Industry and academia join forces to develop cutting edge electronics
1 min read
A new industrial collaboration is being established in a bid to drive forward research and manufacturing of cutting edge electronics. The partnership between e2v and The University of Nottingham will focus on the development and manufacture of advanced semiconductor devices for use in microwave and terahertz applications.
e2v has invested £1million to help set up a new purpose built cleanroom built at the School of Physics and Astronomy on University Park. This will provide physicists at Nottingham access to its semiconductor fabrication facility, while e2v's engineers will also have access to the existing nano fabrication facilities within the school.
Following a restructuring of e2v's manufacturing operations in Lincoln, microwave semiconductor device fabrication will be conducted at the University on devices such as P-i-N diodes, used in sensitive microwave receiver systems. The collaboration's initial focus will be to develop new devices which have a much faster response time than currently available and can work over wider frequency ranges.
Further research will focus on rf/microwave frequency sources used in radar imaging, mixers and detectors used in the receive chain and devices for high resolution imagers which can 'see' through other materials such as clothing or buildings.
Prof Laurence Eaves, from the School of Physics and Astronomy, said: "This is an exciting development for physics at Nottingham. Having an internationally recognised company working in our lab here offers exciting prospects for translating fundamental research in semiconductor materials and devices into new technology."
