CS Connected represents organisations who are directly associated with research, development, innovation and manufacturing of compound semiconductor related technologies as well as organisations along the supply chains whose products and services are enabled by compound semiconductors. The focus has been on creating the ecosytem to support critical sectors such as communications, 5G, autonomous and electric vehicles, medical devices - all opportunities the UK must act on to secure our long-term future prosperity.
In 2015, Cardiff University announced an investment of around £75M in the Institute for Compound Semiconductors as part of its new £300M Innovation Campus. The announcement for the Institute was quickly followed by the creation of a £24M joint venture between IQE plc and Cardiff University to form the Compound Semiconductor Centre (CSC) for the development and prototyping of compound semiconductor materials.
Closely followed by the launch of the CSC, came the announcement that the UK Government was to invest £50M in the first Catapult Centre in Wales that would be dedicated to the development of compound semiconductor applications.
In 2016, EPSRC announced a £10M investment in a Compound Semiconductor Hub to be based at Cardiff University.
In 2017, the Cardiff Capital Region (CCR) Regional Cabinet supported the cluster with a £37.9 investment towards the establishment of a state of the art foundry, as an anchor in the region for high-end production of compound semiconductors.
2020, The UK Government announced the first wave of funding through UK Research and Innovation’s flagship Strength in Places Fund in which a major £43.74M project with South Wales’ compound semiconductor cluster has been approved and will be supported by £25.44M funding from Strength in Places. The project “CSConnected” is based around integrating research excellence with the unique regional supply chains in advanced Semiconductor Manufacturing.
Clients & Projects:
The twelve project partners include:
Cardiff University (lead partner), Cardiff Capital Region City Deal, Compound Semiconductor Applications Catapult, Compound Semiconductor Centre (CSC), IQE Plc, Newport Wafer Fab (NWF), Rockley Photonics, Swansea University, SPTS Technologies and Welsh Government.
Primary Contact: chrismeadows@csconnected.com
csfusion.org/overview