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 MicroElectronic and Semiconductor Systems  (CHIMES ² ) will address the challenge of interconnecting semiconductors – 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 of Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) has revealed significant new investments as part of the UK Semiconductor Strategy within the near £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 semiconductor devices get smaller the interconnections between them get smaller and traditional Printed Circuit Boards (PCBs) cannot support them. As such, the electronics industry faces a disruptive change in how semiconductor devices are connected together to create systems. The semiconductor industry describes this technology as ‘Heterogeneous Integration and Advanced Packaging’.

CHIMES ² will be led by John Darlington of the University of Southampton and John Goodenough of the University of Sheffield in a collaboration between the two institutions, and in support of the UK electronic systems and semiconductor ecosystems.

“We aim to maintain the UK as world leader in the design of electronic systems by enabling it to transition quickly to advances in Heterogeneous Integration of semiconductors,” said John Darlington from Southampton’s School of Electronics and Computer Science (ECS). “As semiconductor devices get ever smaller it is important UK companies can find innovative new ways to combine them into the electronics that are at the heart of systems that allow us to live our daily lives.

“This new Centre is about bringing together the best parts of the UK university and industry base to develop expertise in the design of future electronic systems using a broad variety of semiconductor components.”

Commenting on the wider UK funding from DSIT, Science and Technology Secretary Peter Kyle said: “Britain is full of ambitious risk-takers driven by a desire to innovate and improve people’s everyday lives. It is on us in government to match that boldness by investing in our country’s immense potential and embracing businesses who can drive that change and grow our economy.”

“Stimulating innovation in new electronic systems to improve our daily lives is core to the new Centre,” said ECS’s Ibrahim Sari, who will lead on industry led co-creation projects. “ECS has a long track record of collaboration with industry as do our collaborators in Sheffield. We are committed to develop with industry partners a range of exemplar electronic systems involving Heterogeneous Integration and to make available to industry re-usable design IP to help UK industry quickly adopt this new technology.”

ECS is one of the first dedicated departments for electronics in the world dating back to 1947, forming a dedicated Microelectronics Research Group as long ago as 1961 and establishing one of the first professional standard semiconductor fabrication facilities in any university. Today, the University is home to one of the premium multidisciplinary cleanrooms in Europe which recently installed a world's second advanced E-beam lithography facility in a major boost to UK national capabilities.