A new government study of the UK semiconductor sector has named four businesses operating from NETPark in Sedgefield, placing the North East alongside Scotland and South Wales as one of the UK's main manufacturing clusters.
The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology's Semiconductor Sector Study 2026 identifies 703 businesses involved in semiconductor activity across the UK. Its estimate for the 295 companies classed as dedicated semiconductor businesses is £10.6bn in revenue and about 16,350 direct jobs in 2025.
The study calls the region a "business-led advanced electronics cluster" built around capabilities beyond conventional silicon, among them compound semiconductors, two-dimensional materials, polymer and organic materials and hybrid approaches.
At NETPark, that capability is represented by Pragmatic Semiconductor, Filtronic, aXenic and Kromek. Pragmatic Semiconductor designs and manufactures flexible integrated circuits, known as FlexICs. The company has a production site at NETPark and a larger manufacturing facility, Pragmatic Park, in Meadowfield. The study refers to the business as PragmatIC.
Filtronic develops millimetre-wave and radio-frequency semiconductor products from its NETPark base. The study places these components within the region's compound-semiconductor capability, which supports telecommunications and space applications. Filtronic opened a new headquarters and manufacturing facility at NETPark earlier this year, as Review North reported in August.
aXenic develops indium phosphide photonic devices for high-speed optical networks. The study describes the Sedgefield company as a NETPark-linked spin-out and places photonics and optoelectronics among the region's strengths in space and aerospace applications.
Kromek, also headquartered at NETPark, develops semiconductor-based radiation-detection technology. The report includes the company within the region's flexible, organic and radiation-detection electronics capability, which has applications in healthcare, security and nuclear markets.
The study also identifies NETPark's role beyond the companies located there. The Compound Semiconductor Applications Catapult's site at the park links the North East to South Wales' national compound-semiconductor infrastructure, while the region's companies connect with research and industrial networks elsewhere in the UK.
The report does not put a separate revenue or employment figure on the North East cluster. It does, however, highlight the scale of Pragmatic Semiconductor's expansion, saying its FlexLogic-003 cleanroom in Durham is expected to create 500 further skilled jobs by 2030.