Our coverage of the U.S.-sponsored manufacturing innovation institutes has been consistently revelatory—and the Manufacturing USA Update is no exception. PowerAmerica is working to maintain dominance in the production of silicon carbide (SiC) chips, which outperform silicon. And PowerAmerica is at the end of its six-year funding from the Department...

Dozens of executives, engineers and researchers crowded into North Carolina State University’s Hunt Library early Thursday, part of what Cree CEO Gregg Lowe called “an invisible revolution.”

“We’re the folks behind the curtain… revolutionizing a whole bunch of industries,” Lowe told the crowd from the stage.

Lowe and his cohorts were gathered for...