Livermore, Calif., September 14, 2011 – Bridgelux Inc., bringing innovation to light by providing high power, energy-efficient and cost effective LED solutions, has been chosen by AlwaysOn as one of the GoingGreen Global 200 winners.  Bridgelux was selected by the AlwaysOn editorial team and industry experts worldwide as a leader among other greentech companies and a player most likely to disrupt markets.

The Global 200, selected from thousands of domestic and international greentech companies, were judged against five criteria: innovation, market potential, commercialization, stakeholder value, and media buzz. The winning companies will be honored at AlwaysOn’s GoingGreen Silicon Valley event on September 27^th, 2011, at San Francisco City Hall in San Francisco, CA.

“Inclusion in the GoingGreen Global 200 list validates our commitment to leading innovation and speeding market adoption for LED lighting,” said Bill Watkins, Bridgelux CEO “Recognition from influencers and experts in the greentech industry further confirms our efforts and LED lighting’s vast market potential.”

“Picking this year’s GoingGreen Global 200 was a very competitive process, as literally dozens of great greentech companies are emerging out of the pack, raising big money, and gaining significant market traction,” says Tony Perkins, founder and editor of AlwaysOn. “This year’s winners clearly represent some of the highest-growth opportunities we’ve seen in the private company marketplace.”

About Bridgelux

Bridgelux is a leading developer and manufacturer of technologies and solutions transforming the $40 billion global lighting industry into a $100 billion market opportunity.  Based in Livermore, California, Bridgelux is a pioneer in solid-state lighting (SSL), expanding the market for light-emitting diode (LED) technologies by driving down the cost of LED lighting systems. Bridgelux’s patented light source technology replaces traditional technologies (such as incandescent, halogen, fluorescent and high intensity discharge lighting) with integrated, solid-state lighting solutions that enable lamp and luminaire manufacturers to provide high performance and energy-efficient white light for the rapidly growing interior and exterior lighting markets, including street lights, commercial lighting and consumer applications.With more than 500 patent applications filed or granted worldwide, Bridgelux is the only vertically integrated LED manufacturer and developer of solid-state light sources that designs its solutions specifically for the lighting industry.For more information about the company, please visit www.bridgelux.com

Lauded as one of America’s fastest-growing private companies, recognized for fueling U.S. manufacturing industry expansion

Livermore, Calif., August 23, 2011 – Bridgelux Inc., bringing innovation to light by providing high power, energy-efficient and cost effective LED solutions, was ranked 751 on the 2011 Inc. 5000 list, Inc.’s annual ranking of the fastest-growing private companies in America.  The Inc. 5000 are the nation’s most successful private companies, ranked according to percentage revenue growth from 2007 through 2010.  The esteemed list, celebrates the creativity, resilience and tenacity of America’s top entrepreneurs each year. Bridgelux was recognized among other companies for helping to drive 51% growth in the U.S. manufacturing industry.

The Inc. 5000 companies, including Bridgelux, will be profiled on Inc.com and celebrated at the Inc. 500|5000 Conference and Awards Ceremony from September 22-24, 2011, at the Gaylord National Hotel and Convention Center in National Harbor, Maryland.

The 2011 Inc. 500|5000 Conference and Awards Ceremony honors 29 years of Inc.’s ranking of the fastest-growing privately held companies in America.  The event will bring together previous and current winners as well as the greater business community to recognize creativity, dedication and hard work.

“Bridgelux’s place in the Inc. 5000 serves not only as recognition of our success as a company, but also as confirmation of the growing and critical role clean technologies play in the U.S. manufacturing economy,” said Bill Watkins, CEO, Bridgelux. “As our company has expanded, we’ve remained  focused on keeping jobs in America; this honor helps validate those efforts.”

The Inc. 5000 winners were selected among thousands of nominated privately held American companies. Distinguished previous winners include Intuit, Zappos, Under Armour, Microsoft, Jamba Juice, Timberland, ClifBar, Patagonia, Oracle and Zipcar.

