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www.newelectronics.co.uk

28 July 2015

SPECIAL ISSUE:Ten years after the EIGT Report, we look at

UK electronics and where it’s headed

VIEWS OF THE FUTURE • INNOVATION • ONES TO WATCH • COMMERCIALISATION

So you thinkyou know

yourindustry?

COMMENT 5

Substantial increases

in employment and

contribution to GDP

over the last two years

suggest the electronic

systems sector is an

industry ‘on the up’

NEWS 7

ESCO’s latest market

statistics show

business is booming,

with more small

companies than ever

ams acquires NXP’s

CMOS sensor

business, expands its

environmental sensor

portfolio

The industry is

pushing processes:

IBM shows a 7nm

test chip, while

Globalfoundries takes

FD-SOI to 22nm.

How the team behind

the BBC Micro:bit

went about designing

and manufacturing the

board that might just

replicate the success

of the BBC Micro

COVER STORY 12

A bright future?

Is UK electronics ‘on the up’? We ask a selection of industry

figures for their views, including whether the Government should

provide more support and where the sector will be in 2025

INTERVIEW: EIGT 10 YEARS ON 16

Peak or bleak?

Ten years ago, the Electronics Innovation and Growth Team

presented the industry with some home truths. We ask EIGT chair

David Kynaston whether the messages had the desired effect

THE INNOVATION ENVIRONMENT 18

State of the nation

Is the UK struggling to compete on the global stage or is it a dynamic

centre of innovation? We find out what the state of play is when it

comes to UK plc

GROWING MARKETS 22

Selling to the world

The Government wants an increased focus on exports in order to

redress the balance of payments gap. What support mechanisms

exist to help small UK electronics companies to export?

INNOVATION LOCATIONS 24

Joining hands

Where is innovation taking place in the UK and how are university-

business collaborations driving the commercialisation of new

ideas?

COMMERCIALISATION 26

Monetising innovation

While the UK may be well positioned to maintain its global

position in the development of complex systems, it should not

rest on its laurels

ACADEMIC-INDUSTRIAL RELATIONSHIPS 29

Breaking down barriers

A report finds that business-university collaboration is an

important part of the innovation cycle, but adds universities need

to change their culture in order to better support this

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28 July 2015

SPECIAL ISSUE:Ten years after the EIGT Report, we look at

UK electronics and where it’s headed

VIEWS OF THE FUTURE • INNOVATION • ONES TO WATCH • COMMERCIALISATION

So you thinkyou know

yourindustry?

14

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www.newelectronics.co.uk 28 July 2015

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T H R E A D

It’s 10 years since the Electronics Innovation and Growth Team published

its report on the future of the UK’s electronics sector, concluding the

industry was fragmented, lacking in confidence and essentially invisible.

A lot of water has passed under the bridge since then and the world is a

much different place. We have seen the establishment of the Electronics

Leadership Council and its demise, the establishment of the UK Electronics

Alliance and, more recently, its replacement by the Electronics Systems

Community, or ESCO.

ESCO was launched with a flourish two years ago, with a report – ‘A

Blueprint for Economic Growth’ – based on extensive research into a number of

areas. The report pointed out the value of electronics to the UK’s economy; not

just in numbers, but also in terms of its pervasiveness.

It set out targets to grow employment in the electronic systems sector by

150,000 to 1million by 2020. It also called for the sector’s annual contribution to

GDP to grow from £80billion to £120bn in the same period, the latter figure

representing 7.1% of the UK’s economy.

At the time, the targets looked challenging; two years on, it seems the UK’s

electronic systems sector has responded. A recent update to ESCO’s market

statistics shows the sector now employs more than 1m people and that its GDP

contribution is close to £100bn – figures that should be applauded.

While this special issue of New Electronics takes a short look back to the

EIGT Report, it endeavours to look forward, highlighting the innovation being

done in the UK and opportunities that companies might take advantage of. It

looks at support for companies looking to export and at relationships between

industry and academia.

What we see is an industry which is, in general, positive about the future.

Perhaps the best indication of this is the number of small companies identified

by ESCO. It says there are now more than 36,000 companies in the sector with

four or fewer employees – 60% more than two years ago. “It’s a sign of an

improving economy and the fact that companies are now more confident,” says

ESCO’s chief executive Peter Brooks.

What a difference a decade makes.

Graham Pitcher, Group Editor ([email protected])

An industry on the up

EMPLOYMENT IN ELECTRONIC SYSTEMSSECTOR AND ITS GDP CONTRIBUTIONHAVE BOOMED IN LAST TWO YEARS

UK ELECTRONICS A DECADE OF CHANGE


28 July 2015 www.newelectronics.co.uk6

7

NEWS ELECTRONIC SYSTEMS

COMMUNITY

ESCO, the Electronic Systems Community, is making good progress with its seven year plan to boost the

contribution of the electronics industry to the UK’s GDP.

According to Egures produced by the organisation, the number of people employed within the electronic

systems sector has exceeded 1million – 3.28% of the working population – while the contribution to GDP has

risen to almost £100billion. In its clarion call report, published in 2013, ESCO targeted 1m people being

employed in the sector and a GDP contribution of £120bn by 2020.

ESCO says one of the highlights of its research is the large increase in the number of companies in the

sector employing four people or fewer. Figures suggest there are now 36,063 such companies – an increase

of 60% in two years and representing 80% of all companies in the sector. The number of companies

employing between Eve and nine people also grew by 26%.

Peter Brooks, ESCO’s chief executive, said: “It’s a sign of an improving economy and the fact that

companies are now more conEdent. A lot of Government support has been rebuilt and we shouldn’t

underestimate the contribution of InnovateUK in its active assistance of business.”

ESCO accepts that, while there is modest growth across the board, the large growth in employment, the

signs that electronic systems enterprises are growing larger and the strong growth in the number of small

businesses – interpreted as start ups – suggest electronic systems is a ‘very healthy’ community.

Concluding, Brooks noted: “This health is reFected in the number of skilled vacancies. Companies want

more people because business is good and they need to expand.”

Business booming, says ESCOESCO’S MARKET UPDATE SHOWS THE SECTOR’S EMPLOYMENT AND GDP CONTRIBUTION IS RISING FASTER THAN EXPECTED. GRAHAM PITCHER REPORTS.


T: 01322 221144 F: 01322 221188


E: [email protected]

Editor Neil Tyler

[email protected]

Online Editorial Tom Austin-Morgan

Assistant [email protected]

Group Editor Graham Pitcher

[email protected]

Contributing David Boothroyd

Editors Chris Edwards

Louise Joselyn

John Walko

[email protected]

Art Editor Martin Cherry

[email protected]

Illustrator Phil Holmes

Sales Manager Marc Young

[email protected]

Publisher Peter Ring

[email protected]

Executive Ed Tranter

Director [email protected]

Production Nicki McKenna

Controller [email protected]

New Electronics, incorporating Electronic

Equipment News and Electronics News, is

published twice monthly by

Findlay Media Ltd, Hawley Mill, Hawley Road,

Dartford, Kent, DA2 7TJ

Copyright 2015 Findlay Media.

Annual subscription (22 issues)

UK £108. Overseas £163. Airmail is £199.

ISSN 0047-9624 Online ISSN 2049-2316

Origination: CC Media, London

Printed in the UK by Pensord Press

Moving on?

If you change jobs or your company moves,

please contact [email protected] to

continue receiving your free copy of

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Findlay Media is a member of the

Periodical Publishers’ Association

Digi-Key distributes ‘Lab-in-a-Box’ package

Digi-Key has joined with ARM’s University Programme to

distribute a ‘Lab-in-a-Box’ (LiB) to higher educational

institutions around the globe. The package includes

development boards, software licenses and teaching

materials.

The first hardware kit available from Digi-Key is the Rapid

Embedded System Design and Programming LiB, which

includes STMicroelectronics’ NUCLEO-F401RE board.

ARM has strong Q2

ARM’s second quarter results

show revenue grew by 15% in

Dollars over the same period in

2014, and by 22% in Sterling.

Pete Hutton, president of ARM’s

product groups, said: “The results

are good. There’s a nice ‘uptick’ in

revenues and the 54 licences we

signed is a record for one quarter.”

Eight licences were signed for

Cortex-R class cores, including an

additional licence for ‘Kite’, the

ARMv8-R class processor designed

for safety related automotive and

industrial applications. “That

licence is one of the highlights of

the quarter,” Hutton concluded.

TSMC to use EUV at 5nm

TSMC is planning to introduce

EUV lithography at the 5nm node.

On a conference call, Mark Liu,

president and co-CEO, said: “We

are planning to exercise EUV at

7nm and are currently planning to

use EUV at 5nm.”

He said TSMC’s assessment

shows that EUV will reduce the

number of masking layers needed

at 5nm and provide better control.

Meanwhile, TSMC continues to

work closely with tools developer

ASML. “We have made very good

progress on source power,” Liu

continued, “as well as on

photoresists.”

Imagination joins 5GIC

Imagination Technologies has

joined the 5G Innovation Centre

(5GIC) at the University of Surrey

and says it will invest ‘signiEcant

resources’ over the next Eve years

to help 5GIC develop scalable and

widely deployable technologies.

Sir Hossein Yassaie,

Imagination’s CEO, said. “5G will

deliver more efEciency, lower

power and better robustness –

but also connect everything in

the world of IoT. We look forward

to working with 5GIC and

partners around the world to

help deliver this important global

technology.”

Austrian sensor and analogue specialist ams has acquired NXP’s CMOS sensor business. The

move expands ams’ environmental sensor portfolio with monolithic and integrated devices to

measure variables such as relative humidity, pressure and temperature.

“With this acquisition, we have expanded the capabilities and improved the offerings of our

sensors,” said Peter Gasteiner, general manager of ams’ sensors and sensor interfaces division.

“The move, especially the IP element, complements our road map.”

The enlarged portfolio is anticipated to bring opportunities in smartphones, wearables and

other mobile devices, as well as in smart buildings and the industrial, medical and automotive

markets. The smart sensor systems will combine intelligence, wired and wireless interfaces, and

advanced power management to reduce energy costs and provide additional safety and security.

