Hector Fratty

SLD Laser—formerly SoraaLaser—is a venture founded by Dr. Shuji Nakamura, whose invention of blue (and therefore white) LED technology won him a Nobel Prize in Physics in 2014, and by Dr. Steve DenBaars with a long history of building successful startups. Both are professors at the University of California at Santa Barbara (UCSB) and hold the positions of CTO and CEO at SLD Laser. Cofounders are President and VP of Engineering Dr. James Raring, and CMO and SVP of Business Development, Marketing & Strategy Dr. Paul Rudy. After several years of fundamental research on semipolar GaN laser diodes, the company’s scope has started growing from pure R&D towards full development, manufacturing, and marketing activity.
Over the last three years the company have hired a team of automotive experts including Senior Advisor John Peek, Automotive Lighting Program Manager Jo Merx, and Automotive Quality Expert Masafumi Yamauchi.

The laser-focused company, backed by renowned strategic funders and investors, spun off from Dr. Nakamura’s Soraa LED lighting company in summer 2013; Soraa in turn spun off from UCSB in 2008. SLD Laser operate facilities in California’s Silicon Valley and in the Santa Barbara area with around 100 employees including the GaN pioneers. The company have business commitments in place from large customers with strategic application intent in specialty, automotive, and display illumination. SLD Laser’s technology is unique from the perspective of physics and that of wafer processing; over 500 patents (granted and pending) are involved.