UK semiconductors

Written by Penny Beeston.

For the non-technical, semiconductors are the building blocks for all modern electronics. Getting the R&D, investment, supply chain, and skills right for this industry is a huge deal for the UK economy.

Last night, I was at the BI Foresight event ‘The Convergence of Critical Technologies in Power Semiconductors and Future Mobility’ at Bristol’s Engine Shed. It was a fantastic panel of experts introduced by Caroline Thompson with Aby Sankaran Iyer leading the questions.

Richard Duffy from DSIT set the bar high, outlining the Government’s aim for the UK to be number three in the world for tech start-ups and to produce our nation’s first trillion-pound business. The drive is to bring coherence and critical mass to the 210+ semiconductor companies in the UK, spearheaded by the new UK Semiconductor Centre

This led to a great discussion on strategy. Martin Kuball from REWIRE urged a focus on areas where we can be unique. In his team’s case, that’s next-generation power electronics. This was echoed by Nick Singh from Compound Semiconductor Applications (CSA) Catapult, with the important proviso that niching down risks fragmentation, so it must run parallel to integration in areas like testing centres.

The real-world supply chain challenges were brilliantly illustrated by Furqan of Sora Aviation and Tim Mottram from Siemens. For his electric aircraft start-up, Furqan requires low-volume, highly specialised products. That’s a world away from Siemens's need for high-volume components to feed a global technology powerhouse.

This led back to the government's role in de-risking investment. Richard Duffy offered a crucial note of caution: as fabrication facilities become more automated, the link between manufacturing investment and job creation is less clear. This is why a major focus is keeping high-value IP and design expertise in the UK, while accepting that offshore foundries make sense in certain scenarios.

But none of this works without people. Katie Cooper brought her outreach knowledge to the fore, encouraging us to get kids interested in electrical engineering from age 7 to address the skills shortage. As the panel reminded us, it can’t just be about the money. It has to be about nurturing the vision and passion in the first place.

The important things we need next-gen semiconductors for are already brilliantly outlined in the UK’s National Semiconductor Strategy. As ever, I urge facilitating young researchers and engineers to tell their stories through short-form content to make their career pathways more accessible. We still need longer-form media to nudge policymakers and investors, but you can do a lot in 60 seconds to explain why semiconductors are cool and key to dreams such as green, net-zero aircraft.

Hello too to everyone else I chatted to including Martin McHugh Shelby Temple Mustafa Rampuri Nathan Croft Katie Hore Thierry Heles CSconnected