Gasteiner noted the acquisition will help ams to achieve its target of integrating three or four

sensors into one package. “By combining temperature, humidity and pressure sensors onto one

chip you effectively have a whole weather centre which can be scaled down onto a mobile

phone,” he said. “The sensors could also be used to contribute to a more efPcient use of air

conditioning and ventilation systems in industrial applications.”

The sensors are said to feature reduced package size, complexity and cost while offering low

power consumption and high performance with a best-in-class analogue front end.

According to Gasteiner, the deal also sees ams acquire broader knowledge of how to make

sensors. “NXP’s devices need open cavity packages,” he said. “We have acquired expertise in

this area and will be able to apply it to our existing products.”

8

NEWS SENSOR TECHNOLOGY

M²Communication (M2COMM) has joined the

Weightless SIG to lead a Working Group

developing a high performance LPWAN

standard.

This latest standard, called Weightless-P,

will offer uplink and downlink capabilities that

enhance quality of service, important in the

industrial IoT sector.

Weightless-P is claimed to support all

major license exempt bands, providing two

way communication at data rates of up to

100kbit/s. The standard is also said to

enable higher capacity than existing LPWAN

and cellular technologies in uplink dominated

applications with small to medium payloads.

“Weightless-P will breathe new life into an

IoT market that is waiting on a reliable LPWAN

technology,” claimed Derrick Wei, M2COMM’s

CEO. “The slow adoption of wireless IoT

solutions highlights a huge technology void

that Weightless-P will address without

requiring custom hardware.”

M2COMM joinsWeightless SIG

The

Government

has launched

a £20million

competitive

fund for

collaborative

research and

development

into driverless vehicles, as well as a code of

practice for testing.

Proposals are being sought in areas such

as safety, reliability, how vehicles can

communicate with each other and their

environment. The Government is also looking

to explore how driverless vehicles can help

give an ageing population greater

independence.

The move is intended to put the UK at the

forefront of the intelligent mobility market,

expected to be worth £900billion by 2025.

Meanwhile, the code of practice is said to

provide industry with the framework needed to

trial cars safely in real-life scenarios and to

create more sophisticated versions of existing

models.

Driverless vehicle fund launched

Deal boosts sensor portfolioAMS ACQUIRES NXP’S ADVANCED CMOS SENSOR BUSINESS. TOM AUSTIN-MORGAN REPORTS.

Etch system brings Ôatomic level precisionÕApplied Materials has unveiled the Centris

Sym3 etch system, said to enable what the

company calls atomic level precision

manufacturing.

One of the key features of Sym3 is the

ability to control and remove etch byproducts,

which mitigates such problems as line edge

roughness, pattern loading and defects.

The company says it has created features

with an aspect ratio of 30:1 on advanced

processes. This is achieved by tight control

of gas flow, RF plasma and temperature.

Product manager Amulya Athayde said: “The

gas has to be distributed evenly and the

wafer temperature needs to be uniform. It’s a

big challenge getting these to work together.”

32bit A/Ds to boost PLC performance

Texas Instruments has introduced two 32bit delta-sigma A/D converters that combine high

resolution, low noise and integrated fault detection. With a maximum output of 38ksample/s,

the ADS1262 and ADS1263 have been developed to boost the performance of programmable

logic controllers, industrial automation equipment and sensor measurement applications.

Bryan Lizon, from TI’s precision data converter product marketing group, said: “High end

applications are moving beyond 24bit, so there is the need for more bits to give better accuracy.

Meanwhile, there is also the need for greater system reliability.”

Both parts enable accurate measurement of small signals, with a noise level of 7nVrms at

2.5sample/s suiting bridge applications with full scale signals of less than 10mV. The

ADS1262’s features include a PGA, a 2.5V reference, a level shifter and dual excitation current

sources. The ADS1263 adds an auxiliary 24bit delta-sigma A/D converter.

28 July 2015 www.newelectronics.co.uk

9

UltraSoC has added support for the Tensilica

Xtensa family to its UltraDebug package.

Rupert Baines, UltraSoC’s CEO, said:

“Today’s application processors are not

optimised to handle the vast range of tasks

required in today’s advanced consumer

products. Xtensa provides a solution to that

problem, offloading tasks from the host and

creating optimised multicore SoCs.SWe’re in

tune with this vision of the SoC and delighted

to be working with Cadence to make it

happen.”

Xtensa enables system architects to create

high performance processors and DSPs

customised to their application needs. This is

said to allow the creation of SoCs in which key

tasks are offloaded from the host processor

to multiple heterogeneous Xtensa processors.

Researchers from North Carolina State

University and Brown University have found

that zinc oxide and silicon nanowires have a

pronounced anelasticity and believe this could

enable the development of stretchable,

flexible wearable devices.

When bent, the nanowires would return

more than 80% of the way to their original

shape instantaneously, then return the rest of

the way slowly.

“All materials have some degree of

anelasticity, said NCSU associate professor

Yong Zhu, “but it is usually negligible at the

macroscopic scale. Because nanowires are so

small, the anelasticity is signiPcant and easily

observed – although it was a surprise when

we Prst discovered it in nanowires.”

According to the researchers, ZnO

nanowires exhibited anelastic behaviour that

is up to four orders of magnitude larger than

the largest anelasticity observed in bulk

materials, with a recovery in the order of

minutes.

The team now plans to explore whether

anelasticity is common across nanoscale

materials and structures and to evaluate how

this characteristic may affect other properties,

such as electrical conductivity and thermal

transport.

UltraSOC adds Tensilicadebug support

Stretchable nanowiresmay suit wearables

UK ELECTRONICS 7NM PROCESS TECHNOLOGY

While Intel and the leading foundries continue

to wrestle with the challenges of bringing

14/16nm FinFET based devices into

production, IBM has unveiled the Prst fruits

from its research into future silicon devices.

In the programme, announced in July

2014, IBM said it would invest $3billion over

the next Pve years in two

projects: one, aimed at the

7nm node and beyond,

addressing the physical

challenges facing scaling; the

other looking at ‘post silicon’

technologies.

In producing the 7nm test chip, IBM –

which collaborated with Globalfoundries and

Samsung at the State University of New York

Polytechnic (SUNY Poly) Institute’s Colleges of

Nanoscale Science and Engineering – has

made a number of developments, including

the use of silicon germanium channel

transistors and EUV lithography.

“Scaling to 7nm and beyond is essential,”

said Arvind Krishna, director of IBM Research.

“That’s why IBM has remained committed to

an aggressive basic research agenda that

continually pushes the limits of

semiconductor technology.”

Alongside SiGe and EUV, the 7nm test chip

also introduced process innovations that allow

transistors to be placed less than 30nm

apart. Taken together, the techniques are said

to bring at least a 50% improvement in

power/performance for next generation

devices. IBM’s particular interest is to use

7nm technology for processors that will power

its future mainframe and POWER systems.

“[This] announcement is just one example

of our collaboration with IBM, which furthers

New York State’s global leadership in

developing next generation technologies,”

said Dr Michael Liehr, SUNY Poly’s executive

vp of innovation and technology.

“Enabling the Prst 7nm node

transistors is a signiPcant milestone

for the semiconductor industry as we

continue to push beyond the limitations of

our current capabilities.”

• Meanwhile, Globalfoundries is investing

$250m at its Dresden fab for development

and initial capacity of a process technology

developed to meet the power requirements of

next generation connected devices.

The 22FDX platform – which will be

available in four ‘flavours’ – uses FD-SOI

technology to deliver ‘FinFET’ like performance

and energy efPciency, but at a cost comparable

to that of 28nm planar processes.

Operating from a supply as low as 0.4V, the

process reduces dynamic power consumption

and thermal impact. Die size is said to 20%

smaller than a device made on a 28nm

process and 22FDX is said to require 10%

fewer masks and half the immersion

lithography layers of foundry FinFET processes.

Pushing processesIBM SHOWS A 7NM TEST CHIP, WHILE GLOBALFOUNDRIES TAKES FD-SOI TO 22NM. GRAHAM PITCHER REPORTS.


Engineers at the University of California have integrated electrical components into a 3D

printing process and created a wireless ‘smart cap’ that uses embedded sensors to determine

if milk in a carton is ‘off’.

The ‘smart cap’ was fitted with a capacitor and an inductor to form a resonant circuit. A flip

of the carton trapped a bit of milk in the capacitor gap and the carton was then left unopened

at room temperature for 36 hours. Using an RF probe to detect the changes in signals that

accompany increased levels of bacteria, the team found the peak vibration frequency of the

room-temperature milk dropped by 4.3% after 36 hours, while a carton of milk kept at 4°C

saw a 0.12% shift in frequency over the same period.

“This technology could make electronic circuits cheap enough to be added to packaging to

provide food safety alerts for consumers,” said Professor Liwei Lin.

3D printed ‘smart cap’ monitors condition of milk

Earlier this month, the BBC unveiled the Micro:bit computer. Part of the

Make It Digital initiative, the Corporation will distribute 1million

MicroBits free in October to Year Seven children across the UK.

ARM provided the technical design for the BBC micro:bit, Technology

Will Save U was responsible for the device’s appearance, Nordic

Semiconductor donated the main Cortex-M0 microprocessor, while

Freescale provided the accelerometer, magnetomer compass and

another Cortex-M0 MCU to manage the device’s micro USB connection.

Crucially, element14 helped organise the device’s

manufacture and the sourcing of parts.

“We became aware of the project back in February

and put forward a proposal to support with the design,

cost optimisation and manufacturing,” said Richard

Curtin, global director of strategic alliance,

element14. “We’ve managed other projects,

designing and manufacturing development kits

in our strategic alliance programme.”

According to Curtin, the project highlights

the work required to bring a new board to

market.

“When we joined, there were a number of unknowns and

element14 was invited to arbitrate between the needs of the working

group and the practicalities of manufacture,” he explained.

The initial design was amended signi:cantly, according to Gary

Atkinson, director of emerging technologies at ARM. “We wanted to

make the device mbed compatible and to improve its connectivity. I

think we came up with a more capable device as a result of the changes

we made to the initial prototype.”

“Our role was to take these prototypes and optimise them for mass

manufacturing,” Curtin noted.

