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The limits to ‘spin-off’: UK defence R & D and the development of gallium arsenide technology

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 October 2011

GRAHAM SPINARDI
Affiliation:
Institute for the Study of Science, Technology and Innovation, University of Edinburgh, Old Surgeons’ Hall, High School Yards, Edinburgh, EH1 1LZ, Scotland. Email: g.spinardi@ed.ac.uk.

Abstract

UK defence R & D played a leading role in the development of gallium arsenide and other III–V semiconductor materials. Often touted as the semiconductor of the future because of its potential for high-speed computing, gallium arsenide had unique properties compared to silicon that made it attractive for military applications. Some consumer applications were also developed, and these eventually became significant with its use in mobile phone handsets in the mid-1990s. However, despite the apparent advantage of close links to the defence establishments and early access to expertise in III–V technologies, UK companies had limited success in these civil markets, preferring instead to focus on defence procurement.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © British Society for the History of Science 2011

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References

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7 Morris, op. cit. (1), pp. 138–139.

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9 Silicon still accounts for almost 99 per cent of the amount of semiconductor substrate produced (although less by cost), with GaAs and sapphire being the largest of the remainder. See ‘Compound semiconductor substrates 2010 market report’, 16 June 2010. Available at www.prnewswire.co.uk/cgi/news/release?id=289781.

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15 Of those cited here, Morris worked at Mullard and Texas Instruments, Hilsum at SERL/RSRE and GEC, Parkinson at RRE/RSRE and then at the MoD (Director General of Establishments), Waldock at SERL and then Metals Research/Cambridge.

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30 SERL Technical Report No. 59, May 1963, 1.2. I am grateful to the librarian at what was then the Defence Evaluation and Research Agency establishment at Malvern for providing access to these reports. See also ‘CVD office report to policy committee, March 1964: Development and device technology programme’, attached to ‘Co-ordination of Valve Development Policy Committee, Minutes of the 108th Meeting held on Wednesday, 4th March 1964’, NA ADM 272/244. This notes, ‘The pioneering S.E.R.L. GaP film marker, now being made at Ferranti under Ministry of Aviation contract, was well received by R.A.E. for aircraft cameras.’

31 SERL Technical Report No. 60, February 1964, 1.3.

32 SERL Technical Report No. 61, May 1964, 1.2 and 1.3.

33 SERL Technical Report No. 64, November 1965, 1. SERL did revive its interest in 1967. See ‘Minutes of the 8th Meeting of the CVD Special Devices Sub-Committee, 1st November 1967’, NA ADM 272/251.

34 See the various Minutes of the CVD Special Devices Sub-Committee between 1965 and 1970 in NA ADM 272/251.

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39 Cyril Hilsum, ‘Report of Display Devices Research Panel – July 1975’, 30 June 1975, NA ADM 272/263.

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55 ‘Requirements for future power device research: a report to CVD Policy Committee’, Services Electronics Research Laboratory, Microwave Electronics Division, Harlow, Essex, June 1966, by M.O. Bryant, Chairman, CVD Power Devices Research Panel, Attached to CVD Policy Committee, 18 November 1966, NA ADM 272/244.

56 Turner, op. cit. (46), 1/1–1/2.

57 Turner, op. cit. (46), 1/2.

58 ‘Power Devices Research Committee – Chairman's Report to CVD Technical Committee – July 1977’, K.G. Hambleton, ASWE, Portsdown, Appendix 2 to ‘Procurement Executive, Ministry of Defence, Directorate of Components, Valves and Devices, 150th Meeting of The CVD Technical Committee’, 19 July 1977, NA ADM 272/263.

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61 Hurle, op. cit. (28), p. 152.

62 Myers interview, op. cit. (14).

63 Myers interview, op. cit. (14); Duncan, Helen, ‘Staff anger at Bookham GaAs line closure’, Microwave Engineering, 27 May 2004Google Scholar; Turner, Jim, ‘Europe's premier foundry operation’, III–Vs Review (October 1991) 4(5), 5860Google Scholar.

64 Courtaulds had similar problems with its carbon fibre operations. See Spinardi, Graham, ‘Industrial exploitation of carbon fibre in the UK, USA and Japan’, Technology Analysis & Strategic Management (2002) 14, 381398CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

65 Stephen Entwhistle, vice president of strategic technologies practice at Strategy Analytics, quoted in Duncan, op. cit. (63).

66 Wight 1998 interview, op. cit. (14).

67 Duncan, op. cit. (63).

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75 Blackwell, op. cit. (71), p. 6.

76 Ware interview, op. cit. (14).

77 Ware interview, op. cit. (14). See also ‘Rowland Ware on old and new perspectives in materials science’, III–V Technology Review (1987) 3, p. 18.

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79 Blackwell, op. cit. (71), p. 8. See also Barnes and Holeman, op. cit. (16), p. 30.

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81 Interview with Roger Waldock, in ‘As Cambridge fares’, op. cit. (80), p. 45.

