UK Launches £10.4M EXPRESS Programme to Advance Next-Generation Semiconductor Materials
University of Warwick and University of Southampton lead initiative to scale production of advanced materials for future electronics and photonics.
A new UK research initiative led by the University of Warwick and the University of Southampton aims to accelerate the development of advanced semiconductor materials for future electronic applications.
The five-year EXPRESS programme, supported by £10.4 million in funding from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), will focus on enabling next-generation transistor and optoelectronic technologies.
At the core of the project is the investigation of innovative electrochemical approaches combined with specially designed chemical precursors to produce transition-metal dichalcogenides (TMDCs). These materials are considered highly promising for ultra-low-power electronics, neuromorphic computing, photonics and emerging quantum technologies.
One of the main challenges the programme seeks to overcome is the difficulty of producing these materials consistently, at scale, and with high structural quality. By improving control over their growth and formation, researchers aim to unlock wider commercial and technological applications.
The initiative will also explore electro-deposition techniques that allow these materials to be grown directly within three-dimensional device architectures. This could eliminate the need for complex transfer processes, improving both reliability and performance evaluation.
By bringing together expertise across chemistry, physics and electronic engineering, the EXPRESS programme is expected to strengthen the UK’s position in semiconductor research and support the development of future device technologies.
