Compound Semiconductor Applications Catapult CORE FUNDING

Compound semiconductors are the hidden engines inside everything from phone chargers to 5G masts, and this Catapult centre gives UK companies the tools and expertise to build new products with them. These materials—unlike standard silicon—can handle high voltages, switch at radio frequencies, and emit or detect light. That makes them essential for power electronics (the systems that convert and control electricity), radio-frequency devices (the backbone of wireless communications), and photonics (where light carries information instead of electricity). The problem is that developing products with compound semiconductors is expensive and technically demanding, especially for small and medium-sized companies that lack in-house cleanrooms and specialist engineers. The Catapult bridges that gap. It provides shared research facilities, prototyping capability, and application expertise so that firms can move from a good idea to a manufacturable product without building everything from scratch. If this works, the impact is largely invisible but pervasive: more efficient power converters in electric vehicles, faster data transmission in fibre-optic networks, smaller and cooler radio-frequency amplifiers in base stations, and better energy management in industrial motors and grid infrastructure. These are not consumer gadgets—they are the components that quietly make modern electronics possible. The work is applied, not fundamental science, and its value lies in accelerating commercial adoption rather than discovering new physics.