Aug 10 2006
Cree, Inc., a market leader in silicon carbide (SiC) power semiconductors, today announced that its newly opened 230,000-square-foot engineering and production facility in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, is operational. The new facility is producing the company’s advanced electronic devices based on silicon carbide (SiC) and gallium nitride (GaN).
Speaking at today’s opening event attended by federal, state and local officials, CEO Chuck Swoboda said, “We are excited to announce the opening of this new RTP site. The advanced power components being developed and produced here are important elements of our business strategy. Moreover, they represent Cree’s continued commitment to delivering efficient technologies needed to better serve the world’s growing energy demand.”
“The new Cree site houses one of the first commercial SiC and GaN production facilities in the world devoted to serving the power and wireless infrastructure markets,” said John Palmour, Cree executive vice president for Advanced Devices. “SiC- and GaN-based technologies enhance the performance of traditional power-supply, motor-drive and wireless-communications systems by enabling the design of devices which provide significantly higher efficiencies than are available with similar silicon devices today. Cree is expanding its SiC and GaN production capabilities to continue to lead technology innovation for power and communications applications.”
Devices produced at the new Cree site include high-efficiency SiC power components for power supplies and motor drives. Cree is also developing SiC and GaN wide bandgap radio-frequency devices for Department of Defense and WiMAX applications, and provides SiC and GaN MMIC foundry services for defense and general-purpose applications.