Darren Cadman

Darren has over 25 years’ experience across electronics manufacturing, semiconductors and RF, spanning fundamental research through to volume production. In his role as Head of Semiconductor Business Development at Space Forge, he shapes the semiconductor R&D direction, with a focus on the application and integration of their materials for RF and microwave, power electronics, photonics and quantum. After completing his PhD in microwave engineering at Leeds University, Darren joined the Sales and Marketing team in the high-volume compound semiconductor production environment of Filtronic Compound Semiconductors. In this role he managed orders of over £4 million per year for the wireless infrastructure segment. Following from this, he managed a £10 million UK wide electronics manufacturing research centre out of Loughborough University, supporting fundamental industry steered research projects on topics such as power electronics packaging and reliability. Additionally while there he was a lead on the development and delivery of a Loughborough University led £5 million, 5 university programme developing additive manufacturing of microwave components. He turned outputs from this programme into a spin out opportunity conducting market validation and fundraising activities for the university. In 2021 Darren took on a role at the Compound Semiconductor Applications Catapult where he was responsible for securing over £5 million in R&D funding, including a multi-catapult project looking at energy efficient telecoms networks. Since August 2023, Darren has been developing the R&D pipeline for Space Forge’s diamond growth capability, working with the likes of Innovate UK, Welsh Government, UKSA, ESA and NASA, and securing over £5 million in R&D and scale up funds.