King's College London

King’s has joined forces with academic institutions across the country in a new £12.5 million national research centre to strengthen the UK’s ability to design next-generation electronic systems and support the ambitions of the UK Semiconductor Strategy.

Led by the University of Sheffield, the Centre for Heterogeneous Integrated MicroElectronic and Semiconductor Systems (CHIMES) will develop new ways to combine multiple microchips into smaller, faster and more energy-efficient systems used in everything from smart phones to data centres.

This approach, known as heterogeneous integration, is seen as essential as devices continue to shrink while demanding greater performance and security – challenging the capability of traditional circuit boards.

King’s work will be led by Dr Kai Xu, Lecturer in Engineering, who will use his expertise in Complementary Metal-Oxide Semiconductor (CMOS) integrated circuits to help build ultra-low-power, energy-efficient electronic systems for use in AI and wireless applications.

CMOS technology forms the backbone of modern digital electronics and is widely used to fabricate microprocessors and memory chips in today’s computing systems because of their lower power consumption and high speed.

By improving the performance of this fundamental building block of electronics widely in use, the team hope to create an easily scalable solution that can readily support heterogeneous integration with emerging devices fabricated from non-silicon semiconductor materials proposed by CHIMES.

By increasing speed and energy efficiency of these semiconductor systems, as well as improving performance and miniaturisation of current electronic technologies, the group also aims to drive advances in emerging application domains, like high- performance computing and next-generation communication systems.

Reflecting on King’s place in CHIMES² and its impact, Dr Xu said “To unlock the full potential of heterogeneous integration for AI and advanced wireless, we must first advance their core enabler: CMOS analogue and mixed-signal circuits that are both highly scalable and ultra-low-power. This centre is where that foundational work begins and these systems bear fruit.”

Professor John Goodenough, Director of CHIMES and Professor in the School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering at the University of Sheffield, said “This centre strengthens the UK’s capability to design the advanced electronic systems that will underpin future economic growth and technological resilience. By bringing together leading expertise from across the UK and embedding that capability into both industry collaboration and national skills programmes, we are building sustainable long-term impact.”

This workstream will sit alongside the development of a national “Design Commons” by Sheffield and the University of Southampton, which will support a best practice system to design and implement new semiconductor systems – building industry capability and forming a core part of the UK’s semiconductor skills agenda.

CHIMES brings together researchers from King’s, Sheffield and the Universities of Cambridge, Oxford, Queen’s University Belfast, Strathclyde, Edinburgh, Newcastle, Manchester, and the Science and Technology Facilities Council. It is funded by the Department for Science Innovation and Technology, delivered and monitored via UK Research and Innovation (UKRI).