https://cdn.specpick.com/images/photonics/obama_live_c0_214_3544_2278_s400x233.jpg712370

Cree's CEO, Chuck Swoboda has resigned after more than 15 years in the role. Swoboda stepped into the CEO’s office in 2001, replacing previous incumbent and chairman Neal Hunter. Cree announced that it would start looking for internal and external candidates to step into the long-time CEO’s shoes, and that Swoboda would stay on until an appointment is made.

When Swoboda first joined Cree - back in 1993 - the company was in the midst of a transition from start-up to stock market, having emerged out of the college of engineering at North Carolina State University (NCSU).

Then, as now, the company’s “secret sauce” involved using silicon carbide wafer substrates on which to grow high-quality crystals of gallium nitride that are able to emit blue-violet light at wavelengths around 400 nm. That light can then be converted into broadband white emission with various phosphor materials, ultimately making possible the solid-state lighting revolution that is now well under way.

Cree’s approach differed significantly from virtually every other manufacturer of blue and white LEDs, who based their devices on generally cheaper but lower-performance sapphire material, but the material advantage led to it posting a succession of performance records for white LEDs.

While he has been at the helm, those white LEDs have migrated from initial applications in the backlights of mobile phone handset displays, to widespread deployment in PC monitors and larger LCD displays, specialty lighting systems, automotive headlamps, and LED light bulbs bearing the Cree brand livery.

More recently, with the market becoming vastly more competitive at the LED chip level and Cree moving up the value chain to operate as a lighting company and bulb supplier, as well as a chip maker, those profits have shrunk – with Swoboda reporting operating losses in both fiscal 2015 and 2016 as annual sales flat-lined.

However, much of the recent turbulence relates to an aborted plan to restructure Cree through the sale of its “Wolfspeed” microelectronics division to Infineon Technologies for $850 million in cash.

Wolfspeed specializes in radio-frequency and power switch applications of SiC materials and devices, but in February the sale was scuppered by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the US (CFIUS) on grounds of national security.