Cree Awarded $26 Million in Defense Contracts to Develop Manufacturing Processes for Low Cost SiC Microwave Circuits
DURHAM, N.C., July 9 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Cree, Inc. (Nasdaq: CREE - News) announced today that the company was awarded government contracts totaling $26.5 million, if fully funded, over a three-year period from the Office of Naval Research (ONR) and Air Force Research Laboratories (AFRL) for silicon carbide (SiC) microwave monolithic integrated circuit (MMIC) process development. These contracts are jointly funded by the U.S. Navy, the Missile Defense Agency and the Department of Defense's Title III program. Under Cree's existing Title III contract with AFRL, the project added $3.2 million through a contract modification for additional tasks focused on improving yields of the three-inch diameter high purity semi-insulating SiC substrates to be used for these devices. The remaining $23.3 million will be provided through a new contract with ONR.
This program builds on Cree's past demonstrations of SiC MMIC performance with the goal of providing enhanced producibility of SiC materials, both substrates and epitaxy, and cleanroom processing, in support of high-power MMIC amplifiers useful in military radar applications. All of the work will be directed to yield enhancement and cost reduction for MMICs fabricated on three inch diameter wafers. The cleanroom fabrication work will include the development of more automated wafer handling systems for the larger diameter wafers, as well as the implementation of statistical process control for these new processes. The program is incrementally funded, with funding in future government fiscal years subject to appropriation and allocation of the contracted amounts.
John Palmour, Director of Advanced Devices at Cree, Inc. stated, "Cree was the first, and remains the only, company that has produced power MMICs in SiC, with performance that exceeds what is available in other more established MMIC technologies. We are excited to move this technology forward from the R&D stage into a manufacturing environment." Jim Milligan, Cree's Manager of Advanced Microwave Programs, added, "This program is intended to enable lower cost high power SiC amplifiers that can significantly enhance the performance of a variety of military radar systems while maintaining affordability."
Chuck Swoboda, President and CEO of Cree added, "These new contract awards represent the largest government contract in the company's history, and underlines the importance of SiC for high power microwave devices. We believe that this program should not only help drive down the eventual cost of SiC MMICs for defense applications, but will also help to significantly reduce the cost of our SiC MESFET discrete products and future GaN HEMT product offerings from Cree Microwave for commercial applications such as cellular infrastructure. We anticipate that all of these products will use the same three inch semi-insulating substrate platform and automated three inch fabrication facility, leveraging the volume of both military and commercial applications."
Cree is an advanced semiconductor company that leverages its expertise in silicon carbide (SiC), gallium nitride (GaN) and silicon (Si) materials technology to produce new and enabling semiconductors. The products include blue, green and ultraviolet (UV) light emitting diodes (LEDs), near UV lasers, radio frequency (RF) and microwave devices and power switching devices. Targeted applications for these products include solid state illumination, optical storage, wireless infrastructure and power switching. For more information on Cree, please visit www.cree.com.
This press release contains forward-looking statements involving risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from those indicated. Actual results could differ materially due to a number of known and unknown factors, including uncertainty whether the government will appropriate and allocate all funding contemplated by the contract awards; the risk the estimated contract values may not be realized if the contracting authority exercises rights to terminate the contracts; uncertainty whether the goals of the development programs can be achieved within the time contemplated by the contracts or at all; the risk we may not incur sufficient allowable costs to generate the full estimated contact values; the risk that any technologies developed in the programs may not have commercial value; and other factors discussed in Cree's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including its report on Form 10-K for the year ended June 24, 2001 and subsequent reports filed with the Commission.
SOURCE: Cree, Inc.
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Cree, Inc. Announces Live Webcast and Access Information for Quarterly Conference Call
DURHAM, N.C., July 9 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Cree, Inc. (Nasdaq: CREE - News) invite you to a live Webcast of its Fourth Quarter/Fiscal End Year 2002 Conference Call with senior management to review results for the quarter and fiscal year ended June 30, 2002.
Date: Tuesday, July 30, 2002
Time: 4:30 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time
(Note: Please log on 15 minutes prior to the start of the Webcast)
To access the Webcast through the Cree, Inc. corporate website, please log on to www.cree.com, click on the Investor Relations Webcast notification, then click on the icon for the Webcast.
In addition, an archived version of the Webcast/Conference Call will be available on Cree's website shortly after the completion of the live Conference Call on July 30, 2002 and available through August 6, 2002.
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