Federal Government Explores Divestment to Boost Photonics Innovation
The federal government’s plan to sell a stake in the Canadian Photonics Fabrication Centre is aimed at creating a scaled-up hub for semiconductor production and AI technology, says Industry Minister Mélanie Joly.
The National Research Council of Canada said this week it is seeking to “spin off” the CPFC to attract more private investment.
“It’s a way for us to be able to attract new foreign direct investments from trusted partners,” Ms. Joly said in an interview.
But the government will retain a stake in the CPFC, which will remain majority Canadian-owned, she said.
The CPFC allows photonic semiconductor manufacturers to use its expertise in research and design to test their products without having to build their own facilities.
Semiconductors are usually made either with silicon, or photonics. Most are made of silicon, although industry experts say photonics is a rapidly growing field.
A photonic semiconductor uses photons – elementary particles such as light – to process data, whereas a traditional semiconductor uses electrons.
“As the global demand for AI technologies increase, photonics devices will play an increasingly important role in addressing challenges associated with performance, power and heat in large data centres and AI compute facilities,” the National Research Council said in a news release.
Amr S. Helmy, a professor of electrical and computer engineering at the University of Toronto, said the spin-off has the potential to have a significant impact on Canada’s chip manufacturing capabilities, “if it’s done right.”
“When you were dealing with a foundry of that nature in a government facility, it is seldom utilized to the best of its potential,” he said.
Paul Slaby, managing director at Canada’s Semiconductor Council, a national industry association, said the CPFC is one of only three facilities like it in the world.
He said it has the potential to become an industry worth “hundreds of billions of dollars.”
In a statement, the Kanata North Business Association, which represents companies in the Kanata North Technology Park, a high-tech hub in Ottawa, said the decision would “reduce reliance on offshore supply chains.”
The statement said the government’s announcement was the result of a push by the industry.
Matt Roberts, a venture capitalist, was more skeptical. “There are good reasons to have it available in the public interest,” he said.
The former employee of GaN Systems, a semiconductor manufacturer, said the company might not have grown to the size it did had it not been for the CPFC.
“I would have had to raise three times the amount of money at a time when there was no venture capital for this,” he said.
“I know many semiconductor companies in Ottawa and around Canada that without having had access to that probably wouldn’t be in existence today,” he added.
The call for proposals from companies wanting a stake in the CPFC went out Tuesday.
Hamid Arabzadeh, chairman and chief executive officer of Ranovus, which develops photonic technology in AI data centres, said his company would be making an offer, either as an investor or an owner.
According to Statistics Canada, the semiconductor industry in Canada generated nearly $29-billion in economic output in 2020.
This article was first reported by The Globe and Mail
