Philips Lighting has opened the LED-centric GrowWise Center in Eindhoven to study light recipes for plant growth while Purdue University has conducted research on using LEDs to cultivate plants during deep-space missions.

High-quality SSL products are becoming increasingly important as a tool to boost sales as recent case studies at retailer Tumi and vegetable-oil specialist Ölmühle an der Havel illustrate.

In LED business news, Feit Electric countersues Cree over LED replacement lamps while Daintree adds Derek Proudian as new CEO and chairman and Toggled announces new licensees for LED-based tube IP.

Gen 2 Luxeon COB Core Range LEDs increase performance in the same footprint as the first round of Lumileds COB LEDs, enabling development tradeoffs in performance relative to source size.

SSL developers can leverage the higher flux output of the SC5 technology platform with flat or domed primary optics for different applications, and in a 3.45×3.45-mm package for the first time.

Plessey, Aixtron, and Bruker will use a UK grant to pursue GaN-on-Si LEDs on 200-mm substrates, while Nichia attacks Everlight in German Court, and Oxford Instruments announces PECVD sale to Chinese LED maker Enraytek.

GPS chips in the wireless network node provide precise location data via the cloud, both simplifying the commissioning process and streamlining maintenance procedures for LED street lights.

In another stream of LED business developments, a new patent adds to Nichia’s claims against Everlight and specific low-power LEDs, while Harvard Engineering names a new CEO and CSR partners with SK Telecom for LED lamps that integrate Bluetooth beacons.

LED maker Bridgelux will get closer ties with existing supply-chain partners after the planned acquisition by China Electronics Company, while the recently-announced, Xenio-branded, smart-lighting products will get a new corporate home.

Applications such as emergency vehicles can use the color packaged LEDs in the Luxeon 3535L line while some of the phosphor-converted and monochromatic colors can enable tunable general-lighting products.