Semiconductor company Cree Inc., based in Durham, N.C., announced it has licensed its white LED patent (US Patent No. 6,600,175) to several chip customers, including Stanley Electric Co. Ltd. and Rohm Co. Ltd., both of Japan, and Cotco Holdings Ltd., of Hong Kong. The licenses provide rights to manufacture and sell white LEDs that incorporate Cree's LED chips. Cree said it is in discussions with other potential partners to license the patent. . . . ULM Photonics GmbH, a Schott AG company, announced that Laser Components IG Inc. will be the exclusive North American distributor of its vertical cavity surface-emitting laser diodes (VCSELs). Potential applications include driving atomic clocks, gas sensing (e.g., oxygen), humidity control, printing, range finding, lighting, communication and computer equipment. . . . Ultratech Inc., a San Jose, Calif., supplier of lithography and laser-processing systems used to manufacture semiconductors and nanotechnology devices, said it has received orders from several customers in Taiwan and China for its advanced-packaging lithography systems, to be used for gold-bump processing of flat panel displays (FPDs) and display-driver integrated circuits for LCDs.