Micro:bit’s success will depend on its life beyond the initial rollout,

so the partners worked to ensure that it was an affordable product,

capable of creating a niche for itself in the growing education market.

“Because of our V-score process, which helps to strengthen the

board and makes panel separation easier after assembly, we reduced

the cost of the board signi:cantly, without sacri:cing the quality of the

:nish,” said Curtin.

“The appearance of the board was also important. In most

development kits, that is secondary to functionality. But as this board is

aimed at children, it needed to be both functional and friendly and we

worked hard with our partners to realise the manufacturing realities

behind these design decisions,” Curtin he added.

Cost optimisation is crucial to all successful board designs.

“In this case, the BBC was aiming to reduce the

cost of the board to the point where it could be

provided at zero cost to every 11 and 12 year

old in the country. To assist in this, we

worked with supplier partners to leverage

economies of scale. While this is possible in

higher volume production runs, with smaller

projects it can be more dif:cult.”

Finally, the project had to be manufacturable at

scale. “We had to :nd someone who could

manufacture the board in the quantities required and

within the aggressive timelines of the project,” said

Curtin. “In this case, we are working with IO Note in China.

“As the design was being created in the UK, initial prototypes were

manufactured in the UK. This allowed the partners to test early

prototypes, write the key software components, debug quickly and

move onto the next stages of the design – quick turn manufacturing in

practice.”

Finally, mass production is set to start shortly and 1m boards will be

in schools by the autumn.

“There are many layers to designing and manufacturing a new

board,” Curtin concluded, “but we have been able to turn an idea into

reality in a matter of months.”

10

From design to productionNEIL TYLER LOOKS AT HOW THE TEAM BEHIND THE BBC MICRO:BIT PROJECT WENT ABOUT DESIGNINGAND MANUFACTURING THE BOARD THAT MIGHT JUST REPLICATE THE SUCCESS OF THE BBC MICRO.

NEWS ANALYSIS BBC MICRO:BIT


years ago, the Electronics

Innovation and Growth Team’s

report painted a picture of a

fairly invisible fragmented UK

electronics industry with a lack

of confidence. The decade has

seen significant change, but

change needs to be continuous.

A range of issues will affect how the industry develops,

including relations with Government, the ability to exploit

innovation and better cross sector collaboration.

So can the Government help to develop the industry?

Stephen Pattison, vp of public affairs with ARM, said:

“Unlike some other major sectors, UK electronics has been

slow to develop relations with Government. But that

changed two years ago, with the formation of the Electronic

Systems Council.

“Looking forward, we need to think carefully about what

we want the Government to do for the sector. The starting

point should be: ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!’ and this is a

view shared by the Government.

“STEM and apprenticeships are areas where we can

collaborate; another is to encourage public sector

investment in research and in funding significant pilot

programmes to test and showcase key new technologies.”

Steve Applegate, chairman of Stadium’s group

technology board believes Government and the electronics

industry are disconnected. “The UK electronics industry has

not seen key investment nor government support for

decades and is now struggling to compete with global

markets and lower cost offshore alternatives. Government

support is extremely important if the electronics industry is

to survive in the UK.”

Taking a different view, Derek Boyd, chief executive of

industry group NMI, claimed: “Until the recent election, the

industry’s representation and connection to Government

were as good as they have ever been; the ESCO report was

well received and the ESCO Council was established. There

were some significant breakthroughs: additional funding for

IoT; approval for a Graduate Trailblazer apprenticeship

scheme; and a bid through InnovateUK to increase

investment in ECSEL by an order of magnitude from today.”

Nigel Toon, CEO of XMOS, observed: “Governments

move at a very different pace from the speed required in a

small or medium sized company. It is hard for

governments to keep up with and track emerging trends.

Government should, therefore, create an attractive

environment for entrepreneurship and for innovation.”

Losing a trick?The UK is associated with innovation, but not

commercialisation. Have we lost a trick with graphene and

plastic electronics and what needs to happen for us to

better exploit opportunities?

Ken Ball, electronics programme manager with techUK,

believes the UK has huge potential to innovate and exploit

that innovation. “But it’s vital that small and micro-

businesses – often the most innovative – have equal

opportunity to compete for government funding.

“Plastic electronics will continue to grow, driven by the

need for Iexible or wearable electronics and enabled by a


A bright future?

“We need to

stop talking

and start

collaborating.”

Steve

Applegate

Is UK electronics ‘on the up’? Graham

Pitcher asks a selection of industry

figures for their views on the future.

mix of conventional and printed. True organic

semiconductors are some way off and will probably only be

developed for very low cost consumer items.

“Graphene has so far seen little direct application, but it

has led to the research and application of 2D materials,

which may well be incorporated into new semiconductors.”

Antony Rix, principal wireless consultant at TTP, notes

that many large UK companies and global companies

headquartered here have cut their R&D budgets

substantially. “This is a reIection of wider changes: they

increasingly expect their suppliers to innovate and buy in a

global market. Without this basic investment – whether

internally or with close partners – corporations will struggle

to grow and will Hnd themselves exposed to competition.”

Cross sector collaborationThe recently published ESCO Report called for cross sector

collaboration. Is it happening and what will help companies

to make better use of supply chains?

Boyd points out that electronic systems are already a

critical part of most industrial sectors, so industry

associations have a great opportunity. “For example, NMI

has established the Automotive Electronic Systems

Innovation Network; increased our membership in

aerospace and defence sectors; and are Hnding great merit

in chip-to-system collaboration.”

But he sees the issue of UK supply chains as tricky.

“We’re part of a global ecosystem and failure to recognise

that would be wrong.”

Applegate believes that, until the UK can develop and

provide its own ‘must have’ products and technologies –

often driven by multi industry collaboration and sharing

knowledge – it is difHcult to see how Government

intervention can have any real effect.

But Rix thinks the government could do more through

procurement to build a more diverse and resilient supply

chain in the UK in both electronics and ICT. “Available tools

should be used routinely to recognise the value of local

research and manufacturing,” he said. “Global competitor

countries like the US, France and Germany do this as a

matter of course.”

Andrew Holland, founder of RF Module and Optical

Design, observed: “The excellent ESCO report showed how

the UK electronic systems industry can lead product

offerings in the burgeoning IoT space. As a Cambridge start-

up, we need to collaborate with companies aligned either

side of our product offering. The good news is that the UK is

equipped across all sectors to bring such a compelling

product to bear.”

Lack of new blood?There’s a lack of engineering students, but what about

management talent? What might help UK companies

develop over the next decade? “ARM disproves your

assumption,” Pattison asserted. “It has a great record of

leadership and global expansion. It shows what can be

done, but there is a lingering tendency for some companies

to sell out early, rather than invest in long term growth. This

may be a cultural thing.”

techUK’s Ball believes there is no underlying reason why

UK based businesses cannot be global leaders. “To support

small, innovative companies to grow and scale, we must

take a holistic approach that includes platform catalysts

and skills development and supports the hunger and desire

of UK entrepreneurs.

“We have called on the government to implement the

recommendations in Sherry Coutu’s Scale Up Report to

ensure the UK remains a leading economy and innovator.”

In Toon’s opinion, new management teams need to build

their skills in high growth successful technology businesses

before they jump out and start on their one. “We need more

international successes to stimulate this virtuous circle.

“Silicon Valley works because successful entrepreneurs

either start new businesses or go into VC and support new

companies. Middle management from these successful

companies gain skills and experience that allows them to

lead the next wave of start-ups. Their old bosses will act as

mentors, seed investors or will be sitting in major VCs.”

TTP’s Rix believes the German ‘Mittelstand’ companies

are a good example for the UK. “These organisations

www.newelectronics.co.uk 28 July 2015 13

UK ELECTRONICS TEN YEARS TIME

“Available tools

should be used

routinely to

recognise the

value of local

research and

manufacturing.”

Antony Rix

“It’s not

impossible for

global

consumer

brands to

emerge from

the UK.”

Derek Boyd

“We have

numerous

activities to

promote STEM

in schools.”

Tony King-Smith

expect to invest for the long term, helped by stable

investment and taxation regimes, by benevolent (often

family) owners and by a focus on global markets,” he said.

“UK companies can learn from this.”

Tony King-Smith, executive vp of marketing with

Imagination Technologies, said he is extremely interested in

getting new blood into the industry. “We work closely with

universities to make sure that not only are people educated

in line with real industry requirements but they are also

interesting people pursuing novel ideas. We have numerous

activities to promote STEM in schools and beyond to really

enable universities to excel.”

So will a ‘new generation’ be taking the industry forward

in 2025 and will they be establishing global brands?

“We can see a new generation emerging already,” said

Pattison. “The digital revolution is enabling small start-ups to

go from ‘zero to hero’ in even less time than it took ARM.”

Holland says scale matters in manufacturing. “Just look

at the gigafabs in Taiwan. But the UK has a great track

record of pure innovation with small teams making a global

impact over a short period. A UK global consumer brand?

Yes, we can!”

Rather than establish global brands, Applegate thinks

the target should be for the UK to establish itself as a

centre of innovation excellence that attracts worldwide

interest. “This may come from a broad range of startups,

but Hnancial support from institutions and Government is

required to support research and product development at

source and to assist with taking products to market and

attracting the interest of global players.”

NMI’s Boyd suggests that PURE is already a global

brand – as is Dyson. “It’s not impossible for global

consumer brands to emerge from the UK and having such

a Iagship in the UK would provide a great boost. However,

this is a global industry and the amount of UK developed

technology inside some leading consumer brands

suggests the need for these brands to be located here is

not a ‘show stopper’.

Toon’s view is that small companies need to focus on

emerging markets, where they can deliver a big advantage.

“Being 30% or even 100% better is not enough; x3 or x10

needs to be the goal.”

Rix agrees that a genuinely innovative product or service,

managed and marketed conHdently, can be translated to a

global brand. “Dyson is a great example,” he notes. “Many

UK electronics companies, like TTP, have always operated

globally and are fostering a new generation of engineers and

entrepreneurs. The UK market is large enough for a product

to be launched, a good return on investment achieved and

used as a stepping stone to global markets.”

