Research centre for SoC opens in Belfast

Helen Duncan
(03/10/2005 1:16 PM EST)

  A new £5.4 million SoC research centre has opened in Belfast, with the intention of developing high performance wireless-orientated communication chips for use in advanced mobile applications such as phones, video streaming and vehicular sensors. The International Centre for System-on-Chip and Advanced Microwireless (SoCaM) was officially launched on Wednesday 9 March by the Vice-Chancellor of Queen's University Belfast, Professor Peter Gregson.

SoCaM represents the first major project to be secured by Queen's University Belfast's Institute for Electronics Communications and Information Technology (ECIT), a purpose-built £40 million centre that will open this summer in the Northern Ireland Science Park in Belfast's prestigious "Titanic" docklands regeneration area.

SoCaM is funded through a public-private partnership under the SPUR initiative (Support Programme for University Research) and has already attracted researchers from a number of countries, including more than thirty specialists in high frequency electronics, microelectronics, DSP architectures and computer science who are working projects related to the development of highly complex ICs. These include video processing and cryptography hardware, ultra high-speed data processing and advanced packaging of devices. Further significant aspects of SoCaM's programme include the modelling of signal propagation in semiconductor materials and the creation of novel electronic devices based on metamaterials.

Professor Vincent Fusco, SoCaM Director said: "This is an exciting initiative which will contribute significantly to Queen's University's capability to conduct world-leading research in the electronics field. This in turn enables Queen's to continue to supply industry and business with highly qualified graduates and technical expertise.

"Aside from providing a platform for world leading research, the Centre will also generate a substantial amount of new intellectual property which will undoubtedly produce both new products and new companies," he added.