82 Interview with Roger Waldock, in ‘As Cambridge fares’, op. cit. (80), p. 44.

83 ‘Rowland Ware on old and new perspectives in materials science’, op. cit. (77), p. 21.

84 ‘Procurement Executive, Ministry of Defence, Directorate of Components, Valves and Devices, The CVD Technical Committee’, Minutes of the 147th Meeting, 11 December 1975, NA ADM 272/263. See also Hurle, op. cit. (28), p. 149.

85 Ware interview, op. cit. (14).

86 Hurle, op. cit. (28), pp. 149–153, 150.

87 Hurle, op. cit. (28), p. 150.

88 Interview with Roger Waldock, in ‘As Cambridge fares’, op. cit. (80), p. 46.

89 Grant interview, op. cit. (14) .

90 Interview with Roger Waldock in ‘As Cambridge fares’, op. cit. (80), p. 45.

91 ‘A UK strategy for GaAs’, edited by David Colliver and produced by the Royal Signals and Radar Establishment in the mid-1980s (undated), 14. This was provided to me on a visit to RSRE in 1990.

92 McDonald, Jo Ann, ‘DoD funds provide timely stimulus for US GaAs producers’, III–Vs Review (February 1995) 8, pp. 2628Google Scholar.

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94 Barnes and Holeman, op. cit. (16), p. 339.

95 Wight 1998 interview, op. cit. (14).

96 Wight 1998 interview, op. cit. (14).

97 Wright, op. cit. (44), p. 16.

98 ‘Procurement Executive, Ministry of Defence, Directorate of Components, Valves and Devices, the CVD Technical Committee’, Minutes of the 148th Meeting, 15 July 1976, NA ADM 272/263.

99 ‘Optoelectronic Detector Research Panel – Chairman's Report to CVD Technical Committee, June 1976’, NA ADM 272/263.

100 ‘Optoelectronics Detector Development Committee, Chairman's Report to CVD Technical Committee, June 1977’, Appendix 3 to ‘Procurement Executive, Ministry of Defence, Directorate of Components, Valves and Devices, 150th Meeting of The CVD Technical Committee’, 19 July 1977, NA ADM 272/263.

101 ‘Electronics Research Council, Department of Industry, Optics and Infra-red Committee, Extracts from Research Programmes of the Procurement Executive, Ministry of Defence’, P. J. Holmes, 11 August 1976, NA DEFE 35/5.

102 Wight 1998 interview, op. cit. (14).

103 The role of the UK defence establishments in the development of pyroelectric technology is described in Watton, R., ‘Infrared television: thermal imaging with the pyroelectric vidicon’, Physics in Technology (1980) 11, pp. 6266CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Putley, E., ‘Infrared spin-off’, Physics in Technology (1986) 17, pp. 3237CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

104 Wight 1991 interview, op. cit. (14) .

105 Wight 1998 interview, op. cit. (14).

106 See, for example, P.R. Jordan, P. Pool and S.M. Tulloch, ‘The secrets of E2V technologies CCDs’, in Paola Amico, James W. Beletic and Jenna E. Beletic (eds.), Scientific Detectors for Astronomy, Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2004, pp. 115–122.

107 ‘Minutes of the Fifth Meeting of the CVD Panel on Laser Research’, 4 October 1966, ‘Appendix II, Notes on Mr Gooch's talk on injection lasers’, NA ADM 272/248.

108 SERL Technical Report (May 1966) 65, p. 1. Standard Telecommunications Laboratories was the research arm of Standard Telephones and Cables. They had been in receipt of CVD funding to work on GaAs lasers from at least 1963. See ‘Minutes of the 4th Meeting of the CVD Optical Maser Working Party held on 25th September, 1963’, NA ADM 272/248.

109 Richard Mills, ‘Laser research and development, 1960–80’, in Bud and Gummett, op. cit. (10), p. 283. See also idem, ‘British defence expenditure and the growth of technology: a case study of laser technology 1960–1970’, University of Lancaster PhD, 1995. For the concentration of CVD on GaAs laser support see ‘Report to the CVD Technical Committee from the Chairman of the Laser Panel – 1974’, NA ADM 272/263.

110 See ‘Ministry of Defence, Department for Co-ordination of Valve Development, Technical Committee’, Minutes of the 135th Meeting, 2 December 1970, NA ADM 272/263.

111 ‘Ministry of Defence, Department for Co-ordination of Valve Development, The Technical Committee’, Minutes of the 137th Meeting, 13 July 1971, NA ADM 272/263.

112 ‘Report for CVD Technical Committee CVD Development Projects – lasers’, attached to ‘Procurement Executive, Ministry of Defence, Department of Components, Valves and Devices, The Technical Committee’, Minutes of the 140th Meeting, 22 November 1972, NA ADM 272/263.

113 ‘Procurement Executive, Ministry of Defence, Directorate of Components, Valves and Devices, The CVD Technical Committee’, Minutes of the 146th Meeting, 17 July 1975, NA ADM 272/263.

