Cree Awarded Government Contracts Valued at $14.4 Million for Material Development for Microwave and Power Devices
6/28/02 2:41 PM
Source: PR Newswire
DURHAM, N.C., June 28 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Cree, Inc. (Nasdaq: CREE) today announced that the Office of Naval Research (ONR) has awarded Cree two contracts, with a total value of approximately $14.4 million, as part of the Wide Bandgap Semiconductor Technology Initiative of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). The first contract provides for up to $8.8 million in government funding over an 18 month period for work in the initiative's first major thrust area, known as the "Thrust I" effort, directed to microwave and related technologies. The Thrust I effort at Cree is focused on the development of high quality 4-inch semi-insulating substrates supporting the requirements of both silicon carbide (SiC) MESFET and gallium nitride (GaN) HEMT microwave devices. Also included is work directed toward development of new, highly uniform SiC MESFET and GaN HEMT epitaxial processes on larger diameter wafers and studies correlating material advances with device performance. The GaN-related work will be performed by a team comprised of the microwave groups at Cree in Durham, North Carolina, and Cree Lighting in Goleta, California.
The second contract provides for up to $5.6 million in government funding over an 18 month period for work on SiC high voltage, high power switching devices as part of the initiative's second major thrust area, the "Thrust II" effort, directed to high power conversion and distribution technology. The Thrust II effort at Cree is directed to development of low defect density 4- inch, n-type 4H-SiC substrates that would allow the fabrication of large area high current, high voltage power devices. Cree will also work to develop more uniform, thick epitaxial processes required for the fabrication of devices with blocking voltages in excess of 10 kV. Additionally, Cree will pursue device development focused on high reliability, high voltage SiC PiN rectifiers and MOSFETs based on these materials.
The contracts include options that, if exercised by ONR, would extend the work six months and provide additional funding of up to $2.9 million under the Thrust I contract and $1.8 million under the Thrust II contract.
John Palmour, Director of Advanced Devices at Cree, Inc. stated, "These programs represent an acknowledgement by DARPA of both the tremendous potential of wide bandgap semiconductors in the areas of high power microwave and power switching devices, as well as the technical leadership Cree exhibits in these areas."
Chuck Swoboda, President and CEO of Cree added, "The DARPA efforts funded under these contracts are ideally aligned with our product roadmap, and we believe the work will aid us greatly in further developing our microwave and power product offerings. The technology we are creating in these efforts should not only benefit the military systems that drive the DoD funding but also benefit the development of devices for a variety of non-military 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.
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