A Cardiff-based company that makes the ultra-thin crystal layers on wafers that other firms turn into chips for phones, sensors and lasers, with sites in Cardiff, Newport and Milton Keynes.
IQE makes specialist wafers. A wafer is a thin disc of semiconductor material, and IQE grows extremely thin layers of crystal on top of it, a process called epitaxy. Other companies then use those wafers to build chips for things such as phone wireless parts, 3D sensing, infrared sensors, lasers and displays. It describes itself as working with compound semiconductors, which are materials made of more than one element, such as gallium arsenide, gallium nitride and indium phosphide, as well as silicon-based wafers. A 2018 trade profile in Compound Semiconductor magazine called it the world's biggest epiwafer supplier.
IQE began in Cardiff in 1988 as Epitaxial Products International, founded by Drew Nelson and Mike Scott. Dr Nelson had worked on epitaxy at British Telecom, and the business started on a brownfield site on the edge of Cardiff with support from the Welsh Development Agency and the expertise of Cardiff University. In 1999 it merged with Quantum Epitaxial Designs of Pennsylvania, and the name IQE came from a staff competition using letters of the two companies' names. In 2000 it listed in London and created IQE Silicon in Cardiff.
IQE's UK base is Wales. Its headquarters, main factory and innovation centre are in Cardiff, and its history page describes a large foundry in Newport that shipped its first product in 2018, plus extra capacity for infrared materials in Milton Keynes, a site that came from its 2000 purchase of Wafer Technology. Its research and development moved from Bath to Cardiff in 2018. IQE has also been a leading partner in the compound semiconductor cluster in South Wales, working with Cardiff University and the Compound Semiconductor Applications Catapult. It also has sites in the United States and Singapore. Wikipedia gave 685 employees at the end of 2021, though that is an older figure.
The company's mission, as described in a 2018 trade profile, is to move from being a wafer supplier to offering a wide range of innovative materials solutions that combine the strengths of compound semiconductors with the cost and scale of silicon. That is the interviewer's description of Dr Nelson's plans, not a current mission statement from the company. We did not find a values page or culture material. The same profile shows a company that is proud of building a regional cluster of companies and universities in South Wales.
People at IQE include materials scientists, physicists, chemists, process and production engineers, equipment technicians, quality and test staff, and the finance, supply chain and sales people any manufacturer needs. Many roles involve running and improving machines that grow crystals one atomic layer at a time. Physics, chemistry, materials science and engineering are natural subjects to study, and technician roles suit people who prefer hands-on work. See iqep.com for current vacancies.
Website: www.iqep.com
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