Finance

The UK venture capital firms are replenishing their funds after several bleak years, but only the biggest and bravest will be investing in semiconductor start-ups, according to 3i. “The VC funds are going out and raising money but semiconductor investment activity, in terms of the number of start-ups, is decreasing. It’s not for the faint-hearted, it requires $60m to $80m ...

The Government’s proposals for the reform of 14-19 education, including an increased emphasis on vocational qualifications, has met with a mixed reaction from the industry. “We welcome the Government’s recognition of the importance of vocational courses and that they need to be supported by strong maths skills,” said Dorrie Giles, director of qualifications at the IEE. “Engineering needs the brightest ...

The successor to the fabless and chipless semiconductor business models will be the designless chip company, according to a panel of industry experts at the Globalpress Sunmmit Conference in Monterey. “Companies are going to be designless as well as fabless – they’ll have product marketing people, and product definition people, and no one else,” said Naveed Sherwani, president and CEO ...

Hopes for substantial Government funding for a national design network have been dashed. The latest funding round under the DTI’s knowledge transfer network (KTN) programme will not include a proposal from the electronics industry for a system-on-chip design network linking universities and companies. Urgent discussions have been taking place between industry representatives and the DTI with the hope of finding ...

Semiconductor start-ups should come with a health warning according to the co-founder of one of the UK’s most successful young chip companies. “Silicon start-ups are nasty,” said Will Robbins, co-founder and design director of Bath-based PicoChip which develops parallel processing chips for wireless. “The trouble with chips is it’s all, or nothing. The risks are difficult to mitigate. There are ...

London-based Frontier Silicon, a fabless semiconductor provider for mobile digital television and digital audio broadcast (DAB) digital radio, has closed a $28m round of funding. The lead investor in the funding round was ACT Venture Capital, was supported by existing investors Apax Partners, Alta Berkeley and BlueRun Ventures (formerly Nokia Venture Partners), along with new investor Quilvest. Frontier, founded in ...

In a year that has seen UK universities closing entire chemistry departments, and pulling the plug on undergraduate courses in physics and maths, it seems the University of Bath is bucking the downward trend in students choosing science and engineering. The University said applications for places on undergraduate courses in electronic engineering have increased in recent years, contradicting a country-wide ...

The cost of redesigning finished products when components are found to be obsolete can reach £300,000, according to research carried out by Qinetiq for the MoD. Although principally dealing with the problem of end-of-line components in a military project, the same cost metrics can be applied to other commercial industries, according to the Component Obsolescence Group (COG). According to COG, ...

Electronics contract manufacturer Stadium has reported growing revenues in 2004 from its Asian subsidiary but overall turnover slightly reduced. Stadium Asia, acquired in March 2000, saw a turnover of £14m in 2004 out of a group turnover of £33.8m. Total turnover in the previous year was £34.88m. Pre-tax profit was £2.01m, up from £1.86m. The firm’s chief executive, Nigel Rogers, ...

Ultra Electronics has shown record sales and profit for 2004. The defence electronics company saw turnover reach £319.7m and pre-tax profit of £39.7m. The firm said sales growth has been driven by the battlespace IT and airport systems sectors. Dr Julian Blogh, chief executive, said identifying investment was key to setting up for growth. In the year the firm spent ...