Blue-light special.

• Position: Cree Research Inc.'s blue light-emitting diodes

You might associate blue lights with speeding tickets or sales at K mart, but blue is the color of money at Cree Research Inc.

The Durham-based electronics manufacturer was the first company in the world to mass-produce light-emitting diodes that glow blue.

That may not sound like a big deal until you consider that LED sales run about $1.5 billion a year and are growing. LEDs -- the little widgets that are used as indicator lights in everything from super-computers to pocket calculators -- are popular because they're smaller than incandescent lights, draw less current and are hard to break.

Until recently, though, only red and green LEDs were available. Now, red, green and blue LEDs can be combined to make multicolored displays. "What it means is you can create any color in the spectrum," says C. Eric Hunter, 32, president of the 44-employee operation.

"We're the only commercial supplier of blue LEDs in the world," he adds. This year's sales, which he won't disclose, are up 118%.

Cree is working on other applications for diodes -- devices with two wires sticking out of them that have low resistance to electricity in one direction and high resistance in the other direction. Cree, for instance, has designed a light-sensitive diode that could...