Smart to buy a preexisting fab. From what I understand via from various blogs and YouTube research, building a Feb even if your not doing cutting edge tech like tsmc, say going with an openpdk, still requires that special infrastructure. You need seismic dampening for the fab and to be located in a low activity region preferably, you need cheap water that can be refines, you need affordable electricity, and then supporting infrastructure to get the chemicals, the water, the machines delivered. Doing all of this isn't cheap and I'd bet is a lot of paperwork.
Imagine going to some rural area and trying to build a fab, chances are the town has no clue what your impact or needs are and you would be spending lots of money to basically speed up development of the area.
Side not to Semiconductors fab, where do you even buy one. Sure you can buy talent or machinery and then hire engineers to help get everything working, but if you wanted to for some reason buy a fan that already exists, say just the fab location and the equipment, how do you know what company to approach that might even consider selling. Who can even afford these purchases except massive fortune 500 company's breaking a piggy bank, or some massive credit institution, which I doubt would even do this because it would probably be a massive loan to any buyer. Seems like you need to have the money to build part of a fab if you want to buy one, idk who would even consider loaning that amount of money to a third party.
> Seems like you need to have the money to build part of a fab if you want to buy one, idk who would even consider loaning that amount of money to a third party
Governments are happy to subsidise fabs, and VCs are even happier to invest in AI flavoured semiconductors if you can market it that way.
Seems like it was previously owned by Coherent, like some kind of III-V (specifically GaAs mentioned) photonics processes there in the past. This kind of technology is typically quite useful for lasers, LEDs, or potentially image sensors as well. Many LIDAR sensors and even light sources can notably depend on III-V semiconductor sensors. Also widely used by the telecom industry.
Outside photonics definitely useful for high speed electronics, but that would probably take more process development to get going.
Gen III night vision relies on it; I don't know if they ever made it there, tho.
I didn't realize that! That seems like the most practical application from a defense perspective.
Why gallium arsenide? It's quite fussy.
"This facility is the only secure site in the UK capable of manufacturing gallium arsenide semiconductors, a vital component in military platforms such as fighter jets."
It's much more effective at extremely high frequencies used in compact radars, like the kind used on fighter jets.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gallium_arsenide#GaAs_advantag...
This sure feels like yet another sign that major global powers are all gearing up for war.
This could be as benign as a government ensuring that the 100 jobs aren't lost, but given everything going in in both Europe and the Middle East it sure seems like more than saving such a comparatively small number of jobs. They could have just signed large(r) contracts with the company to financially secure the company, acquisition is a stronger play when the government needs more direct (and more private/secure) control.
A credible deterrent is required in order to prevent the mighty from simply taking everything.
For the last few decades Western countries aside from the US have basically just sat on their laurels assuming that, well, we're in the end of history and nothing will ever go wrong again. A rude awakening.
A sure fire way to ensure that there _is_ war is to sit about and sing kumbaya around the fire until the invaders turn up.
If you've been watching the Russian invasion closely, you'll have noticed that while it's good to have friends and allies with necessary ingredients, it's even better to be as self sufficient as possible. Relying on a foreign orange cheeto might ruin your recipe for self defense.
The list of countries "casually arming up" and talking about bringing back conscription is a little concerning.
As someone who went through conscription in Germany, the last year to do so (I think), it's a huge relief to me. Almost three decades of neglect and naivete have made the world less safe, not more. Deterrence works.
Off-topic as far as the article above goes, but do you think it's more likely for global(-ish?) war to erupt because of Europe/Middle East compared to Taiwan? A lot of the discussion around global war pre-2022 was for the late 2020s when China attempts to invade Taiwan. I personally doubt the major global powers will allow the conflicts in Israel and Ukraine to escalate to Western countries actually engaging in combat (but they do seem to want to personally defend Taiwan).
I have been expecting that, if another world war were to kick off, theaters of war would exist both in Europe/Africa/East Asia as well as the Pacific.
A big risk for Taiwan, at least in my amateur view, is China feeling emboldened both by seeing an anemic response to other major conflicts and a West that is already distracted by said major conflicts.
I grew up with the story that Hong Kong was just as off limits to China as Taiwan was. No one came to Hong Kong's defence though, even the British who should be on the hook for that situation just sat by in silence while the Chinese took complete control of HK and installed their own puppet government to manage the transition.
War is momentum based. If the US gets dragged in a war with Iran and is also supplying Ukraine with weapons, China might perceive this particular moment as an advantage to start their Taiwan campaign. From there, more countries will see the chaos as an advantage to settle their border disputes. And there you have it, a global world war.