A full list of all Inc. 5000 winners can be found at www.inc.com/5000.

About Bridgelux

Bridgelux is a leading developer and manufacturer of technologies and solutions transforming the $40 billion global lighting industry into a $100 billion market opportunity.  Based in Livermore, California, Bridgelux is a pioneer in solid-state lighting (SSL), expanding the market for light-emitting diode (LED) technologies by driving down the cost of LED lighting systems. Bridgelux’s patented light source technology replaces traditional technologies (such as incandescent, halogen, fluorescent and high intensity discharge lighting) with integrated, solid-state lighting solutions that enable lamp and luminaire manufacturers to provide high performance and energy-efficient white light for the rapidly growing interior and exterior lighting markets, including street lights, commercial lighting and consumer applications. With more than 5300 patent applications filed or granted worldwide, Bridgelux is the only vertically integrated LED manufacturer and developer of solid-state light sources that designs its solutions specifically for the lighting industry. For more information about the company, please visit www.bridgelux.com

About Inc. 500|5000

In 1982, Inc. introduced the Inc. 500 list of the fastest-growing privately held companies in the United States. Since then, this prestigious list of the nation’s most successful private companies has become the hallmark of entrepreneurial success and the place where future household names first make their mark. Pandora, 7 Eleven, Toys ‘R’ Us, Zipcar, Zappos.com and numerous other well-known brands have been honored by the Inc. 500|5000. In 2007, the Inc. 500 list expanded to the Inc. 500|5000, giving readers a deeper, richer understanding of the entrepreneurial landscape and capturing a broader spectrum of success.

Today, the list is a distinguished editorial award, a celebration of innovation, a network of entrepreneurial leaders, and an effective public relations showcase. The Inc. 500|5000 ranks companies by overall revenue growth over a three-year period. All 5,000 honoree companies are individually profiled on Inc.com. The top 500 are featured in the September issue of Inc. magazine, the leading entrepreneurial advocate for 30 years running. Inc. also ranks the fastest-growing companies by industry, metro area, revenue, and number of employees, and we also highlight women- and minority- run companies.

By Don Clark

MARCH 8, 2011, 9:07 PM ET- Silicon has shaken up many industries. A startup called Bridgelux says the next big target will be light bulbs.

A Bridgelux engineer with a silicon wafer used in

making light-emitting diodes

The Livermore, Calif., company on Tuesday claimed a breakthrough in using the material to fabricate light-emitting diodes, the new-wave components that are finding a place in many lighting applications because of their superior energy-efficiency and longevity. A key barrier to their wider use is high cost–$40 price tags aren’t uncommon for 60-watt equivalent bulbs–and that’s where silicon could come in.

Most LEDs are now fabricated on substrates of relatively costly materials such as sapphire or silicon carbide. Many companies are putting most of their efforts in trying to use larger substrates of the same materials to drive down costs, says Bill Watkins, Bridgelux’s CEO.

A more radical approach is to move to silicon, the foundation of computer chips. Besides the cost advantage of the material, the approach could theoretically make use of the many older semiconductor factories that are inexpensive to operate.

Watkins, known for a high-profile stint as CEO of Seagate Technology before joining Bridgelux, says the problem is that silicon is much more difficult to work with for LED applications. The effort typically requires depositing the material gallium nitride on silicon wafers, and the results usually fall far short of the performance of LEDs made with conventional materials.

On Tuesday, however, Bridgelux said it has managed to use eight-inch silicon wafers to make components that achieved 135 lumens per watt–essentially reaching commercial-grade performance with the material for the first time. It will take two or three years to improve production yields to make the process commercially viable, but Watkins sees no barriers to using the approach to reduce production costs by 75%.

“This is a game-changer around the whole cost structure,” Watkins says. “We think we can get to $5 bulbs.”

Bridgelux doesn’t believe it is the only company working on silicon for LED applications, but thinks this is its announcement is dramatic enough to force others to disclose their progress. “This will shake everybody out,” Watkins says.