Where will we be in 2025?Pattison: “Ten years is a very long time in this sector, but my

hope is that the UK will be leading the way in some smart

technologies, with a much bigger ecosystem of electronics

companies in support!”

Applegate: “With the right government support, inward

investment and commitment from the industry, the UK

electronics industry has the potential to be great. However,

we won’t get there overnight, so we need to stop talking and

start collaborating.”

Holland: “The UK can lead new IoT product, software and

business models – we’re a nation of innovators and are

nimble enough to move quickly onto the next big thing.”

Boyd: “UK industry is well positioned to take advantage

of the permeation of electronic systems that will increase

over the next decade.”

Toon: “If we look back 15 or 20 years, there have been

some massive changes. I expect the same level of change

looking forward over the next 15 to 20 years. By 2025,

some of the most valuable companies listed on the London,

New York or Shanghai stock markets will be ones we have

never heard of – if just one of these new mega businesses

can emerge from the UK, that will be great.”

Rix: “There will continue to be a diverse ecosystem of

start-ups, design specialists, contract manufacturers and

global companies with R&D and manufacturing in the UK.

The decline of some global brands with signiHcant presence

in the UK will hit us and a signiHcant risk is that emerging

technology ‘unicorns’ will have no base here and will erode

some of our major export markets.”

King-Smith: “If we bring the electronics community

together to focus in key areas such as health, energy,

industrial and agriculture, then we can have a strong

industry that punches above its weight on the world

stage.”

UK ELECTRONICS TEN YEARS TIME


“If it ain’t

broke, don’t

fix it.”

Stephen

Pattison

“Government

should create an

attractive

environment for

entrepreneurship

and for

innovation.”

Nigel Toon

For the full answers from all participants, go to www.newelectronics.co.uk

The report of the Electronics Innovation and Growth

Team (EIGT), published in 2005, was intended to act

as a ‘wake up call’ for the UK’s electronics industry.

The report – Making a Visible Difference – reached a

number of conclusions, identiEed the challenges facing the

sector, some of the opportunities available and attempted

to provide a strategic way forward.

The EIGT’s work was directed by David Kynaston. At the

time, he said: “We have a stark choice; if we continue as

we are, the future for UK electronics will be as a bit player

on the world stage.”

To highlight the challenges and opportunities, the

report included a section called ‘peak and bleak

scenarios’ – looking forward 10 years to 2015 through a

crystal ball in an attempt to predict what might happen if

the recommendations were taken on board or not.

So, a decade later, have those scenarios come to pass?

Who better to ask than Kynaston?

How did he see the industry at the time? “Nobody

recognised electronics for what it was: a big piece of the

nation’s wellbeing. There was a severe lack of conEdence,”

he recalled. “Industry had just come out of the dot com

boom and bust and there was huge pressure on margins

and prices.

“It was a difEcult time; people didn’t know whether the

future was going to be design, development or R&D. There

was a lot of self doubt.”

Kynaston also noted the fragmentation of the industry.

“The big tier 1s, like Marconi, had gone and the tier 2s had

no reason to take on that coordination role. It was like

being in a mining village,” he said, “but on a bigger scale.”

Kynaston’s peaks and bleaks were categorised

under Eve headings: Government and industry;

market sectors and technology; innovation; supply

chain; and skills. Each contained a number of

predictions, extracts of which are shown below.

Government and industryPeak: ‘Government has a well informed

understanding of the electronics industry’.

Bleak: ‘The Government takes no notice of the

electronics industry’.

Kynaston is impressed with the way in which

Government now looks at the electronics industry.

“If you look at the Government today, while it has

squeezed resources available, it is still trying to

intervene or repair or facilitate things that is sees

as being important. When you compare that with

earlier times, when it was all about market forces,

things have changed for the better.”

He saw a signiEcant change in the

Government’s outlook taking place with the

arrival of Lord Sainsbury as minister for science

and innovation in 1998; a position he held until

2006. “Sainsbury left a huge legacy,” Kynaston

noted. “He raised the science agenda and that

hasn’t been challenged since.”

Kynaston believes that, since publication of

the EIGT’s report, the Government has been more focused.

“It’s been more prepared to intervene where necessary,” he

continued, “and hasn’t rubbished good policies.”

The EIGT report called for the establishment of the

Electronics Leadership Council (ELC), which foundered after

a couple of years. “There was never a clear relationship

between ELC, the UK Electronics Alliance and Government.

The need was obvious,” Kynaston reflected, “but the

execution was wanting. Now, with ESCO, there is a much

better relationship with Government. Time will tell whether

ESCO has a critical mass.”

InnovationPeak: ‘The UK is a centre of gravity for international activity

in new and emerging Eelds’.

Bleak: ‘There is a spiral downwards that is difEcult to pull

out of’.

When it comes to innovation, Kynaston appears to be

leaning towards the ‘peak’ prediction, rather than the

‘bleak’. “Have we grown big companies? We have seen

ARM grow over the last decade, but we’ve also established

that it’s possible for companies to be signiEcant on the

global stage without having a fab.

“This lack of semiconductor manufacturing capacity

hasn’t been an inhibitor when it comes to attracting major

designers of devices and applications. All of this has been

good for the UK.”

In the mid 1990s, industry was looking to production

overseas. “The pressure on margins and prices propelled

massive offshoring,” he pointed out. “This wasn’t just by

OEMs, it was also driven by customers insisting on it.


Peak orbleak?

Ten years ago, the EIGT Report presented the

electronics industry with some home truths.

Graham Pitcher asks EIGT chair David Kynaston

whether the messages have had the desired effect.

“We’re now seeing reshoring. Some of this is down to

the supply chain being full and to cost increases, but some

of it is also down to faulty decisions in the Erst place.”

He also sees the positive effect of the Technology

Strategy Board, now InnovateUK. “It has played a huge role

in the last 10 years; it gets lots of ‘ticks’ from me. It has a

good combined science agenda and has Elled large gaps in

the market. However, it can’t solve everything and the UK

does need a more effective manufacturing sector.”

Kynaston also gives credit to the Knowledge Transfer

Networks, KTNs. “These were recommended by the EIGT and

have been successful. They have since been amalgamated

into a larger organisation, which is correct, in my opinion.”

Supply chainPeak: ‘The UK maintains its position as a signiEcant EU

player in the global supply chain’.

Bleak: ‘Design follows manufacture abroad and the UK

simply becomes a sales base’.

One of the issues which Kynaston sees is that few

companies look at the design of their supply chain. “Do

they know how it works, what capital is needed, what the

lead times are and what the return path is? The big issue

for me is that few companies do landed cost analysis. It’s

a process still dominated by a purchasing mentality.”

But he points to the aerospace supply chain, involving

bodies such as the Advanced Manufacturing Supply Chain

Initiative (AMSCI) and the National Aerospace Technology

Programme. “By going to SMEs in the supply chain,” he

said, “many things are being handled by tier 3 companies.

“Bodies like AMSCI weren’t around 10 years ago and

have helped with things like access to Enance. Going

forward, I think we’ll have a revolution in sources of funding

for all companies.”

SkillsPeak: ‘The sector is seen as a good place to End a career’.

Bleak: ‘The UK electronics sector loses competitiveness

because it does not have the skills to innovate or compete’.

“Everyone recognised the signiEcance of skills,”

Kynaston said, “but there are still problems – for example,

involving women in technology. Skills, in general, are good,

as is training, but we need more apprenticeships.

“Silicon Valley’s success was all about talent moving to

the US and US government procurement. Our Government

recognises this, but is not solving the access problem.”

But the question of leadership quality lingers on. “What

more can be done?,” Kynaston wondered. “It’s a familiar

agenda and managers need as much help as they can get.

The owner/manager market is unlikely to see change, but

there’s no excuse for other companies.”

Concluding, Kynaston believes UK electronics ‘still

wants to get there’. “There has been an improvement in

self conEdence; now we need to take the next steps to

grow the industry and to improve access to markets.

“The industry remains fragmented,” he said, “but is that

a bad thing? It certainly does a better job than it did 10

years ago because companies are more hungry.”


INTERVIEW DAVID KYNASTON

10 YEARS AFTER THE EIGT REPORT

“There has been

an improvement in

self confidence;

now we need to

take the next steps

to grow the

industry.”

David Kynaston

Ph

oto

gra

ph

: C

ha

rle

s M

illi

ga

n


Struggling to compete on the global stage or a dynamic centre of innovation;

what is the state of play when it comes to UK plc? By Neil Tyler.

State of the nation


UK ELECTRONICS THE INNOVATION ENVIRONMENT

How can the UK pay its

way in the world? in the

late 1970s, the UK was

one of the most

research-intensive

economies in the world

but has been overtaken by the US,

Germany, Japan and France.

Today, manufacturing accounts for

just 10% of national income and many

critics argue that, over the past 30

years, Britain’s manufacturing base

has been dismantled, hollowed out,

sold off and is now largely managed

by other countries’ multinational Frms

with the result being that the ability of

the UK to innovate has been in

decline.

“There is a severe skills gap, while

the cost of developing and taking

innovative products to market is now

so high there is a real need for funding

technology research and development

support,” suggests Steve Applegate,

engineering director at Stadium Power.

But is this bleak picture accurate?

It’s probably the view that most people

tend to have of UK manufacturing, but

while we may not have the national

champions associated with Germany

or France, the UK remains a hub of

innovation in technologies ranging

from ‘big data’ to satellites, from life

sciences to advanced materials, and

from transport to regenerative

medicine.

“I would argue that the UK is still

an innovation economy,” says Kevin

Baughan, director of technology and

innovation at Innovate UK. “Innovation

is crucial in the environment in which

we compete as an economy, to raising

our productivity and in being able to

enter and exploit new markets. It is

crucial to the UK if we want to stay at

the forefront of the global economy.”

According to Henk Koopmans, chief

marketing ofFcer, Plextek Consulting:

“The UK has a highly entrepreneurial

culture and environment. Places like

Cambridge, London and Oxford – but

also elsewhere in the UK – are buzzing

with ideas from bright people and

these areas are among the most

exciting places in the world to work on

new technologies.”

