The Centre for Heterogeneous Integrated MicroElectronic and Semiconductor Systems (CHIMES) aim is to position the UK as world-leading in the design of ‘systems’ involving Heterogeneous Integration (“HI”) of semiconductors.
The Centres is organised around four areas of activities:
UK Coordination:
The UK design community currently targets offshore manufacturing via standard design practice, leading to decoupling from significant innovation in the UK science base and UK pathways to manufacture. The Centre will engage the UK electronic systems community, bringing together the research and development, systems design engineering, manufacturing and associated activity in semiconductor and electronic systems from across the UK to help the UK adopt the latest advances in Heterogeneous Integration. The Centre will ensure awareness of UK and global advances in semiconductors, advanced packaging, test and verification, where HI is an enabler to improve system design
Core Design Base:
The Centre will provide easily accessed design assets for low entry costs to key markets. These include; architectures, design patterns, exemplar reference designs, and tool flows for HI System Design, enabling academia and innovators to prototype novel systems in time for market demands. The Centre will, along with other activities established under the UK Semiconductor Strategy, develop capabilities to upskill the UK design community in areas of HI. The Centre will build and maintain a skills catalogue in this discipline. The Centre will build and maintain a pathways to manufacturing catalogue both for the UK and globally helping UK systems design community access the most appropriate pathway to manufacture their products.
Co Created Projects:
The Centre will undertake “Co-creation Projects” led by the UK systems design industry. The projects and partners are expected to cover a range of markets where the UK has strength including medical devices, power management, wireless communications, photonics and sensors. As the Core Design Base develops it is expected that this will enable a scaling up of transition activities for the UK systems design community.
Research Base:
The UK has a strong semiconductor science base offering significant opportunity to expand the UK semiconductor industry. The Centre has engaged a broad Research College that represents much of UK research in semiconductor systems. It will develop translational pathways that feed foundational research innovation from materials through devices and into systems that demonstrate industry relevant HI impacts. The Centre has specific plans to engage with new cohorts of PhDs within academia that has been formed by significant UK investment in new Centres for Doctoral Training.
As part of the UK's Modern Industrial Strategy launched on 23rd June 2025, it was announced as part of the Digital and Technologies Sector Plan that £25 million would be provided to establish two additional Innovation and Knowledge Centres (IKCs) in Neuromorphic Computing Hardware and Heterogeneous Integration System Design. These will join with the other two IKCs funded under the National Semiconductor Strategy in Silicon Photonics and Power Semiconductors.