LED light bulbs

More and more LED light bulbs are made for sale in Hong Kong.
We have various types of LED light bulbs, all these makers are providing choice for us, Philips MasterLED, CitiLED, Toshiba, Optiled, and some local assembly houses using good renowned LED such as SSL, K2, Seoul Semi LED, They are selling at price of HKD$138 for 5W, HKD$250 for
7 W consists of 7 pieces of K2 Leds, Cold Warm white is also available.

From what we can see, the average selling price of LED light bulb is dropping at a rate of -20% per year. I am expecting that large company will soon having it LED,replacement light bulb in volume production, plus the over demand MasterLED in Hong Kong Market.

I am using all K2 type LED replacement light bulb at home. We believe that by 2012 the ASP of a 7 W LED light bulb will be merely HKD$50.00 (approx. USD$4. That was a reasonable and affordable price for most of us.

Of course there is certain theory saying that only the LED light bulb is selling at 2X of the incandescent are able to attract for huge penetration. But I think that is a thereorical case, and 2X is far away. Probably 8X-10X will be feasible in not long later… let’s prepare for this huge market of LED replacement light bulbs to come.

ASM is the one who is supporting the requireed LED bonding equipment for the lighting industry. ASM's Web site:www.asmpacific.com

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Sharp starts Supplies LED Backlights to Sony

TVs that use LED backlights are expected to be a major battle ground for consumer electronics makers, and such move would likely improve their competitiveness against industry giant Samsung Electronics Co LTd.

Japan's Sharp will begin supplying LED backlights for LCD televisions to Sony Corp, expanding their alliance in LCD panels. The two will also jointly develop next-generation backlights, it said without citing sources.

Sony plans to invest about 68 billion yen by April 2011 to take a one-third stake in a joint venture with Sharp to jointly produce LCD panels at a cutting-edge plant in western Japan.

The plant, which started output last month, is the world's first factory that processes so-called 10th-generation glass substrates, which are bigger than earlier-generation substrates and help reduce per-panel output costs.

Soraa Inc. USA

Momentive Performance Materials will receive $4.5 million in funding from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to continue the development of breakthrough technology for the low cost production of light emitting diodes (LEDs) used in solid state lighting.

Based on Momentive's platform technology and initiated by Momentive, the two-year energy research project brings together a team of companies that are expert in ammonothermal bulk gallium-nitride (GaN) crystal growth technology, high pressure/high temperature reactor development and LED device testing and development.

Collaborating with Momentive on the award-winning project are Soraa, Inc. and Advanced Photonic Crystals, LLC. Soraa was co-founded by world-leading experts in GaN materials and devices. Advanced Photonic Crystals, LLC is an on-shore manufacturer of innovative laser and optical crystals, with expertise in high-pressure autoclave engineering and crystal growth that is being brought to bear on this project. They would focus on HBLED for lighting and illumination.

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Illumitex will go for 300 Lm/watt LED in 2015

Illumitex LLC (Austin, Texas), started in 2005, the company now has 25 employees, with the toolset required to create and test HB-LED prototypes. Mass production will be done in Asia.

Paul Winberg VP of Engineering said a new startup aimed at the high-brightness light-emitting diode (HB-LED) market, says it has proprietary optics technology that will increase the amount of light emitted from the package.

Co-founder and CTO Dung Duong brought optics engineering ideas to the table, when three co-founders started the company in Winberg's garage. "Our packaging technology is such that we approach it from an optics standpoint, with the use of secondary optics," Winberg said. "By doing that, we can direct the light so it all comes down to the front of the package, which gives customers a much smaller package.

Illumitex buys commercial epitaxial sapphire wafers, and builds the diode much as other HB-LED vendors do. The company's advantage lies in the metal reflective layers incorporated into the flip-chip package, the external quantum efficacy is the more important metric. The highly refractive surfaces in an LED and its package can quickly dissipate the emitted brightness and turn light into heat, reducing the thermal benefits that LEDs offer.

The package measures 1.1 mm on a side, and 1.5 mm high, which Winberg said is "much smaller than anything else out there. That advantage stems from the secondary optics in the package, which get more light out." Flip Chip technology is mainly the process of Lumileds and that has certain good points as Gold to gold has very good heat dissipation highway, but the negative side is the high manufacturing cost as the Flip Chip process is slow typical in term of 1-1.2sec a LED, plus the need to have underfill by jetting machine.

There are only a few companies in the world produce Thermosonic Bonding equipment for LED. Namely, ASM, Panasonic and TDK.

