A major, international collaborative project between the University of Glasgow and Motorola Ltd is set to develop the next generation of microchips. Backed by £4.5 million funding, which includes grants from the UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) and the Scottish Education Funding Council (SHEFC) a team led by Professor Iain Thayne of the University of Glasgow will develop high speed, high performance chips from innovative new materials and processes.

The drive by manufacturers of electronics products to offer customers increasingly higher levels of performance, whilst reducing prices has led, over time, to the already tiny microchip becoming significantly smaller and more powerful. However, shrinking the traditional silicon-chip based technology has technical limitations below a certain size. The Glasgow-based researchers anticipate that these new devices will have at least twice the performance of their traditional, silicon-based equivalents, thereby overcoming the technology bottleneck currently faced by the industry. The new devices may be used in a broad range of applications such as mobile telephony, internet connectivity, computing, transportation and consumer entertainment systems of the future.

Professor Iain Thayne explains:

"This collaboration is an excellent example of an industrial and academic working partnership. It will place the University of Glasgow firmly on the map in global semiconductor research and development, Our complementary areas of expertise will allow us to address some of the major challenges currently faced by the semiconductor industry.'

Roger McClure, Chief Executive of SHEFC. said:

"This successful bid is one of several awarded under the Council's Strategy Research Development Grant that supports a range of national policies and priority needs in Scotland. We are pleased that this project shows the levels of international excellence that can be achieved when Scotland's universities and industry work together.'

Seven University of Glasgow research groups within the Departments of Electronics and Electrical Engineering and Physics and Astronomy will combine their expertise with intellectual property transferred from Motorola to develop various areas of research including compound semiconductor materials growth and characterisation and nano-fabrication technology.

For more details please contact the University of Glasgow Press Officer (Mike Findlay) on 0141 330-8593 or email: m.findlay@admin.gla.ac.uk.

Media Relations Office (media@gla.ac.uk)

The Engineering and Physical Science Research Council (EPSRC) is the UK?s main agency for funding research in engineering and the physical sciences. For more information see EPSRC Website.

First published: 3 February 2004