Funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Council (EPRSC), new Molecular Beam Epitaxy (MBE) equipment will utilise AI to accelerate the discovery and development of new semiconductor materials that are sustainable and transformational.
The equipment will be configured to provide new avenues for research in unique material combinations, such as the mixing of semiconductors and superconductors to create brand new device concepts.
The system will be installed at the EPSRC-funded National Epitaxy Facility, a centre of excellence hosted by Sheffield in collaboration with Cambridge University and UCL.
Semiconductors are used in numerous applications and new semiconductors are critical to technology innovation. Historically, discoveries such as the Gallium Nitride (GaN) have had an impact by creating new industries like the £100bn LED lighting industry. Overall, the global semiconductor industry is worth £900bn.
There is also a need to increase environmental sustainability in the semiconductor industry by seeking out new semiconductors made from earth-abundant materials such as zinc, aluminium and nitrogen.
In a statement, Professor Jon Heffernan, director of the National Epitaxy Facility, said: “Semiconductors are vitally important as they power the technologies and infrastructure that modern society is built on. The recent global shortage, which saw many popular consumer electronics disappear from retailers and cause prices to surge, gave us an indication of what can happen if we don’t have a secure supply.
“The National Epitaxy Facility we host at Sheffield is a key part of the UK’s capabilities in semiconductor R&D and the MBE system can help the UK become a world leader by enabling the discovery of new materials and the optimisation of existing semiconductors for the future of the technology.”
In a separate development, a new facility which uses electron-beam technology to build the next generation of semiconductor chips has been opened at Southampton University by science minister Lord Patrick Vallance.
As the name implies, electron-beam lithography uses a focused beam of electrons to create patterns in materials with unrivalled resolution and allowing researchers to create features thousands of times smaller than a human hair.
Alongside this, the government has launched a £4.75m semiconductor skills package to help build the talent base for the UK semiconductor industry. The package is also intended to help strengthen R&D capacity at Britain’s universities.
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