMA Press release ]

·   DOE released an updated version of its solid-state lighting R&D agenda based on comments from many stakeholders and researchers from industry, academia, and the national labs.  [ R&D agenda ]

·   2nd Annual DOE Solid State Lighting Workshop (held February 3 to 4, 2005, in San Diego): Highlights of the workshop, attended by more than 170 representatives from industry, research institutions, universities and national labs, are described in an article available on the NETL website.  The workshop provided an interactive forum for shaping and prioritizing DOE's SSL research and development activities.  Participants reviewed, discussed, and prioritized more than 65 R&D tasks and subtasks within the DOE SSL R&D agenda.  Presentations made at the workshop are available online, as well as reference documents, which include the 2005 project portfolio.  The complete workshop report will be posted in March.  [ Workshop highlights, workshop materials ]

·   As part of the above workshop, DOE supplied a list of funded projects in its 2005 Project Portfolio for Solid-State Lighting.  This 137-page document, dated January of 2005, lists projects currently funded by DOE as well as those completed in 2003 and 2004.  Each profile includes a brief technical description and information about project partners, funding, and research period.  [ Project Portfolio ]

·   The FAA has posted a notice at the Federal Business Opportunities website that it is seeking information on LED-based precision approach path indicator (PAPI) systems to assist the FAA's investigation of using LEDs in approach lighting systems in the National Air Space (NAS).  The information sought includes how the LED PAPI system will meet requirements for light beam, light intensity, light color, and light beam aiming tolerance.  Potential offerors must provide the technical documentation that describes how the PAPI LED prototype that is available (or in development) meets these requirements.  For any requirements that are not met, offerors should document how easily the unmet requirements can be satisfied and the time frame for development.  Information can be submitted until April 24, 2005.  [ Synopsis ]

·   Los Alamos National Laboratory is making its semiconductor quantum-dot technology available for commercial licensing.  Among the portfolio's content are two novel quantum-dot LED architectures.  The first LED architecture is a quantum-dot-based LED in which semiconductor quantum dots are incorporated into a p-n junction formed from GaN injection layers.  The second LED architecture uses a noncontact nonradiative energy transfer from a quantum well to produce light from an adjacent layer of quantum dots.  [ Article at Laser Focus World ]

·   In its February 2005 issue, LEDs Magazine discusses "The ROI of LEDs: saving money with energy efficient sources, programs and initiatives":  Bruce Pelton of OptiLED describes how LEDs provide an excellent return on investment, and profiles several energy-savings programs such as tax credits and rebates in Oregon, California and Florida.  A useful source for information on programs is the Database of State Incentives for Renewable Energy (DSIRE), a comprehensive source of information on state, local, utility, and selected federal incentives that promote renewable energy.  [ Article]

·   RPC Photonics was awarded a $200,000 grant from the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) to improve the efficiency, visibility and performance of LED signage.  The grant is to extend RPC's patented Engineered Diffuser™ technology into a film designed to shape and control light in signage, thus reducing wasted light and light pollution and resulting in significant power savings.  Channel letter signs will be studied as part of this contract, which is in collaboration with the Lighting Research Center at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.  [ News item at LEDs Magazine ]

·   Sandia National Laboratories has set up an online database, called Intellectual Property Available for Licensing (iPAL™), to highlight opportunities to license the lab's intellectual property, including some in the areas of optoelectronics and solid-state lighting.  The web-based system allows customers to search through Sandia intellectual property that is available for licensing and get in touch with the appropriate people at Sandia to negotiate a license.  [ Press release, database ]

·   Siemens Building Technologies has contracted with the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet to replace lighting at more than 2,500 intersections across the state.  The contract will make Kentucky the second state, after Delaware, to replace all of its incandescent lights in traffic signals with LEDs.  GELcore LED modules will be used.  [ News item at the Lexington Herald, News item at the News-Enterprise, Kentucky Transportation Press release ]