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Britain buys semiconductor factory for defence purposes

ukdefencejournal.org.uk

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Re: Britain buys semiconductor factory for defence purposes

#31

Post by rappatic »

_heimdall wrote: post #30

This sure feels like yet another sign that major global powers are all gearing up for war. This could be as benign as a government ensuring that the 100 jobs aren't lost, but given everything going in in both Europe and the Middle East it sure seems like more than saving such a comparatively small number of jobs. They could have just signed large(r) contracts with the company to financially secure the company, acquis…

Off-topic as far as the article above goes, but do you think it's more likely for global(-ish?) war to erupt because of Europe/Middle East compared to Taiwan? A lot of the discussion around global war pre-2022 was for the late 2020s when China attempts to invade Taiwan. I personally doubt the major global powers will allow the conflicts in Israel and Ukraine to escalate to Western countries actually engaging in combat (but they do seem to want to personally defend Taiwan).

Re: Britain buys semiconductor factory for defence purposes

#32

Post by jldugger »

ineedasername wrote: post #28
stainablesteel wrote: post #26

microchips aren't going to do much in a fire fight, they should probably re-industrialize

Small arms dumb weapons aren’t going to do much by themselves either. Anything more than a rifle? Chips

I think it's the [artillery shells](https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/ukraine-...) that's been a bottleneck thus far in Ukraine. It's like NATO keeps around 3 serious war days worth of ammunition on stock.

Re: Britain buys semiconductor factory for defence purposes

#33

Post by momoschili »

kragen wrote: post #23

what a load of crap 'With global semiconductor demand rising, this move positions the UK to meet future technological needs, including advancements in artificial intelligence, quantum technologies, and 6G'? advancements in artificial intelligence depend on mass production of 4nm silicon cmos, not 100 people doing gallium arsenide for high-speed analog. 'quantum technologies' is vague enough to not be literally a lie…

I think this view is a bit narrow in terms of what "AI" advancements may depend on. I think it's very easy to argue that large scale AI adoption will require orders of magnitude higher bandwidth than what we currently have. It's not clear that long term electronics will win in all applications, especially with the strong resurgence in interest of photonic computing. Fundamentally, photonic platforms have much higher potential bandwidth (at the cost of power and size currently) than electronics.

GaAs (and other III-V) would likely be an essential material for some kind of photonic or hybrid compute system.

The response below addressed the quantum sensors, but I would be careful of calling "everything" quantum such as image sensors. Sure they rely on the photoelectric effect which is quantum, but not really in the sense of what we would consider a 'quantum sensor' today.

I suspect what could be more relevant are III-V based SQUID Qubits. These are highly sensitive systems that multiple nations are exploring for submarine detection. More near term, quantum communication via quantum light sources also can leverage a III-V platform.

Re: Britain buys semiconductor factory for defence purposes

#34

Post by sudjdkdn »

rappatic wrote: post #31
_heimdall wrote: post #30

This sure feels like yet another sign that major global powers are all gearing up for war. This could be as benign as a government ensuring that the 100 jobs aren't lost, but given everything going in in both Europe and the Middle East it sure seems like more than saving such a comparatively small number of jobs. They could have just signed large(r) contracts with the company to financially secure the company, acquis…

Off-topic as far as the article above goes, but do you think it's more likely for global(-ish?) war to erupt because of Europe/Middle East compared to Taiwan? A lot of the discussion around global war pre-2022 was for the late 2020s when China attempts to invade Taiwan. I personally doubt the major global powers will allow the conflicts in Israel and Ukraine to escalate to Western countries actually engaging in comba…

The most likely reason for war is to move the competition with China onto a military footing rather than an economic one. The US would win the first, and that result would help the second. If you’re seeing western powers gear up for war, it might be to secure their economic future rather than a just intervention

Re: Britain buys semiconductor factory for defence purposes

#36

Post by groby_b »

rappatic wrote: post #31
_heimdall wrote: post #30

This sure feels like yet another sign that major global powers are all gearing up for war. This could be as benign as a government ensuring that the 100 jobs aren't lost, but given everything going in in both Europe and the Middle East it sure seems like more than saving such a comparatively small number of jobs. They could have just signed large(r) contracts with the company to financially secure the company, acquis…

Off-topic as far as the article above goes, but do you think it's more likely for global(-ish?) war to erupt because of Europe/Middle East compared to Taiwan? A lot of the discussion around global war pre-2022 was for the late 2020s when China attempts to invade Taiwan. I personally doubt the major global powers will allow the conflicts in Israel and Ukraine to escalate to Western countries actually engaging in comba…

Some major global powers (i.e. China) have a vested interest in that escalation. Having the US tied down in two other conflicts means significantly less resources.

Which means Middle East and Ukraine are already part of a global-ish war. Proxy wars, so far, but in service of a larger goal. (No, I don't think China necessarily instigated, but they're sure supporting ongoing conflict)

As part of that, I'd also assume that the US nudged the UK to maybe consider their supply chain in case the US can't cover Europe's ass. (They can't, not if they expect a Taiwan conflict)

Re: Britain buys semiconductor factory for defence purposes

#37

Post by johnfarrelldev »

spacebanana7 wrote: post #6
riiii wrote: post #2

Wasn't the last British owned semiconductor factory in the UK sold to Chinese investors within the last year it so. The last steel furnace closing too?

The last of the steel industry is Indian/Chinese owned and is in the process of closing down [1]. There’s actually 23 semiconductor fabs in the UK, presumably with a diversity of owners [2]. [1] https://www.theguardian.com/business/article/2024/sep/10/bri... [2] tech uk report: https://pixl8-cloud-techuk.s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/prod/p...

It's not closing down, from the article they are moving to newer furnace technology which requires less workers to run.

Re: Britain buys semiconductor factory for defence purposes

#38

Post by RyJones »

momoschili wrote: post #10

Seems like it was previously owned by Coherent, like some kind of III-V (specifically GaAs mentioned) photonics processes there in the past. This kind of technology is typically quite useful for lasers, LEDs, or potentially image sensors as well. Many LIDAR sensors and even light sources can notably depend on III-V semiconductor sensors. Also widely used by the telecom industry. Outside photonics definitely useful fo…

Gen III night vision relies on it; I don't know if they ever made it there, tho.

Re: Britain buys semiconductor factory for defence purposes

#39

Post by pstrateman »

chasil wrote: post #35

Why gallium arsenide? It's quite fussy. "This facility is the only secure site in the UK capable of manufacturing gallium arsenide semiconductors, a vital component in military platforms such as fighter jets."

It's much more effective at extremely high frequencies used in compact radars, like the kind used on fighter jets.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gallium_arsenide#GaAs_advantag...

Re: Britain buys semiconductor factory for defence purposes

#40

Post by morkalork »

_heimdall wrote: post #30

This sure feels like yet another sign that major global powers are all gearing up for war. This could be as benign as a government ensuring that the 100 jobs aren't lost, but given everything going in in both Europe and the Middle East it sure seems like more than saving such a comparatively small number of jobs. They could have just signed large(r) contracts with the company to financially secure the company, acquis…

The list of countries "casually arming up" and talking about bringing back conscription is a little concerning.
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