April 22, 2025: For the first time in its history, CMC Microsystems was part of the Team Canada delegation at HANNOVER MESSE 2025, the world’s premier industrial trade fair, which took place from March 31 to April 4 in Hannover, Germany, and drew over 150,000 attendees from across the globe. CMC along with several other organizations represented Canada’s semiconductor ecosystem. This included many members of FABrIC, an initiative to accelerate made-in-Canada IoT products and semiconductor fabrication processes made possible through a $120M investment by the Government of Canada.  

With Canada serving as Partner Country for this year’s edition, CMC was in a privileged position to share strategic insights and pave the way for future collaborations with Canadian and international partners – specifically to access advanced technologies to expand and strengthen Canada’s supply chain. 

Lynn McNeil, VP of FABrIC, gave a keynote presentation presenting the Canadian semiconductor opportunity in the context of global supply shocks, disrupted domestic semiconductor supply chains, and the need to friendshore semiconductor manufacturing. She emphasized the strategic nature of FABrIC to drive semiconductor innovation and IoT product development in Canada – targeting specialized technologies such as photonics, compound semiconductors, and quantum – areas with high value-add and growth potential where Canada already has proven expertise.  

Lynn also served as a panelist on a session hosted by ventureLAB on Unlocking North American Market Access: Leveraging Local Talent and Resources. She reiterated that securing the Highly Qualified Personnel (HQP) pipeline through training, reskilling, and upskilling is a pillar of FABrIC and mission critical for the Canadian semiconductor ecosystem.  

“Throughout the week, we have been overwhelmed by enthusiasm to do business with Canada,” said McNeil. “Canada is recognized as a reliable partner of choice with some of the best and brightest semiconductor talent in the world.” 

She also highlighted that Canada is recognized as a world leader in quantum technologies. “Canada is home to some of the most innovative quantum firms and deepest quantum science talent pools in the world. More importantly, we are seen as leaders in paving the way for quantum adoption. Canadian firms are building quantum hardware, developing quantum algorithms, cloud services, and integrating quantum computing into operations. This level of readiness puts us in a position to leverage quantum technologies for competitive advantage.” 

Gordon Harling, President and CEO of CMC is very grateful for the opportunity to be part of Team Canada. “We would like to thank all of our partners who made Hannover Messe a success, in particular, NGen—Canada’s Global Innovation Cluster for Advanced Manufacturing – lead organizer for the Canadian delegation for their hard work and support.”