Wolfspeed cofounder and inventor who helped launch major Triangle tech company has died
John Palmour, who helped grow chip manufacturer Wolfspeed into one of the Triangle’s most prominent tech companies, has died.
Palmour, one of the company’s six founders, was serving as the company’s chief technology officer. The Cary resident was 62, the company reported Monday.
Palmour had a role in inventing dozens of patents and authoring hundreds of publications throughout his career that furthered researchers’ understanding of material sciences. Earlier this year, he was elected as a member of the prestigious National Academy of Engineering and was inducted Oct. 2.
Today, Wolfspeed employs about 2,500 people in the Triangle.
“From the start, John led with intelligence, humor, integrity and passion,” Wolfspeed posted in an online message Monday. “As one of our founders and an expert technologist, John championed the adoption of silicon carbide across many applications and industries, and in doing so impacted so many of our lives for the better.”
Wolfspeed’s beginnings as Cree
Wolfspeed, previously known as Cree, had six founders, five of whom attended N.C. State. Palmour was one of them, earning both a bachelor’s of science and a Ph.D in material science and engineering.
In the mid-1980s, Palmour was part of team funded by the Office of Naval Research that looked at a then-obscure semiconductor called silicon carbide.
“We had a lot of good results come together in 1987 and decided to try to commercialize it,” Palmour told The News & Observer in September.
Palmour told The N&O that Wolfspeed maintained a close relationship with the university ever since.
N.C. State’s Department of Materials Science and Engineering touts Palmour’s accomplishments on its website. Wolfspeed said in February that he authored 386 scientific publications and held 81 U.S. patents. He was inducted into the department’s Hall of Fame in 2015.
“John was a strong supporter and advocate for the department, college and university,” the school’s Department of Materials Science and Engineering wrote on its website Monday.
Demand for chips
Wolfspeed’s silicon carbide chips have been in high demand in recent years, alongside the demand for the electric vehicles that use them. The company announced in September it will build a massive new factory in Chatham County.
“We literally can’t make enough,” Palmour had said of chip production at the time.
In its post Monday, Wolfspeed added, “The contributions John made to science and our world are immeasurable and will be felt for generations to come.”
This story was produced with financial support from a coalition of partners led by Innovate Raleigh as part of an independent journalism fellowship program. The N&O maintains full editorial control of the work.
