The UK Microsystems Network’s Advanced Packaging and Heterogeneous Integration Workshop, held at the University of Southampton on 10th June 2026, drew notably strong engagement from industry, underlining how central advanced packaging has become to the UK’s semiconductor and microsystems supply chain.
Hosted and chaired by Ibrahim Sari of the University of Southampton, the free-to-attend event paired academic research with a heavy industrial presence. Speakers came from across the commercial landscape, including Pragmatic Semiconductors, STFC Interconnect, Bay Photonics, Forensic Eye, CSA Catapult and NanoScope Services, reflecting the breadth of UK companies now active in packaging and heterogeneous integration.
That industrial focus ran through the programme. John Lipp (STFC Interconnect) drew on real instrumentation experience to show what semiconductor and MEMS packaging can learn from high-energy, particle and astrophysics applications, while Suzanne Costello (Forensic Eye) set out a proactive approach to reliability and failure analysis in her talk “Forensics Before Failure.” Stephen Riches (IMAPS-UK) addressed the practical challenges of implementing advanced packaging and heterogeneous integration, including the growing role of AI in packaging design, and the guidance IMAPS-UK can offer to companies adopting it.
The event also took stock of the sector as a whole. Charles Sturman (TechWorks) mapped the UK advanced packaging ecosystem and its industrial strengths, while Andrew Robertson (Bay Photonics) and Jeff Kettle (University of Glasgow) pointed to commercial opportunities in quantum device packaging and sustainable, additively manufactured packages respectively.
With trade bodies, catapults, established manufacturers and specialist SMEs all represented, the workshop closed with a networking reception for the UK’s advanced packaging industry.
