Microelectronics

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Made in Québec!

In recent years, the outsourcing services industry for the design and manufacturing of electronic systems and components has experienced steady growth. Approximately one hundred companies specialize in designing circuits, manufacturing and assembling electronic components, and producing design software, chemicals and test and production equipment.

 

Although the microelectronics industry is characterized by a large number of small companies, there are also several major players in Québec, including IBM, Matrox and DALSA Semiconductor. Over half of the jobs in this industry (55%) are provided by 10 companies, about 10% of the companies in the sector.

 

A Thriving Industrial Pole

In 2009, Université de Sherbrooke announced that it was joining forces with several industry companies, including IBM and DALSA Semiconductor, to build a global centre of excellence for advanced research in microelectromechanical systems and assembling silicon chips. The new centre of innovation will bring together some 250 university and private-sector researchers and help establish Québec as home to a major industrial pole that is also a strategic part of North America's northeastern microelectronics corridor. Technoparc Bromont, in the Montérégie region, is the site of the new centre and already employs about 3,500 people. This new initiative will help create a competitive and dynamic business environment.

 

  • Qualified, plentiful labour;
  • The largest pool of engineers in Canada;
  • A major network of universities and research centres;
  • Better operating costs than in the United States and G7 countries;
  • Tax measures to promote research & development.

 

  


Homegrown Québec Technology on the Red Planet

The CCD imaging sensors installed on NASA's Spirit and Opportunity Mars exploration rovers were manufactured in Bromont, Québec, by the firm Dalsa Semiconductor.
 

  

 

 

 

“Investissement Québec's support enabled us to make our consolidation project profitable more quickly. That's what convinced our parent company to make the Bromont plant IBM's sole semi-conductor assembly and test centre, in 2006. The assistance granted to foreign companies established in Québec sends a clear signal: the government wants to ensure the development of subsidiaries.” — Raymond Leduc, Managing Director, IBM Canada (Bromont plant), 2009.

 

Your company is growth-minded. Expand your horizons in Québec.

 

Last update: August 2009