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Rubicon Technology, a leading provider of sapphire substrates and products to the LED, semiconductor, and optical industries, today announced the appointment of Hap Hewes as Senior Vice President, Optical. He will lead marketing and business development activity for sapphire products in the aerospace, optical, consumer electronics and industrial markets. Rubicon has new products in development, including: very large, thick sapphire plates for aerospace and defense, scratch-resistant sapphire-coated faceplates for smartphones and larger devices, and a new sapphire growth process, currently in the proof-of-concept stage, to produce solid sapphire faceplates in the desired net shape, eliminating nearly all of the fabrication costs. Hewes, who was Rubicon`s Senior Vice President, Sales and Marketing, from 2006 through 2009 and Rubicon`s Senior Vice President, Supply Chain and Business Development, from 2004 to 2005, has returned to the company to bring this wide range of exciting new products to market and to lead the company`s traditional optical components business. Bill Weissman, Rubicon`s Chief Executive Officer, said: [I am delighted that Hap Hewes has returned to Rubicon. Hap has broad knowledge and relationships in the sapphire industry and in some of our target markets, and he has extensive experience developing new markets and managing fast-growing products. He brings a much-needed skill set to Rubicon at an opportune time. With new products in development for both the aerospace industry and the consumer electronics industry, we will be forging many new customer relationships over the next several quarters and working to maximize the opportunity provided by our unparalleled capability for innovation in sapphire crystal growth." From 2010 until recently, Hewes was Senior Vice President, Operations, Sales, Marketing, and Field Service, for ARC Energy, a capital equipment provider for the LED industry and other high-tech markets. Concurrently, he served as interim CEO for a related company, ABS Materials. Prior to his Rubicon experience, Hewes worked for Saint-Gobain Crystals and for Saphikon, a crystal manufacturer that was acquired by Saint-Gobain. He also worked for Technology Marketing Group (TMG) in Acton, MA, a consultancy focused on identifying and developing new markets for technology firms. Hewes has an MBA degree from the University of Michigan and a BS in biology from Cornell University.

News Source: Financial Times Impact from LED blue lights on the health of eyes remains a field that requires close study, but there still some measures that heavy screen users can adapt to save their eyesight, according to a recent Financial Times report. LED technology has permeated into ordinary light bulbs, computers, tablets and smartphones. A recent study released this month for instance showed a correlation between LED screens in ereaders and phones triggering insominia in some people. Long term exposure to LED light has raised concern among researchers, since there is growing evidence that LEDs can cause age-related macular degeneration (AMD) in some people over a long period. AMD has been a leading cause of blindness in the western world. Previous studies have associated macular degeneration with long-term exposure to bright sunshine, and found blue light in daylight as the root of the problem. Macular degeneration is more prevalent among those that live in the northern regions of the world, said Ron Adelman, a professor of ophthalmology at Yale University School of Medicine. As nations replace incandescent light bulbs with LEDs and fluorescent bulbs, this can be an issue. In Europe all incandescent bulbs are expected to be replaced by 2016. Compact fluorescent bulbs emit around 26% blue light, but LED bulbs release at least 35%, according to Essilor, the French optical company. An important study from Spain found LED lights could cause death of ocular tissues in Petri dishes after 12-hour exposure. LED computer, tablet or smartphone screens are probably worse on people`s eyes than LED bulbs, since people look at them for extended periods, said Celia Sánchez-Ramos, the researcher at Universidad Complutense de Madrid who led the study. At least another decade of research is required before any conclusive correlations can be drawn between LED lights and the cause of macular degeneration, said Sánchez-Ramos. In the meantime, there are several ways to safeguard eyesight. Supplements containing vitamin C, vitamin E, zinc, lutein and zeaxanthin were recommended by Adelman. People taking these premixed eye vitamins were 25% less likely to develop AMD than those who did not. We are not likely to give up LED devices anytime soon. But there are a couple of measures we can take now that might help safeguard our eyes. Another form of protection is wearing eyeglasses with lenses, such as Essilor`s Crizal Prevencia to filter out harmful blue rays emitted by LED sources. However, a healthy amount of blue light needs to be administered to keep the body`s circadian rhythm in check. Keywords: LED screens tablet tablet phone LED blue light Eyesight electronic devices

Honglitronic announced on Christmas the company`s LED lighting subsidiary, Ledia Lighting`s, patent application was authorized by China`s State Intellectual Property Office, according to a report by Securities Times. The LED manufacturing group offered few details about the approved patent, only stating it involves one of the group`s core technology. Company products have already utilized the patented technology, which will have limited impact on product manufacturing and business development. The new patent will offer Honglitronic comprehensive patent protection, and strengthen its patent portfolio.

