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Our research on semiconductor materials and devices has led to the establishment by e2v Technologies of a combined manufacturing, research and development facility within the School of Physics and Astronomy. We have adapted and transferred device simulation software to e2v, and have provided epitaxially-grown semiconductors and access to fabrication facilities which have been used in their manufacturing processes. Devices fabricated within the facility, which was opened in 2011, have generated sales of £7M for e2v. This initiative has also led to shifts in the investment priorities of e2v, and mitigated risks to the company arising from import restrictions associated with the US International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR).
Research at the University of Cambridge, Department of Physics on sensitive techniques for measurements of magnetic and electrical properties of materials led to the selection of Dr Michael Sutherland as an expert witness in a series of major police investigations involving fraudulent bomb detecting equipment. Scientific evidence Dr Sutherland presented in court was key in securing guilty verdicts, leading to the breakup in 2013 of several international fraud rings with combined revenue in excess of £70 million. This criminal activity had caused significant damage to the reputation of the UK in Iraq and elsewhere.
A software package called CPO has been developed that simulates the motion of charged particles in electromagnetic fields. More than 200 benchmark tests have established CPO as the gold standard in low-energy charged-particle optics. A spin-off company was formed to market CPO, [text removed for publication]
Research on high-voltage power devices by the University of Cambridge Department of Engineering (DoEng) was commercialised by its spin-off company, Cambridge Semiconductor Limited (CamSemi), which, in the REF period, has:
CamSemi chips are more efficient than traditional linear power supplies. The CamSemi chips that were produced before the end of the REF period are estimated to save of the order of 100GWh of electricity and 50,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions per year in total.
The development of Molecular Beam Epitaxial (MBE) growth techniques for self-assembled quantum dots at Cambridge University has led to the creation of electrically driven, compact single-photon and entangled-photon sources, and their demonstration in quantum key distribution (QKD) systems. This highly-cited work has led to significant recent investment in R&D in this area by Toshiba, one of the world's leading microelectronics companies, influencing company policy to the highest levels. It has stimulated world-wide interest in quantum information technology, in government institutions and companies from start-ups and SMEs to multinationals.
The significant increase in hard disk storage capacity in the last few years can be in part attributed to theoretical research in Mathematics undertaken at City University London. A material or device is said to exhibit the property of magnetoresistance if its electrical resistance changes when the direction of an external magnetic field is varied. The work undertaken at City concluded that devices based on magnesium oxide (MgO) would exhibit magnetoresistances very much larger than previously observed. In 2004 these conclusions were confirmed experimentally. By 2008 a new type of disk read head (the device that senses data on a magnetic disk) based on this structure was being manufactured commercially, enabling a significant increase in hard disk storage capacity. Today all computer hard disks use read heads based on this technology in an industry with 2012 sales exceeding $28 billion. The increase in hard disk storage capacity achieved (from gigabytes to terabytes: 1 terabyte = 1,000 gigabytes) and the consequent improvement in disk performance for users can be partly attributed to the City research.
The development by Cambridge University staff of compact semiconductor sources and detectors of Terahertz radiation has opened up this part of the electromagnetic spectrum to commercial use for the first time, enabling many applications. In medicine these applications include the analysis of drugs and the detection and imaging of cancer; in security applications the detection and imaging of explosives; and in the semiconductor industry the detection and imaging of buried defects in semiconductor wafers. High power Terahertz lasers are used in gas sensors, for imaging and as local oscillators. This technology has been exploited by a spin-off company TeraView which has 25 employees, has raised £16M in funding, £3.5M since 2008, and has sold 70 imaging systems, half since 2008 at an average cost of $300K each.
Since 2009 the read heads of all hard disks have used a technology based on magnesium oxide (MgO). The development of this technology can be partly attributed to a 2001 publication [3.1] co-authored by Dr Andrey Umerski of The Open University, which concluded that a system based on MgO would lead to a huge increase in magnetoresistance, a physical property that determines the efficiency of hard disk read heads.
In 2004 these theoretical predictions were confirmed experimentally; by 2008 the new type of read head based on MgO was manufactured commercially, leading to significant increases in storage capacity, from GBs to TBs.
Raman thermography, a new technique for measuring channel temperature in semiconductor electronic devices developed at the University of Bristol, has been used by many companies to characterise their semiconductor devices. The technology has enabled companies to develop more robust, reliable, higher performing devices and circuits for high-end space, radar, communication and power conversion applications. This is illustrated here in detail on the example of the company, United Monolithic Semiconductor (UMS) (Germany-France), which used the technique to improve the lifetime of its Gallium Nitride (GaN) and Gallium Arsenide (GaAs) semiconductor devices so that they meet customer requirements for product qualification. Corresponding impact resulted for the companies TriQuint (USA), Northrup Grumman (USA), QinetiQ (UK), Selex Galileo (UK & Italy), NXP (UK & Netherlands), Thales Alenia Spaciale (France), Sharp (Japan) and Hitachi Cable (Japan).
Researchers within the Department of Physics and Astronomy at UCL have investigated the properties of defects in bulk HfO2 and at Si/SiOx/HfO2 interfaces. Results have been used by an industrial partner, SEMATECH (SMT), to improve the quality and reliability of high-performance microelectronic devices based on transistors. This has helped SMT to meet project objectives on behalf of member companies such as Intel and IBM, and UCL research results have been consistently highly evaluated by these companies. Recommendations made by SMT have been implemented by industrial partners in their currently manufactured devices, such as the 22nm process technology released by Intel in 2011.