Koopmans concedes this level of

creativity isn’t the same as the UK

being successful at innovation, where

innovation is the process of

commercialisation of a good idea.H

“While the UK’s highly

entrepreneurial culture means that

vast numbers of companies are set up

each year, their survival rate and

growth rate is poor.HThis is partly due

to the investment environment, which

has been tough especially in recent

years, but also down to a very poor

local supply chain in the various

industries, making it difFcult for small

companies to grow.

“Several reports (notably NESTA 6

Vital Growth report) have shown how

few start up (high growth) companies

grow into a sustainable business; only

3.5% of those companies have more

than 10 employees after 10 years in

business. Of course, there are plenty of

exciting exceptions hidden in this low

percentage.”

ARM tends to held up as an

example of a successful UK business,

with a history not dissimilar to some

of its Silicon Valley competitors.

“But ARM is not alone,” Koopmans

suggests. “There are several other

successful global companies that have

started in the UK. However, on a

macro-economic scale, it is very

difFcult to compete in a world where

countries like China, the US and

Germany have a massive home

market combined with a strong supply

chain.”

A major tactical shiftIn terms of research and development,

there seems to have been a major

tactical shift within the bigger

companies over recent years.

“They are now looking to work with

smaller, more agile, innovative

companies that are specialists in

particular Felds, as opposed to having

to do everything in house using their

own resources,” said Neill Rickett, CEO

of materials specialist Versarian.

“There are also a lot more

collaborations being done with

academic establishments to help fuel

this.

“Schemes like Patent Box are

proving useful, with companies

displaying true inventiveness getting

lower tax ratesHas a reward.HThe

Enterprise Investment Scheme is

helping small start-ups to attract

investors, while allowing them to

remain within a relatively low risk

environment.HThen there are the

government Local Enterprise

Partnerships that can support things

at a grass roots level.

“Small, innovative business has the

advice it needs and knows exactly

what assistance is available and how it

can be accessed.”

UK companies need to be more

aware of the level of investment they

are going to need to make and what

the return on that investment will be.

They also need to explore all their

options so they can identify which

option is likely to be the most cost-

effective way to do things.

While this may be true for all

companies it is especially so for

companies in the early phases of

development, since the funds available

to them will be limited.

InnovateUK, which looks to fund,

support and connect innovative

businesses and promote sustainable

economic growth, plays a pivotal role

within the UK in driving innovation and

promoting greater collaboration.

The organisation has prioritised

eight key areas where it will focus its

efforts (these range from big data and

energy harvesting to advanced

materials and nanotechnology). By

presenting companies with funding

opportunities and offering cross

department support, it can take

projects through the feasibility and

prototyping phases. UKTI can then step

in and take this further by helping

companies to promote and market

new products, as well as to help

accelerate potential export

opportunities.

“Innovate focuses on four key

questions when it looks at investing in

new opportunities,” explains Baughan.

“What is the size of the global market

associated with the opportunity; what

are the strengths which will allow the

“There seems to

be renewed

confidence, with

companies

embarking on

sizeable projects

once again and

start ups entering

the market.

George Acris

“Larger businesses

are now looking to

work with smaller,

more agile,

innovative

companies that are

specialists in

particular fields, as

opposed to having

to do everything in

house.”

Neill Rickett

UK ELECTRONICS THE INNOVATION ENVIRONMENT


UK to lead in this market; why is the

timing right; and why does this

particular project require public

money?”

There are a number of global

markets, whether energy or enabling

technologies, healthcare or space, high

value manufacturing or agriculture and

food, that play to the UK’s traditional

strengths. According to Baughan,

these include: “A world class research

base; the ability to combine existing

strengths in new ways; and our

growing ability to reGect a shared

ambition spanning research, industry

and government, as with our

programmes on low impact buildings.”

“Innovation is out there,” says

Baughan, “and we are seeing it across

all sectors and affecting all vertical

markets. It’s vibrant and critical to the

future of the UK. At Innovate, we need

to ensure that investments made

through our programmes lead to

economic growth in the UK.”

Growing design activityBaughan is not alone in suggesting

that design activity currently being

seen in the UK involves a wide variety

of industry sectors.

“The IoT is proving itself to be more

than just a buzzword,” suggests George

Acris, marketing director of

Microlease. “The true potential of this

technology is starting to be realised,

with opportunities opening up in all

manner of different areas. RF

communication will be of great

importance here, but it will also have

value in the automotive sector – there

is currently huge investment by UK

companies into connected cars.”

Microlease supplies test equipment

to a broad cross section of different

industries and, according to Acris, ‘acts

as a fairly accurate barometer of the

current condition of the UK’s tech

economy’.

According to Acris: “There seems to

be renewed conFdence, with

companies embarking on sizeable

projects once again and start ups

entering the market. However,

companies need to be smarter in

terms of how they go about things;

Fnding new ways to maximise their

available funds and then ensuring that

those funds are used with greater

efFciency. Nobody can afford to throw

money at projects anymore; every

penny needs to be put to good use.”

Craig Wright, CEO of Wright

Industries, believes that innovation is

affecting a broad swathe of

technologies.

“Demand for RF is increasing

dramatically, as is demand for high

temperature applications,

optoelectronics and power

management. Everyone is looking at

mobility and that applies to most

sectors.

“Investment and innovation is

signiFcantly higher than was the case

Fve years ago, but if the UK wants to

be successful, we will need to see

greater collaboration between

successful businesses – and there are

a growing number of innovative

engineering led businesses, whether

small or micro businesses, out there

doing exactly that.”

According to Wright, the creation of

a more extensive ecosystem will

enable a greater level of technology

exchange than was previously the

case, and this will help to increase

high value manufacturing in the UK.

Whilst greater collaboration is seen

as an essential driver for innovation,

access to the correct skills is another

critical factor in successfully

commercialising an idea.

“In some cases, start-ups have a

really good idea, but they aren’t going

to succeed because of a lousy

management team or poorly executed

strategy,” argues Rickett.H“It’s all about

having the right people and the right

support.HLearning from others is

important too and this is deFnitely

something that UK industry needs to

recognise.”

Organisations like SetSquared have

been able to provide start-ups with

mentoring opportunities, enabling

them to call on the experience of

seasoned industry veterans so they are

better prepared to deal with the

challenges they face.

Dr Ebrahim Bushehri, CEO of Lime

Microsystems and based at Surrey

University in Guildford used

SetSquared when establishing his

company, now a leading supplier of

Feld programmable RF transceivers for

wireless broadband applications.

“In our Frst six months SetSquared

really helped us to get up and

running,” he explains. “They provided

us with facilities to work out of, put us

in touch with experts with experience

of establishing and running start-ups

and crucially they helped us prepare

for our Frst round of funding, running

question and answer sessions with us

before we met investors and secured

the long-term investment we needed.”

Creativity and innovationA successful business requires

creativity and innovation, but both

require different skills and attitudes.

“There is a huge difference

between creativity and innovation and

the two should be treated very

differently,” said Koopmans.H“To

stimulate creativity, you need to

encourage, stimulate and set

challenges, whilst getting rid of rules

and processes.HThe moment you are

trying to develop a ‘process for

creativity’, you’ve probably killed it.H

“We have a very individualistic

culture in the UK, so as a nation, we’re

very good at being creative, although it

isn’t always recognised in individual

companies.

“When it comes to innovation, I do

think we struggle a bit, partly because

of the transition from free spirit

thinking to more process orientated,

organisational behaviour; it is very

difFcult for a designer to ‘let go’ of

their design to a team whose focus is

purely on ‘taking it to market’.”H

The UK is home to a growing

number of forward thinking innovative

companies investing in new, disruptive

ideas and although the prospects for

mass volume production remain

challenging, the outlook in research

and development is far more positive.

No one can be complacent but the

foundations for a more robust, high

achieving tech industry are certainly in

place here in the UK.H

“As a nation,

we’re very good

at being creative,

although it isn’t

always

recognised in

individual

companies.”

Henk Koopmans

“We need to

ensure that

investments made

through our

programmes lead

to economic

growth in the UK.”

Kevin Baughan

20

Where design ideas

come together21 - 22 October 2015

Jaguar Exhibition Hall • Ricoh Arena • Coventry

www.electronicsdesignshow.co.uk www.embeddeddesignshow.co.uk

Headline sponsors


The UK has always had the

reputation of being a trading

nation, yet a quick look at the

balance of payments show that

imports continue to dominate exports;

in fact, it’s 30 years since the balance

of trade was positive. In May 2015,

the value of exports was £25.8billion,

while imports were worth £32.8bn – a

£7bn trade gap. The top Ive trading

partners were Germany, the US, China,

the Netherlands and France.

The Chancellor George Osborne

noted in his recent budget that the

UK’s trade balance as a share of GDP

has improved slightly, from -2.4% in

2010 to -2% in 2014. But he also

pointed out the OfIce for Budget

Responsibility’s forecast that, while

exports will grow by 3.8% in 2015 and

2016, they will be offset by a similar

growth in imports.

Taking advantage of opportunities?Will UK electronics companies beneIt

from the increased focus on exports?

There is suspicion that smaller

companies are having problems

getting access to overseas markets;

those responding to a recent New

Electronics survey cited access to

markets as one of the critical issues

facing either the industry or their

company.

So are smaller electronics

companies in the UK looking to export

or are they more focused on business

at home? Ken Ball, electronics

manufacturing and supply chain

programme manager with techUK, said

it was a mixed picture. “Some have a

keen export outlook, but identifying

export opportunities can be difIcult,”

he said.

And are those companies looking to

grow their international business

having problems accessing markets?

“Tradeshow Access Programme (TAP)

funding through UK Trade and

Investment (UKTI) is always very

helpful,” he noted, “but not all SMEs

realise that it is available. Companies

need to plan up to a year ahead for

major shows, such as electronica, but

UKTI funding is often not Inalised until

a few months before the show.”

Asked whether it is now easier for

companies to access international

The focus is on exports, but will smaller UK companies be able

to take advantage? By Graham Pitcher

Selling to the world

markets, Ball noted the UK electronics

design and manufacturing industry is

focused largely on high value, high

margin products that are world class

and, by implication, those companies’

services should be in demand.

