Celestica unveils new microelectronics lab in Toronto

TORONTO—Celestica Inc. has officially opened a new microelectronics laboratory open to firms that hope to “quickly commercialize” ideas for miniaturizing electronic products.

Located at the company’s Toronto headquarters, the 1,100-sq.ft. lab is available to start-ups and small and medium enterprises (SMEs), as well as large original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), looking to get their microelectronic ideas to market through prototyping and volume production.

“Microelectronics is in demand for high-reliability markets such as healthcare, aerospace, defense, communications and renewable energy. As optics and photonics technologies permeate these high-reliability sectors, it is becoming increasingly more important to miniaturize and cost reduce,” Celestica senior director of technology and innovation Shawn Blakney said in a statement.

“Smaller electronics provide the flexibility for lighter, portable and potentially more affordable devices, a trend that is already proven in the consumer market.”

The ISO class-6 cleanroom lab is a controlled environment for temperature, humidity and airborne particles, and offers new miniaturization solutions using bare die packaging technologies.

According to Celestica, the goal of the lab is to reduce production costs, enhance signal integrity and improve thermal performance for high-reliability applications.

“The new microelectronics laboratory complements our existing capabilities in Toronto including our materials laboratory and surface mount technology manufacturing,” Blakney said. “As we look to the future, microelectronics will play an increasing role in technology, and with this new capability, we can help our customers to keep up with the pace of change and stay competitive in their markets.”

The new lab was launched not long after Celestica unveiled a new industry-led incubator aimed at commercializing made-in-Canada electronic products and technologies.