Pioneering new technologies

Compound semiconductors are at heart of the high-tech devices we use today, from smartphones and tablets to satellite communications and GPS. The advent of the internet, fibre-optic communication and the smartphone revolution have been fundamentally dependent on compound semiconductor technologies.

Compound Semiconductors are a Key Enabling Technology (“KET”) for the economic growth drivers identified in the European Commission’s “Horizon 2020” economic growth strategy, aimed at the re industrialisation of the EU.

Providing cutting-edge facilities that help researchers and industry work together, CSC will position Cardiff as the UK and European leader in compound semiconductors. The partnership brings major benefits to both CSC partners. It gives Cardiff University a clear, effective route to commercialise research carried out at its Institute for Compound Semiconductors, helping ICS attract significant corporate and R&D funding, whilst IQE will be able to take technologies developed through ICS and CSC directly into large scale mass production.