News: Optoelectronics
7 May 2026
Canadian Photonics Fabrication Centre being spun off as commercial pure-play III-V foundry
The Canadian government is to spin off the Canadian Photonics Fabrication Centre (CPFC) — the nation’s only end-to-end pure-play III-V compound semiconductor wafer manufacturing facility — into a commercial entity.
The CPFC has over 20 years of experience operating as a commercial-scale foundry within the National Research Council of Canada (NRC) in Ottawa. The 40,000ft2 facility includes 11,000ft2 of class 100/1000 cleanroom space. It processes 3- and 4-inch wafers but is fully transitioning to 4-inch during 2026.
Unique process IP includes over 4000 process steps, organized into blocks for the custom fabrication of client designs.
Working with materials including indium phosphide (InP), gallium arsenide (GaAs) and gallium nitride (GaN), the CPFC works with clients from start to finish on design refinement, fabrication and testing of wafers, focusing on process and manufacturing to help bring designs to market. It partners on manufacturing, new product introduction and volume manufacturing, reducing non-recurring engineering costs and speeding up the timeline from concept to commercialization.
CPFC specializes in fabrication for photonic components for fiber-optic networks, defence & aerospace, medical imaging, data centers and advanced AI computational infrastructure.
Since 2021, the Canadian government has invested over CDN$115m to expand and modernize the CPFC, boosting capacity. In 2023, construction started on a new 8000ft2 building. This is intended to enhance global competitiveness and support AI infrastructure, tele/data communications and defence supply chains.
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