£500k bid to improve Scots electronic sector

A CONSORTIUM of companies including Wolfson, Gold Standard Simulations and IBM have been given a £500,000 grant to make Scotland's electronics industry more competitive when developing chips for smart-phones, tablet computers and MP3 players.

The group will look at ways to transfer knowledge gained through research at Edinburgh and Glasgow universities into firms in the private sector.

Engineers at the universities and Wolfson and IBM will look at improving the performance of the tiny transistors that make up modern memory chips and other components.

Initially the technology will be transferred into products designed by Wolfson and Glasgow-based Gold Standard Simulations but will eventually be rolled out to a host of companies, including Freescale, Elonics and Ateeda.

Even tiny variations in the performance of transistors can have a big effect overall as electronic components get smaller and smaller.

Asen Asenov, professor of electrical engineering at Glasgow University, said: "While many people think of electronic devices as being inherently digital, the real world remains a stubbornly analogue place.

"Analogue systems are extremely sensitive to variability and we must tackle this issue for the electronic systems of the future.

"This project brings together industry and academics to tackle the issue and to give Scotland an edge in developing tools for the design of next generation of electronic circuits and systems."

The grant was made by the Scottish Funding Council, which awards public cash to colleges and universities.