The most likely reason for war is to move the competition with China onto a military footing rather than an economic one. The US would win the first, and that result would help the second. If you’re seeing western powers gear up for war, it might be to secure their economic future rather than a just intervention
So they would start a war and kill people for economy's sake? In this case what make them any different from any other war criminals?
Ya just don’t buy EU or UK would start ww3. There are much smarter and better economics and influence strategies to play out that are much less bloody to its own population.
Some major global powers (i.e. China) have a vested interest in that escalation. Having the US tied down in two other conflicts means significantly less resources.
Which means Middle East and Ukraine are already part of a global-ish war. Proxy wars, so far, but in service of a larger goal. (No, I don't think China necessarily instigated, but they're sure supporting ongoing conflict)
As part of that, I'd also assume that the US nudged the UK to maybe consider their supply chain in case the US can't cover Europe's ass. (They can't, not if they expect a Taiwan conflict)
I'm under the impression that time is actually working for China and that they don't really require a war; they'll catch up economically soon enough (5-10y) that a war doesn't benefit them at all, and only the US would benefit from one right now, while they still have a chance of nipping their primacy in the bud.
Based on contract ramp-ups from folks I know in sales having record years/quarters tied to the US DoD (while the rest of the sales divisions miss their numbers by huge margins) - I think that it's a foregone conclusion the powers that be expect a major uptick in hostilities sooner than later.
But that's just my opinion, man. Could also be the tail wagging the dog.
Either way, I think it's pretty clear we are moving from a unipolar world to at least a "more" multipolar world in the near to midterm future. Covid laid bare how utterly fragile the current supply chains are for almost everything from raw material to base chemicals to advanced chips and beyond in the western hemisphere - so it only makes sense for this to happen regardless.
Having access to chips independently has deep economic effects as well, and that was the trigger in most countries.
Defense though can be a much more easier talking point from a political and budgeting perspective, especially when trying to unlock an ungodly amount of money towards a potential risk.
Not an expert at all, but wasn't part of The Cold War playbook to outspend the USSR?
Investing in capability isn't necessarily a signal that we expect to deploy that capability. But it does force the enemy to level up, then when that enemy runs out of money, they tend to implode.
I literally have no idea, so more than happy to be educated!
Well I'm shooting from the hip here and sharing only my gut intuition, so welcome to the party!
In my opinion, governments buying (or taking over) producers that are necessary for the military feels like a drastic departure to how the military industry has operated for decades.
At least in the US, though I think also in Europe, governments have been happy to keep up the status quo of writing massive checks to military contractors that, at least on face value, provide military equipment and training at a massive markup. In the US that markup also tends to be shared with those in power writing the checks through "gifts", campaign donations, and high paying jobs.
Military contractors generally don't seem to be hurting for capital to pay employees, especially the actually vital contractors. If the government takes them over, the most likely motivator I see is for the military to have full control over production, projects, and information security.
> This sure feels like yet another sign that major global powers are all gearing up for war.
Keep an eye out for analogues to Aktion T4: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aktion_T4
Enacted in October 1939, and retroactive to 1 September, it was the final domestic coup-de-grace necessary to activate the Reich's war machine. Don't expect for a moment that it will be any different for the Allied powers.
It’s hardly gonna be mass production with 100 staff, hardly worth mentioning. I think Motorola had a fab in the South West once upon a time. And Inmos in Newport in the South East.
Wasn't the last British owned semiconductor factory in the UK sold to Chinese investors within the last year it so.
The last steel furnace closing too?
The last of the steel industry is Indian/Chinese owned and is in the process of closing down [1].
There’s actually 23 semiconductor fabs in the UK, presumably with a diversity of owners [2].
[1] https://www.theguardian.com/business/article/2024/sep/10/bri...
[2] tech uk report: https://pixl8-cloud-techuk.s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/prod/p...
It's not closing down, from the article they are moving to newer furnace technology which requires less workers to run.
Isn't it not how market works, by paying good price and allowing fabs to compete for it?
> The acquisition is expected to secure up to 100 skilled jobs in the North East and safeguard a critical part of the UK’s defence infrastructure.
The “North East” in the context of the UK and “the North East of England” are not interchangeable.
I'd love to know more about what you mean by that -- is it that the North East of England (which this factory is certainly in, it being in County Durham) is not the same as the North East of the UK (which I guess would be Aberdeen)? Or is there more to it than that?
