Scottish project formed to boost sensor business
The £6 million (about $8.6 million), three-year Mirage project is getting Scottish government backing and includes: Cascade Technologies Ltd., Compound Semiconductor Technologies Global Ltd., Gas Sensing Solutions Ltd, Amethyst Research Ltd – and the research division of electronics and nanoscale engineering at The University of Glasgow.
Cascade (Stirling, Scotland) is a manufacturer of gas analyzers and monitoring systems using quantum cascade laser (QCL) technology. Gas Sensing Solutions is developing carbon dioxide sensors. Amethyst Research (Glasgow, Scotland) was formed in 2013 to develop and manufacture infrared detectors, based on III-V based barrier diode technology. Compound Semiconductor Technologies (Hamilton, Scotland) is a semiconductor foundry and custom service provider specialising in discrete and integrated III-V opto-electronic devices.
The grouping is supported by Scottish Enterprise and Censis, the Scottish Innovation Centre for Sensors and Imaging Systems. The companies are coming together to collaborate on the production of materials such as III-V semiconductors used in mid-IR sensors. These can be used in gas analysers, methane sensors, distributed feedback lasers and many industrial processes.
The lead partners have been selected with a common interest in the material production but so not to compete in the application. However, the production is also expected to stimulate dozens of indigenous companies that could also benefit from local production.
The £6 million funding for the next three years is made up of £2.8 million from the companies; £2.6 million from Scottish Enterprise and £241,000 plus capital equipment being provided by Censis. The project is expected to deliver £56 million back to the Scottish economy over the next ten years, according to a press release form Censis.
Ian Reid, CEO of Censis, said Scotland’s sensors and imaging sector already accounts for £2.6 billion in annual revenues and that the Mirage project would enable further innovation and collaboration.
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