AIM Photonics Hosts Visit from U.S. Representative Paul Tonko of New York

Leaders discuss AIM Photonics is creating a domestic manufacturing ecosystem to support the development of integrated photonics technology from “lab-to-fab”

AIM Photonics Executive Director Wade Cook explains some of the specialized capabilities that make the Institute unique in the development of advanced integrated photonics.

U.S. Representative Paul Tonko visited AIM Photonics today during a recent trip to Albany, where he represents New York’s 20th Congressional District. Tonko met with members of AIM Photonics and NY CREATES leadership teams at the Albany NanoTech Complex to discuss the rapidly growing silicon photonics industry and the advanced manufacturing ecosystem required to support the domestic production of this emerging technology.

AIM Photonics is one of nine Manufacturing Innovation Institutes (MII) sponsored by the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) to drive advancements to better enable the affordable and rapid transition of new technologies and capabilities into products and systems that help secure national defense and economic priorities.

Members of AIM Photonics and NY Creates leadership teams welcomed U.S. Rep. Paul Tonko to AIM Photonics. From left to right: Leah Scott, Director of Communications and Information Management at AIM Photonics; Dave Anderson, President NY CREATES; U.S. Rep. Paul Tonko of New York; Wade Cook, Executive Director of AIM Photonics; Chris Baiocco, Director of Photonics Engineering at AIM Photonics.

“The advanced manufacturing capabilities available here at the Albany NanoTech Complex, combined with our Test, Assembly, and Packaging facility in Rochester, is what makes AIM Photonics unique,” said Wade Cook, AIM Photonics’ Executive Director. “AIM Photonics the only one of its kind in the United States that can provide complete, end-to-end integrated photonics prototyping services, from photonic integrated circuit design to wafer manufacturing to device packaging and test.”

As a DoD MII, another important aspect of AIM Photonics’ mission is to develop the highly skilled workforce that will be required to support the advanced manufacturing of photonic integrated circuits in the U.S. To that end, AIM Photonics’ Director of Education and Workforce Development (EWD) Dr. Robert Geer gave an overview the AIM Photonics EWD program, highlighting its close partnerships with some of New York’s premier universities—including Rochester Institute of Technology and the University of Rochester—as well as the Institute’s accessible online courses and in-person, hands-on integrated photonics training workshops.

Finally, the group discussed the increasingly important economic impact that growing the domestic integrated photonics industry will have not only on the Capitol Region, but for the State of New York and the U.S. economies, as well.