Swansea University has received a prestigious grant from the Wolfson Foundation which will provide a major boost to its Centre for Integrative Semiconductor Materials (CISM) in creating the semiconductor technologies that are used in almost every modern high-tech device.
The £500,000 award will support the design, procurement, and deployment of a unique and powerful ‘cluster instrument’, called the Advanced Semiconductor Wafer Analytical Capability (ASemi-WAC), which will be housed at CISM and be part of a highly ambitious project to create a nationally significant Semiconductor Analytical Suite (SAS) for use by researchers and industrial partners.
This will grow the university’s capability in the provision of semiconductor expertise and deliver a dramatic expansion in research breadth, depth and excellence with a particular focus on semiconductor technology for enabling Net Zero, and also for emerging applications of semiconductor devices in healthcare.
Professor Paul Meredith, Director of CISM said:
“Swansea University has a nationally significant and internationally recognised critical mass in semiconductor research and innovation which is fuelled by the emergence and rapid growth of our regional semiconductor industry. The award for our ASemi-WAC proposal is vitally important as it will support us in playing a major part in the much-heralded UK Semiconductor Strategy as part of the CSconnected Cluster of partners.”
Paul Ramsbottom, Chief Executive of the Wolfson Foundation said:
“The UK needs to invest urgently in semiconductor technologies as their importance to industries as varied as healthcare and energy becomes ever more evident. The ASemi-WAC project at Swansea can play an exciting role in this R&D effort, and we are delighted to be supporting it - and to be funding in Swansea again”.
Professor Paul Boyle, Vice-Chancellor of Swansea University said:
“Semiconductor science and engineering has long been an area of research excellence at Swansea University. This award from the Wolfson Foundation will enable us to build upon our existing strengths and deliver the world-class innovation which is urgently required in this field, and which is vital for economic growth, job opportunities and the advancement of energy science in south Wales and the UK.”