The University of Southampton, together with the University of Sheffield, are set to receive £12.5m of government funding for a new centre to help design the next generation of electrical systems.
The Centre for Heterogeneous Integrated Micro
Electronic and Semiconductor Systems (CHIMES) will address the challenge of interconnecting semiconductors — the microtechnology powering everyday electrical items — as they become increasingly smaller with advances in design.
The Centre has been announced as part of the government’s Industrial Strategy. The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) has revealed significant new investments as part of the UK Semiconductor Strategy within nearly £1.6bn investment in the Digital and Technologies Sector Plan.
Semiconductor devices are the fundamental parts of electronic systems and power electrical items worldwide — from mobiles and computers to healthcare equipment, transportation systems, and clean energy technology.
As devices get smaller, the interconnections between them get harder. Heterogeneous Integration offers new advanced methods to bring different semiconductor parts together into complete systems — and CHIMES will help the UK adopt those advances.