Cree Launches XLamp LED Product Line: Company Enters High-Power Packaged LED Arena

July 27, 2004... Durham, North Carolina USA... Cree, Inc. (Nasdaq: CREE - News) today announced that its 7090 series XLamp(TM), a solid-state light emitting diode (LED) product, is Now available in production quantities. This is the first high-powered packaged LED product that Cree has released as part of the lighting product strategy the company announced last fall. The XLamp(TM) is an innovative, high power, solid state LED that is Designed to provide an alternative solution to the incandescent bulb and other conventional light sources in architectural lighting and general illumination applications.

The 7090 series XLamp(TM) product utilizes a high-power surface mount package which is designed to operate at 1 Watt with a typical operating current of 350 mA and a footprint of 7 mm x 9 mm. The 7090 series is available in blue, Green, and white versions based on Crees XB-900 chips as the light engine. The 7090 product is also available in a red version.

Chuck Swoboda, Crees President and CEO said, Availability of our XLamp(TM) packaged LED product is an important first step in our strategy to be a leader in the market for LED lighting and should create greater visibility for the performance capabilities of our LED chip And materials technology. The XLamp(TM) product is designed to provide longer life, lower maintenance cost and energy consumption, as well as smaller space requirements compared to an incandescent bulb and other conventional lighting technologies.

Norbert Hiller, Vice President of Cree Lighting said, We have been sampling selected customers over the past two quarters for potential use in applications such as channel letters, appliance lighting, track lighting and reading lamps. Feedback on the design and performance has been very positive We can now focus on ramping our production capability to service our customers while continuing to expand our product line to address the needs of a number of emerging applications including automotive headlamps and backlighting for large format LCD screens.

Cree is an advanced semiconductor company that leverages its expertise in silicon carbide (SiC), gallium nitride (GaN) and silicon (Si) materials technology to produce new and enabling semiconductors. The products include blue, green and near ultraviolet (UV) light emitting Diodes (LEDs), near UV lasers, radio frequency (RF) and microwave devices, and power switching devices. Potential applications for these products include solid-state illumination, optical storage, wireless infrastructure and power switching. For more information on Cree, please Visit .

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 we may encounter delays or Other difficulties in ramping up production of the new products; the risk we will be unable to manufacture the products with e-cost to offer them at competitive prices or with acceptable margins; the rapid development of new technology and competing products that may impairair or Render our products obsolete; the potential lack of customer acceptance for the products; risks associated with the commercial release of products under development, including the possibility we may be unable to develop and manufacture commodity viable version of such products; and other factors discussed in Crees Filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including its report on Form 1 0-K for the year ended June 29, 2003 and subsequent reports.

Cree and the Cree logo are registered trademarks and XLamp is a trademark of Cree, Inc.

Contact: Mark W. McClennan, APR
Vice President
Schwartz Communications, Inc.

Phone: 781/684-0770