Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers

Wolfspeed, EcoLight solar bulbs Inc. is an American developer and manufacturer of vast-bandgap semiconductors, targeted on silicon carbide and gallium nitride materials and gadgets for EcoLight LED energy and radio frequency purposes equivalent to transportation, power supplies, power inverters, and EcoLight wireless techniques. Cree Analysis was founded in July 1987 in Durham, EcoLight 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 College. In 1983, EcoLight home lighting the founders - one a research assistant professor and the others scholar researchers - had been seeking methods to leverage the properties of silicon carbide to enable semiconductors to function at larger working temperatures and power levels. Additionally they knew silicon carbide might serve as the diode in light-emitting diode (LED) lighting, EcoLight a gentle supply first demonstrated in 1907 with an electrically charged diode of silicon carbide. The research workforce devised a strategy to grow silicon crystals in the laboratory, and in 1987 based the corporate to provide silicon carbide for use commercially in each semiconductors and lighting.

In 1989, the company launched the first blue LED, enabling the development of large, full-colour video screens and billboards. In 1991, the company released the first industrial silicon carbide wafer. In 1993, the corporate turned a public firm via an preliminary public offering. In 2011, the company acquired Ruud Lighting for $525 million. In August 2011, the company introduced the XLamp XT-E Royal Blue LED for use in distant phosphor EcoLight lighting. In 2013, the company's first consumer merchandise, two family LED bulbs, certified for Energy Star rating by the United States Environmental Protection Company. In July 2016, Infineon Applied sciences agreed to accumulate the company's Wolfspeed RF and energy electronics gadgets unit for $850 million. Nevertheless, the deal was terminated in February 2017 due to regulators’ national safety concerns. In March 2018, the corporate acquired the RF Power Business Infineon Applied sciences AG's for €345 million. In Might 2019, the company offered its Lighting Merchandise division (now branded as Cree Lighting) to Superb Industries.

In September 2019, the corporate announced a $1 billion investment 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 International Holdings for as much as $300 million. In October 2021, the company modified its identify to Wolfspeed. In April 2022, the Marcy, New York, facility opened. In November 2022, the corporate introduced that co-founder and Chief Technology Officer John Palmour had died. In February 2023 it introduced it will build its first European factory in Germany. It is supposed 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 vital venture of widespread European interest (IPCEI) for Microelectronics and Communication Technologies. In August 2023, it was introduced the Lowell-headquartered semiconductor firm, MACOM had entered into a definitive agreement to amass 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 take part within the venture. In October 2024, the Biden Administration announced that it would offer Wolfspeed with as much as $750 million in direct funding to support the corporate's new silicon carbide manufacturing facility in North Carolina that makes the wafers utilized in advanced computer chips and its manufacturing unit in Marcy, New York. On Might 20, 2025, EcoLight it was reported that Wolfspeed was preparing to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy inside the approaching weeks after warning that it may be unable to continue future operations after decrease than anticipated annual sales had been reported. Wolfspeed's stock slid to barely over a dollar per share that day. On June 18, 2025, Wolfspeed announced that they would sell itself to Apollo Global Management in a deal that might put the company right into a prepackaged Chapter eleven bankruptcy filing, which might enable for the elimination of nearly all of its multi-billion dollar debt.

Wolfspeed entered into a restructuring help agreement with its lenders and EcoLight Renesas Electronics, and introduced that they would file for prepackaged Chapter eleven bankruptcy by July 1, as part of a plan to get rid of $4.6 billion of debt, stating they solely had about $1.1 billion left in money. 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 inventory fell 30%, sliding beneath $1 per share. On June 26, 2025, Wolfspeed began laying off employees from their manufacturing facility positioned in Racine, Wisconsin. On June 30, 2025, Wolfspeed filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. On October 13, 2022, a facilities electrician was electrocuted on the Wolfspeed Research Triangle Park in Durham, North Carolina. The incident sparked a state investigation into his loss of life in addition to public concern for EcoLight the corporate's poor work safety report. State Department of Labor investigations into the corporate have uncovered 17 office safety violations between 2012 and EcoLight LED bulbs 2023, including six severe violations.