CEO reactions to UK semi strategy

“The £1 billion investment into Semiconductors is very welcome news and we’re pleased to see the UK double down in it’s core strength in Compound Semiconductor (the technology family commercialised by Phlux),” says Ben White (pictured) CEO of Phlux which is developing an Antimony-based semiconductor technology, “what’s perhaps a little surprising is that the £1Bn of investment promised over the next decade is not significantly higher than the amount spent over the previous 10 years. Will this commitment therefore be enough to ‘transform’ the UK into a Compound Semiconductor superpower?”

“What’s certain is that in order to be effective, this investment will need to be carefully deployed and well aligned to the compound semiconductor industry needs in terms of access to research facilities, talent and trade links,” adds White, “I expect the National Semiconductor Infrastructure Initiative to play a critical role here, and I hope to see significant investment in facilities such as the National Epitaxial Facility for III-V compound Semiconductor Research in Sheffield that give rise to innovative IP rich companies Phlux, and enable them to be competitive on a global level.”

“The US and the EU are building resilience in semiconductor supply and as part of the EU we would have been part of one of these programs. The Semiconductor strategy was an opportunity to compensate for the impact of Brexit in a way specifically tailored to the UK’s strength,” says Mark Dickinson, CEO of Intrinsic Semiconductor Technologies the UCL spin-out with an innovative storage technology, “however,  at a level of investment significantly lower per GPD than our peers, we will drop further behind in R&D and become even more vulnerable to issues of supply in a technology so fundamental to society.”

“As a company that is looking to take advantage of new developments in semiconductor technology to improve graphics performance and user experience we see this as a timely and important development,” says Robert Pepperell CEO of Fovotec which develops machine image recognition technology,  “ we do need to see more detail, but the focus on compound semiconductors is positive as this is a field where the UK excels, but waiting until the Autumn to provide more detail on some of the key announcements, like the National Semiconductor Infrastructure Initiative does mean we will be waiting for clarity at a time when other nations are pressing ahead.”

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