Cree Redefines High Power LEDs for Lighting with New SC5 Technology Platform Doubling Light Output to Radically Lower System Cost

Cree, Inc. (Nasdaq: CREE) achieves another fundamental breakthrough in lighting-class LED performance with the groundbreaking SC5 Technology™ Platform. The new platform powers the next generation of lighting with the introduction of Extreme High Power (XHP) LEDs. This new class of LEDs can reduce system costs by up to 40 percent in most lighting applications.

“As a technology company, we’re focused on breaking the performance barriers that really matter to the lighting industry,” said Chuck Swoboda, Cree Chairman and CEO. “The SC5 Technology™ Platform redefines what is possible in high-power LEDs by doubling the lumens out of a single LED, giving lighting manufacturers the flexibility to innovate significantly lower cost systems. This new platform establishes a new benchmark for LED lumens per wafer, which we believe will define the long-term success of our industry. This also validates our belief that high-power LED technology enables the best lighting system designs and a better lighting experience for end customers.”

The SC5 Technology Platform is built on Cree’s industry-best silicon carbide technology and features significant advancements in epitaxial structure, chip architecture and an advanced light conversion system optimized for best thermal and optical performance. With these advancements, the SC5 Technology Platform achieves unparalleled lumen density and longer lifetime at higher operating temperatures than previous LED technology, which can significantly reduce thermal, mechanical and optical costs at the system level.

“LEDs are no longer the most expensive portion of an LED lighting system, but they fundamentally determine the overall system performance and cost,” said Dave Emerson, vice president and general manager for Cree LEDs. “While other LED manufacturers only promise incrementally lower LED cost, our new Extreme High Power (XHP) LEDs leveraging the SC5 Technology™ Platform directly address the increased burden that thermal, mechanical and optical elements now place on total system cost.”

The first available family of XHP LEDs is the XLamp® XHP50 LED, delivering up to 2250 lumens at 19 watts from a 5.0x5.0 mm package. At its maximum current, the XHP50 provides twice the light output of the industry’s brightest single-die LED, the XLamp XM-L2 LED, at a similar lumens per watt and without increasing the package footprint. By leveraging Cree’s latest reliability innovations, the XHP50 is designed to maintain L90 lifetimes above 50,000 hours even at high temperature and current.

Please visit www.cree.com/SC5 for more information on the Cree® SC5 Technology Platform and the new XHP LEDs. Limited samples of the Cree XHP50 product family are available immediately, with commercial availability by the end of the calendar year.

About Cree

Cree is leading the LED lighting revolution and making energy-wasting traditional lighting technologies obsolete through the use of energy-efficient, mercury-free LED lighting. Cree is a market-leading innovator of lighting-class LEDs, LED lighting, and semiconductor products for power and radio frequency (RF) applications.

Cree’s product families include LED fixtures and bulbs, blue and green LED chips, high-brightness LEDs, lighting-class power LEDs, power-switching devices and RF devices. Cree® products are driving improvements in applications such as general illumination, backlighting, electronic signs and signals, power suppliers and solar inverters.

Please refer to www.cree.com for additional product and company information.

This press release contains forward-looking statements involving risks and uncertainties, both known and unknown, that may cause actual results to differ materially from those indicated. Actual results may differ materially due to a number of factors, including the risk that actual savings and lifetimes will vary from expectations; the risk we may be unable to manufacture these new products with sufficiently low cost to offer them at competitive prices or with acceptable margins; the risk we may encounter delays or other difficulties in ramping up production of our new products; customer acceptance of new LED products; the rapid development of new technology and competing products that may impair demand or render Cree’s products obsolete; and other factors discussed in Cree’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including its report on Form 10-K for the year ended June 29, 2014, and subsequent filings.

Cree® and XLamp® are registered trademarks, and SC5 Technology™ is a trademark of Cree, Inc.