Illumitex’s primary product will start at 100 then 150 Lm/W at 300ma driving current...till 2015, they would produce a LED with 300 Lm/W!


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Coming LED show

LDI 2009
November 19-22, 2009
Orlando, Florida, United States
Lighting and sound show for the entertainment industry.

White LEDs 2009
December 01-05, 2009
Taipei, Taiwan
The Second International Conference on White LEDs and Solid State Lighting (ICWLEDSSL 2009)

Strategies in Light 2010
February 10-12, 2010
Santa Clara Convention Center, California, United States
The leading conference and exhibition for the LED and Solid-State Lighting global community.

LED China 2010
March 02-05, 2010
China Import and Export Fair Pazhou Complex, Area B, Guangzhou, China
With an overwhelming success of the last edition, LED CHINA 2010 will take place at Pazhou Complex, Guangzhou, again from March 2nd to March 5th, 2010. It is estimated that LED CHINA 2010 will gather about 350 exhibitors taking 25,000 sq. m. exhibition space. LED CHINA is a leading global event for LED application.

Light+Building 2010
April 11-16, 2010
Frankfurt am Main, Germany

Lightfair 2010
May 12-14, 2009
Las Vegas Convention Center, United States

electronica 2010
November 09-12, 2010
Munich, Germany
The world's leading trade fair for components, systems and applications. Meet decision-makers, developers and buyers.

Starbucks Goes LEDs

Illumination Lighting is undergoing a revolution change On Dec. 31, the hugely popular and highly inefficient Edison incandescent lamp turns 130 years old. The next day it's 2010, and Australia will move to phase them out. The EU, the U.S. and other nations will follow over the next few years

Recently Wal-Mart had proceeded a deal with Cree to use their HB LED lighting solution for their 6,500 stores.

Next time, when you are in a Starbucks, make sure to look up at the ceiling and check out the lights.

Coffee behemoth Starbucks will replace conventional lights with LED bulbs in 8,000 stores by March 2010.

The switch from incandescent lamps and other vacuum-and-chemical lights to solid state lighting is expected to reduce energy consumption in a store by 7 percent. Starbucks overall has a goal of reducing energy consumption by 25 percent by the end of 2010.

You just don't get that Starbucks mood lighting out of a box. 1,000 outlets in the U.S. have already been retrofitted with LEDs.

Those LED lights come from General Electric, which tweaked one of its existing designs to meet the aesthetic and design criteria of Starbucks.

While the bulbs still cost far more than conventional bulbs, the price is coming down. Panasonic, Sharp, Philips, Osram and Lemnis Lighting all have 60-watt equivalents that cost around $40. The commercial market will likely adopt LEDs first – the lower maintenance and replacement costs lead to a quicker payback.

Consumers generally don't hire people to change their bulbs so the economic argument is tougher.

Still, LED-makers like GE and Osram are experimenting with ways to these enhance lights – Osram has one coming for consumers that can splash muted colors into a room – to boost the shelf appeal.

Potentially, LEDs can also cut air conditioning bills because the light itself doesn't generate heat. The fridges in the supermarket will be benefited if they are fitted with LED.
Hong Kong, yet still promoting the CFL lighting by our Executive Officer… a bit not feeling uncomfortable as we are lag behind other countries, not US, EU, even Singapore, Taiwan, Korea and China.

Not even go in par with our motherland China! China is doing a lot of afford in promoting the use of LED… In Singapore, Taiwan and China. Almost 90% traffic light is LEDs, whereas in Hong Kong…. I can tell you, we are the loyal Customer for Edison incandescent lamps, we are all 100% Incandescent lamps…. Is it Sarcastic!

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Samsung Loses LCD Patent Dispute, Sharp Wins

Samsung lost a LCD patent-infringement case brought upon by Sharp.

The US International Trade Commission upheld a ruling by an ITC administrative judge on 9 Nov. stating that Samsung infringed on four of Sharp’s LCD patents. The LCD patents are related to improving viewing angles and response times. The ITC also said that Samsung must stop selling displays in the US that infringe on those patents. Sharp originally filed the suit against Samsung in March 2008. Samsung claimed that the company expects no major impact on its LCD business from the ITC’s ruling and is confident of its ability to meet demand for its LCD products. Samsung also noted that the company has no plans to negotiate with Sharp on the issue.

According to James Chung, Samsung spokesman:
We are fully committed to honor our responsibility to our business partners and are taking appropriate actions to meet the market demand for Samsung LCD panels and products without any interruption.

