Wafer fabrication and foundry services
Flexible electronics, MEMS and microsystems foundry processing available to external customers as well as in-house products.
Regional cluster
The North East semiconductor cluster
The UK's most manufacturing-intensive cluster outside South Wales, concentrated around the NETPark campus at Sedgefield and the wider County Durham and Tees Valley corridor.
What is the North East semiconductor cluster known for?
The curated Semiconductor.co.uk company index currently holds 13 published records in this cluster — 12 dedicated semiconductor businesses and 1 diversified company with semiconductor capability alongside other activity, across 10 capabilities. The count moves as records are verified, and is a count of published records rather than an estimate of every company in the region.
Wafer fabrication and radio frequency components. County Durham holds several operating fabrication sites, including flexible-electronics fabrication at Sedgefield, MEMS and microsystems foundry work on the same campus, and compound semiconductor fabrication at Newton Aycliffe, alongside radio frequency and millimetre-wave manufacturers supplying telecommunications, space and defence customers.
The cluster also has a strong materials and chemicals layer on Teesside, and radiation detection and imaging device manufacture. The 2026 Government sector study characterises the North East as a business-led advanced electronics cluster extending beyond conventional silicon.
- 13
- Published records in this cluster
- Curated index, verified individually
- 12
- Dedicated semiconductor businesses
- Semiconductors are the core activity
- 1
- Diversified companies
- Semiconductor capability alongside other work
- 10
- Distinct primary capabilities
- From the controlled capability vocabulary
At a glance
- Several operating wafer fabrication and foundry sites in County Durham
- Flexible and thin-film electronics manufacture at scale
- Radio frequency and millimetre-wave component manufacture
- Compound semiconductor fabrication at Newton Aycliffe
- Process chemicals and quartz materials supply on Teesside
- NETPark concentrates several fabs and foundries on one campus
What this cluster specialises in
Radio frequency and millimetre-wave components
Transceiver modules, amplifiers and millimetre-wave components for telecommunications, satellite and defence systems.
Compound semiconductors and photonic devices
Gallium-based device fabrication, optoelectronic components and integrated photonic modulators.
Materials, chemicals and detectors
Precursor chemicals, quartz components for wafer processing, and radiation detection and imaging devices.
Capabilities recorded here
- Compound Semiconductor Fabrication2
- Photonic Semiconductor Devices2
- RF / MMIC Design2
- Detectors / Imaging Devices1
- Foundry / Wafer Fabrication1
- Front-End Semiconductor Manufacturing1
- Power Semiconductors1
- Process Chemicals1
- Semiconductor Materials1
- Semiconductor Test1
Companies recorded in this cluster
Drawn live from the central company index and listed alphabetically, with no ranking or paid placement. A cluster is only recorded where the operating location genuinely sits inside the cluster geography, so companies elsewhere in the same region are not listed here.
Showing 13 of 13
aXenic
DedicatedSedgefield designer and manufacturer of gallium arsenide and indium phosphide compound semiconductor optical modulators for communications, satellite and defence sensing systems.
Photonic Semiconductor Devices · Sedgefield
WebsiteEpivalence
DedicatedTeesside manufacturer of high-purity atomic layer and chemical vapour deposition precursor chemicals and delivery vessels for semiconductor thin-film processes, developing and scaling molecules from laboratory to production.
Process Chemicals · Redcar
WebsiteESFAS
DedicatedNorth East England company offering physical failure analysis for semiconductors and electronics using electron microscopy, focused ion beam and related techniques.
Semiconductor Test · Rowlands Gill
WebsiteFiltronic
DedicatedCounty Durham company designing and manufacturing millimetre-wave and radio-frequency components and modules for space, defence and telecommunications customers.
RF / MMIC Design · Sedgefield
WebsiteINEX Microtechnology
DedicatedCounty Durham open-access microfabrication facility offering MEMS and sensor process development, prototyping and small-volume production services.
Foundry / Wafer Fabrication · Sedgefield
WebsiteIsocom
DedicatedHartlepool manufacturer of high-reliability and radiation-hardened optocouplers, optoswitches and solid-state relays for industrial, aerospace and defence applications.
Photonic Semiconductor Devices · Hartlepool
WebsiteKromek Group
DedicatedCounty Durham manufacturer of cadmium zinc telluride semiconductor radiation detector crystals and modules for medical imaging, nuclear security screening and industrial measurement.
