Memorandum 126
Submission from Silvaco Data Systems
How universities, industry, venture capital
and Government are involved in the development of the UK plastic
electronics sector.
Silvaco data systems (Europe) Ltd., is an SME
located in Cambridgeshire specialising in developing complex numerical
simulation software for inorganic and organic semiconductor materials
and technologies. The software that we develop is targeted at
semiconductor technology device processing and device design,
which is called Technology Computer Aided Design (TCAD) as well
as complex circuit design (SPICE). Our customers are global and
to serve them we have 14 offices around the world.
The UK office represents one of only three offices
where the development of original software takes place. The other
two locations are California and France. The local accent is on
development of TCAD software.
The skills requirements for developers involved
in this field are tough and stringent. Developers must have a
high level of education and training in mathematics (numerical
techniques), Physics and/or Electronics. They must also be highly
knowledgeable in modern programming techniques. All the technical
staff in the UK are educated to PhD level. In order to locate
such skills the company scouts nationally and internationally.
The current UK team is made up of staff who have joined us from
well known research groups in Vienna, Cambridge, Oxford and others.
Due to the skills shortage in this area over 60% of the technical
staff are not native to the UK.
Apart from the usual supplier/client type relationships
with our customers, we collaborate with a number of companies
both locally and nationally, such as Cambridge Display Technology
(CDT). Many of these collaborations are supported through the
Technology Strategy Board. These activities help enrich and expand
our collaborative partners technology portfolio and our suite
of software tools. Without such collaboration our ability, as
a supplier of design, modelling and simulation software to support
the UK organic and inorganic semiconductor industry would be severely
limited.
We also collaborate with a number of academic
research groups around the country. For example the Department
of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics at the University
of Cambridge helped us develop key aspects of our software over
the last two years.
We must expand our local team to capitalise
on the expansion in the organic and nanotechnology emerging design
markets, an area in which we excel. However, we are continuously
struggling to find new developers to fill our vacancies. Although
we have strong historical links with many research groups in the
UK and advertise both locally and nationally we believe that the
current skills shortage could hinder the UK plastic electronics
industry.
A national strategy aimed at addressing the
skills gap in first class basic sciences education and training
is what Silvaco calls for. We believe that the UK has traditionally
excelled in design activities. Silvaco can serve the national
and international design needs to exploit the alternative plastic
electronics emerging markets.
March 2008
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