A forum was created to promote cooperation between Korea and the UK in the semiconductor industry, with leading UK semiconductor material, equipment, and manufacturing companies gathered in one place.

The British Semiconductor Seminar, hosted by the British Embassy in Korea, was held at the Park Hyatt Seoul Hotel on the 1st.

According to an official from the UK Department for Trade and Industry, the UK has announced a national semiconductor strategy in 2023, pledging to support semiconductor technology. The UK said that in addition to providing up to 200 million pounds (about 330 billion won) in support over two years starting in 2023, it has announced a plan to invest up to 1 billion pounds (about 1.7 trillion won) over 10 years.

In particular, Korea and the UK agreed to a semiconductor collaboration framework in November 2023, and this agreement is based on complementary technological leadership between the two countries. Officials expected that the combination of the Korean semiconductor industry, which is strong in manufacturing, and the British semiconductor industry, which is strong in research areas such as design, IP, and R&D, would lead to the creation of great synergy.

This seminar, which was attended by officials from the UK Department for Trade and Industry and leading UK semiconductor companies, was attended by presentations from Arm Korea, Edwards Korea, EpiValence, NPL, Oxford Instruments, Paragraf, Quinas Technology, Pragmatic Semiconductor, and MCM Moisture Control & Measurement.

“Devices enabled by Arm’s technology are used by 70% of the world’s population, and over 30 billion semiconductor chips were shipped by our partners in 2023 alone,” said Hwang Sun-wook, CEO of Arm Korea. “Arm technology began with the smartphone revolution and is now expanding into areas such as automotive, data centers, IoT, AI, and security.”

In addition, Edward Korea, a global company specializing in vacuum pumps used in all semiconductor manufacturing processes; EpiValence, a high-tech industrial company that produces ALD/CVD precursors; Paragraf, a large-scale manufacturer of graphene-based electronic devices; Pragmatic Semiconductor, which manufactures ultra-low-cost flexible IC-based RFID and NFC chips; and QuInAs Ultraram, which is researching and developing and preparing to commercialize ultraram that has both non-volatility and DRAM speed characteristics based on quantum mechanics process.
Tony Clemson, Counsellor for Industry and Trade at the British Embassy in Seoul, said, “The British government has organized this event to strengthen cooperation with Korea, a global leader in semiconductors, recognizing that semiconductor technology plays a vital role in the economy and security,” emphasizing that “the British semiconductor industry has strengths in design, compound semiconductors, R&D, and IP.”

He mentioned that the two countries have recently signed a bilateral framework, establishing themselves as partners in economic cooperation, and said, “I hope that this will strengthen research and development and cooperation in semiconductors between the two countries and provide opportunities for companies from both countries to collaborate.”

Meanwhile, it has been reported that the UK's semiconductor clusters are concentrated in five places: South Wales (compound semiconductors), Cambridge (Arm headquarters, universities and research complexes), Bristol (fabless), Scotland (photonics, compound semiconductors, prototype design), and the North East (new materials and compound semiconductors).