That’s pretty much it. If you visit somewhere like r/CasualUK you will get people talking about “up north” and “being a proud northerner” and such like. They are all English people talking about England. Which is fine, but it’s supposed to be a UK subreddit.
Even when foreigners are asking about travel advice. Must confuse the hell out of them. Or maybe some foreigners think that England = UK anyway so it all balances out?
England == UK isn’t a thing here in Canada, but I imagine it isn’t in any commonwealth nation. I think we learned more about the UK as kids than we did about the United States.
Same in Australia. But my Dad was a Scotsman so I had it well emphasised
It makes no sense but it’s common parlance. It’s like “Northern Rivers” in Australia meaning “an area on the east coast south of Queensland”. Similarly “The North East” rarely means an area containing Aberdeen, which would make more sense.
My experience is that only people in England think it is common parlance. If you are taking to someone in Scotland about the uk and mention the “north east” with no further context, they are not thinking about England.
North East of London, obviously.
Don't get me started on Midwest in the US...
The "North East" is the proper name of a NUTS 1 [0] region of the UK. It is distinguished from your interpretation of it as the "north east of the UK" by its use of capital letters, as is standard in English [1].
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Territorial_Leve...
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proper_noun#Modern_English_cap...
Unless I am missing it, all references to “North East” in your first link are accompanied by “England” directly after.
microchips aren't going to do much in a fire fight, they should probably re-industrialize
Small arms dumb weapons aren’t going to do much by themselves either. Anything more than a rifle? Chips
I think it's the [artillery shells](https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/ukraine-...) that's been a bottleneck thus far in Ukraine. It's like NATO keeps around 3 serious war days worth of ammunition on stock.
What lith node is that?
All I can find is that the plant works with 6 inch Gallium Arsenide wafers.
what a load of crap
'With global semiconductor demand rising, this move positions the UK to meet future technological needs, including advancements in artificial intelligence, quantum technologies, and 6G'?
advancements in artificial intelligence depend on mass production of 4nm silicon cmos, not 100 people doing gallium arsenide for high-speed analog. 'quantum technologies' is vague enough to not be literally a lie (transistors depend on quantum physics to work, as do wires) but in this context it's clearly designed to trick people into thinking 'quantum computing' which is also unrelated to what these guys are doing
I think this view is a bit narrow in terms of what "AI" advancements may depend on. I think it's very easy to argue that large scale AI adoption will require orders of magnitude higher bandwidth than what we currently have. It's not clear that long term electronics will win in all applications, especially with the strong resurgence in interest of photonic computing. Fundamentally, photonic platforms have much higher potential bandwidth (at the cost of power and size currently) than electronics.
GaAs (and other III-V) would likely be an essential material for some kind of photonic or hybrid compute system.
The response below addressed the quantum sensors, but I would be careful of calling "everything" quantum such as image sensors. Sure they rely on the photoelectric effect which is quantum, but not really in the sense of what we would consider a 'quantum sensor' today.
I suspect what could be more relevant are III-V based SQUID Qubits. These are highly sensitive systems that multiple nations are exploring for submarine detection. More near term, quantum communication via quantum light sources also can leverage a III-V platform.
sure, it's totally possible that the advantages of photonics or optoelectronics could win out, and iii–v semiconductors are pretty important for optoelectronics, though not for pure photonic systems like second-harmonic generation. sometimes people even use gaas for that, especially historically
what are iii–v based squid qubits? google scholar is not helpful except for finding https://journals.aps.org/prresearch/pdf/10.1103/PhysRevResea.... i thought a squid was a josephson junction device made out of superconductors and insulators, not semiconductors. gaas isn't a superconductor, is it?
this doesn't sound like a quantum communication and squid research lab though. it sounds like a 50-year-old radar chip fab that's being put on life support as a pork barrel project
brain fart on my end, you're definitely correct that SQUIDS are not something demonstrated quite yet, I should have said Josephson junction, but even that seems more niche than I had thought when I wrote the comment.
good point. I'd bet this tech is completely useless by now (maybe used in 60s radar and night vision), the company was going to shut down, some politician saw a way to turn a news of layoffs into "I'm bringing AI to my county"
Quantum sensors rely on very precise control of doping conditions. Also these kinds of alloys are used in photonics computing, which is used to interact with qubits. Sounds like that’s what they’re talking about here.
sure, photonics could make sense. what do you mean by 'quantum sensors'? are there any sensors which are not quantum?
so it wasnt to save them from insolvency?
Everyone who worked for Inmos rolls their eyes..
Here come the warm jets