IN Brief:
- The event will take place at ExCeL London on 29 and 30 September 2026.
- Five stages will cover chip design, manufacturing, photonics, embedded development, cybersecurity, and startups.
- More than 4,000 attendees, 150 exhibitors, and 120 speakers are expected.
Microelectronics UK has confirmed a five-stage engineering programme for its 2026 event at ExCeL London, bringing semiconductor design, manufacturing, photonics, embedded systems, edge AI, cybersecurity, and startup development into one two-day programme.
The event will take place on 29 and 30 September, with more than 4,000 attendees, over 150 exhibitors, and upwards of 120 speakers expected. Participating organisations include Arm, Intel, Rolls-Royce, BAE Systems, Honeywell, MBDA, BT, Linaro, the UK Space Agency, and the UK Semiconductor Centre.
Semiconductors UK will cover chip architecture, EDA, heterogeneous integration, compound semiconductors, packaging, manufacturing capacity, and commercial development. These subjects increasingly overlap as process technology, packaging, test, software, and supply planning are addressed within the same product programme.
Photonics UK will examine silicon photonics, optical communications, sensing, lasers, imaging, defence, and space systems. Photonic integration is becoming more closely tied to electronic design as optical functions move into modules and packages containing drivers, receivers, controllers, thermal structures, and high-speed electrical interfaces.
Embedded Systems UK will include edge AI, RISC-V, safety-critical development, industrial cybersecurity, and compliance with the EU Cyber Resilience Act. Connected products now require greater local processing while retaining secure update mechanisms, vulnerability handling, and evidence across a much longer operating life.
A Startup Launchpad and Discovery Stage will add sessions on commercialisation, investment, skills, and early-stage technology. Hardware companies frequently encounter manufacturing, funding, recruitment, and market-access constraints after a technical demonstrator has been completed, making those subjects part of the engineering route to production.
Disciplines converge before products can scale
The UK maintains established strengths in processor architecture, RF engineering, photonics, embedded software, university research, and specialist manufacturing, yet those capabilities remain distributed across different companies, institutions, and funding structures. A successful product often depends on several of them converging at the same point in development.
A semiconductor designer may need advanced packaging beyond its existing supplier network, while a photonics startup can face limited access to test equipment, process capacity, or engineers comfortable with both optical and electronic integration. Embedded developers must subsequently convert those components into secure, certifiable systems that can be manufactured in commercial volumes.
Skills shortages remain especially visible in RF and mixed-signal engineering. A BAE Systems-backed master’s programme in RF and wireless engineering is combining academic study with industrial projects and mentoring across disciplines used in telecommunications, radar, sensing, electronic warfare, satellite systems, and semiconductor development.
Defence and space programmes add further pressure because long service lives, controlled supply chains, specialist qualification, and security requirements make experienced engineers difficult to replace quickly. Semiconductor selection within those systems must account for obsolescence, qualification evidence, controlled revisions, and availability over several decades, as explored in recent defence-electronics analysis.
Regulation is creating another point of convergence. The Cyber Resilience Act brings security responsibilities into product architecture, affecting secure boot, key storage, debugging access, memory protection, radio interfaces, vulnerability reporting, and recovery mechanisms.
These functions cannot be added effectively after the hardware has been completed. Component selection, memory architecture, processor security, software partitioning, and update paths all influence whether the finished product can satisfy lifecycle obligations.
Manufacturing capability remains equally important because design strength without scalable production leaves companies dependent on external capacity at the point of growth. Semiconductor and photonics scale-up requires repeatable processes, packaging, test, metrology, quality control, and experienced production engineering alongside fabrication equipment.
The programme’s breadth places these connected problems within the same venue, although the value will extend only as far as the collaborations formed around them. Practical links between design, process access, manufacture, skills, qualification, and customers will determine whether the discussions survive beyond the two-day event.