“The problem is that, although UKTI

is very keen to help to open up new

markets through funded trade

missions, it doesn’t always take into

account the realities of exporting

electronics. Some of the products from

these companies are then caught by

export licensing restrictions. This can –

and has – led to companies winning

orders, only to Ind they can’t get the

necessary licenses to export the

products.”

If companies are looking to enter

the export market for the Irst time,

UKTI is looking to help. Lord Maude,

minister for Trade and Investment,

announced in May a programme of

expert advice and support targeted at

those companies looking to address

international markets for the Irst time.

The move was timed to mark the

beginning of the latest Export Week.

Another Export Week is planned for

November, with a series of events

planned to take place around the UK,

all aimed at those looking to start or

increase their international business.

According to UKTI, previous Export

Weeks have seen more than 27,000

UK companies attend the various

exporting focused events and it claims

that companies who work with it are

likely to add £100,000 to their sales

within 18 months.

The First Time Exporters (FTE)

initiative announced by Lord Maude is

a support package which includes

training and advice, as well as the

opportunity to take part in trade

missions to nearby markets to help

develop contacts. FTE also helps

those considering exporting for the

Irst time to take advantage of digital

opportunities, with dedicated digital

trade advisers and an online planning

tool.

“We hope the launch of First Time

Exporters will encourage more

companies to take their Irst steps on

the export journey and take advantage

of the demand for British goods and

services that exists overseas,” he said

“Last year, we saw 48,000

companies draw on UKTI support;

these businesses went on to create or

safeguard 220,440 additional jobs. I

would urge businesses of all sizes to

use this opportunity to Ind out more

about the services that are available

to them through UKTI, regardless of

their level of exporting experience.”

From techUK’s perspective, what is

the best way to go about entering the

export market? Should companies try

to ‘go it alone’, join a supply chain or

use local distributors?

Ball said: “If a supply chain exists,

then it is a lower risk option. However,

the UK supply chain is not well

understood nor mapped out by

government or by industry, so overseas

supply chains will be even more

difIcult to navigate.

“Distributors can work well, but you

do need personal knowledge and

recommendations of who to use in

order to make that successful.

“We have run brokerage sessions

at European trade shows that have

linked UK SMEs with those visiting.

Being part of an industry network is

probably the best approach to Inding

the right channel.”

These brokerage events have shown

that Tier 1 companies from the Far

East and Europe recognise and value

the innovation available from UK SMEs

and from micro companies – those with

less than 10 employees. “Companies

we have worked with over the last year

have been pleasantly surprised at the

talent available,” Ball continued.

But what could be done better?

That was the question asked by two

members of the last Shadow Cabinet.

Ed Balls, shadow chancellor, and

Chuka Umunna, shadow industry

secretary, commissioned Graham Cole,

chairman of AgustaWestland UK to Ind

out. The terms of reference were to

provide an independent report on how

government should support exporters

through skills, including in the area of

languages, Inance and access to

markets, as well as how government

export schemes can be simpliIed and

streamlined.

According to Cole, the report is ‘a

brief from business to the Government

that should inspire immediate action’.

“While some of our recommendations

will take time to implement, owing to

the nature of the reforms proposed,

delaying action on these items for fear

of complexity will ensure we remain in

the export slow lane.”

Cabinet level leadershipThe report recommends Ive action

areas: cabinet level leadership to drive

exports; reform to the relationship

between UK Export Finance (UKEF)

and UKTI; a ‘one stop shop’ for export

support; a public procurement strategy

that brings UK SMEs into the supply

chain; and getting trade and exports

on the education agenda.

If the Government is serious about

exports, the report contends, it needs

to commit resources and, most of all,

the highest possible political

leadership within Cabinet and across

Whitehall.

In its conclusion, the report says

‘an exports led recovery lies at the

heart of the new Government’s

economic policy. [This] Commission’s

role from the outset has been to

support that priority by examining and

reporting on what business wants

from the Government towards that

shared goal.

It notes ‘These proposals for

action are critical if we are to achieve

a step change in the UK’s export

performance. They emerge from

within business and are designed to

help UK companies seize the

extraordinary opportunities of the

global economy’.


UK ELECTRONICS GROWING MARKETS

“Delaying action

on these items …

will ensure we

remain in the

export slow lane.”

Graham Cole

“[UKTI] doesn’t

always take into

account the

realities of

exporting

electronics.”

Ken Ball

The launch of FirstTime Exporters willencourage more

companies to taketheir first steps on theexport journey and

take advantage of thedemand for Britishgoods and servicesthat exists overseas


Innovation plays an important role in

sustaining growth and

competitiveness and a significant

part in the success, or otherwise, of

an economy.

Recent research by the Enterprise

Research Centre found the UK has

what it described as a ‘clear arc of

innovation’ running from Cambridge

through the south east Midlands and

along the M4 corridor taking in

Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire.

The research was based on six key

factors, including the new products

being brought to market, levels of R&D

and collaboration activity. Although it

found that while, in general, there was

less innovation activity in more

northern and peripheral areas, there

were pockets of ‘above average’

innovation right across the UK.

According to the report’s lead

author Stephen Roper: “The findings

run counter to the dominant narrative

of a country dependent on London,

with innovation being much more

dispersed than was previously thought.

“Innovation is strongly linked to

growth, exports and productivity – all

areas in which the UK economy needs

to improve if we want to boost our

international competitiveness.”

Roper argues that policymakers

and researchers need to examine the

local factors that could be contributing

to regional variations so the UK could

better create the conditions for firms

to ‘become more innovative, creating

24

jobs and growth in every corner of

the UK’.

According to Kevin Baughan,

director of technology and innovation

at InnovateUK: “Innovation is taking

place right across the UK. From our

experiences, there is no so called

’golden triangle phenomenon’. We are

seeing strong innovation taking place

across areas like the North East and

South West and it is certainly not

centred around London and the South.

“Just as it is important that

research, innovation and

commercialisation is developed across

all parts of the economy, so is it

important to society that it is now

developed right across all parts of the

UK. InnovateUK’s role is to respond to

Joining hands

Where is innovation taking place in the UK and how are university-business collaborations

driving the commercialisation of new ideas? By Neil Tyler.

the innovation needs of businesses,

wherever they are located, as well as

developing the strengths of local areas

in pursuit of future global markets.”

In this month’s budget, the

Chancellor, George Osborne, spoke of

the importance of encouraging and

promoting innovation and will be

inviting universities, Local Enterprise

Partnerships (LEPs), businesses and

city councils to work with each other to

map regional strengths in science and

innovation, to identify ‘areas of

strategic focus for different regions’

through a series of science and

innovation audits.

The Government will look to invite

universities to develop proposals for

supporting local collaboration, building

on successful university collaborative

partnership models such as the N8,

M6 and GW4, which will then be

supported through funding streams

such as the Research Partnership

Investment Fund.

Craig Wright, CEO of Wright

Industries, a specialist technology,

business growth and acquisition

investment group believes the UK has

seen a marked surge in innovation and

greater corporate creativity.

“Research and development is

certainly recovering and, from the

evidence I see, there is more

investment in innovation, driven in no

small part by the huge investment

we’ve been seeing in universities,

which are fast becoming centres of

excellence, supporting businesses

across numerous sectors.”

Neill Rickett, CEO of Versarian, a

developer of advanced engineering

materials, agrees: “Generally, hives of

activity build up around universities, as

theGtech culture that exists

there is a powerful catalyst

for innovation, as well as

being a valuable pool for

recruiting engineering staff.

Key locations include

Cambridge, Southampton,

London, Oxford, Liverpool and

Manchester.

“We have worked very

closely with the Materials

Science Department at

University ofGLiverpool on the

development of our thermal

management solutions and the

University of Manchester (along with

the National Graphene Institute) has

proved an important partner for us in

relation to our graphene manufacturing

division 2-DTech. In both

cases, we have been able to

form mutually beneFcially

relationships – so that game

changing IP can be

commercialised.”

University research

collaborations have a key

role to play in taking

technical innovations and

turning them into viable

commercial propositions.

In Belfast the Centre for

Secure Information

Technology (CSIT) at Queen’s

University supports work being done to

enhance security in virtual

environments and connected devices,

tackle malware threats and detect and

prevent fraud.

This CSIT is one of seven

Innovation and Knowledge Centres

being funded by the Engineering and

Physical Sciences Research Council

(EPSRC). Supported by co-funding from

InnovateUK and the Biotechnology and

Biological Sciences Research Council

(BBSRC), these centres look to

commercialise emerging technologies

through creating early stage critical

mass is areas of disruptive technology.

“Queen’s focus on cyber security

has helped to create a cluster of

technology companies and is boosting

both innovation and facilitating the

commercialisation of cutting edge

technologies,” suggests Baughan.

“There are more than 250 companies

working around the university and more

than 900 new jobs have

been created as a result.”

“Over the last Fve

years, we have

successfully blended world

class research and

innovation to deliver

economic impact

nationally, internationally

and regionally,” explained

Professor John McCanny

from CSIT.

Looking to the future,

how can the UK accelerate

economic growth and productivity both

locally and regionally?

Innovate UK and the Research

Councils have a powerful role to play in

that process because, by looking at

previous investments, they

will be able to create a

geographic picture right

across the UK.

“If we can see where

businesses and

universities are investing,

we can see where our

economy is heading and

how we are thinking about

the future,” explains

Baughan. “This will help

provide everyone involved

in technology and

innovation with a very

different, evidence based discussion

about local and regional economic

growth and how it can be best

supported to get the biggest impact.”

The recently published Dowling

Review of Business-University

Research Collaborations made a

number of recommendations including

reducing complexity, fostering

relationships and introducing effective

brokerage, particularly for small

businesses.

Collaborations between business

and universities provide a ‘myriad of

beneFts to their participants’, says

the report (for more, see p29).

Investment in collaborative

research R&D delivers numerous

beneFts to the UK, helping to drive

growth and productivity improvements

for Frms and high quality research

outputs. The report, however, warned

that the UK was failing to fully reap the

beneFts provided by the opportunity to

connect innovative businesses with

the excellence in the UK’s academic

research base.

