DOD exec: Photonics hub on track, $30M fund 'key step'

A national photonics initiative based in Rochester received a nod of encouragement Friday from the Pentagon official overseeing this and other manufacturing institutes nationally.

The headquarters and research hub of the American Institute for Manufacturing (AIM) Integrated Photonics has yet to open. Yet the Department of Defense-backed project is facing a deadline of becoming self-sustaining by the end of next year.

"I have no concern with the stand up of AIM," said Tracy Frost, the DOD's director of manufacturing institutes, making her first visit to the local facility under construction on Lake Avenue. "We want to do it right, and not just quick."

Integrated photonics is a developing industry that uses photons (light) to do the work of electrons, only much faster and more efficiently — with applications ranging from self-driving cars to medical equipment to food safety. The $600 million-plus effort joins the public, private and academic sectors to knock down common barriers to development. The research hub, called the Test, Assembly and Packaging (TAP) facility, ended up in Rochester based on the area's history in optics and thanks to a $250 million commitment from New York state.

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Watch:Opening the TAP on AIM Photonics

The TAP facility and headquarters is taking the fourth of fifth floors of the ON Semiconductor building on Lake Avenue, north of West Ridge Road, formerly Eastman Kodak Co.'s Building 81. Offices and conference rooms are largely complete, with clean rooms currently in mid-buildout. Tools and equipment should be moved in starting next month.

Some of the equipment is so large that it will be hoisted in via crane through a removable fifth-floor wall, officials said.

Watch:Photonics move-in will require removal of a fifth-floor wall

Project leaders authorized $30 million in state funding on Friday to cover education and workforce development, research and development initiatives with the University of Rochester and Rochester Institute of Technology, and the next three years of operating expenses — more than a year beyond when federal funding runs out.

"I think we got a little reprieve from that this morning, just a bit," said Congresswoman Louise Slaughter, D-Fairport, who met with DOD and project leaders before the state photonics board meeting. "We're doing well. Everything is going well. I got the sense that DOD would not drop us and walk away."

AIM Photonics is the largest (in terms of overall budget and the $110 million federal match) of 14 Manufacturing USA sites nationally, eight of which are under the DOD.

There is urgency, as the technology developed will aid soldiers in the field. But Frost said the photonics effort was proceeding at "an acceptable pace" and "on the right trajectory," adding that defense officials recognize that becoming self-supporting in five years, as planned, is a short amount of time. Institutes in other sectors have been given up to seven years. She was not in a position to discuss future funding, however.

The funding approved Friday would nearly exhaust the state's $250 million commitment, also including a $30 million photonics attraction fund, previously announced by Gov. Andrew Cuomo, that will be aimed at assisting integrated photonics companies willing to locate manufacturing operations to the area. Conditions for receiving aid include the companies becoming members of AIM, users of TAP, and providing a company match.

Frost called it a "key step" toward self-sufficiency.

"We're not looking for startups," Slaughter said. "We are looking for companies that already produce."

BDSHARP@Gannett.com