Presidential Review Samsung is required to post a bond worth 100% of the affected products pending a review of the ITC ruling by President Barack Obama. Obama can overturn the ban if he finds the ruling contrary to the public’s interest. The presidential review period can take up to 60 days. The ITC case number is 337-TA-631. The import ban should not have any impact on the LCD goods that have already been imported into the US. Also because of the duration of the presidential review Samsung’s holiday season sales should have little to no impact.

Vertical Alignment Sharp, Samsung, AU Optronics (AUO), Chi Mei Optoelectronics (CMO) and many other LCD manufacturers make use of LCD panel technology that is based on VA or Vertical Alignment to enhance viewing angles. The few exceptions include LG Display and IPS Alpha that make use of a different technology called IPS or In-Plane Switching to improve viewing angles.

Source:DisplayBlog by Jin on November 10, 2009

LED Flowers

This high-tech plant life does away with such petty annoyances as dirt, water and sunlight, replacing them with an ongoing thirst for electricity. Each kit comes complete bendy branches, tipped off with bright and colorful LEDs.

While these particular ones are only available in Korea and come with a 220-volt power adapter, not long later, we should be able to get it in China and Hong Kong.

Design a dramatic and elegant atmosphere in any lobby or entryway, or create a garden of light with these beautiful illuminated L.E.D. Cherry Blossom Trees. They are safe, as they emit little heat and run off low voltage UL approved adapters. Each LED is sealed by a PVC shell and can take some damp weather. They consume only little power. Ideal for indoor use or covered outdoor use. These Trees are approximately 30" tall.

· Crafted by hand, this tree glows with 200 vivid LED blossoms
· Cannot be placed in water
· UL-approved
· 12" wide, 30" tall
· Cool to the touch

About $122

Please do not water it! It won’t grow with your water!

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Struggling LG Innotek LED Unit Could Hurt LG's TV Business

LG Innotek CEO Hur Young-ho

Flat screens using LED backlights are slimmer, more power-efficient and offer sharper images than those lit by traditional cold cathode fluorescent lamps (CCFLs).

Since Mar 2009, LED backlit LCD TVs are currently at the focus of the television industry’s competition. There are pioneers like Samsung, Sony, Sharp and LG who are the major suppliers of LCD TV in the past. They are now working on plan how to pursue the champion of this huge dollar valued Consumer sales. According to the LCD TV shipment data, Samsung was the No.1, followed by Sony, Sharp and LG as the world largest LCD TV supplier in 2008. In this year, Samsung maintains No.1 and LG is the 2nd and followed by Sony and then Sharp as the Rank of World LCD TV shipment . And this will be likely the same for next year.

Led by Samsung Electronics, the global LED TV market has rapidly been increasing as consumers are allured by the enhanced picture qualities and energy saving features amid signs of economic recovery. Sep 09, Kang Shin-ik, LG's television chief, had said it would sell 7 million units of LED TVs in 2010. LG Electronics had lowered its LED TV sales target for 2010 to 5 in a third quarter earnings briefing last month.

"It is difficult to predict the global LED TV market as the segment has been on a faster expansionary track. That's why our target sales are having flexibility," an official at LG Electronics said.

The troubles at LG Innotek is leading to uncertainties over LG Electronics' LED backlit LCD television business, with the consumer electronics maker continuing to adjust targets seemingly every other week.

LG Electronics’s LED chip provider is LG Innotek is not able to meet the demand of LED for LGE. LG Electronics, being the world's second-largest flat-screen television maker, is worrying that they are not afford to be lagging behind of in LED backlit LCD TVs business.

Improving cost competitiveness is critical for LG Electronics as one of the South Korea’s biggest Conglomerates, has been forced to go for intensive vertical integration in order to get the best production cost for LCD TV. On the other hand, Samsung has been facing with this headache, just been a bit smarter to have the LCD TV being launched into the market earlier with the LED-backlit models.

LG Innotek and LG Display is handling the chips and LCD screens business respectively would be a way to run their core business effectively and independently.However, recent struggles of LG Innotek continues to see its stock prices plummet with 40% drop and its ability to supply LED chips was questioned by LG Electronics.

The drop in stock prices reflects the worries of investors over LG Innotek's capability to finance its LED business and uncertainties over the market conditions for LED products.LG Innotek, which makes LED components and LCD modules, said it planned to invest about $970 million by the end of 2010 to boost its production capability.

Company officials are struggling to find ways to raise more fund for its LED business including plans to issue new shares. At the end of October 2009, LG Innotek's debt-to-equity ratio stood at 64 percent, and the company has already issued bonds worth more than 100 billion won combined.

