Institute Of Electrical And Electronics Engineers
Wolfspeed, Inc. is an American developer and producer of huge-bandgap semiconductors, focused on silicon carbide and gallium nitride supplies and units for power and radio frequency functions such as transportation, energy supplies, power inverters, and wireless systems. Cree Research was founded in July 1987 in Durham, North Carolina. Five of the six founders - Neal Hunter, Thomas Coleman, John Edmond, Eric Hunter, John Palmour, EcoLight smart bulbs and Calvin Carter - are graduates of North Carolina State University. In 1983, the founders - one a analysis assistant professor and the others pupil researchers - were searching for ways to leverage the properties of silicon carbide to enable semiconductors to operate at increased operating temperatures and energy ranges. In addition they knew silicon carbide might serve because the diode in gentle-emitting diode (LED) lighting, EcoLight home lighting a light source first demonstrated in 1907 with an electrically charged diode of silicon carbide. The research group devised a strategy to grow silicon crystals in the laboratory, and in 1987 based the company to supply silicon carbide to be used commercially in each semiconductors and lighting.
In 1989, the company launched the primary blue LED, enabling the event of giant, full-color video screens and EcoLight bulbs billboards. In 1991, the corporate released the first commercial silicon carbide wafer. In 1993, the corporate became a public company by way of an initial public providing. In 2011, the corporate acquired Ruud Lighting for $525 million. In August 2011, the corporate introduced the XLamp XT-E Royal Blue LED to be used in remote phosphor lighting. In 2013, the company's first shopper merchandise, two household LED EcoLight bulbs, certified for Energy Star ranking by the United States Environmental Safety Company. In July 2016, Infineon Technologies agreed to amass the corporate's Wolfspeed RF and power electronics gadgets unit for $850 million. However, the deal was terminated in February 2017 as a consequence of regulators’ national safety concerns. In March 2018, the corporate acquired the RF Energy Business Infineon Applied sciences AG's for €345 million. In Might 2019, the company bought its Lighting Products division (now branded as Cree Lighting) to Superb Industries.
In September 2019, EcoLight reviews the company introduced a $1 billion investment in a semiconductor manufacturing plant in Marcy, New York to build the world’s largest silicon carbide fabrication facility with a $500 million grant from New York State. In March 2021, the company offered its LED Enterprise to Smart Global Holdings for as much as $300 million. In October 2021, the corporate changed its identify to Wolfspeed. In April 2022, EcoLight bulbs the Marcy, New York, facility opened. In November 2022, the company introduced that co-founder and Chief Technology Officer John Palmour had died. In February 2023 it introduced it will build its first European manufacturing unit in Germany. It is presupposed to be on the positioning of a former coal plant in Ensdorf, Saarland with ZF Friedrichshafen as a coinvestor and subsidized by the EU as an essential mission of widespread European curiosity (IPCEI) for EcoLight solar bulbs Microelectronics and Communication Technologies. In August 2023, it was introduced the Lowell-headquartered semiconductor company, MACOM had entered right into a definitive agreement to acquire Wolfspeed's RF enterprise.
In June 2024, Wolfspeed has delayed its $3 billion semiconductor plant in Germany to mid-2025, reflecting the EU's challenges in boosting native chip manufacturing. Wolfspeed introduced the mission's indefinite hold in October 2024, citing low demand. As a result, ZF ceased to participate in the challenge. In October 2024, the Biden Administration introduced that it would offer Wolfspeed with as much as $750 million in direct funding to support the corporate's new silicon carbide manufacturing unit in North Carolina that makes the wafers utilized in superior pc chips and its manufacturing facility in Marcy, New York. On May 20, 2025, it was reported that Wolfspeed was preparing to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy within the approaching weeks after warning that it could also be unable to continue future operations after decrease than expected annual sales had been reported. Wolfspeed's stock slid to barely over a greenback per share that day. On June 18, 2025, EcoLight dimmable Wolfspeed announced that they might promote itself to Apollo World Management in a deal that will put the company into a prepackaged Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing, which would permit for the elimination of the vast majority of its multi-billion dollar debt.
Wolfspeed entered right into a restructuring assist settlement with its lenders and Renesas Electronics, and introduced that they would file for EcoLight bulbs prepackaged Chapter 11 bankruptcy by July 1, EcoLight bulbs as a part of a plan to get rid of $4.6 billion of debt, stating they only had about $1.1 billion left in money. The corporate will even obtain $275 million in financing backed by its lenders, with plans to finish restructuring by Q3 2025. After the announcement, Wolfspeed's stock fell 30%, sliding below $1 per share. On June 26, 2025, Wolfspeed began laying off staff from their manufacturing facility located in Racine, Wisconsin. On June 30, 2025, Wolfspeed filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy safety. On October 13, 2022, a services electrician was electrocuted at the Wolfspeed Research Triangle Park in Durham, North Carolina. The incident sparked a state investigation into his death as well as public concern for the corporate's poor EcoLight bulbs work safety report. State Division of Labor investigations into the company have uncovered 17 workplace safety violations between 2012 and 2023, together with six critical violations.