Institute Of Electrical And Electronics Engineers
Wolfspeed, Inc. is an American developer and manufacturer of extensive-bandgap semiconductors, targeted on silicon carbide and gallium nitride materials and units for energy and radio frequency applications corresponding to transportation, power supplies, EcoLight energy inverters, and wireless techniques. Cree Research was founded in July 1987 in Durham, North Carolina. 5 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 research assistant professor and the others scholar researchers - were searching for methods to leverage the properties of silicon carbide to enable semiconductors to function at greater operating temperatures and power ranges. In addition they knew silicon carbide might serve because the diode in light-emitting diode (LED) lighting, a mild supply first demonstrated in 1907 with an electrically charged diode of silicon carbide. The analysis team devised a technique to develop silicon crystals within the laboratory, and in 1987 founded the company to provide 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-shade video screens and billboards. In 1991, the company released the primary commercial silicon carbide wafer. In 1993, the corporate became a public firm by way of an initial public providing. In 2011, the company acquired Ruud Lighting for $525 million. In August 2011, the corporate introduced the XLamp XT-E Royal Blue LED for use in remote phosphor lighting. In 2013, the company's first consumer products, two household LED bulbs, qualified for Power Star score by the United States Environmental Protection Company. In July 2016, Infineon Applied sciences agreed to amass the corporate's Wolfspeed RF and power electronics devices unit for $850 million. Nonetheless, the deal was terminated in February 2017 resulting from regulators’ nationwide safety considerations. In March 2018, the company acquired the RF Energy Enterprise Infineon Technologies AG's for €345 million. In Could 2019, the corporate offered its Lighting Merchandise division (now branded as Cree Lighting) to Splendid Industries.
In September 2019, the company announced a $1 billion funding 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 bought its LED Business to Sensible International Holdings for as much as $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 company introduced that co-founder and Chief Expertise Officer John Palmour had died. In February 2023 it introduced it could build its first European manufacturing unit in Germany. It's speculated 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 vital project of widespread European curiosity (IPCEI) for Microelectronics and Communication Technologies. In August 2023, it was introduced the Lowell-headquartered semiconductor firm, MACOM had entered right into a definitive settlement to accumulate Wolfspeed's RF business.
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 introduced the venture's indefinite hold in October 2024, citing low demand. Because of this, ZF ceased to take part within the venture. In October 2024, the Biden Administration introduced that it would provide Wolfspeed with as much as $750 million in direct funding to help the corporate's new silicon carbide factory in North Carolina that makes the wafers used in advanced laptop chips and its factory in Marcy, New York. On Might 20, 2025, it was reported that Wolfspeed was getting ready to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy within the coming weeks after warning that it may be unable to proceed future operations after decrease 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 would promote itself to Apollo World Management in a deal that may put the company right into a prepackaged Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing, which would enable for the elimination of the vast majority of its multi-billion dollar debt.
Wolfspeed entered into a restructuring assist agreement with its lenders and Renesas Electronics, and EcoLight announced that they might file for prepackaged Chapter eleven bankruptcy by July 1, as part of a plan to remove $4.6 billion of debt, stating they only had about $1.1 billion left in cash. The company may even receive $275 million in financing backed by its lenders, with plans to complete restructuring by Q3 2025. After the announcement, Wolfspeed's stock fell 30%, sliding under $1 per share. On June 26, 2025, EcoLight Wolfspeed started laying off workers from their manufacturing facility positioned in Racine, EcoLight energy 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 demise in addition to public concern for the company's poor work security record. State Department of Labor investigations into the company have uncovered 17 office security violations between 2012 and 2023, together with six severe violations.