Each year, SEMICON has become a platform for industry players to showcase their advancements and evolved into a stage for nations participating in the global chip war to demonstrate their prowess and attract foreign investment through flashy national pavilions.
At SEMICON Taiwan 2023, the UK Pavilion has been one of the highest profiles, putting 19 of the most promising British companies front and center.
Julia Sutcliffe, Chief Scientific Adviser for the UK Department for Business and Trade, highlighted that Taiwan boasts a comprehensive semiconductor ecosystem, encompassing design, wafer manufacturing, assembly, testing, and a full supply chain network. In contrast, the UK excels in innovation, emerging semiconductors, design, intellectual property, device development, and design automation.
UK-Taiwan partnerchips
As demand for electronic products in sectors like electric vehicles, autonomous cars, smart cities, telecommunications, and healthcare continues to rise, along with the need for smaller, faster, and more energy-efficient chips and green energy innovation, the collaboration between the UK and Taiwan in the semiconductor industry has become increasingly vital.
The returning UK Pavilion was led by the UK National Technology Adviser Dave Smith, who reaffirmed Taiwan's role as a global leader in advanced semiconductor manufacturing and underscored it as a premium semiconductor partner and priority market for the UK.
The UK possesses strategic advantages in the semiconductor industry, particularly in world-leading research and development, open markets, and technological ecosystem. During a recent visit to the UK by DIGITIMES reporters, in-depth interviews with industries related to electric vehicles were conducted, providing greater insight into the UK's semiconductor development.
Wales: the world's first compound semiconductor hub
Wales, located just a two-hour train ride from London, has long been a hub for academia and research in the UK. It is also a cradle for cutting-edge fields such as AI, silicon photonics, industrial control, semiconductors, lightweight materials, robotics, net-zero technologies, and aerospace and defense innovations.
During interviews, representatives from the Welsh government emphasized the critical importance of integrating semiconductors with smart vehicles, stating, "Without semiconductors, smart mobility is merely an empty concept."
As vehicle technology advances, there is a growing need to balance active and passive safety features, entertainment, navigation, and connectivity. Some new cars now require more than 8,000 chips to meet these needs. The Welsh government also places significant importance on compound semiconductors. While these semiconductors may not yet represent most of the market, they play a crucial role in sectors such as energy, fast charging, electric vehicles, machine vision, LiDAR, sensors, healthcare, big data, quantum technology, and satellite communications.
South Wales is home to the world's first compound semiconductor cluster, CSConnected, which hosts world-class research institutions such as CISM, Catapult, and Cardiff University. The cluster also brings together key supply chain players like IQE, Vishay, and Microchip, with KLA leading in manufacturing.
Notably, IQE announced in late July that it is working on the initial public offering (IPO) of its Taiwanese business, IQE Taiwan, on the Taiwan Stock Exchange. The IPO will be conducted in two stages, with the first stage expected to take place in the emerging market board by mid-2025.
