Voice of Business Newsletter May/June 2016
Rochester TRENDS: AIM Photonics Update
G
reater Rochester Chamber of Commerce held an AIM Photonics update as part of its Rochester TRENDS featured speaker event series at The Strong Auditorium. More than 250 people attended to hear directly from AIM Photonics management and corporate partners about how their organizations can become involved. Speakers included Bob Duffy, Rochester Chamber CEO and AIM Photonics Leadership Council Chairman, Tino Treiber, AIM Photonics Industry and Government Outreach Executive, Loucas Tsakalakos, General Electric Global Research Photonics Laboratory Manager, Daniel Vaughn, Corning External Technology Collaboration and Intellectual Assets Director, and Ed White, AIM Photonics Corporate Outreach Executive.
The U.S. Department of Defense designated Rochester as headquarters for the American Institute for Manufacturing Integrated Photonics, which seeks to advance integrated photonic circuit manufacturing technology. The AIM Photonics Leadership Council expects Rochester to play a critical role in the assembly, testing, and packaging of integrated photonics, which allows manufacturers to put thousands of components such as lasers, detectors, and optical interconnects on a single chip. White, a former Kodak executive, commented during his remarks that the technology has the potential to change the world. White said, “In the not too distant future, the technology What’s your networking style? Click on Upcoming Events at the top of our website for series details!
will be leveraged to produce products which require less power, generate less heat, occupy a smaller footprint, weigh less, and operate faster than products using conventional electronic circuits.” Treiber said that AIM Photonics soon plans to issue a call for proposals for interested organizations to get involved.
General Electric is already on board as a Tier 1 AIM Photonics member. Tier 1 members pay an annual membership fee of at least $1 million over a five year commitment. Tsakalakos said, “The AIM Photonics institute is going to really enable us to take photonics research to the next level and allow us to drive that ultimately into new products for GE.” Corning is an AIM Photonics Tier 2 member, which pays at least $500,000 a year over a three year commitment. Vaughn said, “We sell optical fiber, so we are interested in moving the photon once it gets off the chip. We also
have other technologies that we believe can make photonic circuits more effective. At the interface between the integrated circuit and the optical fiber, some really interesting physics occurs. We would like to be involved in solving those problems.” The federal government made a $110 million commitment to create AIM Photonics and base it in Rochester. New York State invested another $250 million while the private sector has chipped in $100 million with an eye toward the institute’s success. Duffy, however, urges patience in the process. Duffy said, “We cannot expect five thousand jobs to immediately drop from the sky. Job creation should ramp up in the 2017 to 2018 time frame. The AIM Photonics team is working very thoughtfully and methodically. This approach is required to ensure that we put forth the best opportunity for Rochester to shine. Aside from our legacy and history in the science, this really presents a new beginning for our region. A large-scale packaging manufacturer presents a great opportunity for Rochester to become a model for the sustainability that the AIM Photonics team is working to create. This type of facility could attract work from other companies around the world and provide opportunities for local vendors and suppliers that feed into the process.” To learn more about AIM Photonics and its levels of membership, visit www.AIMPhotonics. com.
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