It will be challenging for LG Innotek to finance its aggressive LED capital expenditure with only EBITDA (Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) earnings and debt. A sharp deterioration of the company's printed circuit board (PCB) margins, higher competition and rising inventories amid the approaching year-end season are also expected to weigh on the company's profit structure, analysts said.

Some say the lowered target was due to insufficient chip capability from Innotek. However, we could receive the necessary components by expanding our outsourcing channels.The Innotek spokesmen said the company was on a stable route to strengthen its LED chip abilities and added that more related measures would come.Additionally, LG Display is planning to absorb the LCD module operations of LG Innotek.

Innotek, in return, will receive a cash infusion that will allow it to concentrate on LEDs. "LG Innotek will earn 1.5 trillion won in LED sales in 2012. Still, they are in the process of vertical integration of our LED businesses from LED backlighting, wafers, chips and packaging to module operations.LG Innotek, which merged with another LG Group component-producing arm, LG Micron, in July, has LG Electronics, LG Display, Nokia, Motorola and Japan's Sharp as its biggest clients.

Feverip

Source Korea Times.

Asia Biggest Light Fair

13-Apr-2010 to 16-Apr-2010
Event Timing:
09:30am - 06:30pm

Industry:
Electronics & Electrical Goods & Supplies
Event Place:
Hong Kong Convention & Exhibition Centre (HKCEC), Hong Kong, China (Hong Kong S.A.R.)

Organizer:
Hong Kong Trade Development Council

Expected Visitors: 30,000

Event Profile

Hong Kong International Lighting is an International Electronics & Electrical Goods & Supplies Industry exhibition. It features the cutting edge technologies & ground-breaking designs of lighting industry.

The previous edition 27-30 Oct covered 1,572 exhibitors from 33 countries & 28,210 visitors from across the globe.

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ASM MS899DL Map sorting LED machine

The LED wafer has to be tested by wafer prober machine at wafer level, that was tested by probing onto the LED e-poles and the light intensity and lambda are measured. This measured data together with the known X-Y coordinator was record sequentially into a map file. This wafer will be sawn either by Blade sawing machine or laser cut and then break by rolling with special non-electrostatic roller.

Then the LEDs will be passed onto a Map sorter machine to perform the map sorting
There is roughly 30K LED chip of 7milx7mil on a 4” sawn and wafer.

ASM Map sorter MS899DL had been the earliest developed machine platform with enormous experience and process know how on handling the alignment of the chip on the Wafer.

As we can see that if there is a die being sorted wrongly, the rest of the dies will not be correctly been binned. That is a huge losson the LED and that could write off a few thousand dollars.
MS899DL is the latest 3rd generation platform with high speed sorting time of 220 ms for 9mil x9 mil LED Chip.

There is a total 100 bin grades on film frame stored up in form of cassettes. All the operation will be done automatically. An option of AOI (Automatic Optical Inspection) system on the wafer inspection to screen out all those bad cut dies, contaminated or chipped die which was not found at the original panel form.
A auto bar code scanner to read the bar code for auto retrieve of the maps from intranet is the standard operation.

There are certain similar map sorting machines in the market but due to lacking or process experience and support from a mature core technology of vision, motion and linear motion control Technology. There is no way to be qualified by larger LED supplier in the world due to weak software integrity, higher down time and not able to meet a good placement accuracy of +/-1.25 mil at CpK 1.33.

Supported by a team of professional service and process engineering team, ASM can be your only choice for your next buy of Map sorter.

For More Information, you may visit ASM official website :
http://www.asmpacific.com/asmpt/index.htm

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The Competition between Samsung and Vizio LCD TV

According to iSuppli Corp. when Vizio Inc maintained its leadership in the US LCD TV market in Q2, No.2 ranked Samsung Electronics Co Ltd closed the gap significantly as buyers gravitated toward its LED-backlit sets.

Samsung's share of US LCD TV unit shipments rose to 21.3% in Q2, up 3.5 points from 17.8% in Q2. This represented the largest increase of any LCD TV brand in the US in Q2. With its strong rise, Samsung of South Korea in Q2 cut Vizio's lead to only 0.4 percentage points, down from 3.6 points in Q1.

Samsung in Q2 was very aggressive in introducing and marketing its LED-backlit LCD TVs allowing it to boost sales of these sets. US consumers increasingly are warming up to higher-specification LCD TV models, including those using new LED-backlighting technology.

