AFP, Newport, United Kingdom :
Wales is better known for its factory closures than high-tech achievements. But in Newport, a former bastion of the coal industry, a handful of semiconductor manufacturers dream of a new Silicon Valley.
“We want to be this technology centre like Silicon Valley, where we can attract whatever the big names of tomorrow are,” said Chris Meadows, corporate systems manager at British firm IQE. “Hopefully it will be whatever the 2030 version of Google is or a Facebook.”
IQE is one of a small group of local companies, also including SPTS or Newport Wafer Fab, which have formed an alliance with universities to create a compound semiconductor “cluster” in south Wales.
Meadows said his firm and SPTS began working together after they discovered they had the same customer in Taiwan, using them at different points in their supply chain.
“We realised we can offer a better service if we partner,” he said. Silicon semiconductors are used extensively in electronic circuits, but new innovations require new enabling technology.
Wales is better known for its factory closures than high-tech achievements. But in Newport, a former bastion of the coal industry, a handful of semiconductor manufacturers dream of a new Silicon Valley.
“We want to be this technology centre like Silicon Valley, where we can attract whatever the big names of tomorrow are,” said Chris Meadows, corporate systems manager at British firm IQE. “Hopefully it will be whatever the 2030 version of Google is or a Facebook.”
IQE is one of a small group of local companies, also including SPTS or Newport Wafer Fab, which have formed an alliance with universities to create a compound semiconductor “cluster” in south Wales.
Meadows said his firm and SPTS began working together after they discovered they had the same customer in Taiwan, using them at different points in their supply chain.
“We realised we can offer a better service if we partner,” he said. Silicon semiconductors are used extensively in electronic circuits, but new innovations require new enabling technology.
