Wolfspeed Stock

Wolfspeed, Inc. (Wolfspeed) operates as an innovator of wide bandgap semiconductors, focused on silicon carbide and gallium nitride (GaN) materials and devices for power and radio-frequency (RF) applications.

The company’s product families include silicon carbide and GaN materials, power devices and RF devices. The company’s products are targeted for various applications, such as electric vehicles, fast charging, 5G, renewable energy and storage, and aerospace and defense.

The company’s materials products and power devices are used in electric vehicles, motor drives, power supplies, solar and transportation applications. The company’s materials products and RF devices are used in military communications, radar, satellite and telecommunication applications.

The majority of the company’s products are manufactured at the company’s production facilities located in North Carolina, California and Arkansas. The company also uses contract manufacturers for certain products and aspects of product fabrication, assembly and packaging. The company maintains captive lines at some of its contract manufacturers. Additionally, the company recently opened a silicon carbide device fabrication facility in New York and started construction on a new materials manufacturing facility in North Carolina. The company operates research and development facilities in North Carolina, California, Arkansas, Arizona and New York.

Products

Silicon Carbide and GaN Materials

The company’s silicon carbide materials products consist of silicon carbide bare wafers, epitaxial wafers, and GaN epitaxial layers on silicon carbide wafers. The company’s silicon carbide materials are targeted for customers who use them to manufacture products for RF, power and other applications. Corporate, government and university customers also buy silicon carbide and GaN materials for research and development directed at RF and power devices.

Power Devices

The company’s power device products consist of silicon carbide Schottky diodes, metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistors (MOSFETs) and power modules. The company’s silicon carbide power products provide increased efficiency and faster switching speeds and as a result, reduced system size and weight over comparable silicon power devices. Power products are sold to customers and distributors for use in applications, such as electric vehicles, including charging infrastructure, server power supplies, solar inverters, uninterruptible power supplies, industrial power supplies and other applications.

RF Devices

The company’s RF devices consist of GaN-based die, high-electron mobility transistors (HEMTs), monolithic microwave integrated circuits (MMICs), and laterally diffused MOSFET (LDMOS) power transistors that are optimized for next generation telecommunications infrastructure, military and other commercial applications. The company’s RF devices are made from silicon, silicon carbide and GaN and can provide improved efficiency, bandwidths and frequency of operation as compared to silicon or gallium arsenide (GaAs). The company also provides custom die manufacturing for GaN HEMTs and MMICs that allow a customer to design its own custom RF circuits to be fabricated by the company, or have the company design and fabricate products that meet their specific requirements.

Sales and Marketing

The company has continued to make investments to expand the company’s sales, marketing and technical applications support, as well as distribution capabilities to further enable new and existing customers to design and implement the company’s silicon carbide and GaN materials, power, and RF technology into their products. The company also has continued to make investments to promote and build market awareness of the company’s Wolfspeed brand. The company’s sales, marketing and technical applications teams include personnel throughout North America, Asia and Europe.

Distribution

A portion of the company’s products are sold to distributors. Distributors stock inventory and sell the company’s products to their own customer base, which may include value added resellers, manufacturers who incorporate the company’s products into their own manufactured goods and ultimate end users of the company’s products. The company also utilizes third-party sales representatives who generally do not maintain a product inventory; instead, their customers place orders directly with the company or through distributors.

Competition

Silicon Carbide and GaN Materials

As market adoption of the technology grows with rapidly expanding power and RF device designs, the company has experienced increased competition from companies, such as Coherent, Inc., SiCrystal GmbH, IQE plc and Showa Denko K.K (now Resonac Holdings Corporation).

Power Devices

The company’s silicon carbide power devices compete with silicon carbide power semiconductor solutions offered by Infineon Technologies AG, ON Semiconductor Corporation, Rohm Co. Ltd., and ST Microelectronics.

RF Devices

The company’s RF devices compete with Ampleon Netherlands B.V., MACOM Technology Solutions Inc., BOWEI Integrated Circuits Co., Ltd., Mitsubishi Electric Corporation, NXP Semiconductor N.V., RFHIC, Qorvo, Inc. and Sumitomo Corporation.

Patents and Other Intellectual Property Rights

As of June 25, 2023, the company owned or was the exclusive licensee of 703 issued U.S. patents and approximately 1,282 foreign patents with various expiration dates extending up to 2048, with certain patents expiring in the near term.

Governmental Regulation

The company endorses and adheres to Environment, Health and Safety (EHS) standards for all the company’s sites.

History

The company, a North Carolina corporation, was founded in 1987. It was formerly known as Cree, Inc. and changed its name to Wolfspeed, Inc. in 2021.