Public Funding for CS Connected Limited

Semiconductors are everywhere! As UK Government's minister Michelle Donelan put it "We rely on semiconductors - they are in everything from our smartphones, kitchen appliances, and cars all the way through to the supercomputers that support our weather reporting, energy sector and countless other areas of our economy." The UK Government's semiconductor strategy aims to grow the $13 billion UK semiconductor industry to capitalise on the global reliance on semiconductor technologies and develop our sovereign supply-chain capability. The semiconductor industry also enables other key sectors including Automotive and particularly Electric Vehicles, Aerospace, IoT, Energy, Communications and Med. Tech. Government strategy prioritises growth of our indigenous capabilities in Compound Semiconductors, Power Electronics, Photonics and semiconductor equipment. UK companies (CS Cluster) predict growth of 2000 jobs over the next few years in South Wales alone, with additional inward investment attracted by a skilled workforce and clear talent pipeline. To meet this demand, we need to develop a skills and talent pipeline - FAST - at levels from apprentices, students, teachers, University undergraduate and Masters, coupled with up-skilling and re-skilling of workplace professionals, to feed into the industry. START-SEMI will concentrate on developing CPD content, Bolt-on apprenticeship, degree and Masters modules at post-16 Levels. Courses will have translatable micro-credentials, and will build knowledge, skills and career pathways in the semiconductor and related supply chain sector, aimed at diverse participants looking for discrete, focused, stackable, job-ready training. Courses will also be integrated into existing Engineering, Physics and Chemistry programmes of UK Universities and FE colleges, raising awareness of semiconductors and related career opportunities. START-SEMI's unique programme is co-designed by academics and industry and builds on learnings from a previous pilot skills project, POWERED-PEMD. Project partners (Swansea, Leeds, Warwick and Imersifi Ltd.) have the facilities and track-record of developing semiconductor-related courses and materials to increase the UK skills/training base. Short courses will deliver specialised skills using an innovative blend of online learning and in-person practical workshops at our state-of-the-art facilities. VR/ AR and holographic training will be combined with practical courses in semiconductor device fabrication, packaging, characterisation and testing. Taster workshops, social media marketing , interactive Apps, the latest AR/VR experiences will target educational content (at apprentice, FE, University and CPD level). A critical part of our mission is to provide a talent pipeline with the semiconductor knowledge and skills which can help transform these related industries.

The semiconductor industry powers the technologies such as Artificial Intelligence, online commerce and trading and Electric and Autonomous Vehicles (EV and EAV), driving the expansion of our industry. Automobile pistons (contained within the internal combustion engine cylinder) of the future will be based on PEMD that will underpin electric vehicle electric vehicle technology. The power electronics and related semiconductor industry is booming, with over 100,000 high skilled jobs in the sector in the UK. Job numbers are set to explode in this sector! The UK is in desperate need of a skilled workforce with huge demand for new employees in the sector - with global competition for talent. The project will engage and train a new generation of apprentices and students to feed into the UK Power Electronics industry. This is essential to meet the immediate and future industry demand for new employees - in PEMD technology and applications. The project will develop a unique range of innovative Outreach, Continuous Professional Development and Training Materials for a range of participants of all ages - from school children, to Apprentices, to University students. Content will include taster courses, online web content, podcasts and interactive Apps to market the PEMD sector, with a focus on applications and employment prospects. It will also include hands-on workshops and site visits for pupils and teachers to manufacturing facilities and semiconductor fabrication plants - highlighting the cutting edge technologies and state-of-the-art facilities of the industry. The "open access" programme will expose people of all ages to the total PEMD chip-to- module supply chain. Expanding the equality, diversity and inclusion of the sector is a key goal. The project will align with the UK's Driving the Electric Revolution Challenge and link with the DER-IC (industrialisation Centre) programme. The programme will adopt an innovative approach to outreach and training, including video clips, pod casts, intractive displays and Apps, supplemented by in-depth online and live training content. Our marketing strategy via Dragons Rugby will advertise our courses to an audience of 1.1 Million Dragons fans and also deliver taster sessions to over 60,000 school children. Attention will be generated via a series of podcasts with high profile rugby stars and a Professor, focusing on some of the key technologies and applications of PEMD. We will expand the programme to reach first a UK and then a global audience to develop the talent pipeline.

SOCRATES will introduce silicon carbide (SiC) and GaN trench processing technologies to the UK, establishing a critical capability into the PEMD supply chain for power transistors. This 9-month project will define the critical semiconductor manufacturing processing steps required for introducing a disruptive SiC power MOSFET supply chain for automotive power electronics to the UK, aligned with the goals of the Driving the Electric Revolution (DER) initiative. We will establish a new UK SiC manufacturing capability - developing Trench MOSFET technology within the Materials and Components DER Centre and critically, pilot SiC trench etch processing, whilst also developing a backside SiC etch process module for future VGaN-on-SiC devices. Current SiC diodes and transistors are still based on planar devices commercialised in 2001 and 2011 respectively -- which are limited in terms of efficiency and reliability. The proposed trench technology will revolutionise the performance of SiC transistors, with lower on-state resistances, and enhanced energy efficiencies -- to be employed in automotive systems. VGaN-on-SiC devices will further drive performance and costs advantages. This project intervention will accelerate their development at little additional cost. This project addresses clear gaps in the PEMD UK supply chain; The lack of (1) a trench SiC power MOSFET process and (2) a high-volume supplier of SiC transistors for UK EV industry, with no current UK-based, high-volume 6"-8" SiC wafer fabs. In contrast, our international competitors are establishing key strategic PEMD links, in order to supply SiC devices to the future EV market; Infineon with Hyaundai, STMicroelectronics (already producing 4000 wafers per month) with Tesla and XFab with General Motors and Ford. Thus, the UK is in danger of losing its security of supply of this crucial technology to the UK automotive sector.

QFoundry brings together UK's most established supply chains for quantum semiconductor components to address critical challenges in manufacturing and deliver a National (and World's first) open-access Quantum device foundry. Utilising existing infrastructure and capital, QFoundry will deliver the foundations for robust, scalable component manufacture in the UK to enable future volume Quantum Technology applications. QFoundry will initially focus on developing manufacturing platforms and supply chains for single-mode Vertical Cavity Surface Emitting Lasers (VCSELs) and single-photon emitters/detectors to include Quantum Dot (QD) and Multiple Quantum Well (MQW) structures. QFoundry will leverage knowledge gained to-date across the UK QT programme to: * Upscale discrete component manufacture using standard semiconductor manufacturing techniques. * Consolidate links in existing UK supply chains for robust, open-access supply of VCSELs and Single Photon devices, from design to packaged components. * Develop the methodology to accelerate high-uniformity, reproducibly and reliability in the context of QT applications.