LED Lighting Manufacturer Announces Expansion

Cree Inc., a Durham, N.C.-based manufacturer of LED lighting products, announced that it will install a new 150-mm LED wafer production line at its Research Triangle Park facility.

The new production line will enable Cree to produce 150-mm LED wafers that are more than double the size of current ones, "increasing the number of LEDs from a single wafer, helping to make LED lighting more cost-effective," according to the company.

Cree plans to install the production line over the next several quarters and aims to have the first products qualified on the line by June 2011.

"150-mm LED wafers are an important step in enabling the next phase of LED lighting," Cree CEO and Chairman Chuck Swoboda said.

To keep pace with the growing market for energy-efficient LED lighting, Cree has added more than 600 jobs since early 2009, surpassing the company's 2012 hiring goals set last fall, according to the company.

Cree anticipates hiring nearly 250 more employees by 2013 to staff the new wafer production line expansion.