Cardiff-IQE Venture Wins £1m Award

Cardiff’s joint venture with IQE has been awarded £1.1m to develop a new diode laser manufacturing process. ‌​‌​‌​​​‍‌​‌​​‌‌‌‍‌​‌‌​​‌​‍‌​‌‌‌​‌‌‍‌​‌‌‌‌​​

The funding from Innovate UK will help the Compound Semiconductor Centre develop high performance, low cost laser chips that can speed up fibre optic communications. ‌​‌​‌​​​‍‌​‌​​‌‌‌‍‌​‌‌​​‌​‍‌​‌‌‌​‌‌‍‌​‌‌‌‌​​

The Compound Semiconductor Centre (CSC) was formed in August 2015 as a joint venture between Cardiff University, one of the Britain’s leading research universities, and IQE plc, the world leading supplier of advanced compound semiconductor wafer products. ‌​‌​‌​​​‍‌​‌​​‌‌‌‍‌​‌‌​​‌​‍‌​‌‌‌​‌‌‍‌​‌‌‌‌​​

CSC aims to work with Compound Semiconductor Technologies (Glasgow) and Swansea University to transfer the research to high volume manufacturing in two years. ‌​‌​‌​​​‍‌​‌​​‌‌‌‍‌​‌‌​​‌​‍‌​‌‌‌​‌‌‍‌​‌‌‌‌​​

Project Lead, Dr Wyn Meredith, said: “The adoption of cloud services, video on demand and emerging internet services are driving a massively expanding global data bandwidth demand…” ‌​‌​‌​​​‍‌​‌​​‌‌‌‍‌​‌‌​​‌​‍‌​‌‌‌​‌‌‍‌​‌‌‌‌​​

The project aims to bring to market laser chips that are 20 to 30% cheaper to manufacture. ‌​‌​‌​​​‍‌​‌​​‌‌‌‍‌​‌‌​​‌​‍‌​‌‌‌​‌‌‍‌​‌‌‌‌​​

The CSC funding forms part of a £25m tranche of awards to help UK businesses develop new manufacturing methods and materials. The awards were made to 170 partners in 64 projects that were successful in a materials and manufacturing competition. ‌​‌​‌​​​‍‌​‌​​‌‌‌‍‌​‌‌​​‌​‍‌​‌‌‌​‌‌‍‌​‌‌‌‌​​