Despite that, the UK remains a

good place to set up and run a

business.

Rickett concluded: “Yes, it is tough

and there is a lot of competition, so

we can’t afford to be complacent. But

I’m a Frm believer that the

Government, working with universities

and business, is building a strong

foundation for a robust, high

achieving UK tech industry.”G


UK ELECTRONICS INNOVATION LOCATIONS

“Generally hives of

activity build up

around universities,

as the tech culture

that exists there is

a powerful catalyst

for innovation, as

well as being a

valuable pool for

recruiting

engineering staff.”

Neill Rickett

“Over the last five

years, we have

successfully

blended world

class research and

innovation to

deliver economic

impact nationally,

internationally and

regionally.”

Professor John

McCanny


Electronics continues to find

itself integrating deeper and

deeper into the lives of

consumers, and the ubiquity of

smartphones, electric cars,

entertainment systems, and energy-

efficient homes and lighting should be

creating a boom time for the industry.

Indeed, it is hard to find products

where the electronics is not now

firmly the glue that makes everything

work and come alive.

The UK, however, continues to slip

further behind in the fabrication and

manufacture of these products, with

a recent IBISWorld report showing a

nearly 3% annualised drop in

production over the last 10 years –

which is forecast to continue over the

next 10 years. The reasons for this

are generally economic in nature,

with manufacturers continually

moving production to lower cost

regions such as Eastern Europe,

China and the Far East.

Although there are some signs of a

slowdown in the rate of production

growth in China – due to the

introduction of minimum wages and

growing standards of living – the UK is

always likely to be a more expensive

geography to manufacture in.

Although the prospects for mass

volume production remain challenging,

the outlook in research and

development is looking healthier. To

understand why, it is necessary to take

a step back and look at the nature of

complex modern systems. For

example, within the medical electronics

sector, new diagnostic and powered

surgical systems appear largely as

software systems. Indeed, the

boundaries between software and

electronics continue to blur to the point

where many recent graduates in

electronic engineering, when

commencing work, do not know how to

solder proficiently. In fact many

companies now have informal lists of

universities where they can still expect

graduates to have plenty of hands-on

experience.

Should this trend worry UK plc? On

recent analysis, the answer is ‘yes’

and ‘no’ in equal measures,

depending on your viewpoint.

Electronic systems are moving

more and more to a model where a

defined set of highly complex

modules, often implemented in the

form of an ASIC or complex board, is

replicated in high volume at a low-

cost centre.

It is now economically unviable to

try to design the complex circuitry and

software for a small footprint, high

function device from scratch. Indeed, it

is highly unlikely that any company –

including large multinational consumer

companies – would design a Bluetooth

module and software stack, let alone

contemplate building a processor.

As these critical components gain

in power, the number of ancillary

components falls – leaving less for

the electronics engineer to add and

pushing more functionality

26

While the UK may be well positioned to maintain its global

position in the development of complex systems

monetised through the protection of IP licensing, it should

not rest on its laurels, according to Symon Cotton.

Monetisinginnovation

Electronic systems

are moving more

and more to a

model where a

defined set of

highly complex

modules is

replicated in high

volume at a low

cost centre

implementation on to software

engineers.

This is an area, however, where the

UK excels. Designing the core

functional blocks requires teams of

highly educated engineers whose input

is critically leveraged by manufacture

in high volumes, often outside the UK.

As the output is amplified by mass

production, the importance of absolute

wage levels and company overheads is

far less significant. Engineers hired

into such companies are gated by

technical performance, not, in general,

by salary caps.

In addition, the UK has a well-

proven and effective legal system

which allows the protection of designs

and, critically, their monetisation

through licensing. This infrastructure is

as essential as top-class engineers

turn brilliant design into profit.

Poster childARM is the ‘poster child’ of this

approach, generating highly complex

IC designs which licensed for others

to build. ARM is known to the public

as an electronics company but, if you

visit, you would be hard pushed to

know this – what you would actually

see are engineers working hard using

computers. To the untrained eye, they

could be doing anything – critically,

there are no soldering irons or

machines populating PCBs. This

model is replicated in ARM’s backyard,

with a similar story being played out

from companies such as CSR and the

large Cambridge contract research

and development companies, such as

Cambridge Consultants, where the

use of complex modelling and design

simulators is used to confirm designs.

Given this is the reality of the

modern electronics world, the UK

should embrace and leverage further

the advantages and critical mass it

has. The increasing blurring of

software and electronics should be

encouraged, rather than shied away

from. While it is true that most

electronic designs are controlled by

software, it is critical that this software

is written by engineers with a firm

understanding and feeling for the

realities of physical implementation.

To summarise, the UK electronics

industry is highly effective where

complex designs are replicated in

lower cost manufacturing centres, with

income being returned through the use

of IP licensing. The good news is that

many industry sectors are moving in a

direction where this business model is

particularly applicable.

Within medical electronics, for

example, a current theme is the

movement of diagnostic and patient

management closer to the patient and

away from secondary care centres.

With many patients having long-

term health issues, accurate

monitoring of known conditions – as

opposed to a wide range of diagnostic

tests – is leading to an increase in

patient independence and a lowering

in health costs.

In general, any system which can

reduce the time and frequency of

patient visits to hospital can show

significant cost savings. Such systems

have two major requirements – firstly,

to maintain diagnostic accuracy and,

secondly, to reduce the cost of

manufacture. This creates an

environment where a fundamental

knowledge of measurement principles,

coupled with an ability to condense

complex behaviour into a small

number of significant components,

creates a competitive advantage. This

falls firmly into the areas in which the

UK does well – complex design which

can be manufactured, with income

returning through IP agreements.

Transport is another area with

significant growth potential for the UK.

The growth of the electronic and hybrid

vehicle sector is leading to complex

and critical control systems that

require manufacture in high volume. In

addition to this, conditions similar to

the medical sector exist where the

enforcement of licensing is relatively

straightforward.

Wireless communication again

provides a fertile environment where

the UK’s strengths can be applied. The

combination of high volume and high-

complexity parts offering significant

functionality provides an ideal situation

to leverage engineers where technical

ability and a critical knowledge base of

staff can be used to deliver

performance and cost improvements

for end users.

Such analogies can be extended to

the development of smart cities and

the ubiquitous ‘Internet of Things’,

where complex, cost-sensitive parts

manufactured in high volume are

changing the technological landscape.

Although the UK is well positioned

to maintain its global position in the

development of such complex

systems monetised through the

protection of IP licensing, it should not

rest on its laurels. China is producing

20 times the number of skilled

graduates as the UK, India eight

times. The UK currently has the critical

mass and incumbent position, but

needs to concentrate on developing

and attracting key talent as well as the

legal frameworks necessary to ensure

it remains a safe place to develop

long-term critical components.


UK ELECTRONICS COMMERCIALISATION

Photo: Dean Smith, Camera Crew

Symon Cotton is

leader of the

electronics group in

the medical

technology division

of Cambridge

Consultants

Within medical

electronics, for

example, a

current theme is

the movement of

diagnostic and

patient

management

closer to the

patient and away

from secondary

care centres.

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Despite efforts to turn things

around, there remains the

feeling that work done in UK

universities isn’t finding its

way into the hands of UK companies

that might be able to exploit it.

One reason put forward in the past

is that academia and business operate

on different timescales; universities

may be talking 10 years to

commercialisation, whilst business

isn’t interested in something that

doesn’t bring them a quick return on an

investment. And this gap has become

known as the ‘valley of death’.

Yet there are partnerships between

universities and business which are

making headway, but not all are as

successful as they might be and a

recent report commissioned by the

Department for Business, Innovation

and Skills addressed the reasons why.

Chairing the report was Professor

Dame Ann Dowling, president of the

Royal Academy of Engineering. Her

report – compiled after regional

meetings, workshops and more than

210 written submissions from

academia and industry – found the

complexity of existing support

mechanisms creates frustration and

confusion and means the UK is not

reaping the full potential of its

opportunity to connect businesses

with the ‘excellent research’ being

done in UK universities.

“Business-university research

collaboration is an important part of

the innovation ecosystem,” said Prof

Dowling, “but innovation is a complex,

non linear activity. This has resulted in

a complex policy support mechanism

for innovation that presents a barrier

to business engagement, especially

for small businesses. Government

has a crucial role to play in creating

the right conditions for effective

collaboration between academia and

industry.”

She added: “We need a change of

culture in our universities to support

and encourage collaboration with

industry. In the UK, we can be a bit

dismissive about research that

actually has an application but, in

reality, such use-inspired research can

be truly excellent.

“Access to industry projects was

cited very positively by the

researchers we consulted – they want

to be working on these challenging

and interesting projects with

demonstrable impact and excellent

career prospects.”

One of the issues identi:ed by the

report – The Dowling Review of

Business-University Research

Collaborations – was the need for

effective brokerage. According to the

report, brokerage requires tools to

make it easier for companies to :nd

research which matches their

interests. ‘At present’, the report

notes, ‘no UK wide service exists that

adequately addresses this need’.

The report also highlights the fact

that the Catapult network is now an

integral part of UK innovation. But, for

the network to continue to ;ourish, it

needs to receive long term, sustained

support from Government. Prof

Dowling also believes the number of

Catapults should grow, but only with

additional funding, and that Catapult

performance should be measured, in

part, by the success of their

engagements with academia.

Prof Dowling also pointed out the

need for funding to kick start such

collaborations, acknowledging the role

played by InnovateUK and the

Knowledge Transfer Partnerships.

Called ‘pump prime funding’ in the

report, this money would ‘stimulate

the development of high quality

research collaborations with critical

mass and sustainability’. It is

suggested that the money, which


UK ELECTRONICS DESIGN+

BEYOND THE TECHNOLOGY

Breaking down barriersNew report looks at ways to improve the commercialisation of university research. By Graham Pitcher.

“Government has a

crucial role to play in

creating the right

conditions for

effective

collaboration

between academia

and industry.”

Prof Dowling

UK ELECTRONICS DESIGN+

BEYOND THE TECHNOLOGY


would come from public and private

sources, be allocated as Awards in

Collaborative Excellence. These

Awards should cover employment

costs of researchers for at least :ve

years, with the industry partner

expected to commit to funding the

research carried out by the team.

