Meeting global demand with Scottish innovation

Semiconductors underpin countless technologies across the modern economy. As demand for AI, photonics, quantum technologies, and advanced sensing grow, so too does the need for specialist semiconductor packaging. 

The global semiconductor industry is projected to reach almost $1 trillion USD by 2029, according to Gartner’s 2025 semiconductor market outlook. This is being driven by rapid advances in connected devices, electric mobility, AI and advanced computing. Much of the world’s semiconductor manufacturing currently takes place in Asia, with China and Taiwan dominating high‑volume production.

But recent supply chain disruptions, particularly the 2020–23 global chip shortage, exposed the risks of concentrating semiconductor production in too few locations. Governments and industry leaders worldwide are now investing in greater resilience, more diverse supply chains, and stronger innovation pathways.

Advanced packaging sits at the heart of this shift. As devices grow more complex, packaging must integrate multiple functions across materials, design and system architecture. High‑volume lines in Southeast Asia serve mass‑market applications well, but are not always suited to the lower‑volume, highly specialised demands of next‑generation technologies.

Dr Benghalia adds: “We’re developing packaging solutions that actively define system behaviour, rather than simply housing chips.” 

£800 million in revenue for global businesses

The new centre will enable companies to complete packaging processes in days rather than months, a step change for innovators that currently rely on offshore facilities with long waiting times. Over the next decade, NASPIC is expected to support £800 million in revenue for UK and international businesses, and enable 300 highly skilled jobs.

NASPIC sits within the University of Strathclyde’s Advanced Net Zero Innovation Centre (ANZIC). It's part of the Glasgow City Region Innovation Zone, and backed by £160 million in UK government investment.

Initial funding includes an £8 million Innovate UK Driving the Electric Revolution (DER) grant and support from Scottish Enterprise. Further investment of £29 million from Scottish Enterprise and GCRIZ is planned to broaden capabilities across photonics, RF, quantum computing, high‑performance compute and AI aligned with advanced CMOS technologies.

NASPIC’s strength lies in delivering high‑value sovereign assembly prototyping and low‑volume specialist production for industries that cannot wait months for complex packaging requirements. 

For UK companies, the benefits are immediate. Many domestic wafer fabs (manufacturing plants that create semiconductor wafers) currently outsource packaging to offshore providers. This creates long lead times, exposing businesses to geopolitical and supply chain risks. NASPIC allows companies to avoid these bottlenecks, protect intellectual property, and reduce dependency on international facilities.

International companies are also expected to benefit, especially those working on complex, low‑volume, high‑value products that require close collaboration between researchers, engineers and manufacturers.

State‑of‑the‑art workflow to production

The new facility will offer end‑to‑end capability across the advanced packaging workflow. This includes:

•    Wafer preparation and dicing
•    Die attach and interconnect technologies
•    Encapsulation and assembly
•    Subsystem integration and testing

Dr Benghalia adds: “Our approach allows companies to truly understand how their technology will scale. It’s a distinctive strength of the University of Strathclyde and NMIS: integrating research, development and manufacturing capability.”

NASPIC also offers a pilot production environment for partners working in power electronics, photonics, radio frequency systems, advanced CMOS and high‑performance computing.

A catalyst for Scotland’s critical technologies sector

The ambition behind NASPIC forms part of Scotland’s wider strategy to build a world‑leading critical technologies supercluster, announced in 2024. 

This national initiative brings together research excellence, industrial capability and government support across four high‑growth technology areas:

• Photonics
• Quantum technologies
• Semiconductors
• Sensing and connectivity 

Together, these sectors are worth £4.2 billion and expected to reach £10 billion in turnover by 2035, creating more than 6,600 skilled jobs. This is according to techmonitor.ai.

NASPIC deepens Scotland’s strengths by linking with existing world‑class facilities such as the James Watt Nanofabrication Centre (JWNC) and working collaboratively with the Compound Semiconductor Applications (CSA) Catapult.

This will help Scotland capture more economic value from critical technologies, boosting innovation, internationalisation and investment while positioning the nation to compete globally in future industries.