UK can have a strong imprint as Semicon Superpower with Focused Compound Semiconductor (CS) Strategy

Intro

UK Semiconductor industry is anticipating its government's Semicon strategy. This article brings some of the thoughts that comes up in advantage to UK for becoming a semicon superpower, if it plays to its strengths. Have listed down set of strategies, followed by justification & general discussion. Compared to generic trend of Silicon based semicon spending, I have put forward an alternate of Compound semiconductor focus in this short read. This is in continuation to my #stare_at_the_emptiness post series after a long gap.

Compound Semiconductors will be abbreviated as "CS" throughout this article. Yes its tough to say/write it fully :-)

Strategies

Following are the list of strategies

1. UK may be better positioned to focus on Alternate Silicon technology like the Compound Semiconductor (CS) as their primary semicon strategy
2. Contrary to the current scenario, UK need NOT have to enter the race for having multiple Silicon Fab, especially in lower node (7nm & below) technology. A single Silicon fab at 16nm will do a real long game for UK.
3. For Silicon, UK may focus on design, backend & even OSAT, but NOT manufacturing with lower node Fabs.
4. Multiple Nano fabs & OSATs for CS devices should be taken up. They are called Nano, for a reason.
5. Better options to attract Semicon talent across globe
6. Securing material resource for CS
7. Finally, tweaks in educational institutes to focus on Semicon & other High tech industries.

Justification

UK has very strong research base for CS. With CSA catapult and multiple specialized companies, the execution of this strategy will be more powerful with lesser funds than venturing into costly & competitive Silicon based strategy.

Silicon is the past & CS is the future of electronics as claimed by some. Future or not, CS will be significant part for electronics very soon.

CS with their Direct energy bandgap, high breakdown electric fields and high electron mobility, compared to silicon offer significant edge in applications which require them. Moreover, electrons travel much faster than Silicon, which in some case can enable 100X processing power improvement. Owing to these and other key differentiators, CS is expected to outperform silicon in the below domains easily,

• Power (power electronics for Electric Vehicles)
• Speed (radio frequency for 5G and RADAR)
• Light (photonics for computation & communications)

Consider one nation becomes very prominent in CS catering to the above mentioned applications which will drive the future. Then naturally, that nation will be getting negotiating ability with any other Silicon power house nation.

Even in the worst case of not getting the required levy with any, ONE 16nm Silicon Fab can get UK the required independence for advanced computing or defense sensitive products. Companies have proven AI chip on 16nm & is no way an inferior tech. Of course if we go further lower nodes there are some benefits. But that's not a must and will dilute the strategy of building CS focused semicon nation. This 16nm Fab is just a backup, in extreme case of NO one to support silicon devices of UK needs. But in ideal case, there will be multiple suppliers for the Silicon devices, if UK becomes a powerhouse reliably producing & supplying CS devices.

More importantly, UK government had started its focus with CS couple of decades before and have vested more than ￡750million. UK institutes like Cardiff University has a specialized focus on CS research. Homegrown CS companies like Cambridge GaN devices are wrapping up multi million funding. Hence, there is a significant runway already laid out & all is set for take-off.

Article from Telegraph talks about Paragraf, which is the first company in the world to mass produce graphene-based electronic devices?& have patented proprietary technology which hasn't been cracked yet. Before someone shouts graphene isn't a CS, I just brought that to showcase UK's unique leadership in Alternate Silicon Tech. One another example is Sure-Core, whose consortium is developing cryogenic (we are talking about -200degC and below here) CMOS IP & even have models in GF-22FDX, can play a crucial role in developing electronics for Quantum Computing.

Quantum Computing is a different beast for the future, where UK is also having significant companies presence & government is spending heavily, and will surely demand a separate article on its own. So back to CS.

Business Case for CS

Globally also CS is gaining lots of momentum. The global compound semiconductor market size reached US$ 106.76 Billion in 2021. Some expects the market to reach US$ 146.78 Billion by 2027, exhibiting a CAGR of 5.45% during 2021-2027. This is the recent published forecast on Jan 2023. Within just one year, the CS market size forecast has been having $55.8 Billion , $125 Billion & now $146 Billion. Some forecast even place it above $200Billion. Such a frenzy market prediction is rare and shows the vibrancy of CS now.

Market prediction are inline with the number of investments happening in manufacturing space for CS. The massive $ 2 Billion fab announced by Woflspeed in USA, ST Micro has announced $728 million Si Carbide fab in Italy & Onsemi fab for SiC (Silicon Carbide) shows how much traction CS is getting now in the last few years.

Final Note

Apart from the three critical domains (Power-Speed-Light), compared to Silicon, CS are greatly efficient and have unique feature of both Bio & Hemocompatible nature. They are part of many recent medical research publications, one such is the 2022 NCBI paper.?This means that CS may be best suited for implant devices & will be a key player in the now vehemently growing medical devices sector.

Telegraph's article also clearly points out the tough decisions UK Semicon companies may take if the proper strategy isnt in place soon. Also the strategy to secure the raw materials required for CS is critical, which again couldn't be covered in this article.

Hence, considering the bullish market forecast, considerable research leadership, academic thrust, CSA catapult , low investment Nano Fabs (compared to Si), Startups, AI & Quantum applicability, its evident that UK can perform well with a focused CS strategy. For Silicon, UK can have design, backend and for backup plan - one 16nm Si Fab .

All the above content are my individual opinion & not my organization’s view points.