The project was funded by Innovate UK and also included Lancaster and Cardiff Universities. The £1.1m grant for the one-year project was used by Quinas, a British semiconductor company, to coordinate the project while most of the funding was deployed with IQE.
The project saw IQE successfully scale up the manufacture of compound semiconductor layers initially developed by Lancaster University to an industrial process, the first step towards the commercial production of packaged ULTRARAM chips. IQE developed an advanced capability in gallium antimonide and aluminium antimonide epitaxy, representing a world-first for scalable epitaxy for memory devices.
ULTRARAM is a dual-use technology which was invented at Lancaster University. It combines the non-volatility of a data storage memory, such as flash, with the speed and endurance of a working memory, such as DRAM, while providing significantly improved energy efficiency - target applications include artificial intelligence, quantum computing, space and defence.
The ULTRARAM project aligns with the UK Government’s semiconductor strategy to boost domestic innovation and build sovereign capabilities in key semiconductor technologies. The partners are now exploring further industrialisation and pilot production with foundries and strategic collaborators.
Commenting Jutta Meier, Chief Executive Officer of IQE, said, “We have successfully achieved our goal of developing a scalable epitaxy process for ULTRARAM, a milestone towards industrial production of packaged chips. This project represents a unique opportunity to bring the next generation of compound semiconductor materials to life in the UK, and we are proud of our work with Quinas, Lancaster and Cardiff Universities to advance commercial production and create world-leading universal memory devices.”
“This project marks a turning point in the journey from university research to commercial memory products,” said James Ashforth-Pook, Chief Executive Officer of Quinas Technology. “With IQE’s industrial capabilities and Innovate UK’s support, we have taken a critical step toward building sovereign capability in memory – the most strategically vital yet underrepresented segment of the UK semiconductor stack.”