We estimate 2.4% of LCD TVs shipped in the US in Q2 used LED backlights, up from zero during the same quarter a year earlier. In mature markets like the US, while many consumers are moving up from their CRT or rear-projection, Projector TVs, an increasing number of LCD TV purchases are replacements of first-generation flat-panel sets.

Despite Samsung's surge, Vizio retained leadership in the US LCD TV market for the second consecutive quarter. US-based Vizio continues to benefit from its combination of low-cost and full-featured sets, combined with its high-volume retail channels, including Wal-Mart. Vizio seems to have found the right balance formula of price and features that appeals to many US consumers.

A lot of research predicts that global penetration of the LED-backlight technology for LCD TV panels will increase to almost 40% of all shipments in 2013, up from 3% in 2009.

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OptiLED Secures Exclusive LED Lighting Distribution Deal with Philips Lighting of Mexico

OptiLED, global manufacturer of innovative LED lighting systems, announced a partnership with Philips-Construlita, a division of Philips Lighting in Mexico, further expanding the company's global reach into Mexico and the surrounding vicinity. With this deal, OptiLED LED lights will be sold in 55 major stores in Mexico and supply hundreds of other lighting distributors. In addition, Philips-Construlita will incorporate OptiLED lamps in their new Terrane product line of in-ground and submersible fixtures.

Philips-Construlita is the largest network of retail lighting stores and exclusive dealers in Mexico. This exclusive distribution deal will allow OptiLED to increase its global customer base, which has been spreading throughout Latin and South America over the past year. The partnership also speaks to the worldwide growing acceptance of LED technology as the regions are noting the products' durability, energy conservation and long life.

World Thinnest LCD TV : 3.9mm

For the Competition of LCD TV, After Samsung, Then LG, JVC, now Samsung Electronics Co Ltd unveiled its "world's thinnest" 3.9mm-thick 40-inch full-HD LCD panel for TVs at FPD International Oct 2009.

To achieve the thinness, Samsung Electronics made improvements to the optical elements so that LED light efficiently and evenly comes to the liquid crystal cells.

Due to the edge-lit backlight, there were a few streaks seen on the screen. But the company said that they can be eliminated by improving technologies in the future. The luminance, contrast and frame frequency of the panel are 400cd/m2, 5,000:1 and 120Hz, respectively.

Samsung Electronics also showcased two ultra-slim LCD panels that use the same technologies and are designed for monitors and notebook PCs, respectively. The panel for monitors is 24 inches in size and 3.5mm in thickness, pixel count and luminance are 1,920 x 1,200 and 250cd/m2, respectively. The panel for notebook PCs features a screen size of 12.1 inches, a thickness of 1.64mm and a weight of 120g. Its pixel count and luminance are 1,200 x 800 and 200cd/m2, respectively.

Toshiba Regza LCD TV

As for LED backlit unit for LCD TV, generally speaking, RGB LEDs, rather than white LEDs, broaden "color gamut," one of the major indices of image quality. Nevertheless, Toshiba used white LEDs for its new LCD TVs, which it claims are "the highest image quality models of Regza products."

When asked why, Toshiba’s Motomura said, "In fact, image quality is higher with a white LED backlight."

He explained it as follows. First, white LED light sources are more efficient in boosting image quality because the white balance fluctuates more easily when the light source is RGB LEDs. Second, image quality becomes more likely to degrade if the color gamut is extended more than necessary because it causes the display to render incorrect colors.

It is true that RGB LED backlights offer a wider color gamut than white LED backlights, but the color reproduction range of white LEDs is sufficient to render colors of most objects, Motomura said.

On the other hand white LED back light is mch cheaper than RGB backlit unit at least 60%!

Ref.
The Above picture illustrates the comparison of image quality between Toshiba's previous LCD TV (right) and its new product (left), which combines a white LED backlight and local dimming. The LED-backlit model on the left uses a glossy panel.

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Cree's huge move into China

According to Cree, it will build its first chip production facility outside of North America at Huizhou, which is in southern China.

Cree didn't announce how many employees it plans to hire at the new plant. Already more than half of the company's 3,500 employees work in China, mostly at an existing plant in Huizhou.
Cree employs about 1,500 at its headquarters and manufacturing plant in Durham, but it said last month that it planned to add 575 workers by the end of 2012 -- including 200 within a few months -- as part of its expansion plant expansion there.

Cree revenue for the fiscal first quarter that ended Sept. 27 totaled $169.1 million -- up 20 percent compared with a year ago and a 14 percent increase over the previous quarter.
Profits for the quarter totaled $21 million, versus $5.9 million a year ago.

