News: Suppliers
6 March 2023
CSA Catapult appoints Nick Singh as CTO
Compound Semiconductor Applications (CSA) Catapult (headquartered in Newport, South Wales) has appointed Nick Singh as its new chief technology officer (CTO).
Singh will lead the strategic and technical direction of CSA Catapult’s four key technology areas — power electronics, RF and microwave, photonics and advanced packaging — as well as supporting the overall strategy of the organization.
Picture: CSA Catapult’s new CTO Nick Singh.
Established in 2017 by UK Government agency Innovate UK (which provides funding and support for business innovation as part of UK Research and Innovation), CSA Catapult is a not-for-profit organization focused on accelerating the adoption of compound semiconductors for three key applications (the road to Net Zero, future telecoms and intelligent sensing). It works across the UK in a range of industry sectors from automotive to medical, and from digital communications to aerospace.
Singh began his career in electronics and semiconductors in the mid-1990s in France before moving to UK-based Oxford Instruments Plasma Technology where, for over a decade, he developed equipment and processes for epitaxy, deposition and etching of silicon, high-k dielectrics and compound semiconductors.
He continued his career in electronics at Scienta as group CTO, responsible for technology and applications developments in x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), graphene, organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) and plastic electronics.
He also spent eight years as CTO of a start-up, which he helped scale up to deliver innovative net-zero solutions and oversaw the company’s expansion overseas.
Most recently, Singh was CTO of PhotonFirst in the Netherlands, a pioneer of photonic integrated circuit (PIC) sensing and advanced packaging in markets such as aerospace, medical, automotive and energy.
Throughout his career, Singh has worked collaboratively with UK and European research institutions and innovation centers on technology subsidies and funded projects.
Singh has a degree in Electrical and Electronics Engineering as well as a PhD in Plasma Physics from University Paul Sabatier in Toulouse. He is a Fellow and Chartered Engineer of the UK’s Institute of Engineering & Technology (IET) and has authored and co-authored 50 papers and received four patents in semiconductors. Singh is also a thermodynamics expert with the Carbon Trust.
“The technologies that will underpin our future advances in electrification, intelligent sensing and telecoms are being built using compound semiconductors, so it is extremely exciting to be able to shape the technological capabilities of the Catapult to meet these important challenges,” comments Singh. “We will play an integral role in supporting new supply chains and developing our technologies alongside clusters of expertise across the country, which will help us deliver on our ambition to position the UK as a global leader in developing and commercializing applications for compound semiconductors,” he adds.
“Nick’s wealth of knowledge, experience and leadership both here in the UK and across Europe will be an invaluable asset to the Catapult and I look forward to working with him closely on shaping our strategic and technical direction as we look ahead to the next five years of our journey,” says CSA Catapult’s CEO Martin McHugh.
