Wolfspeed, Inc. (Wolfspeed) operates as an innovator of wide bandgap semiconductors. The company focuses on silicon carbide materials and devices for power applications. The company’s product families include power devices and silicon carbide and gallium nitride (GaN) materials. The company’s products are targeted for various applications, such as electric vehicles, fast charging and renewable energy and storage.
The company’s materials products and power devices are used in electric vehicles,...
Wolfspeed, Inc. (Wolfspeed) operates as an innovator of wide bandgap semiconductors. The company focuses on silicon carbide materials and devices for power applications. The company’s product families include power devices and silicon carbide and gallium nitride (GaN) materials. The company’s products are targeted for various applications, such as electric vehicles, fast charging and renewable energy and storage.
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 are also used in military communications, radar, satellite and telecommunication applications.
During and prior to fiscal 2024, the company designed, manufactured and sold radio-frequency (RF) devices. The company completed the sale of certain assets comprising its former RF product line (the RF Business Divestiture) in the second quarter of fiscal 2024.
The majority of the company’s products are manufactured at its production facilities located in North Carolina, New York 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. The company is constructing a new materials manufacturing facility in North Carolina and renovating an epitaxy facility in Texas. The company operates research and development facilities in North Carolina, Arkansas 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.
Sales and Marketing
The company has continued to make investments to expand its sales, marketing and technical applications support, as well as distribution capabilities to further enable new and existing customers to design and implement its silicon carbide and power technology into their products. The company has continued to make investments to promote and build market awareness of its Wolfspeed brand. The company’s sales, marketing and technical applications teams include personnel throughout North America, Asia and Europe.
Customers
In fiscal 2024, the company had two, two and three customers, respectively, that each represented more than 10% of its consolidated revenue. These customers, in the aggregate, accounted for 37% of its total consolidated revenue in fiscal 2024.
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 its products into their own manufactured goods and ultimate end users of its products.
Design-ins
Design-ins are customer commitments to purchase the company’s products and are one of the factors it uses to forecast long-term demand and future revenue. To meet the qualification of a design-in, the customer provides the company with documentation (e.g., a letter of intent, statement of work or developmental contract) that can include details, such as the expected delivery timeline, estimated price, necessary capacity and required support. A design-in, even with a formal commitment, does not always convert to future revenue (a design-win) for a variety of reasons, including, but not limited to, the customer delaying or abandoning the project, capacity constraints, timeline challenges, and/or technology changes. Therefore, management uses the design-in amount as a guide to forecast future demand but it should not be taken as an absolute indicator of future revenue.
Design-wins
Design-ins are considered design-wins when a customer issues a purchase order for at least 20% of the expected first year revenue. Design-wins reflect each project's entire commitment at the time this criterion is satisfied and should not be taken as an absolute indicator of future revenue. Depending on timing, certain projects may be reflected within a single period's design-in and design-win figures.
Competition
Silicon Carbide and GaN Materials
As market adoption of the technology grows with rapidly expanding power device designs, the company has experienced increased competition from companies such as Coherent, Inc., SiCrystal GmbH, IQE plc and Resonac Holdings Corporation in the United States, Europe and Japan. In China, the company has observed increased competition from companies, such as SICC Co., Ltd. and EpiWorld International Co., Ltd.
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 N.V., as well as an increasing number of smaller competitors.
Patents and Other Intellectual Property Rights
As of June 30, 2024, the company owned or were the exclusive licensee of 552 issued United States patents and approximately 1,048 foreign patents with various expiration dates extending up to 2049, with certain patents expiring in the near term.
Governmental Regulation
The company endorses and adheres to Environment, Health and Safety (EHS) standards for all its sites. It is the company’s EHS goal to design and develop products safely, that realize energy efficiency, minimize environmental impacts, and have sustainable life cycles. In this manner, the company is striving to continuously improve its EHS performance and reduce the overall impacts of its manufacturing processes.
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.