New £50m UK compound semiconductor centre backed by wafer maker IQE

From SW Innovation News www.swinnovation.co.uk

Compound Semiconductor Applications Catapult centre aims to be world first to drive innovation in multi-billion pound embedded market

The UK government is to provide up to £10m a year until 2020 for a new Compound Semiconductor Applications Catapult centre in Cardiff, Wales.


Compound semiconductors such as gallium arsenide (GaAs) and gallium nitride (GaN) are central to development of the 5G network with standards such as WiGig, new high-efficiency LED lighting, power electronics for the next generation of electric vehicles and new imaging techniques for a variety of uses from security to health diagnostics, with the global market for compound semiconductors expected to be £125 billion by 2020. The centre aims to develop new technologies to make compound semiconductors easier to manufacture and design into equipment.

The centre is backed by wafer maker IQE and Cardiff University who set up the £20m Compound Semiconductor Centre, which will form a key resource to the new Catapult. The partnership will help transform leading edge research at Cardiff University’s new Institute for Compound Semiconductors (ICS)  to be built on the University’s new £300m Innovation Campus.

“The launch of the £50m Compound Semiconductor Catapult will help provide the critical mass to launch the first Compound Semiconductor hub of its kind in the World, taking great academic research and seamlessly turning it into high-volume manufacturing, securing a global industrial and manufacturing platform for Wales and the UK,” said Dr Drew Nelson, CEO and President of IQE.

In November, the Welsh Government announced a £12m funding package to support the construction, fit-out, and purchase of capital equipment for Cardiff University’s Institute for Compound Semiconductors (ICS). The UK’s Research Council Partnership Investment Fund has invested £17.3m to support the Institute.

The Catapult for semiconductors will be the 11th Catapult centre. Catapults already exist in:

• cell therapy

• high value manufacturing

• offshore renewable energy

• satellite applications

• digital

• transport systems

• future cities

• energy systems

• precision medicine

• medicine technologies

They are overseen by Innovate UK and join entrepreneurs, engineers and scientists with state-of-the-art facilities that allow them to create new products and services.