The University of New South Wales Sydney has joined a new consortium that will promote sovereign capability and support critical industries, such as health, defence, and telecommunications.
The Semiconductor Sector Service Bureau (S3B) will convene experts from UNSW Sydney, Macquarie University, University of Sydney, CSIRO, and the Australian National Fabrication Facility.
The new bureau comes amid the continuous growth of Australia’s semiconductor sector. Alister Henskens, the minister for science, innovation, and technology, said the industry was found to be a local strength in the recently published NSW 20-Year R&D Roadmap.
“From computers and smartphones to military communications and medical devices, semiconductors, also known as chips, drive the technological devices we use every day and are indispensable to many global supply chains,” Henskens said.
Torsten Lehmann, an associate professor from UNSW’s School of Electrical Engineering and Telecommunications will lead the university’s involvement in S3B.
“Compared with other parts of the world like Europe, Australia’s semiconductor sector is comparatively small. This is a fantastic opportunity to grow the sector here and given our talent and education levels, we should be a much bigger, global player in this space,” Lehmann said.
S3B is backed by the NSW government and will be established at Cicada Innovations in Sydney’s Tech Central Precinct.
