A team from Imperial College London has introduced a groundbreaking technology aimed at improving quality control in the semiconductor industry.
A research team from Imperial College London’s Department of Chemistry, led by Dr Jiaxin Pan, Dr Artem Bakulin and Dr Ziming Chen, is proud to announce their groundbreaking innovation, EffiTrap, which has successfully secured a place in the UKRI-funded ICURe Explore programme. This marks the first participation from the Department of Chemistry in this prestigious programme, showcasing their research's profound economic and societal impacts.
EffiTrap is a state-of-the-art 4D defect characterisation platform designed to address critical quality control challenges in semiconductors and multilayer devices, which are used in smartphones, healthcare devices, solar panels and more. Using non-invasive, ultra-fast scanning technology, EffiTrap detects all visible and invisible defects in under 0.5 seconds, providing robust support for real-time quality assurance (QA) and research and development (R&D).
Dr Jiaxin Pan, Founder and CEO, commented: “The ICURe Explore programme provided us with a unique opportunity to engage directly with industry leaders and customers from five different countries to gain a deeper understanding of market needs. Unlike traditional academic conferences, this experience offered us a distinctive perspective, helping us balance academic and societal impacts.”
The team brings together academic research expertise and commercial experience. EffiTrap is a prime example of excellence in research impact, successfully blending economic, societal and academic benefits. Economically, it reduces material waste by up to 60%, saving manufacturers between £10 million and £25 million annually, while also enhancing global competitiveness in manufacturing. Rooted in Dr Jiaxin Pan’s PhD research and validated in Nature Communications, EffiTrap’s application in industry highlights its societal value by enabling the development of efficient, eco-friendly technologies and advancing progress toward sustainable development and a low-carbon economy.
Having successfully translated laboratory technologies into industry-leading solutions, EffiTrap is now open to providing semiconductor in-lab testing and consultancy services to support industry needs further.
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Jiaxin Pan
Department of Chemistry
Saida Mahamed
Department of Chemistry
