Note 12 - Line of Credit	9 Months Ended
Sep. 30, 2014
Note 12 - Line of Credit [Line Items]
Debt Disclosure [Text Block]	12. Line of Credit On December 26, 2011, the Company entered into a Business Loan Agreement with Cathay Bank (“Cathay”) whereby Cathay agreed to extend the Company a line of credit of the lesser of $9.0 million or 70% of the aggregate amount in certain accounts receivable, which would mature December 31, 2012. LDK agreed to guarantee the full amount of the loan under a Commercial Guaranty by and between LDK and Cathay dated December 26, 2011. The loan was past due and on April 17, 2014, Cathay Bank filed a lawsuit against the Company to recover the $4.25 in principal plus $0.1 million in accrued and unpaid interest from the Company under the terms of the Business Loan Agreement. On May 15, 2014, the Company and Cathay Bank agreed to a settlement in principal and the Company paid Cathay Bank a total of $4.4 million to satisfy all of the Company’s obligations owed to Cathay and Cathay withdrew the complaint filed against the Company.
Convertible Bond [Member]
Note 12 - Line of Credit [Line Items]
Debt Disclosure [Text Block]	18. Loss on Extinguishment of Convertible Bond On June 3, 2014 the Company entered into an agreement with a non-U.S. investor and issued an $11 million convertible bond, bearing no interest. The convertible bond may be partially (at a minimum of $500,000 or multiples thereof) or wholly converted into shares of the Company’s common stock at $0.16 per share conversion price at any time at the option of the investor after six months from the issuance date or at any time after the issuance date at the option of the investor if the Company issues shares of common stock amounting to more than 10% of the Company’s common stock outstanding or declares a cash dividend. The convertible bond was due and payable on April 29, 2015. If the convertible bond had not been converted according to the terms noted above or earlier accelerated by the events of default on or before April 15, 2015, the Company had the unilateral right to extend the maturity date of the convertible bond to April 29, 2017. The convertible bond included a $10.3 million beneficial conversion feature which was recognized separately at issuance by allocating the intrinsic value to additional paid-in-capital, resulting in a discount on the convertible bond. This discount will be amortized into interest expense using the effective interest method from the issuance over the convertible bond’s April 29, 2015 maturity date. In July 2014, the Company signed an agreement with the convertible bond holder and canceled and terminated the $11.0 million convertible bond. In exchange of the cancellation and termination of the convertible bond, the Company agreed to issue the convertible bond holder, 68,750,000 shares of common stock of the Company at $0.16 per share, the original conversion price of the convertible bond. As a result of these transactions, the Company recorded non-cash interest expense of $1.4 million and a non-cash loss of $8.9 million on extinguishment in the Consolidated Statement of Operations during the nine months ended September 30, 2014. The convertible bond issuance, convertible bond extinguishment and related common stock issuance resulted in a net $0.6 million increase to the Company’s stockholders’ equity during the nine months ended September 30, 2014.

Note 12 - Line of Credit

9 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2014

Note 12 - Line of Credit [Line Items]

12. Line of Credit

On December 26, 2011, the Company entered into a Business Loan Agreement with Cathay Bank (“Cathay”) whereby Cathay agreed to extend the Company a line of credit of the lesser of $9.0 million or 70% of the aggregate amount in certain accounts receivable, which would mature December 31, 2012. LDK agreed to guarantee the full amount of the loan under a Commercial Guaranty by and between LDK and Cathay dated December 26, 2011. The loan was past due and on April 17, 2014, Cathay Bank filed a lawsuit against the Company to recover the $4.25 in principal plus $0.1 million in accrued and unpaid interest from the Company under the terms of the Business Loan Agreement. On May 15, 2014, the Company and Cathay Bank agreed to a settlement in principal and the Company paid Cathay Bank a total of $4.4 million to satisfy all of the Company’s obligations owed to Cathay and Cathay withdrew the complaint filed against the Company.

Convertible Bond [Member]

Note 12 - Line of Credit [Line Items]

Debt Disclosure [Text Block]

18. Loss on Extinguishment of Convertible Bond

On June 3, 2014 the Company entered into an agreement with a non-U.S. investor and issued an $11 million convertible bond, bearing no interest. The convertible bond may be partially (at a minimum of $500,000 or multiples thereof) or wholly converted into shares of the Company’s common stock at $0.16 per share conversion price at any time at the option of the investor after six months from the issuance date or at any time after the issuance date at the option of the investor if the Company issues shares of common stock amounting to more than 10% of the Company’s common stock outstanding or declares a cash dividend. The convertible bond was due and payable on April 29, 2015. If the convertible bond had not been converted according to the terms noted above or earlier accelerated by the events of default on or before April 15, 2015, the Company had the unilateral right to extend the maturity date of the convertible bond to April 29, 2017. The convertible bond included a $10.3 million beneficial conversion feature which was recognized separately at issuance by allocating the intrinsic value to additional paid-in-capital, resulting in a discount on the convertible bond. This discount will be amortized into interest expense using the effective interest method from the issuance over the convertible bond’s April 29, 2015 maturity date.

In July 2014, the Company signed an agreement with the convertible bond holder and canceled and terminated the $11.0 million convertible bond. In exchange of the cancellation and termination of the convertible bond, the Company agreed to issue the convertible bond holder, 68,750,000 shares of common stock of the Company at $0.16 per share, the original conversion price of the convertible bond. As a result of these transactions, the Company recorded non-cash interest expense of $1.4 million and a non-cash loss of $8.9 million on extinguishment in the Consolidated Statement of Operations during the nine months ended September 30, 2014. The convertible bond issuance, convertible bond extinguishment and related common stock issuance resulted in a net $0.6 million increase to the Company’s stockholders’ equity during the nine months ended September 30, 2014.

- Definition

The entire disclosure for information about short-term and long-term debt arrangements, which includes amounts of borrowings under each line of credit, note payable, commercial paper issue, bonds indenture, debenture issue, own-share lending arrangements and any other contractual agreement to repay funds, and about the underlying arrangements, rationale for a classification as long-term, including repayment terms, interest rates, collateral provided, restrictions on use of assets and activities, whether or not in compliance with debt covenants, and other matters important to users of the financial statements, such as the effects of refinancing and noncompliance with debt covenants.

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