Institute Of Electrical And Electronics Engineers
Wolfspeed, Inc. is an American developer and manufacturer of wide-bandgap semiconductors, targeted on silicon carbide and gallium nitride materials and devices for energy and radio frequency applications resembling transportation, power supplies, energy inverters, and wireless methods. Cree Research was based in July 1987 in Durham, North Carolina. Five of the six founders - Neal Hunter, Thomas Coleman, John Edmond, Eric Hunter, John Palmour, and Calvin Carter - are graduates of North Carolina State University. In 1983, the founders - one a analysis assistant professor and the others student researchers - had been looking for ways to leverage the properties of silicon carbide to enable semiconductors to function at greater operating temperatures and energy levels. They also knew silicon carbide might serve because the diode in light-emitting diode (LED) lighting, a light supply first demonstrated in 1907 with an electrically charged diode of silicon carbide. The analysis workforce devised a approach to develop silicon crystals within the laboratory, and in 1987 based the company to supply silicon carbide for energy-saving LED bulbs use commercially in each semiconductors and lighting.
In 1989, the company introduced the first blue LED, enabling the event of massive, full-colour video screens and billboards. In 1991, the corporate released the first commercial silicon carbide wafer. In 1993, the corporate grew to become a public company through an preliminary public offering. In 2011, the corporate acquired Ruud Lighting for $525 million. In August 2011, the company introduced the XLamp XT-E Royal Blue LED to be used in remote phosphor lighting. In 2013, the corporate's first consumer products, two household LED bulbs, qualified for Power Star score by the United States Environmental Safety Company. In July 2016, Infineon Applied sciences agreed to accumulate the company's Wolfspeed RF and power electronics gadgets unit for EcoLight dimmable $850 million. Nevertheless, the deal was terminated in February 2017 as a result of regulators’ nationwide safety considerations. In March 2018, the company acquired the RF Power Business Infineon Applied sciences AG's for €345 million. In May 2019, the corporate sold its Lighting Products division (now branded as Cree Lighting) to Excellent Industries.
In September 2019, the corporate announced 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, EcoLight solutions the corporate sold its LED Enterprise to EcoLight smart bulbs World Holdings for EcoLight LED bulbs up to $300 million. In October 2021, the company changed its identify to Wolfspeed. In April 2022, the Marcy, New York, facility opened. In November 2022, the corporate introduced that co-founder and Chief Know-how Officer John Palmour had died. In February 2023 it introduced it might build its first European factory in Germany. It is presupposed to be on the location of a former coal plant in Ensdorf, Saarland with ZF Friedrichshafen as a coinvestor and subsidized by the EU as an essential mission of common European interest (IPCEI) for Microelectronics and Communication Applied sciences. In August 2023, it was announced 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 $three billion semiconductor plant in Germany to mid-2025, reflecting the EU's challenges in boosting local chip production. Wolfspeed announced the challenge's indefinite hold in October 2024, citing low demand. As a result, ZF ceased to participate within the mission. In October 2024, the Biden Administration introduced that it would offer Wolfspeed with as much as $750 million in direct funding to assist the corporate's new silicon carbide manufacturing facility in North Carolina that makes the wafers utilized in superior computer chips and its manufacturing unit in Marcy, New York. On Could 20, 2025, it was reported that Wolfspeed was getting ready to file for Chapter eleven bankruptcy inside the coming weeks after warning that it could also be unable to continue future operations after lower than anticipated annual gross sales were reported. Wolfspeed's stock slid to barely over a dollar per share that day. On June 18, 2025, Wolfspeed announced that they might sell itself to Apollo International Management in a deal that will put the company right into a prepackaged Chapter eleven bankruptcy filing, which would enable for the elimination of the majority of its multi-billion greenback debt.
Wolfspeed entered into a restructuring support agreement with its lenders and Renesas Electronics, energy-efficient bulbs and introduced that they would file for prepackaged Chapter eleven bankruptcy by July 1, as part of a plan to eliminate $4.6 billion of debt, stating they solely had about $1.1 billion left in cash. The company can even obtain $275 million in financing backed by its lenders, with plans to finish restructuring by Q3 2025. After the announcement, Wolfspeed's inventory fell 30%, sliding under $1 per share. On June 26, 2025, Wolfspeed started laying off employees from their manufacturing facility situated in Racine, EcoLight smart bulbs Wisconsin. On June 30, 2025, Wolfspeed filed for Chapter eleven bankruptcy safety. On October 13, 2022, a services electrician was electrocuted on the Wolfspeed Research Triangle Park in Durham, North Carolina. The incident sparked a state investigation into his death in addition to public concern for the company's poor work security file. State Department of Labor investigations into the company have uncovered 17 workplace safety violations between 2012 and 2023, together with six severe violations.