Bridgelux, announced semiconductor industry veteran Dr. Cem Basceri has joined its Executive Staff. Basceri will serve as CTO and oversee the technology and product development programs at Bridgelux.

Prior to his CTO position, Basceri held a seat on the company's Advisory Board. His charter will be to propel innovation, provide technology vision, drive technology differentiation and strategic technology investments, and increase intellectual property (IP) development. He will fuel core technology programs, thrust forward fast-cycle product creation; delivering efficient, high performance and cost effective product solutions for customers. In doing so, he will help the company increase its technology leadership and expansion into new markets. Basceri will also be responsible for driving BLUX's fabrication partnership with Toshiba and additional joint technology development activities related to this critical partnership around GaN on Si technology optimized for solid-state-lighting (SSL) applications.

"Basceri's recruitment to the company further re-enforces both Bridgelux's strategy and leadership in the convergence of LED and semiconductor technologies," noted Bridgelux's Chief Executive Officer, Brad Bullington. "Our next generation SSL solutions will leverage GaN on Si and high scale, chip-centric packaging technology to drive dramatic cost down while delivering improvements in features and functionality to our products. Basceri is well known in the industry as a pioneer of next generation LED's, and we look forward to aggressively driving our roadmap forward under his leadership."

Basceri has a broad and distinguished career. Prior to joining Bridgelux, he served as Senior Director and Chief Technologist in Corporate Development and Corporate R&D at Micron Technology, Inc. for more than 10 years (Fortune 500, NASDAQ: MU, specialized in high performance memory, non-memory and energy efficient semiconductors, and integrated systems solutions). During his time in Corporate R&D at Micron, he was responsible for establishing and mapping out technology, business and IP development strategies for existing and new market opportunities. 

Additionally, he managed and directed technology and product development teams, provided vision and guidance to the teams and organization. As part of his responsibilities, he also managed Micron's Core Partnership Program at IMEC (Leuven, Belgium) for 8-inch GaN Power and LED technology development programs. Most recently, Basceri's responsibilities included strategic M&A, partnerships, investments, divestitures and technology licensing deals within Micron's Corporate Development organization. He also served as the Chair of the Silicon & Systems Group's Advisory Board and business unit representative in Micron's TLP Global Technical Committee.

Previously he held management positions at Cree, NASDAQ: Cree, and Intrinsic Semiconductor where he led various wide band gap (WBG) technology development programs. Basceri earned his Ph.D. degree in Materials Science and Engineering from North Carolina State University.

Throughout his career, Basceri has sparked innovative technology and commercial product development programs. He has conceived and designed numerous technology innovations, evident by his 213 issued US patents. Basceri has deep expertise in semiconductors and integrated solutions, including WBG technologies such as LED, SSL and Power/RF. He is viewed as an industry expert and luminary; he has published more than 25 technical articles in refereed journals and has been a notable speaker as part of numerous industry conferences and panels.

"Bridgelux has a legacy of technology innovation and leadership. Basceri is one of the brightest minds in LED and SSL with his unique technology and business skill set. He is an extremely valuable addition to our team," said Bullington. "Basceri will be Bridgelux's technology catalyst in driving innovation and high performance product solutions, and cementing Bridgelux's technology leadership. Through significant investments in its technology capabilities, Bridgelux will continue to increase its market share and expand into new markets."