Detectors / Imaging Devices · Sedgefield
WebsiteNascent Semiconductor
DedicatedDurham University spin-out designing and fabricating silicon carbide devices for high-temperature and high-radiation extreme-environment electronics in aerospace, defence and energy applications, alongside specialist wide-bandgap training.
Compound Semiconductor Fabrication · Durham
WebsiteOctric Semiconductors
DedicatedCounty Durham compound semiconductor foundry fabricating gallium arsenide, gallium nitride on silicon carbide and indium phosphide wafers for radio frequency, defence, telecoms and space customers.
Compound Semiconductor Fabrication · Newton Aycliffe
WebsitePragmatic Semiconductor
DedicatedCounty Durham manufacturer producing ultra-thin flexible integrated circuits on its own fabrication lines, aimed at high-volume low-cost identification and sensing uses.
Front-End Semiconductor Manufacturing · Sedgefield
WebsiteSemelab
DiversifiedNorthumberland manufacturer of high-reliability discrete semiconductors, power modules and radio-frequency transistors for aerospace, defence and industrial markets; a brand of TT Electronics.
Power Semiconductors · Bedlington
UK operation of TT Electronics plc
WebsiteTosoh Quartz
DedicatedStanley, County Durham facility manufacturing ultra-pure fused quartz components and glassware used in semiconductor integrated circuit processing equipment.
Semiconductor Materials · Stanley
UK operation of Tosoh Corporation (Japan)
WebsiteViper RF
DedicatedSunderland company designing and supplying standard and custom gallium arsenide and gallium nitride MMICs covering roughly 1 to 150GHz for commercial, defence and space customers.
RF / MMIC Design · Sunderland
Website
Search the full UK company index · Report a correction or a missing company
Manufacturing and fabrication capability
This is a production cluster. The North East Technology Park at Sedgefield hosts multiple semiconductor manufacturing operations on a single campus, including 300mm flexible-electronics fabrication and a microsystems foundry offering MEMS process access, with further compound semiconductor fabrication nearby at Newton Aycliffe.
The Centre for Process Innovation, also at Sedgefield, operates national open-access facilities in printable and flexible electronics and photonics, which lowers the barrier for companies moving from prototype to production without building their own line.
Universities and research
Newcastle University and Durham University provide the regional research base, with relevant activity in microsystems, electronic engineering, thin-film and organic electronics and materials physics. The cluster's distinguishing feature, however, is that its capability sits mainly in companies and in open-access national facilities rather than in university cleanrooms.
That structure means the North East is closer to an industrial cluster than a research cluster, and its company records in our index reflect that: predominantly dedicated semiconductor businesses with physical manufacturing operations.
Investment and programmes
Investment in the region has centred on fabrication capacity, with flexible-electronics manufacturing at Sedgefield among the larger private semiconductor investments made in the UK in recent years, supported by regional and national innovation funding.
The 2023 National Semiconductor Strategy's compound semiconductor and research infrastructure priorities apply here, and the UK Semiconductor Centre announced in 2025 provides the national coordination route for further scale-up.
Cluster and industry organisations
NETPark (North East Technology Park)
Science and technology park at Sedgefield hosting several semiconductor fabrication and foundry operations.
Centre for Process Innovation
Operator of national open-access facilities in printable, flexible and photonic electronics.
UK Semiconductor Centre
National coordination point for scale-up support and international engagement.
How this cluster fits the UK sector
The North East demonstrates that UK semiconductor manufacturing is not confined to South Wales: it holds several operating fabs and foundries, and its output is weighted towards radio frequency, compound and flexible electronics rather than mainstream silicon logic.
Because its capability is company-based and campus-concentrated, the cluster is sensitive to individual site decisions in a way that more diffuse design clusters are not.
The 2026 Government sector study identifies 12 regional semiconductor clusters across the UK. The national clusters overview sets out all twelve, each with its own resource and live company count.
Sources
Facilities, programmes and funding described above are drawn from the following first-party and institutional sources. Figures published by a cluster organisation or company are attributed to them in the text rather than presented as official statistics.
NETPark
North East Technology ParkCentre for Process Innovation
National open-access innovation facilitiesDepartment for Science, Innovation and Technology
National Semiconductor Strategy
Continue reading
All 12 UK semiconductor clusters
The national picture, region by region, from the 2026 sector study.
UK company index
Search every published record by capability, region and cluster.
Investment and policy
Public programmes and private capital behind the sector.
Semiconductor glossary
Definitions for epitaxy, foundry, compound semiconductor and more.