Daily News Briefs

Cree Inc., a Durham, N.C., maker of semiconductor materials, including LEDs, announced today that Cynthia B. Merrell, its CFO and treasurer since 1998, has resigned. Cree said the resignation will be effective when a successor takes office but no later than mid-February. . . . Photop Technologies Inc., a manufacturer of fiber optics, projection and display optics, laser, crystal material and photonics products, announced that its variable optical attenuator (VOA) was selected into China's National Key New Product Project. Applications for the VOA include signal power management in optical networks, dynamic optical power control and channel equalization in add/drop multiplexers.