By Neil Offen

noffen@heraldsun.com ; 419-6646

DURHAM -- Three months ago, Vice President Joe Biden visited Cree, the locally based maker of LED lighting products.

Three years ago, during his campaign, President Barack Obama stopped at the company's Research Triangle headquarters.

And on Monday, the president will return to Cree, visiting the manufacturing facility and meeting with the Jobs and Competitiveness Council there.

Why Cree?

"I think it's because of the innovative nature of their product," said Marcy Lowe, a senior research associate at Duke University's Center on Globalization, Governance & Competitiveness, who has studied Cree and written a case study on the company. "Their LED lighting technology is semi-conductor based, and it's really striking that Cree has managed to take semi-conductor technology and sell it to the Chinese."

Over the last couple of decades, the semi-conductor industry has moved almost completely to Asia, particularly to China, Lowe said. But Cree "has been very, very innovative, and its chip is so superior that the Asian manufacturers have not been able to figure out how to produce it."

The company, which has plans to expand with a new manufacturing facility at its Silicon Drive location, has managed to stay ahead, Lowe said, by "being really smart."

"They are constantly on the cutting edge," she noted. "The LED lighting sector is rapidly changing, and there are a lot of knock-offs off Cree, but the company has consistently been very good, and much better than all the knock-offs."

Lowe said she has been particularly impressed with Cree's boldness.

"They have looked for where things are heading," she said. "They have set goals to be there at the right place when the demand (for LEDs) really takes off. They are not reactive, they are bold, and I think that's what the (Obama) administration likes about them."