Corning Advanced Optics is expanding and adding jobs to help address a backlog in the semiconductor supply chain.
David Velasquez, the Vice President and General Manager for Corning Advanced Optics, discussed the looming demand and the products manufactured at the company’s Fairport facility Wednesday during our Greater Rochester Enterprise Why ROC conversation.
“I think most people have heard about the excitement in the semiconductor industry, not only the broadening of the use of semiconductor chips across different applications and devices but also recently shortages that have caused a number of industries to actually slow down production because they can’t get enough chips,” Velasquez said. “At Corning, we make a series of products and we’re the global leader for materials and optical measurement systems that help support the production of these chips. Specifically in Rochester, we make optical modules – very high-end, very precise optical modules that we sell into the industry and help do the process control, the inspection of all of these steps that are involved in making semiconductors.”
Meeting the demand means adding jobs at the Fairport facility. “We’ve got a broad swath of different types of jobs in our Fairport facility,” said Velasquez. “We need roles for something we call optical fabrication, which is really just shaping the pieces of glass into lenses of different shapes, coating experts and specialists that are involved in the coating of these pieces of glass, and the mechanical engineers and technicians that actually assemble these components into a large assembly and a large module. Then not just hourlies, and not just technicians, but we’re hiring a number of process engineers, optical engineers, and mechanical engineers as well.”
Corning has over 60,000 employees across the globe. Velasquez said the expansion in Rochester makes perfect sense. “First and foremost, Rochester is a global hub of optics expertise. When you think about the rich history of Kodak and Bausch + Lomb and other companies, that optics – that history of optics and the universities – such as the University of Rochester and RIT, globally it’s known as one of, if not the premier optics hub for PhDs and engineers. So, we like to go where the talent is and that’s one of the reasons we keep and maintain and are investing specifically in Rochester because that is where the talent is and this doesn’t succeed and we don’t succeed without the right talent.”
For more information about career opportunities at the Fairport facility here.
Original Source: Rochester First