Semiconductors

Samsung Electronics has inaugurated its new semiconductor research and development facility, NRD-K, in Korea.
The site, which spans 109,000 square metres, is located in Samsung’s Giheung campus, where the company developed the world’s first 64-megabit DRAM chip in the early 90s.

The Japanese government has earmarked ¥10tn ($65bn) of state funding by 2030 to strengthen Japan’s semiconductor and AI chip sector, partly to help secure the country’s supply chains and avoid future global disruptions, and partly to ensure sustainable growth within Japan’s critical semiconductor and technology sectors.

In Pembroke College on the 12th of September, Cambridge Tech Week hosted a semiconductors deep dive. Here are some of our highlights from the event:

Reasons to be proud

The European Commission has approved, under EU State aid rules, a €5 billion German measure to support European Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (‘ESMC') in the construction and operation of a microchip manufacturing plant in Dresden.

Two of the country’s developers of AI processors, one backed by SK Telecom and the other by KT, are merging to form a company valued at almost $750m

A series of Future Capability Papers, authored by the UKTIN Expert Working Groups, are being published over the coming months. Find out more here.

Samsung Research, a leading research and development organisation at Samsung Electronics, is collaborating with semiconductor and software design company Arm on the research of parallel packet processing technology (SIMD, Single Instruction Multiple Data) — one of the key software technologies in next-generation communications.

As a part of UKTIN’s semiconductors-themed month, we spoke to Dr. Ebrahim Bushehri, CEO of Lime Microsystems.

1. Please tell us about your business.

The UKTIN Expert Working Groups bring together academic and industry leaders and experts, governmental and regulatory specialists, and representative bodies to explore the opportunities, gaps and challenges in the UK telecoms ecosystem.

Hello, I’m Ronald Wilting, the CEO of Forefront RF. I have been working in the telecoms sector for 30 years, with a focus on semiconductors. Over the course of my career, I’ve worked in various roles, from technical engineers at start-ups to senior executive roles at multinational organisations.

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol said on Tuesday his country will invest 9.4 trillion won ($6.94 billion) in artificial intelligence by 2027 as part of efforts to retain a leading global position in cutting-edge semiconductor chips.

UKTIN spoke to Dr Andy G Sellars, Co-Chair of the Semiconductors Expert Working Group and Strategic Development Director at Compound Semiconductor Applications (CSA) Catapult to learn more.

1. For those who are new to semiconductors, please explain the basics. 

 Omdia’s latest Competitive Landscape Tool report reveals a downturn in the semiconductor industry, with revenue down 9% from $5

New research from Omdia has revealed that the global semiconductor supply chain is forecasted to reach approximately $600 billion by 2024, having navigated through strategic inventory adjustments in recent quarters.

Written by Nick Wood

The UK's semiconductor research efforts will receive a boost after the government joined the EU's Chips Joint Undertaking (JU).

Hello, I’m Graham Reed and I am the Director of the Optoelectronics Research Centre at the University of Southampton. The university recruited my entire group in 2012: in those days, it was 13 people but now it's 56. Our team has grown a lot, largely on the back of grant success and the incredible facilities.

New funding and support has been unveiled today to back British scientists working on world-leading chip development which could help to power advancements in AI and will underpin the technologies needed to reach net zero.