- 11 May 2006 -

Cree & Seoul Semiconductor forge LED supply agreements

In one of the biggest deals of its type this year, US-based GaN LED specialist Cree, Inc. proudly announced that it has signed a 5-year supply agreement with Seoul Semiconductor Co., Ltd., a strategic LED chip customer headquartered in South Korea.
In the new deal, Seoul Semiconductor will buy at least $40m worth of LED products during the first five quarters of the agreement. The agreement extends through Cree's fiscal year ending June 2011 and may be extended up to five additional years if certain sales conditions are met.

In another significant industry development with few precedents, Cree said that they have begun a license agreement pursuant to which the parties have cross-licensed certain patent rights relating to white LED technologies and have agreed to cooperate in defending these rights.

The license granted by Cree to Seoul Semiconductor includes Cree's US Patent No. 6,600,175 and is one of several Cree has granted to its strategic partners under the ‘175 patent.

“We are pleased to announce these agreements with Seoul Semiconductor, which are the results of several years of strong cooperation between our two companies to win market share for white LEDs. Our success to date has been mostly focused on design wins in the Korean market and we look to further expand this success on a worldwide scale over the next several years,” commented Chuck Swoboda, Cree’s chairman and CEO.

“As our business continues to grow, it is important to align with other industry leaders. Reaching this long-term supply agreement with Cree provides access to leading LED technology. Our partnering on wider technologies paves the way for added success in future applications,” commented Chung H. Lee, Seoul Semiconductor’s president. “With the Cree technology, Seoul Semiconductor is positioned for further expansion of our business.”

Web: www.cree.com