The Institute for Integrated Micro and Nano Systems (IMNS) brings together researchers from integrated-circuit design, system-on-chip design, image-sensor design, bioelectronics, micro/nano-fabrication, microelectromechanical systems (MEMS), micromachining, neural computation and reconfigurable and adaptive computing.
Research interests include low-level analogue, low-power, adaptive and bio-inspired approaches, system-on-chip computing and applications from telecommunications to finance and astronomy. There is also a research focus on integrating CMOS microelectronic technology with sensors and microsystems/MEMS to create smart sensor systems. We also have a strong and growing interest in applications relating to life sciences and medicine, with particular focus on bioelectronics, biophotonics and bio-MEMS.
IMNS has laboratory facilities that are unique within the UK, including an advanced silicon and MEMS micro-fabrication capability coupled with substantial design and test resources. The Institute has an excellent reputation for commercialising technology.
The development of transferable skills is a vital part of postgraduate training and a vibrant, interdisciplinary training programme is offered to all research students by the University’s Institute for Academic Development (IAD). The programme concentrates on the professional development of postgraduates, providing courses directly linked to postgraduate study.
Courses run by the IAD are free and have been designed to be as flexible as possible so that you can tailor the content and timing to your own requirements.
Our researchers are strongly encouraged to present their research at conferences and in journal during the course of their PhD.
Every year, the Graduate School organises a Postgraduate Research Conference to showcase the research carried out by students across the Research Institutes
Our researchers are also encouraged and supported to attend transferable skills courses provided by organisations such as the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC).
The Institute has laboratory facilities that are unique within the UK, including a comprehensive silicon and MEMS micro-fabrication capability coupled with substantial design and test resources.
The Institute has an excellent reputation for commercialising technology.
This programme is taught by some of the world’s leading experts on optical fibre technology. Areas of study include: fibre design and fabrication, fibre telecommunication, fibre lasers and fibre sensors including fibre devices. You will learn and apply the core concepts of these technologies in real-world settings, gaining hands-on experience of cutting-edge research.
Semester one: Optical Fibre Technology I; Optical Fibre Technology II; Introduction to MEMS; Signal Processing; Silicon Photonics; Light and Matter; Lasers.
Semester two: Advanced Fibre Telecommunication; Optical Fibre Sensors; Photonics Laboratory; MEMS Sensors and Actuators; Wireless and Mobile Networks; Solid State and Ultrafast Lasers.
Semester three: Optical Fibre related four-month laboratory-based project; Industrial Showcase event.
Commercial products today combine many technologies, and industry is increasingly interdisciplinary. This course is designed to meet this demand, giving you an interdisciplinary knowledge base in modern electronics including power, communications, control and embedded processors.
You’ll develop a broad grasp of a range of interlocking disciplines, combining core modules developing your practical lab skills and industry awareness with a range of optional modules that allow you to focus on topics that suit your interests or career plans. Next-generation silicon technologies, electric drives and generating electric power from renewable sources are among the topics you could study.
This course will appeal to people with a broad interest in electronics and communications, as well as those who are interested in modern communications techniques, radio propagation, cellular mobile systems, control systems, power and drives, and modern system on-chip technology.
Specialist facilities
Our School is an exciting and stimulating environment where you’ll learn from leading researchers in specialist facilities. These include our Keysight Technologies wireless communications lab, as well as labs for embedded systems, power electronics and drives.
Depending on your choice of project, you may have use of our Terahertz photonics lab, ultrasound and bioelectronics labs, class 100 semiconductor cleanroom, traffic generators and analysers, FPGA development tools, sensor network test beds.
The School also contains facilities for electron-beam lithography and ceramic circuit fabrication – and a III-V semiconductor molecular beam epitaxy facility. The Faculty is also home to the £4.3 million EPSRC National Facility for Innovative Robotic Systems, set to make us a world leader in robot design and construction.
This course is accredited by the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) under licence from the UK regulator, the Engineering Council.
Throughout the course you’ll choose from a range of optional modules that allow you to pursue topics across electronic and electrical engineering as they relate to your interests or career plans. You could focus on FPGA design for system-on-chip, wireless communications systems nano-electromechanical systems among many others to gain a broad and deep understanding a range of subjects.
A set of core modules will support your learning. You’ll take part in a range of experiments linked to your subject on our lab module, and you’ll develop your skills in programming. If you have no experience of C programming you’ll take the Programming module, or you can take Software Development if you already have those skills.
To build your understanding of the global electronics industry, you’ll also complete a dissertation. This could take the form of a business, manufacturing or outsourcing plan, a proposal for research funding or an essay on a specific aspect of the industry.
Over the summer months you’ll also work on your research project. This may give you the chance to work as an integral part of one of our active research groups, focusing on a specialist topic in computer science and selecting the appropriate research methods.
Want to find out more about your modules?
Take a look at the Electronic and Electrical Engineering module descriptions for more detail on what you will study.
Compulsory modules
Optional modules
Our groundbreaking research feeds directly into teaching, and you’ll have regular contact with staff who are at the forefront of their disciplines. You’ll have regular contact with them through lectures, seminars, tutorials, small group work and project meetings.
Independent study is also important to the programme, as you develop your problem-solving and research skills as well as your subject knowledge.
You’ll be assessed using a range of techniques including case studies, technical reports, presentations, in-class tests, assignments and exams. Optional modules may also use alternative assessment methods.
The professional project is one of the most satisfying elements of this course. It allows you to apply what you’ve learned to a piece of research focusing on a real-world problem, and it can be used to explore and develop your specific interests.
Recent projects by students in the School of Electronic and Electrical Engineering have included:
A proportion of projects are formally linked to industry, and can include spending time at the collaborator’s site over the summer.
Graduates of this course can expect to find jobs where industry needs a breadth of knowledge matched by a depth in certain areas.
You’ll be well equipped to integrate and co-ordinate the strands of a cross-disciplinary project and manage the interfaces between specialities. With these skills, you’ll be in a good position to progress to project management roles in companies working at the cutting edge of modern multi-faceted systems.
General Electric, AECOM, Deep Sea Electronics, Hyperdrive Innovation, Descon Engineering, Broadcom, Pakistan Oilfields Ltd., Wabtec Rail UK and many others are among the organisations where graduates from our School have found employment.
