Institute Of Electrical And Electronics Engineers
Wolfspeed, Inc. is an American developer and producer of wide-bandgap semiconductors, centered on silicon carbide and gallium nitride supplies and gadgets for power and radio frequency purposes similar to transportation, power provides, power inverters, and wireless techniques. Cree Analysis was based in July 1987 in Durham, North Carolina. 5 of the six founders - Neal Hunter, Thomas Coleman, John Edmond, Eric Hunter, John Palmour, EcoLight bulbs and EcoLight Calvin Carter - are graduates of North Carolina State College. In 1983, the founders - one a research assistant professor and the others scholar researchers - had been in search of ways to leverage the properties of silicon carbide to allow semiconductors to function at higher operating temperatures and power levels. Additionally they knew silicon carbide could serve because the diode in gentle-emitting diode (LED) lighting, EcoLight a light source first demonstrated in 1907 with an electrically charged diode of silicon carbide. The research team devised a way to grow silicon crystals in the laboratory, and in 1987 based the company to supply silicon carbide for use commercially in both semiconductors and lighting.
In 1989, the company introduced the first blue LED, enabling the event of giant, full-color video screens and billboards. In 1991, the company released the primary business silicon carbide wafer. In 1993, the corporate turned a public firm by way of an preliminary public offering. In 2011, the company acquired Ruud Lighting for $525 million. In August 2011, the corporate announced the XLamp XT-E Royal Blue LED for use in remote phosphor lighting. In 2013, the corporate's first client merchandise, two household LED bulbs, certified for Power Star score by the United States Environmental Safety Agency. In July 2016, Infineon Technologies agreed to acquire the corporate's Wolfspeed RF and power electronics gadgets unit for $850 million. Nevertheless, the deal was terminated in February 2017 as a result of regulators’ national security considerations. In March 2018, the corporate acquired the RF Energy Business Infineon Applied sciences AG's for €345 million. In Could 2019, the company sold its Lighting Merchandise division (now branded as Cree Lighting) to Supreme Industries.
In September 2019, the corporate introduced a $1 billion funding in a semiconductor manufacturing plant in Marcy, New York to construct the world’s largest silicon carbide fabrication facility with a $500 million grant from New York State. In March 2021, the company bought its LED Enterprise to Good Global Holdings for up to $300 million. In October 2021, the corporate modified its name to Wolfspeed. In April 2022, the Marcy, New York, facility opened. In November 2022, the corporate announced that co-founder and Chief Technology Officer John Palmour had died. In February 2023 it introduced it will construct its first European factory in Germany. It is purported to be on the site of a former coal plant in Ensdorf, Saarland with ZF Friedrichshafen as a coinvestor and subsidized by the EU as an important challenge of widespread European curiosity (IPCEI) for Microelectronics and Communication Applied sciences. In August 2023, it was announced the Lowell-headquartered semiconductor company, MACOM had entered into a definitive agreement to accumulate Wolfspeed's RF business.
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 announced the undertaking's indefinite hold in October 2024, citing low demand. Consequently, ZF ceased to participate in the venture. In October 2024, the Biden Administration introduced that it would offer Wolfspeed with up to $750 million in direct funding to help the company's new silicon carbide manufacturing unit in North Carolina that makes the wafers used in advanced computer 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 coming weeks after warning that it may be unable to continue future operations after lower than expected annual sales have been reported. Wolfspeed's stock slid to barely over a dollar per share that day. On June 18, 2025, Wolfspeed announced that they would promote itself to Apollo International Administration in a deal that would put the company into a prepackaged Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing, EcoLight which might permit for the elimination of the majority of its multi-billion dollar debt.
Wolfspeed entered right into a restructuring help agreement with its lenders and Renesas Electronics, and introduced that they might file for prepackaged Chapter eleven bankruptcy by July 1, as a part of a plan to eliminate $4.6 billion of debt, stating they only had about $1.1 billion left in money. The company will even obtain $275 million in financing backed by its lenders, with plans to complete restructuring by Q3 2025. After the announcement, Wolfspeed's inventory fell 30%, sliding below $1 per share. On June 26, 2025, Wolfspeed started laying off workers from their manufacturing facility positioned in Racine, Wisconsin. On June 30, 2025, Wolfspeed filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. On October 13, 2022, a amenities electrician was electrocuted on the Wolfspeed Research Triangle Park in Durham, North Carolina. The incident sparked a state investigation into his dying in addition to public concern for the corporate's poor work safety record. State Division of Labor investigations into the company have uncovered 17 office safety violations between 2012 and 2023, together with six severe violations.