Cree previously said it would spend between $150 million and $165 million during its current fiscal year to expand its plants in Durham and China to meet growing demand. Probably this announcement from Chuck Swobada (CEO of Cree) had mentioned earlier that they will have lessen Chip supply of Q2 2010, as partly due to this new chip manufacturing facilities installation.
With such big Move, Cree will be sustaining his position in Chip and his Package LED supply as Crees’ smart approach in using China competitive labour and skillful technical people as a to turn out supply of LED with competitive price into China huge LED demand for their Lighting.

Wal-Mart Goes LEDs

Wal-Mart is going to use with Cree’s LRP-38, a PAR38 style LED lamp in 650 of Its Stores in the first year. The LED bulb is designed to last 50,000 hours and consume 82 percent less energy than the 70-watt ceramic metal halide bulbs it replaces.

It was a signed deal between Cree and Wal-Mart on 4 Nov.

Though we do not have any figure of the value of this deal for Cree, or exactly how many lights Wal-Mart bought. This move has an implication for the LED Lighting industry and Cree Market position in the USA.


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Lemnis Lighting and Pharox LED light bulbs

As consumers look to cut down on energy use and the federal government's 2012 ban on incandescent bulbs approaches, sales of compact fluorescent lights have increased. These spiral-shaped lights use much less energy than traditional incandescent lights, which waste most of the energy they draw. CFLs also last seven to 10 times longer than incandescent light bulbs.

But LEDs, promise a next generation of lights that are even more efficient, last longer, are more easily dimmable and, unlike CFLs, don't contain mercury.

Lemnis Lighting Inc. Announced the full-scale release in the U.S. market of a light-emitting diode bulb, its entry in the race to replace 60-watt incandescent lights.

Lemnis’s Pharox light looks like a traditional incandescent light, with a metal piece wrapped around the midsection of the light that acts as a heat-sink, keeping the 6 Watts LEDs cool and ensuring a long life of 35,000 hours. The soft white bulbs are about $40 each.

Lemnis Lighting is owned by Tendris Holding, a business incubator and operator in sustainable technology and services based in Naarden, Netherlands. Both Lemnis and Tendris are run by Warner Philips, the grandson of Royal Philips NV co-founder Anton Philips. Tendris was formed in 2002 with investments from its insiders and friends and family. Philips is a 10% shareholder in Tendris.

Mr. Philips said in an interview that Lemnis is in talks with major U.S. retailers to sell the Pharox product.

Coming up with a quality, affordable 60-watt replacement light has been a challenge for the LED industry, partially for the reason that LEDs are by nature directional sources of light, as opposed to traditional incandescent light bulbs that shine in 360 degrees. Top LED companies have been concentrating mostly on directional light sources for commercial and industrial purposes, which make up the bulk of the lighting market.

But the Department of Energy recently established the Bright Tomorrow Lighting Prize, known as the L-prize, which is a competition for companies to come up with the best 60-watt replacement light. The DOE said that more than 425 million 60-watt incandescent light bulbs are sold each year in the U.S. alone, representing approximately 50% of the incandescent light bulb market.

So far Amsterdam, Netherlands-based Philips is the only company to submit a product.
The DOE said an LED replacement for this purpose could save 34 terawatt-hours of electricity in one year, enough to power the lights of 17.4 million U.S. households and avoid 5.6 million metric tons of carbon emissions annually.

New York-based Lighting Science Group Corp. has a 40-watt incandescent LED replacement that the company says draws about 7 watts, lasts 40,000 hours and is dimmable.
Thomas Griffiths, an LED industry expert, said in an interview that he sees these three companies as the main competitors at the moment on the LED replacement light scene. Griffiths said the Pharox light looks like a good product, but only time will tell for sure, and he thinks the $39 sticker price is still too high.

Lemnis offers a three-year warranty on the product and the company estimates that an average utility rate of 15 cents per kilowatt-hour, a consumer will achieve a payback within three years.
"I think they're representing where the state of the technology affordably has us right now, but there's still a ways to go before there's a real replacement, and right now Philips is the one to watch because of this announcement," Mr. Griffiths said.

Philips said in a statement that it is confident its product meets the criteria of the L-prize, which calls for a higher level of efficiency, better quality light and more light output than the Lemnis and Lighting Science products.

Although Philips and Lemnis are competitors in this context, Philips acquired an equity stake in Tendris in January.

