FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 8, 2005
CREE LICENSES PIONEERING WHITE LED PATENT TO KINGBRIGHT ELECTRONIC CO., LTD.
City of Industry, California – Kingbright Electronic Co., Ltd. today announced it was licensed the pioneering white LED patent, U.S. Patent No. 6,600,175, by Cree, Inc. a world leader in gallium-nitride and silicon-carbide LED technologies. The license authorizes Kingbright to manufacture and sell white LEDs that incorporate Cree chips and is one of several licenses that Cree has granted under the ‘175 patent this year. Kingbright will be using Cree LED chip products exclusively in its white LED product offerings.
“Cree’s white LED technology provides major advantages to Kingbright’s product line. Our target market includes major U.S. and multi-national companies for which avoiding intellectual property disputes is critical,” notes Wen Sung, Kingbright North America president. “We have successfully promoted Cree products for over 10 years and this agreement gives Kingbright a critical IP license required to address and capture the rapidly growing markets for white LEDs.”
“Cree’s ‘175 patent is important to companies manufacturing white LED products,” notes Scott Schwab, Cree vice president and general manager of optoelectronics. “Kingbright has distinguished itself with years of dedicated support for Cree technology and respect for intellectual property. Cree is excited to extend this license to Kingbright and to work together in expanding the market for white solid-state lighting products.”
Kingbright’s continuous commitment in light enhancing optics coupled with Cree's technologies in gallium-nitride and silicon-carbide materials significantly enhance the impact of Kingbright's white and full-color LEDs for the general illumination, backlighting, and display industries.
About Kingbright
Kingbright Corporation is a leading manufacturer of LED Lamps, Displays, SMD Lamps and other LED related products. Kingbright operates four manufacturing plants in Shenzhen, China, all accredited with TS 16949, ISO 9001, ISO 14001 certification. With the highest quality and production capacities, Kingbright produces more than 300 million SMD Lamps, 200 million Through-hole LED Lamps, and 10 million LED Displays every month.
For further information, please refer to www.us.kingbright.com.
About Cree, Inc.
Cree is a market-leading innovator and manufacturer of semiconductors that enhance the value of solid-state lighting, power and communications products by significantly increasing their energy performance. Key to Cree’s market advantage is its world-class materials expertise in silicon carbide (SiC) and gallium nitride (GaN) for chips and packaged devices that can handle more power in a smaller space while producing less heat than other available technologies, materials and products.
Cree drives its increased Return on Energy™ (ROE™) technology into multiple applications including exciting alternatives in brighter and more tunable light for general illumination, backlighting for more vivid displays, optimized power management for high-current switch-mode power supplies and variable speed motors, and more effective wireless infrastructure for data and voice communications. Cree customers range from innovative lighting fixtures makers to major electronics components and subsystems manufacturers.
Cree’s product families include blue and green LED chips, packaged LEDs, LED backlighting solutions, power switching devices and radio frequency/wireless devices. The company is also currently developing near-ultraviolet lasers. For additional information please refer to www.cree.com.
