£3m for chip research at Glasgow Uni
Funding of £3 million has been secured for a “milestone” semiconductor research facility at the University of Glasgow.
The grant will allow the institution to build one of the UK’S most advanced research facilities for silicon chip integration and packaging. The funding from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council’s Strategic Equipment Grantschemewillhelptheuniversity establish “Analogue” — the Automated Nano Analysing, Characterisation and Additive Packaging Suite.
The facility, which will be based at the university’s Mazumdarshaw Advanced Research Centre (ARC), brings together researchers from the James Watt School of Engineering with a network of partners from industry, national semiconductor facilities and academia,withthegoaloffasttracking disruptive new technologies into applications. New developments prototyped at Analoguecouldfindapplicationsin biomedicalimplants,sustainableandbiodegradablesensors, andquantumcomputinginterfaces.
Professor Hadi Heidari, head of the University of Glasgow’s electronics and nanoscale engineering research division,andtheproject’sprincipal investigator,said:“thisgrantis asignificantmilestoneforsemiconductor research in the UK, which is a key part of the country’s economy. The electronics sector supports more than a million jobs in the country, and the UK government has ambitious plans to grow the sector.
“The establishment of Analogue represents a substantial advance in the UK’S semiconductor research infrastructure for heterogeneous integration and advanced packaging. This initiative will help spark new innovations across the tech sector and cultivate valuablepartnershipsbetween academia and industry, helping to support breakthrough research which can drive economic expansion.”
The facility will be open to academia and industry working on low-volume and highvalue research and development projects, helping them to rapidly prototype advanced nanoelectronic devices. It will also provide support for ongoing efforts to decarbonise the electronics supply chain by helping researchers gather data on their product’s environmental impact.
The new suite aims to support the UK government’s semiconductor strategy by providing access to new technologies to boost cutting-edge research and development. It will also play a role in expanding the country’s semiconductor skills base through industry-led events and partnerships with centres for doctoral training across the UK.
Analogue will house chip probing equipment, advanced packaging capabilities and additive electronics manufacturing using “state-of-the-art” tools. A team of 23 academics and more than 100 researchers and students will make regular use of the facility.