The James Watt Nanofabrication Centre (JWNC) is an open-access semiconductor wafer-fabrication facility specialising in a wide range of materials, including silicon, compound semiconductors, and superconducting technologies. It is one of the UK’s leading centres for academic research, industrial innovation, and global collaboration in micro‑ and nanotechnology. Supported by £35 million of advanced fabrication tools housed within a 1,200 m² cleanroom, the JWNC has delivered comprehensive, end‑to‑end capability-from proof of concept device development through to production- for more than two decades.
Today, the Centre underpins almost £150 million of collaborative research projects and provides hands‑on training to over 200 postgraduate students each year. Through its commercial arm, Kelvin Nanotechnology (KNT), the JWNC also supports around 50 companies annually with prototyping and low‑volume manufacturing services. For example, tens of millions of lasers processed by KNT within the JWNC are deployed globally in data-centre infrastructure, enabling high‑performance computing and powering AI workloads.