Grants, the report continues, would

be awarded on the basis of the

strength of the proposed research, the

quality of the research team and the

level of commitment from the

partners. ‘Experience with existing

schemes suggests a very favourable

return on investment could be

achieved’, says the report.

Commenting, Prof Dowling said:

“Solutions to everyday problems could

be sitting in a lab right now but,

without the conversation with industry,

they could be missed.” But she also

recognises that academia has to ‘get

out into industry’ in order to inform its

research. “It is vital that research

students in appropriate disciplines

spend some time in industry in order

to get a new perspective on their own

research, expand knowledge and build

relationships. They should also

receive training, particularly around

entrepreneurship.”

Some of the report’s

recommendations are already in

place; the role of Technology Transfer

Of:ces is noted. But the report urges

these of:ces to take a longer term

view of commercialising research, not

to use it for short term revenue

generation. ‘Notwithstanding the

substantial work already undertaken

to improve approaches to establishing

contracts and IP agreements, this

area remains a major source of

frustration for both academics and

businesses’, the report :nds.

The Government also comes in for

some criticism, with a range of

recommendations. Included is the call

for the Government to use innovation

as the core component of policies

which are aimed at promoting

productivity and competitiveness, as

well as a recommendation that it

should prioritise an increased

investment in industrial sectors of

strategic importance.

‘InnovateUK should be tasked with

monitoring investment levels in R&D

across industrial strategy sectors and

managing the matched funding stream

from Government’, it notes.

The report also says that

collaborative research can help

companies to improve their business

performance through developing new

techniques or technologies, derisking

investment in research and extending

the capabilities and expertise available

to them. It also :nds that investment

in collaborative R&D delivers ‘real

bene:ts’ to the UK, driving growth and

productivity improvements for :rms

and high quality research outputs.

‘It is clear that the UK has played

host to many successful business-

university collaborations. Yet it is also

clear that the UK is not reaping the

full potential provided by the

opportunity to connect innovative

businesses – from the UK and

overseas – with the excellence in the

UK’s academic research base.

Government has a crucial role in

fostering the conditions under which

these collaborations can happen at

scale and deliver enduring impacts for

all parties involved’ it concludes.

30

The top 10 success factors

were:

• Strong, trusted personal

relationships

• Shared vision and

objectives

• Mutual understanding

• The ability for staff to work

across institutional

boundaries

• Collaboration brings

mutual benefits

• Funding is available

• Processes are in place for

contracts and IP

• Clear and effective

communication

• Organisational support,

with senior management

‘buy in’

• Willingness to devote time

and resources

The top five barriers for

business were:

• IP and contract

negotiations were difficult

• Difficult to identify

academic partners

• Different timescales

• Lack of funding

• Lack of alignment of

objectives

For academia, the top five

barriers were:

• Universities prioritise high

quality publications

• IP and contract

negotiations were difficult

• Time pressures

• Lack of funding

• Collaboration not valued

as part of career

progression

What works and what doesn’t

The report examined why collaborations work and, importantly, why they don’t.

Prof Dowling’s report

says it is clear the

UK is not reaping the

full potential

provided by the

opportunity to

connect innovative

businesses with the

excellence in the

UK’s academic

research base

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Astute Electronics delivers Near Eye Displayminiature OLED displays from MICROOLED

Low power technology provides sharp images even in low light

Astute Electronics, the leading supplier of electronic components and valueadded services, today announced the signing of a worldwide franchiseagreement with MICROOLED of Grenoble, France, a pioneer in the field of small,high definition, low power OLED displays that target Near-Eye Display (NED)applications such as video glasses, head-mounted sports devices, camera viewfinders, medicalapplications and many other professional devices. MICROOLED’s low voltage device architecture featuresa unique sub-pixel arrangement resulting in highest pixel density and lowest power.

The design of MICROOLED’s displays provides ultra-high contrast, ensuring ‘black is black’ which isessential for high image quality. Unlike other displays, no ‘grid matrix’ is visible, further improvingresolution, and the manufacturing technology enables a wide viewing angle with no loss in contrast orchanges in colour.

FCI’s Minitek Pwr Hybrid connectors

ww

w.ttieurope.com

@: [email protected]✆: +49 8142 6680 – 0

FCI’s Minitek Pwr Hybridconnectors featuring an improvedand flexible modular design nowavailable through TTI, Inc.

TTI, Inc., a world leading specialist distributor of passive,connector, electromechanical and discretecomponents, now stocks a large range of positionsensors for harsh environments from Vishay - MCBSfernice in Europe. The components benefit from aeexcellent resistance to vibrations, shocks, and humidity, which increases the sensing performance andreliability in many different transportation applications.

PMA/PMC series sensors are ultra-thin (< 1mm), water-sealed, easy to assemble and have a highintegration capacity and a theoretical electrical travel of 10mm up to 250mm. Benefiting from a veryhigh durability they are ideally suited for seat position, wheel position, and steering control.

ZTE Chooses Lattice Semiconductor

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w.latticesem

i.com

@: [email protected]✆: 408-616-4017

ZTE Chooses Lattice Semiconductor forFeature Differentiation and Integrationon Star 2 Smartphone

Phone giant uses smart programmability of iCE40 LM FPGA toimplement key features in its latest flagship smartphone

Lattice Semiconductor Corporation (NASDAQ: LSCC), the leadingprovider of customizable smart connectivity solutions, todayannounced its iCE40 LM FPGA has been integrated in therecently released ZTE Star 2 flagship smartphone to perform IRremote control, and sensor hub functions.

From wearables to smartphones, the iCE40 LM family of devices offer exceptionally low powerconsumption and extremely small footprint – and have been specifically designed to enablemanufacturers of mobile consumer products to implement top of line features fast and efficiently,without sacrificing performance.

high-precision, miniature semiconductor pressure sensors

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w.eu.industrial.panasonic.com

@: [email protected]✆: +49 89 46159 373

Semiconductor sensors from Panasonic canhandle pressures from very low to very high

Versions available with built-in amplification and temperaturecompensation

Panasonic Automotive & Industrial Systems has introduced a broad range ofhigh-precision, miniature semiconductor pressure sensors that can handlepressure. They are available with built-in amplification and temperaturecompensation cicuitry (PS-A units). Precision sensors without amplifier andopen wheatstone measurement bridge are also available and in ultra-miniaturised sizes (PS). There arealso versions with chamfered pins for improved ease of DIP pin insertion into PCBs.

The PS-A units come in three types. The standard type with a glass base can handle pressures from±100kPa to -1000kPa with a total accuracy of ±1.25%. The economy type without a glass base is for40kPa pressures and ±4% accuracy and the low-pressure version is for 6kPa and ±2.5% accuracy.Footprint is 7.0 by 7.2mm (10.4 by 10.4mm for the low-pressure type).

GaN Systems power transistors are 50% smaller

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w.gansystem

s.com

@: [email protected]✆: +1 (613) 686-1996 ext. 149 (office)

GaN Systems power transistors are50% smaller

‘GaN power transistor market accelerating quickly’ saysCEO reconfirming lead position

GaN Systems, the leading developer of gallium nitride powerswitching semiconductors, today confirmed the world’ssmallest 650V, 15A gallium nitride transistor. With a footprintof just 5.0 x 6.5mm, the GS66504B – one of a family of 650Vdevices that spans 7A to 200A – is 50% smaller than competing devices.

Comments Jim Witham, CEO GaN Systems: “We were somewhat surprised to see announcements at lastweek’s PCIM power electronics exhibition and conference that trumpeted gallium nitride 600V, 15Adevices in 8x8mm dual-flat no-lead (DFN) packaging as the ‘industry’s smallest’ enhancement modedevices - our part is clearly much smaller. But I suppose this is just an indication of how quickly the GaNmarket is moving, and a positive indication that silicon has reached its limits.”

EZBoardWare

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w.harw

in.com

@: [email protected]✆: 603-952-3106

Harwin expands popularEZBoardWare Test Points rangewith two small size versions forPCBs where space is at apremium

Due to the industry’s ever increasing demand formore functionality in ever decreasing PCB space,e.g. in hand held devices, Harwin, the leading hi-relconnector and SMT board hardware manufacturer,has recently expanded its popular EZBoardWareportfolio with new, small size and low profileversions of surface mount Test Points. The two new Test Points are designed to match the 2012 and1608 metric (0805 and 0603 imperial) electronic package sizes, whilst providing secure connectionpoints and allowing test engineers to clip on industry standard micro test clips.

Mount any fibre optic diode in any housing

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w.om

c-uk.com

@: [email protected]✆: +44-1209-215424

OMC offers to mount any fibre optic diodein any housing

New ‘mix & match’ service from fibre optic component specialist

OMC, the pioneer in optoelectronics manufacturing, has announceda new service, enabling engineers to choose exactly the right fibreoptic diode for their application and have it mounted in theirpreferred package.

Although the company offers a wide standard range of packaged transmitters and receivers, OMCrecognises that sometimes designers have specific requirements which demand a custom approach.Comments OMC’s Commercial Director, William Heath: “We regularly get approached by people who haveidentified a diode which is a perfect match for their needs, but find that it is not available in a housing, orin the specific housing that they need. As the housing itself - as well as the way the diode is mounted inthe housing - can have serious implications for system performance, we decided to offer a ‘mix andmatch’ service – you specify housing and diode, we’ll look after the mounting process.”

ANSMANN’s Li-Ion Range

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w.ansm

ann.co.uk

@: [email protected]✆: +44 (0) 870 609 2233

Complete range of standard Lithium Ionbatteries and chargers from stock

With more devices using Li-Ion battery technology, one of Germany’slargest battery and charger manufacturers has introduced a range ofstandard battery packs and chargers.

> ‘Turnkey’ solution – battery and charger from one source

> ISO 9001 quality accredited factories in Germany and China

> Medically accredited EN ISO 13485 battery pack assembly line

> In-house design and modification to customer specification

> Transportation testing facility to UN 38.3

> UK Offices with professional quality, engineer and enquiries team

Call Marc Young on 01322 221144 Technology Update

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