Confidence boost: Why measurement is becoming Britain’s edge in high-frequency chips

The National Physical Laboratory (NPL) and its industry partners have developed new measurement capabilities that will help accelerate high-frequency semiconductor innovation in the UK. 

The challenge

From satellite links and space systems to next-generation wireless networks, modern communications increasingly depend on the ability of semiconductor devices to operate at ever higher radio frequencies. Pushing into these frequencies allows more data to be transmitted, faster and with lower latency. However, it also makes the engineering involved far less forgiving. 

As frequencies rise, on-chip features shrink and tolerances tighten. Small imperfections in materials, fabrication, or packaging that once had little consequence can now sap signal strength or distort performance. Losses that are barely noticeable at lower frequencies can become critical. 

For many firms developing these devices, particularly start-ups and university spin-outs, the obstacle is not their technical ability or their capacity to think innovatively, but the equipment required to turn ideas into real devices. Demonstrating that a prototype works reliably often requires specialist, high-cost test facilities. Performance may also change as a device moves from a bare wafer at the early stages of manufacturing to a fully packaged component and then to becoming part of a larger system. Without measurement at each stage, problems can remain hidden until late in development, when fixes are slow and expensive. 

The result is risk. And risk slows innovation. 

The solution

As the UK’s National Metrology Institute, NPL set out to lower that barrier by building a coherent measurement pathway that mirrors the stages of a semiconductor device’s lifecycle. The aim was for this new capability to be easily accessible to organisations that would struggle to afford to create their own. 

Working with VIPER RF, Keysight, and The Henry Royce Institute, the team linked together equipment and expertise usually scattered across different laboratories, integrating them into a single capability available to everyone from start-ups and spin-outs to large enterprise organisations. 

This new capability begins at the materials stage, where NPL can determine how a wafer, the starting point of semiconductor manufacturing, responds to electric fields. This is known as the wafer’s dielectric properties, and it helps manufacturers understand how signals passing through a device built using that wafer will behave at higher frequencies. 

It then moves to the chip itself, using probe stations to measure on-chip performance and, crucially, to assess the quality of real communication signals passing through the device, rather than relying solely on abstract electrical parameters. 

Finally, fully packaged components are tested on NPL’s world-class terahertz communications testbed, allowing engineers to compare performance before and after packaging under realistic operating conditions. 

By keeping the measurements consistent across all stages, the approach makes it possible to see exactly where losses or distortions occur, whether in the material, the design, or the assembly. This allows manufacturers to target precisely where a problem may lie. 

The outcome

The project has delivered a coordinated suite of measurement capabilities that spans the full development pathway of high-frequency semiconductor communication devices, from wafer materials through to on-chip operation and fully packaged components. Demonstrating this integrated approach is a key achievement. 

Using a high-power Ka-band amplifier supplied by VIPER RF for satellite communications applications, the team successfully measured signal quality both directly on the chip and on the packaged device. This confirmed that high-quality communication signals could be transmitted and analysed under realistic operating conditions. 

Complementary wafer-level measurements were also carried out on silicon, gallium arsenide, and silicon carbide samples to characterise the dielectric properties that influence high-frequency signal behaviour. Together, these results show how consistent measurements across materials, devices, and packaging can reveal where signal losses or distortions arise. 

Developers can now identify weaknesses earlier, when redesigns are quicker and cheaper. Instead of discovering problems only once a device is fully built, they can intervene upstream and avoid costly iterations. 

The work also created unexpected opportunities for technical insight. During testing, the team explored additional signal modulation schemes beyond those originally proposed, revealing the potential for the amplifier to operate effectively under a wider range of communication formats than initially anticipated. While further validation is ongoing, this illustrates how access to advanced measurement capability can uncover new design possibilities as well as verifying performance. 

The impact

The practical effect is to make high-frequency innovation less risky and more accessible. Smaller firms gain access to facilities that would be prohibitively expensive to build themselves, while larger companies benefit from independent, trusted validation before committing to scale-up. 

For the UK, the implications are strategic. High-frequency semiconductors underpin space systems, advanced communications, and critical infrastructure. By providing credible, industrial-grade measurement capability, the country can support domestic innovators and attract investment, even without hosting the largest fabrication plants. 

In a field where performance margins are tight and failures are costly, the ability to measure well is not a technical detail. It is an economic advantage.