As part of the UK's Modern Industrial Strategy launched on 23 June 2025, £25 million was announced under the Digital and Technologies Sector Plan to establish two additional Innovation and Knowledge Centres in Neuromorphic Computing Hardware and Heterogeneous Integration System Design. These join the IKCs in Silicon Photonics and Power Semiconductors funded under the National Semiconductor Strategy. CHIMES is supported by EPSRC.
About CHIMES
The Centre for Heterogeneous Integrated MicroElectronic and Semiconductor Systems (CHIMES) aims to position the UK as world-leading in the design of systems involving Heterogeneous Integration (HI) of semiconductors. It acts as a national hub for the UK design community, delivering low-cost entry into HI via knowledge transfer. The Centre is organised around four areas of activity.
Four areas of activity
How CHIMES connects design, manufacturing pathways, projects and research.
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 engages the UK electronic systems community, bringing together research and development, systems design engineering, manufacturing and associated activity from across the UK to help adopt the latest advances in Heterogeneous Integration. It develops and shares needs and technology roadmaps and UK capability landscapes with the community.
Core Design Base
The Centre provides easily accessed design assets for low-cost entry to key markets — architectures, design patterns, exemplar reference designs, and tool flows for HI System Design. Skills development builds on a maintained design commons and secure systems architecture. It develops capabilities to upskill the UK design community, and builds and maintains skills and pathways-to-manufacturing catalogues for the UK and globally.
Co-Created Projects
The Centre undertakes co-creation projects led by the UK systems design industry. Partners cover markets where the UK has strength, including medical devices, power management, wireless communications, photonics and sensors. Example systems where HI can have impact include 5G/6G transceivers, medical and defence-oriented sensing devices, control of efficiency in power conversion, and photonic integration across multiple materials.
Research Base
The UK has a strong semiconductor science base. The Centre has engaged a broad Research College spanning universities and research organisations across the UK. It develops translational pathways from materials through devices into systems that demonstrate industry-relevant HI impacts, and engages new PhD cohorts from Centres for Doctoral Training.
National consortium
A partner network spanning the UK — universities, research organisations, and industry collaborating on Heterogeneous Integration, led from the University of Sheffield.