Electronics, photonics and electrical systems

The technology areas of Electronics, Photonics and Electrical Systems (EPES) underpin activity in all industrial sectors and throughout the consumer market.

Whether through power supply, sensors, invisibly embedded systems, lasers or displays, the UK benefits from a strong science base and a long tradition of inventiveness and innovation in the uses of electricity and light, underpinning the hugely disruptive technologies of electronics, photonics and electrical systems.

The global electronic products market has been estimated at 600 billion; both markets continue to expand strongly. Of these figures, $260 billion is accounted for by the semiconductors themselves, with 900 million transistors being produced every year for every man, woman, and child on earth.

The development of ideas from universities and research and development organisations into industrially relevant technologies, and then onwards to become products in the marketplace, provides one route to realising the economic benefits that is one of the goals of the Technology Strategy Board.

To balance this, adoption of existing EPES technologies in new applications in the healthcare, transport, energy, retail and environmental sectors yield benefits that can be felt by both the technology providers in the device industries and by the technology adopters in the end-use markets.

The EPES sector should always be looking for technology with an identifiable route to market and those areas where technology push and market pull are both evident, are of particular interest and provide persuasive arguments for intervention.

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