Nova Scotia Bets on Microelectronics Integration, Not Chip Fabs

Nova Scotia is unlikely to become the next great destination for wafer fabs. But its semiconductor and microelectronics opportunity may be more relevant to the region’s economy: assembling the right mix of sensing, processing, communications, power, photonics, AI, and packaging technologies to solve hard problems in the ocean, in defense, in healthcare, and in energy.

It’s an important distinction, Jean-François Bousquet, program director of Dalhousie University’s MINDI Hub, said in an interview with EE Times. The province’s strength is not necessarily inventing the next standalone semiconductor device but building highly integrated systems that must work reliably in remote, power-constrained, and unforgiving environments, he said.

“Semiconductors will scare people away if we talk about semiconductors, but if we talk about integration of microelectronic systems, I think there’s a strong capability of integrating into various domains, especially in ocean tech,” Bousquet said.

Integration, not just chips

Semiconductor ecosystems are frequently measured in fabs, process nodes, venture funding rounds, or the presence of global chipmakers.

Nova Scotia’s ecosystem is developing by starting with an operational problem to define applications: ocean observation, underwater robotics, sonar, fisheries, environmental monitoring, naval systems, medical technology, and renewable energy. The technology stack, which includes microelectronics, follows.

For an autonomous underwater vehicle operating below Arctic ice for months, that stack can be formidable. The vehicle must sense, communicate, navigate, classify events, process data locally, and conserve every possible joule of energy. It may need AI acceleration, FPGA-based processing, GPUs in some applications, MEMS devices, photonics, lasers, specialized communications, and advanced sensing. It also needs to fit inside a very small, rugged, waterproof package.

“We have to find innovative ways of integrating our microelectronics and make our autonomous vehicles smart enough to be able to go under the ice in the Arctic,” Bousquet said. “They have to communicate, they have to sense, and they have to know what’s around them.”

Nova Scotia’s microelectronics story is increasingly an edge computing story—and the edge can be underwater, far offshore, or embedded in a compact defense or environmental platform.

Bousquet’s group is working on a project involving autonomous underwater drones, as well as coordination between underwater and aerial systems for remote-area monitoring. Those are inherently dual-use capabilities. The same class of integrated electronics can support defense and surveillance requirements while also enabling scientific research, environmental monitoring, resource exploration, and climate-related observation.

“We developed sensors that will measure the biological, chemical, and geological content of water in the ocean,” Bousquet said.

Nova Scotia’s semiconductor and microelectronics development is driven by Atlantic Canada’s industrial geography. The province’s capital, Halifax, is home to a great deal of defense research, naval presence, defense primes and suppliers, universities, ocean-technology companies, and the Centre for Ocean Ventures & Entrepreneurship. The region’s proximity to the Atlantic, Arctic routes, fisheries, offshore resources, and shipbuilding is less a branding exercise than a set of practical engineering requirements.

At the local level, the MINDI Hub (short for Microelectronics Innovation Design Hub) is meant to provide some connective tissue. Backed by the provincial government, the initiative is designed to support industry, develop curriculum around microelectronics for ocean technology, train students, and expand the workforce available to local companies.

MINDI is part of a wider Canadian tapestry. It is hosted at Dalhousie University, which collaborates with Quebec-based experts, including those at the University of Sherbrooke and Zero Point Cryogenics, while exploring international partnerships. Rather than duplicate every capability locally, the goal is to link Nova Scotia’s systems-level strengths to the specialized facilities, research talent, and suppliers available elsewhere in Canada and among allied countries.

“This is an incubator that’s intending to support industry, and we’re training students,” Bousquet said. “We’re building new curriculum around microelectronics for ocean technology. We want to create more momentum, and we want to create a bigger workforce that will actually support the local industry.”

Low-power innovation beneath the surface

Bedford-based Innovasea is a concrete example of how Bousquet’s regional thesis works in practice.

The company designs and manufactures aquatic technology, including acoustic telemetry systems used to track fish in oceans, lakes, and rivers. Its products are used by scientists and biologists studying animal movement and behavior, but the engineering behind them is broadly recognizable to anyone working in ultra-low-power embedded electronics.

