CSC, CST Global and Swansea University collaborative projects win ERDF funding

The Compound Semiconductor Centre Ltd (CSC) - a joint venture founded in 2015 between Cardiff University and epiwafer foundry and substrate maker IQE plc of Cardiff, Wales, UK - has been awarded European funding support through the Avenues of Commercialisation for Nano and Micro technologies (ACNM) Operation, a 3-year, £3.3m project, part funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) through the Welsh Government.

ACNM’s specific aim is to provide targeted expertise, for the East Wales region, in nano and micro technologies applied to high-value industries such as life science, healthcare, biomedical, printed functional materials, packaging, semiconductors, advanced manufacturing, high-value manufacturing and associated industries, and is being delivered by collaboration between the Centre for NanoHealth (CNH) and the Welsh Centre for Printing and Coating (WCPC) at Swansea University and the Institute of Compound Semiconductors (ICS) at Cardiff University.

The funding will support collaborative development activity at Swansea University to scale up novel compound semiconductor device fabrication processes to deliver multiple new products.

The first project builds on a collaboration between CSC, Cardiff University, III-V optoelectronic foundry Compound Semiconductor Technologies Global Ltd (CST Global) of Glasgow, Scotland, UK and Swansea University to develop a low-cost, high-specification laser chip manufacturing platform utilizing Substrate Conformal Imprint Lithography (SCIL), developed at CNH. Previous work, funded by InnovateUK, demonstrated a proof of concept of a distributed feedback (DFB) diode laser manufacturing platform that delivered a 30% cost reduction in wafer-scale manufacturing costs, without any trade-off in the laser performance. ACNM funding will now progress commercialization of new foundry products by increasing the on-wafer yield of the SCIL-based process and scale up from a 3” to a 4” epitaxial wafer platform. Applications for the lasers include fiber-to-the-premises (FTTP), high-capacity optical communications links in data centers, and coherent sources for trace gas sensing.

The second project aims to develop a high-volume, chip-scale packaging (CSP) concept for integration of compound semiconductor devices on flexible substrates. Printed conductive track processes developed at WCPC will be used to deliver wire-bond free, conformal interconnects to gallium arsenide (GaAs) devices. Applications for new products range from the integration of GaAs sensors into SMART Gaskets capable of monitoring high-pressure (50MPa) environments in critical pipework joints, through to the low-cost assembly of LEDs into flexible wearable products for the cosmetic and healthcare markets, and flexible, large-area LED displays.

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