Mr. Philips said that if Lemnis, with the help of Los Angeles-based partner Digital Light LLC, can reach its goal of selling 10 million lights world-wide within the next 24 months, the price could drop to $30 per bulb.

Griffiths said LED replacement lights need to reach the $15 to $20 range before they'll really be viable.

Tendris' first investment was Oxxio, a supplier of renewable energy, which was sold to Centrica PLC in 2005. That exit gave Tendris at least $39 million more to play around with. The same year, the Dutch National Postcode Lottery also bought a 10% stake in Tendris, giving the company more capital to push its innovations out into the market.

Lemnis, based in Hertogenbosch, Netherlands, was founded in 2005 and is on the verge of profitability, Mr. Philips said in an earlier interview.

Mr. Philips said he isn't looking for an exit with Lemnis, but he said long-term partnerships are always a possibility.

Source :WSJ

Osram Opto creates a new warm white 104lm/Watt LED

A LED that is claimed to offer high efficacy, good colour rendering and a warm white light has been developed by Osram Opto Semiconductors.

The prototype offers three properties that are important for general illumination applications: a colour temperature of 3,000K, (at 3,000K, the light colour of the LED is similar to that of a halogen lamp). And a colour rendering index of 82 and an efficiency of 104lm/W.

The light from this warm white LED is the result of an advanced phosphor conversion process.
The combination of these properties is said to be essential for the widespread use of LEDs for general and domestic illumination.

Its colour location is precisely on the Planckian curve and the light is exactly white, showing no shift to the green spectral region, according to the company.

With an operating current of 350mA and a chip surface of 1mm2, the prototype of the new single-chip LED achieves a brightness of 124lm. This corresponds to an efficiency of 104lm/W.

Source of Information: Electronicstalk editorial team Nov 6, 2009

Toshiba Unvieled Cell Regza 55"LED Backlit LCD TV

Toshiba unveiled the future of home entertainment, the CELL REGZA 55X1. This new LCD TV, the flagship of the company's REGZA line-up, offers viewers state-of-the-art picture quality, including a dynamic contrast ratio of 5,000,000:1, and supports this with ultra-high-speed processing and recording, enhanced navigation and seamless network interactivity.

The CELL REGZA 55X1 will be available in the Japanese market from the beginning of December.

The heart of CELL REGZA is Toshiba's CELL Platform. A combination of the high speed parallel processing of the Cell Broadband Engine™ 2, specially developed for demanding multimedia applications, and Toshiba's advanced image-processing algorithms, the CELL Platform achieves an arithmetic processing capability approximately 143 times 3 that of the current top-of-the-line REGZA TV, allowing it to support unrivaled image-enhancing capabilities.

These include:
·CELL Platform Super Resolution Technology that builds on Toshiba's current 4, super resolution technology to offer unmatched picture quality.
· It was a co-development of Toshiba, Sony and IBM
· Self-congruency, a dedicated process that improves image quality at the edge of the picture.
· Enhanced color and brightness balance that improves picture color and definition.
· LED backlight control system. In the CELL REGZA, the display is divided into 512 distinct areas, each with individually controlled lighting. Luminance is pushed to an industry high 5 of 1250cd/m2, 2.5 times the level of typical TVs, and the dynamic contrast ratio6 is an astonishing 5,000,000:1.

It can display 8 channels at one time.

Another distinguishing feature of CELL REGZA is its storage capacity: a 3-terabyte (TB)7 hard disk drive. Two terabytes of capacity are dedicated to the CELL REGZA's "time-shift machine,"8 which can simultaneously record up to approximately 26 hours of programming for up to eight channels9 of digital terrestrial broadcasts. The time-shift machine allows viewers to catch up on missed programs simply by pressing the "time-shift machine" button on the remote control.
With the ability to store a massive amount of recorded programs, a fast, easy search function is essential.

Toshiba delivers with "roaming navigation." This allows viewers to find and display information on recorded, current and future programs simply by inserting an identifier—the title, person's name, genre or related keywords.

The CELL REGZA consists of a striking, slim monitor and a stylish tuner that also integrates the hard disk drive. Both have a smoked aluminum finish, achieved with an alumite10 deposition process that lends the design a feeling of luxury. The remote controller is finished in the same way.Drawing on some 80 years of experience in TV technology, and on synergies between its visual products, semiconductor and storage device businesses, Toshiba has developed CELL REGZA not only as the flagship model of its REGZA series, but also as a statement of the future of the LCD TV.

This is the show case of Toshiba Top of the line of his prior announcement of massive production of LCD TV with LED Backlit. The mid range and lower range TV are made in Taiwan by its major CM Capal (30%).