Innovasea’s small acoustic tags attach to (or, in some cases, are implanted in) fish. Underwater receivers detect the transmitted acoustic signals, allowing researchers to identify tagged animals and, using multiple receivers, determine their locations with fine precision. The tag can also carry sensor data, such as temperature or pressure.

Jean Quirion, VP of R&D for fish tracking at Innovasea, told EE Times in an interview that the company’s competitive advantage lies in integrating components into compact, power-efficient systems that operate reliably in demanding environments.

He said increasingly efficient microcontrollers let designers perform more computation within an existing power budget or maintain performance while consuming less energy.

But these component improvements are not the only factors contributing to Innovasea’s engineering gains, Quirion said. “Most of the innovations that we’ve come up with that really reduce power consumption and reduce size have been in some tricks that we’ve developed internally to just make the system behave in a more power-efficient way.”

The expertise developed at Innovasea is due in part to connections between industry and universities. Quirion described Dalhousie as both a source of engineering talent, through co-op placements and full-time hiring, and a partner for research that carries more uncertainty than routine product development.

Collaboration with Dalhousie and other regional universities helps companies explore emerging technologies. Alongside organizations such as COVE, those relationships connect research, workforce development, and commercial engineering, supporting an Atlantic Canadian ecosystem whose opportunity lies in turning semiconductor capabilities into useful, exportable systems.

Building a connected ecosystem

Chris Morrissey, CEO of Invest Nova Scotia, sees microelectronics as an enabling layer within a wider economic strategy rather than a standalone vertical. The province has identified six priority sectors, including energy, defense, natural resources, AI, and the digital economy. Semiconductor and embedded systems capabilities intersect with all of them.

That is particularly evident in defense. Nova Scotia has naval and Coast Guard activity, shipbuilding, aerospace and drone-related capabilities, defense primes, and a growing supplier base. Morrissey said the province has between four and six major defense prime contractors and more than 100 defense companies, creating both procurement opportunities and demand for locally relevant R&D.

“The advantage that Nova Scotia has is the research and development expertise that we have here, both in the public and private sectors,” Morrissey said, citing MINDI as a good example of public funding.

Opportunities are not limited to military contracts, he said. Sonar and tracking technologies can apply to naval requirements and fisheries; drones can serve defense missions and support wildfire management; and sensing systems can contribute to environmental monitoring, energy operations, and safety.

Dual-use technology is a recurring theme in Nova Scotia, with companies able to extend a core competence into adjacent markets.

Within Atlantic Canada, Morrissey argued that provinces should identify complementary strengths rather than chase identical projects. Newfoundland and Labrador’s Marine Institute, for example, has capabilities in marine simulation and related areas. Nova Scotia can develop where it has distinct advantages in ocean technology, digital systems, defense, research, and talent. Morrissey said sustainable growth must align with available talent, capital, and infrastructure rather than build around a speculative attempt to replicate Silicon Valley.

“We can be complementary to each other,” he said. “We’re trying to find each of our own lanes and what’s the competitive advantage for each one but also working together and leaning on each other to make sure we can take advantage of the greater opportunity.”

That cooperative stance increasingly extends across the country. Bousquet’s quantum sensing work depends on Quebec partnerships; companies in Atlantic Canada can access expertise and markets nationally; and defense, ocean technology, photonics, and AI systems all depend on supply chains that exceed provincial borders. Internationally, Nova Scotia’s ocean-facing industries have natural links to Europe, NATO allies, and global marine research communities.

Bousquet said Nova Scotia does not need to reproduce another region’s semiconductor cluster to matter. It can build technologies that fit the problems in front of it and connect those systems to capabilities across Atlantic Canada, the country, and the world.

“We do have a lot of the capability; it’s just a matter of growing it,” he said.

Also read:

Innovasea Packs Long-Life Electronics into Fish Tags

Canadian Startup Aims to Be Quantum’s ‘Picks’ and ‘Shovels’

Saskatchewan’s Semiconductor Strength Is Connecting the Pieces

RELATED TOPICS: ADVANCED PACKAGING, AI AND BIG DATA, MICROELECTRONICS, SEMICONDUCTORS