WASHINGTON: The US Supreme Court on Tuesday agreed to weigh in on a dispute between states and electronics manufacturers over whether restitution claims based on alleged price-fixing in the market for liquid crystal display panels should be heard in state or federal court.

South Carolina and Mississippi are among 13 states that have sued various manufacturers, including AU Optronics, LG Display and LG Electronics. They seek restitution over an alleged conspiracy among the companies to fix prices, which has been the subject of a criminal probe and multiple lawsuits.

Some of the cases are in federal court, but South Carolina and Mississippi were among five states that sued in state courts, which are generally seen as friendlier to plaintiffs.

The companies sought to move the cases to federal court, which corporate defendants generally prefer. They succeeded in the Mississippi case but not in the South Carolina litigation.

Both cases were appealed to the high court, but the justices only agreed to hear the Mississippi case.

The Supreme Court will now decide whether lawsuits filed by a state on behalf of citizens can be viewed as similar to a class action, meaning they can be moved to federal court.

Oral arguments and a ruling are due in the court's next term, which begins in October and ends in June.

The case is Mississippi v AU Optronics Corp, US Supreme Court, No. 12-1036. (By THE TIMES OF INDIA)


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Focused on increased safety for drivers and passengers, the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (FMER) is sponsoring a research project on adaptive forward lighting systems (AFS) for autos, and Osram Opto Semiconductors is serving as the project coordinator. The project will seek to combine microelectronics and optoelectronics technologies to enable autonomous camera-based control of LED headlamps with no mechanical actuators.

The AFS concept includes both optimum lighting for the driver and supplementary traffic safety functions. The goal is glare-free high-beam lighting, and low beams that adjust to the speed of the vehicle. For example, at high speed, the AFS would extend the range of the headlamps. In city driving the system would produce a broader beam to ensure that pedestrians or cyclist are lit and easily detected by the driver.

The FMER project will seek to develop a technology framework that can be broadly used by automakers going forward on a global basis. During the research phase, Daimler with carry out tests of the system.

In addition to Osram Opto and Daimler, there are a number of other participants in the project. IC vendor Infineon Technologies is contributing experience in automotive electronics and LED drivers. Osram's Specialty Lighting division is working on new electronic control gear for headlamps. The Fraunhofer Institute for Reliability and Microintegration is focused on interconnect technologies.

Auto lighting specialists Hella will develop the optical system and build headlamp prototypes using Osram LED modules. The project will use multi-chip LEDs such as the Osram Ostar LED pictured nearby.

Stefan Grötsch is responsible for LED applications in automotive lighting at Osram Opto and is serving as project coordinator. Grötsch said, "We have brought together major players in their respective sectors and have assembled a wealth of expertise for this pioneering project." (By LEDs Magazine)


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Osram is to develop glare-free adaptive headlights, where modulating multiple LED die within a headlight allows the shape of its beam to be varied in response to data from forward-facing cameras in the vehicle.

Low-beams that adapt with vehicle speed are another aspect: at high speed the range of the light is automatically increased, while in city traffic the beam is widened to include more of the pavement and road edges.

“The aim of this project is to develop the technical framework for a new class of energy-efficient LED headlamps with supplementary traffic safety functions,” said Osram. “This can provide the basis for adaptive forward lighting systems [AFSs] that offer drivers and passengers increased safety.”

Such headlamps already exist, using HID ‘xenon’ sources and mechanical shutters to change the beam shape. This project will be all-electronic.

The project is part of the ‘Integrated microphotonics’ initiative, sponsored by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (FMER). Osram is project co-ordinator.

“The key to this complex functionality is the integration of microelectronics and optoelectronics,” said Osram.

Initiative members are:
Osram – automotive lighting LEDs, control gear.
Fraunhofer Institute for Reliability and Microintegration (IZM) – interconnection and materials.
Infineon – automotive electronics and LED drivers.
Hella – optical system, headlamp structure, prototype build.
Daimler – vehicle tests.

“We have brought together major-league players in their respective sectors, assembling a wealth of expertise for this pioneering project around one table,” said project coordinator Stefan Grötsch, also responsible for LED applications in automotive lighting at Osram.

The project will run until the end of January 2016. (By Electronics Weekly)


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A bank holiday Sunday – especially one as sunny as the one just passed – is typically not a day to find more than a hundred people loitering in a dimly lit banquet room.

But that’s exactly what happened at The City Rooms hotel in Leicester this past weekend. The reason is simple: the venue held host to several of the top flat-screen TVs released in 2013 by various manufacturers, all lined up side by side in their calibrated glory. The event – themed “Battle Of The Big Brand TVs” – was painstakingly put together by local THX calibrator Julian Scott and the Leicester store of Richer Sounds, with promotional and on-site support from the retailer’s national marketing department in conjunction with HDTVTest. Panasonic’s “Beyond The Reference” ZT plasma and its step-down VT series sibling, as well as Samsung’s much improved F8500 PDP (plasma display panel) offering, were among the HDTVs exhibited.

The TVs that were displayed from the outset were – in order from left to right – the Philips 46PFL8007T, the Samsung UE55F8000, and the Panasonic TX-L55WT65B LED LCD televisions; the Panasonic TX-P55VT65B, the Panasonic TX-P60ZT65B, the Samsung PS51F8500, and the Pioneer PDP-LX6090 plasmas; and perpendicular to the others, the LG 84LM960V 84-inch Ultra HD 4K TV.

In contrast, the three LED LCDs on the left were ignored for the most part. This sort of setting – with only a small amount of ambient light present, which ironically is what videophiles like for critical viewing – really exposed the shallower blacks and narrower viewing angles of LCD display technology, particularly when compared against plasma TVs that are superior in these two aspects. Stores with bright lights is where LCDs thrive… not in this environment.

And when the Blu-ray player started spinning darker sequences from The Dark Knight Rises and Pirates Of The Caribbean: At World’s End (served via an HDMI amplifier to all the TVs), even the LG 84in 4K television – which uses edge LED backlighting – faltered. Almost every attendee could be found congregating in front of the four plasma televisions, mesmerised by the exceedingly deep blacks and realistic shadow detailing. (Excerpt from HDTV Test)


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