Taiwan LED makers increase white LED production
LED chipmakers in Taiwan are aggressively expanding their product line-up to include white SMD LEDs for use in mobile phone handsets, according to the DigiTimes news website.
Everlight Electronics, Lite-On Technology and Harvatek have all licensed white LED technology from Osram Opto Semiconductors. In addition, Unity Opto Technology and Bright LED Electronics recently started shipping white SMD LED chips.
Epistar raises blue chip production
Also in Taiwan, Epistar expects its production of blue LED chips to grow to a total of 165 million units in the first quarter of 2005, up from 155 million units in the last quarter of 2004.
The company's shipments slumped from 230 million units in the second quarter of 2004 to 150 million units in the third quarter, due to excess inventory in the China handset market and also a lawsuit filed by Nichia.
Name change for Phoenix Group
The Phoenix Group Corporation is to change its name to Lighting Science Group Corporation by means of a parent/subsidiary merger with its wholly owned subsidiary, Lighting Science, Inc.
"We decided to be proactive and avoid any potential confusion with respect to the focus and direction of the company," said Ron Lusk, chairman of The Phoenix Group. "This company is committed to introducing the marketplace to Optimized Digital Lighting(TM) products."
This patent pending technology developed by Lighting Science optimizes the use of LEDs in many illumination applications.
Oki increases LED printhead production
Oki Digital Imaging Corp is to increase its production of printheads for LED printers, anticipating a 54% growth in shipments of these products in fiscal 2005.
A color LED printer has four LED printheads, one for each ink color i.e. blue, red, yellow and black. In the case of a high-resolution printer capable of printing 1200 dots per inch, each printhead incorporates 15,000 LEDs.
