For Immediate Release: Friday, October 19, 2016

Contact: Laura Magee (ESD) | laura.magee@esd.ny.gov  | (716) 846-8239 | (800) 260-7313 ESD Press Office | PressOffice@esd.ny.gov | (800) 260-7313

The New York State Photonics Board of Officers today announced that Infinera, a market leading provider of Intelligent Transport Networks, has become the latest member of AIM Photonics, demonstrating the continued swell of support for the Rochester-based initiative. Infinera will play a key role within the institute, providing access to its industry leading Indium Phosphide (InP) photonics technology and establishing InP-based Foundry Wafer access for AIM.

“As we welcome Infinera as the newest partner of AIM Photonics, today's partnership exemplifies another necessary and exciting step forward in the progression of this important state initiative,” said New York State Photonics Board of Officers Chairman John Maggiore. “In New York, state funding is moving ahead on schedule as is the competitive process to identify a TAP facility. The reasons AIM Photonics and New York were chosen by the Department of Defense one year ago to lead the country’s advanced research endeavors in integrated photonics are the same then as they are now. Only New York has the skill, industry partnerships, and expertise to manage and execute such a large and important project.”

“Photonic integration has revolutionized the optical networking industry and Infinera has led the way starting with delivering the industry’s first large scale photonic integrated circuit, which started to ship in networking systems in 2005,” said Fred Kish, Infinera Senior Vice President of Development and Engineering. “We are happy to be working with AIM and SUNY Polytechnic Institute as a Tier 1 industry member. Through our focus on innovation, Infinera continues to advance integrated photonics to enable service providers and data center operators to deploy networks consuming less power and space while offering the capacity required to transport data over long distances. We are honored to join AIM in developing and designing the high performance tools the nation requires to remain competitive.”

AIM Photonics is building a membership that includes some of the country’s most innovative technology companies that each provides critical elements to the success of the institute. Infinera leads the industry in photonic integration with large-scale photonic integrated circuits (PICs) and packet-optical convergence, which both reduce space and power requirements while simplifying network operations. The PIC combines hundreds of discrete optical functions on a single microchip, drastically improving density, power consumption, heat dissipation and reliability.

“Infinera is a tremendous addition to the photonics institute and another powerful ally in our state’s and our nation’s leadership in delivering a true technological revolution,” said Robert Duffy, Chairman of the AIM Photonics Leadership Council. “I extend my thanks to Infinera for committing its support and expertise to AIM Photonics.”

“Our partnership with Infinera dramatically expands our access to cutting-edge photonics technologies that are crucial to the success of the institute.  It also adds more photonics industry star-power to our team,” said Michael Liehr, CEO of AIM Photonics and Executive Vice President of Innovation and Technology for SUNY Polytechnic Institute. “Infinera is a leader in photonics innovation and the ability to tap into its resources, as well as those of our other nationwide members, further increases the already significant potential of this Rochester-based initiative.”

“Today’s announcement with Infinera sends a strong message that the commitment to the success of AIM Photonics, a critically important national research consortium led by SUNY Polytechnic Institute in partnership with the state, is unwavering,” said SUNY Provost, Executive Vice Chancellor and SUNY Poly Officer-in-Charge Dr. Alex Cartwright. “AIM continues to maintain independent and robust oversight through multiple boards and the federal government. All partners, from academia to government to industry, are working in unison to ensure AIM’s mission and potential are achieved.”

AIM’s Integrated Photonics Institute is designed to establish a technology, business and education framework for industry, government and academia to accelerate the transition of integrated photonics solutions from technology prototypes to manufacturing-ready deployment in systems spanning multiple commercial and defense applications. Each AIM Photonics partner brings unique know-how to address an end-to-end solution to the photonics ecosystem. Infinera brings unique differentiation because of its expertise in development of the most complex commercially available photonic integrated circuits.

About the New York State Photonics Board of Officers The New York State Photonics Board of Officers coordinates New York State’s significant financial investments with AIM.  The board of officers consists of seven members who represent a wide array of business, programmatic, and technical expertise.  The Governor of New York State appoints the Chairman and two additional members; SUNY Poly Institute appoints two members; and the Rochester Institute of Technology and University of Rochester each appoint one member. The Photonics Institute Board of Officers is comprised of: John Maggiore, Chair (Governor appointee), Anne Kress (Governor appointee), Alexander Cartwright (Governor appointee), Ronald Goldblatt (SUNY Poly appointee), Paul Tolley (SUNY Poly appointee), Ryne Raffaele (RIT appointee) and Rob Clark (U of R appointee).