114 Wight 1998 interview, op. cit. (14).

115 D.A. Anderson and C.R. Whitehouse, ‘Low dimensional structures’, in RSRE Research Review 1985, London: HMSO, 1985, pp. 136–141.

116 ‘Global tech firm out of Nortel's ashes’, Herald Express, 25 February 2010. See www.thisissouthdevon.co.uk/news/Global-tech-firm-Nortel-s-ashes/article-1866351–detail/article.html.

117 Carter, Andy, ‘Unlocking the value of fab ownership’, Compound Semiconductor (1 February 2010)Google Scholar, available at http://compoundsemiconductor.net/csc/features-details.php?id=19607287.

118 On Cambridge Instruments and MOVPE see ‘As Cambridge fares’, op. cit. (80), p. 43.

119 Barnes and Holeman, op. cit. (16), p. 339.

120 ‘Electronic materials’, NRDC Bulletin (April 1971) 37, p. 20.

121 Epichem was taken over by the US based Sigma-Aldrich Corporation in February 2007. See www.sigmaaldrich.com/SAFC/Hitech.html, accessed 19 December 2007.

122 Wight 1998 interview, op. cit. (14) .

123 Hurle, op. cit. (28), p. 151.

124 Barnes and Holeman, op. cit. (16), p. 339.

125 Hurle, op. cit. (28), p. 153.

126 Hurle interview, op. cit. (14).

127 In the mid-1980s a strategy document produced by the UK Royal Radar and Signals Establishment stated, ‘The use of high speed logic for fast computers has until recently been realised exclusively using silicon integrated circuit technology. However, the improvements of Gallium Arsenide devices has been such that they are likely to used for the next generation of high speed machines.’ ‘A UK strategy for GaAS’, op. cit. (91). GaAs's potential for high-speed computing was probably emphasized by proponents of the technology to increase public awareness and political support. Szweda interview, op. cit. (14).

128 Szweda interview, op. cit. (14).

129 See Morris, op. cit. (1), 130.

130 Szweda interview, op. cit. (14).

131 Quoted in Morris, op. cit. (17), pp. 291–292.

132 Dickson, op. cit. (17), pp. 115 and 118.

133 Morris, op. cit. (17), p. 272.

134 Dickson, op. cit. (17), p. 118.

135 Dickson, op. cit. (17), p. 118.

136 Morris, op. cit. (17), p. 282.

137 Advisory Council on Science and Technology (ACOST), Defence R & D: A National Resource, 1989.

138 Quoted in Aris, Stephen, Arnold Weinstock and the Making of GEC, London: Aurum Press, 1998, p. 118Google Scholar.

139 See the tables reproduced in Edgerton, David, Science, Technology and the British Industrial ‘Decline’ 1870–1970, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996, p. 62Google Scholar.

140 UK pharmaceutical industry's investment record can be explained, at least in part, by the government drug procurement system that in effect guarantees a certain return on investment. For an analysis of the performance of the British electronics and pharmaceutical industries see G. Owen, ‘National environment and international competitiveness: a comparison of the British pharmaceutical & electronics industries’, Centre for Economic Performance, Working Paper No. 561, March 1994.

141 Oral evidence provided by a delegation chaired by Professor Cyril Hilsum to the House of Lords’ Science and Technology Committee, regarding the inquiry into Innovations in Microprocessing (8 May 2002), available at www.ioppublishing.com/activity/policy/Consultations/Industry_and_Innovation/page_29796.html.

142 Morris, op. cit. (1), p. 325.

143 Martin Fransman, ‘The Japanese innovation system: how does it work?’, in Mark Dodgson and Roy Rothwell (eds.), The Handbook of Industrial Innovation, Aldershot: Edward Elgar, 1994, pp. 67–77, 68.

144 ‘Rowland Ware on old and new perspectives in materials science’, op. cit. (77), p. 22.

145 Orton, op. cit. (13), p. 246.

146 GEC was originally a highly diversified company that shifted its emphasis increasingly towards defence work. See Aris, op. cit. (138); also Brummer, Alex and Cowe, Roger, Weinstock: The Life and Times of Britain's Premier Industrialist, London: HarperCollinsBusiness, 1998Google Scholar.

147 Bowen, David, ‘Too cautious, my Lord’, Independent on Sunday, 18 June 1995, p. 3Google Scholar.

148 See Aris, op. cit. (138), p. 115.

149 McKinsey & Company, Inc., Performance and Competitive Success Strengthening Competitiveness in UK Electronics, 1988Google Scholar, quoted in Aris, op. cit. (138), p. 164.

150 Hilsum, Cyril, ‘The use and abuse of III–V compounds’, in Advances in Imaging and Electron Physics (1995) 91, pp. 171188CrossRefGoogle Scholar, 171.

151 A similar problem occurred with UK manufacturing of carbon fibre when Courtaulds invested heavily in the late 1980s only to find that demand slumped following the end of the Cold War. See Spinardi, op. cit. (64).

152 Morris, op. cit. (17), p. 286.

153 Spinardi, op. cit. (64).

154 See Morris, op. cit. (1).