| 1980s |
| July 1987 |
Cree founded |
| August 1989 |
Introduced first blue LED |
| 1990s |
| October 1991 |
Released world’s first commercial SiC wafers |
| February 1993 |
Initial public offering |
| August 1993 |
Introduced 4H SiC wafer |
| September 1993 |
Introduced brighter version blue LED |
| October 1993 |
Developed SiC microwave transistors operating
up to 12.9 GHz |
| June 1995 |
Introduced Nitride-based blue LED |
| May 1997 |
Announced reduced micropipe 4 HN SiC wafers |
| June 1997 |
Demonstrated pulsed GaN blue laser at room temperature |
| September 1997 |
Introduced 2-inch SiC wafer |
| March 1998 |
Demonstrated high-power microwave SiC MESFET |
| May 1999 |
Introduced InGaN blue and green LEDs |
| June 1999 |
Introduced 48 V, 10 W SiC MESFET RF device |
| October 1999 |
Demonstrated 4-inch SiC wafer |
| 2000 |
| May |
Demonstrated 12.3 kV high-efficiency SiC power
rectifier |
| June |
Introduced lower-current InGaN blue and green
LEDs |
| August |
Announced high-power 10 GHz GaN HEMT |
| October |
Introduced UltraBright® blue and green LEDs |
| 2001 |
| February |
Demonstrated 32-percent quantum efficiency with
near-UV LED |
| April |
Introduced 3-inch 4H SiC wafers |
| May |
Introduced MegaBright® blue LED |
| July |
Introduced 4H and 6H 3-inch SiC wafers |
| July |
Introduced first SiC Schottky diodes |
| July |
Introduced 12 mW UV LEDs |
| October |
Introduced XBright® blue LED |
| November |
Introduced green 505 MegaBright LED |
| November |
Announced blue laser lifetimes in excess of 1,000
hours |
| December |
Demonstrated 108 W at 2 GHz from GaN RF devices |
| 2002 |
| January |
Introduced 10-A, 600-V, SiC Schottky rectifier |
| January |
Introduced green 525 MegaBright LED |
| February |
Introduced XBright power chip |
| August |
Introduced 20-A, 600-V, Zero Recovery® SiC
rectifier |
| 2003 |
| February |
Released 1200 V SiC Schottky rectifier |
| March |
Introduced second-generation SiC MESFET RF transistor |
| June |
Introduced MegaBright Plus™ and XBright
Plus™ blue LEDs |
| June |
Introduced LDMOS products for avionics and radar
markets |
| June |
Demonstrated 100 mm semi-insulating SiC substrates |
| July |
Introduced RazerThin® LED products |
| 2004 |
| January |
Expanded XThin® LED product family |
| May |
Launched brighter XThin LED product |
| July |
Launched XLamp® LED product line |
| November |
Announced XLamp 7090 |
| 2005 |
| February |
Achieved standard LED efficiency of 100 lumens/watt
in R&D |
| February |
Achieved 56 lumens from one-watt white XLamp
LED in R&D |
| May |
Introduced brighter blue and green XB900™ power
LEDs for LCD BL |
| May |
Introduced Colorwave™ backlight solution
for LCD TVs & monitors |
| June |
Introduced MegaBright 290 Gen 2 LED Product |
| June |
Introduced RazerThin 230 LED product |
| June |
Introduced SiC MESFETS for WiMAX power amplifiers |
| July |
Introduced 3-watt XLamp |
| September |
Achieved 70 lumens per watt with XLamp 7090 LED
in R&D |
| September |
Introduced 100mm (4”) SiC substrate and
epitaxy material |
| 2006 |
| January |
Demonstrated a 100-kVA SiC Three Phase Inverter |
| February |
Introduced the XR series of XLamp LEDs |
| March |
Introduced the EZBright™ family of LED chips |
| April |
Introduced the EZR™ LED chip for the EZBright
family |
| May |
Introduced GaN HEMT for WiMAX power transistors |
| June |
Demonstrated a 131-lumens/watt white LED |
| June |
Demonstrated 400 watts of RF power for GaN S-Band
transistors |
| July |
Introduced 2-amp rectifier for PC
power supplies |
| August |
Introduced EZBright1000™ LED power chip for general
lighting applications |
| October |
Delivered the XLamp XR-E Series LED, the
first 160-lumen white power LED |
| 2007 |
| February |
Introduced the XLamp XR-C series of LEDs |
| February |
Introduced the EZBright700 LED power chip |
| March |
Expanded the XLamp XR-E and XR-C series of LEDs
with warm white color temperatures |
| April |
Acquired COTCO Luminant Device Ltd. of Hong Kong |
| May |
Demonstrated 100-mm, Zero Micropipe SiC substrates |
| June |
Introduced GaN HEMT for broadband applications |
| June |
Introduced blue XLamp XR-E LEDs |
| June |
Announced commercial availability of XLamp LEDs
with minimum luminous flux of 100 lumens at 350 mA |
| September |
Achieved 1,000 lumens from a single LED |
| October |
Introduced 8-A, 600-V, Zero Recovery SiC rectifier
for computer servers |
| October |
Announced commercial release of 100-mm,
Zero Micropipe SiC substrates |