Thursday, February 3rd, 2011 – According to analyst estimates, by 2020 the LED lighting industry will be close to a $25 billion market worldwide. LED lighting manufacturer Bridgelux wants to be on the forefront of this shift. SmartPlanet correspondent Sumi Das talks to CEO Bill Watkins about Bridgelux’s new LED array that delivers 5,000 operational lumens and how its latest technology is different from its competitors.

Bridgelux, the clean-tech startup showing off its new state-of-the-art facility, said the Livermore site offered the fastest, cheapest way for it to ramp up production of solid-state lights – an energy-saving alternative to incandescent and compact fluorescent bulbs.

How did a Bay Area factory become the low-cost location?

By being an industrial hand-me-down, said Bridgelux chief executive Bill Watkins. He said the factory was built a decade ago by one local tech firm that never used it, but instead sold it to a second local firm that also mothballed the plant – creating an opportunity for Bridgelux to move in cheaply and quickly.

“It was a very good deal that allowed us to save upwards of $20 million this year,” Watkins said.

In a region accustomed to losing manufacturing jobs, this plant christening serves as a reminder of how tough it is for the Bay Area to compete.

Even now, as Bridgelux churns out LED lights for industrial applications such as traffic signals and street lamps, Watkins said he must soon decide where to add production capacity to meet the demand he expects two years hence.

Right now, unless there’s another mothballed factory sitting idle somewhere, Watkins said he’s likely to expand in Asia, where he can enjoy lower labor costs and – in China – government subsidies for locating production there.

‘Made in California’ tactic

“They say, ‘Look, you put your jobs here, and we’ll help you fund it,’ ” said Watkins, who has an idea for how California or some of its cities can get back into the game when it comes to attracting new clean-tech factories.

In essence, Watkins said the state or city governments could float revenue bonds that municipalities would use to buy LED lights – provided that at least 60 percent of the product is manufactured here.

“This is what China has done,” Watkins said, explaining how Chinese authorities have used the purchasing power of their municipal governments to create a demand for LEDs – which are still more expensive than ordinary lights on the initial purchase, but so energy efficient that they can pay back the differential in lower electric bills over time.

Watkins said China also slapped a 20 percent tariff on incoming LEDs. This carrot-and-stick program – subsidies to build factories in China and penalties for those who build elsewhere – has created 55 Chinese-based LED manufacturing companies, he said.

A “made in California” approach would obviously benefit his firm, but Watkins said it would also attract Chinese companies interested in cracking the U.S. market.

“My competitors would come to the U.S. to build the business,” he said.

Intellectual power source

Factory wins for the region are rare. One high-tech company with a local manufacturing story is Infinera.

The Sunnyvale firm makes an entirely new type of chip designed to transmit the pulses of light through the fiber optic cables that comprise the Internet.

Infinera co-founder Dave Welch said when the company opened its Sunnyvale plant in 2002, it located here because its technology was at the cutting edge – unlike most silicon-based chips, Infinera uses different compounds that required it to reinvent many basic processes.

“We built here primarily because the intellectual power exists here to pull off that technology,” Welch said.

Following China’s example

Now the 600-person company is in the throes of deciding whether to expand its Sunnyvale site or build a second production plant elsewhere.

“The high probability is we’ll do it here,” said Welch, although Maryland and New Jersey are competitive because they, too, have labor pools experienced in photonics, the field at the heart of Infinera’s technology.

Tesla, the electric car startup, also plans to position production locally, after getting a great deal on the auto plant that General Motors and Toyota shut down in Fremont.

Solyndra, the solar energy startup that won a $535 million federal loan guarantee, also has opened a new plant in Fremont, where city officials went out of their way to streamline the permitting processes, according to spokesman Dave Miller.

But while the Bay Area enjoys periodic wins, Watkins said it has not yet followed China’s example in using the domestic market to both create demand and make it economical for U.S. startups or foreign firms to build here.

“You need a ‘60 percent made in America’ deal,” Watkins said. “If we can’t do that as a country, or as a state, or as cities, then forget it – we can’t grow businesses here.”