News Source: Apple Daily() LED manufacturer Everlight plans to expand in the lighting market as the company`s revenue for November was down due to LED backlight slack season. Everlight reported its revenue last month was slightly down 2.2% to NT $2.74 billion (US $87.68 million), compared to NT $2.80 billion as of October. This is due to backlight and lighting demand in the conventional slack season was rather low compared to 3Q. Financial institutes estimated that Everlight`s revenue for 4Q will drop around 10% compared to 3Q, based on the fact that the company will only ship new LCD TV starting next year and the base revenue for Q3 was high. Everlight plans to expand in lighting market and presented a series of industrial lighting, commercial lighting and residential lighting products at the International Building, Construction and Decoration Exhibition that took place in Taipei, Taiwan. The company`s total consolidated revenue for January to November grew 24.78% YoY to NT $27.96 billion, whereLED lighting accounted for 25% of total revenue.

Published on: July 15, 2014 By Maury Wright Editor in Chief, LEDs Magazine and Illumination in Focus Generally, most people think of solar power as a renewable green energy source and in some cases a way to save money relative to gird power, but increasingly the total cost of ownership of solar guides deployment decisions in outdoor lighting applications. Premiere Homes LLC (PHL), based in Richmond, VA, tapped Sol Inc. to install solar-powered LED street lights based primarily on lower upfront installation costs and secondarily on the long-term energy savings. Indeed, in new construction, the cost of connecting outdoor solid-state lighting (SSL) to the AC grid can be significant. We covered a number of examples including LED trail lighting in Massachusetts and street lighting in Abu Dhabi in a feature article on presentations made at the February Strategies in Light conference. Looking back, solar has not been the best match for street lighting because of the high light levels required for safety and the long operating hours. Solar panels, with efficiency just over 10%, couldn't power legacy light sources without excessively large panels and expensive batteries. The efficiency of LED sources and improving battery technology, however, has made solar a viable option - especially in new construction projects where the cost of connecting to the grid is an issue. Just such a situation arose at the PHL Randolph West community of 70 new single-family homes. "As we were developing the infrastructure for Randolph West, it soon became clear that grid-tied street lighting would be much less efficient and would add significant time to the project," said Sean Bowers, chief operating officer at PHL. "Once we began to value-engineer possible options, we quickly identified Sol's commercial solar outdoor lighting as the ideal solution." Indeed, the Richmond builder avoided the cost of trenching, wire installation, and electrical infrastructure connections that are commonplace in roadway lighting projects. Meanwhile, the city suffered lesser impacts to traffic and parking in the neighborhood, along with less noise. In the end both the builder and the city benefited from the solar choice and the city ended up with a notable green-energy success story. "As demonstrated by the Randolph West project, solar-powered outdoor street lighting brings significant value to our community and helps us meet our sustainability, social, and economic goals," said Christopher Beschler, chief administrative officer of operations for Richmond. "For this project, solar lighting was far more effective than traditional grid-tied street lighting, enabling us to provide our residents with visible proof of our city's commitment to sustainability." The solar option is still a new one to most specifiers working on street-light projects where the lights must illuminate reliably.Solar is regularly used in area lighting projects that have a slightly lesser requirement in terms of the lights working all night every night. But the combination of better power electronics, more-efficient panels, LED sources, and battery technology are changing the landscape. "There is no doubt that commercial solar outdoor lighting is now a cost-effective and high-quality alternative to traditional grid-tied outdoor lighting," said Dibs Tailor, CEO of Sol. "As demonstrated by the public acclaim garnered by the Randolph West project, our commercial solar outdoor lighting systems provide significant economic benefits to budget-constrained municipal governments, while also contributing to a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions that mitigate the negative effects of global warming."