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December 17th, 2009
Cree commercialized the blue LED 20 years ago
What were you doing in 1989? Maybe you were rocking out to “Don’t Worry, Be Happy,” the Grammy-award winning hit of the year. Perhaps you were killing time playing Tetris on the newly-released Nintendo Game Boy.
At Cree, our founders were busy commercializing the blue LED in 1989. Cree was the first company to truly commercialize the then state-of-the-art technology, explains co-founder John Edmond.
I recently brought my video camera and tripod over to John’s office to talk about what things were like at Cree 20 years ago and why the commercialization of the blue LED was so significant in 1989. (Here’s a hint: You couldn’t make white LED light without blue LEDs).
Twenty-two years after helping found the company, John still works on improving LED technology. He’s Cree’s director of advanced optoelectronics. But don’t let the title scare you away, John does an excellent job of describing the blue LED advancement in easy-to-understand terms.
The video includes a peek at an actual blue LED from the time period compared to one today. It’s truly amazing how much has changed in 20 years.
5 Responses to “Cree commercialized the blue LED 20 years ago”
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[...] interview with John about the beginnings of Cree. Very cool, check it out! Also, check out the Cree blog – it’s an LED revolution! Tags: blue LED, Cree, John Edmond, LED, LED Revolution [...]
Great to see this ad on your site honoring Cree’s 20th anniversary of commercializing the blue LED. I wrote this ad and helped develop the creative approach when I was president of BtB Marketing Communications. The Hunter brothers and John Edmond were our clients back then. Please pass along my hello and congratulations to John. He was a delight to work with. — Bill Dantini
Hi Bill,
Thanks for the comment. I bet you were tickled to see this ad again, I’m sure it brought back memories. I absolutely will pass along your hello and congratulations!
Yes, we are led display manufacturer, and we use Cree LED for the High Market! it is really a good quality. thanks for Cree LED.
Congratulations for posting such a useful blog. Your blog is not only informative but also very artistic too. There normally are very few people who can write not so easy articles that creatively. Keep up the great work !!