Feverip

What US economy will be in 2010?

US Economy will recover in 2010 and LED business will be continued to be in prosperity in 2010

Barack Obama A positive sentiment of the US Economy and causes market to go up possibly by 10-30 percent as of 2006-2007 corrected stock levels.
United States Military Expenditure cuts by more than 600 Billion Dollars by calling troops from both Iraq and Afghanistan. US Dependency on oil reduces significantly.
United States expects a mere 2-3 percent GDP growth this year like other years.
If they are saving a lot on mainly the Army it can easily turn things around.

US has run into so-called crisis since Sep 15 2008, when Lehman Brothers broke down and that means now people would be using all their skills which will make the competition so strong among US Companies that other companies would have to move to United States in order to have the same benefits. US would end up being a super hub of what its now.

The outlook said economic activity in the US was expected to fall by 2.8% this year, better than the 4% decline predicted three months ago. Growth of 0.9% is forecast for 2010, up from zero in March 2009.

Expansion in developing countries is helping to offset the weakness of the rich western economies, even though growth was lower than during the boom years earlier in this decade.

CIBR
China, helped by a "National major stimulus" package, should see growth of 7.7% this year, rising to 9.3% in 2010
Indian growth is predicted to be 5.9% in 2010, accelerating to 7.2% in 2010.
Brazil will contract by 0.8% this year, rebounding to 4% expansion in 2010.
Russia's economy will shrink by 6.8% this year but grow by 3.7% in 2010.

Britain
The economic of Britain is on the way to lose its market supremacy and competition, they will suffer in 2010

Japan
Japan has been suffering the economy down turn since 1989 will not be able to see any change for better sign in coming 2010-2011. Will seek CM and shifting factory to overseas. A benefit for us as the buying decision will be more localized.


IMF CommentThe U.S. economy will end the year mired in recession before mounting only a weak recovery in 2009.

Majority of US Companies
New research from Deloitte issued today shows that although most major companies surveyed believe that the U.S. economy will start improving in early 2010, many of those same companies will lag behind the general economy when the rebound occurs. The reason: Too much focus on short-term, tactical actions and little attention to structural changes and strategic investments that are needed to support growth in the new business environment.

Approximately 55 percent of companies surveyed feel the U.S. economy will start showing signs of recovery in the first or second quarter of 2010; though 25 percent think relief won’t come until the third quarter or beyond. But, when the upturn does commence, Deloitte believes many companies will struggle to deal with the new economy, which will likely be a completely different playing field from what companies have seen in previous recoveries.

Stronger US Dollar
We can see US dollar is stronger than two months ago US Government will increase interest rate 2010. and less cash will be pumped into the stock market. That will be a way to cool down the mortgage business in USA. Stock market is truly a way to reflect the quality of the companies. Less chance to have stock bubbles burst! That may have bad effect on export but balanced with good buying power for importing oil.

I guess the US consumer market will be good as in 2010 like those good years 2000 and 2007!

Feverip

How do you compare the technology of Sony and Samsung LED TV?

I have browsed Sony's webpage and found the message of some what like announcement on Sony comparison with Samsung and other brands so Called "LED TV"...

The LED TV products being whisked around lately (used by Samsung Electronics, Toshiba, Philips, LG Electronics and Vizio) are the same type of LED backlit/edge-lit LCD TV’s Sony has in their television range. The phrase LED TV is a farce – it is a term exploited by some companies to increase the status of their brands in the mindshare of average consumers out there.

It’s unfair for Sony, who truthfully advertises their various BRAVIA products as LED-backlit or edge-backlit LCDs, which some people may pass off as inferior to a LED TV. There is no difference, though.

Sony’s LED edgelit/backlit LCD’s are just as good, if not better than the competition. Check out this handy chart showing the differences on Sony models: Refer to the above illustration on Sony's HCFL, edge Lit and RGB Direct lit backlit unit.

This is true that Sony was the first one to introduce the LED Backlit unit for LCD TV in 2005, and in fact they are gorgeous and Eye catching. The case was similar as the Betamax and VHS some 30 years ago... as a result the story told us that a better system withj technical specification does not necessarily apply that the product will be accepted as best from the consumers.

Well, this is another case Samung is winning beautifully by using the terms "LED TV" as a sales and Promotion gadget... Like what SWATCH created the bit in 1987 for his limited SWATCH...

Marketing seems the most important element in such a way to make more sales, of ocurse the product should be also within certain standard of high quality!

feverip