KYOCERA AVX, a leading global manufacturer of advanced electronic components engineered to accelerate technological innovation and build a better future, recently hosted a groundbreaking ceremony for KYOCERA AVX Components Corporation (Erie)’s new manufacturing and design center for high-quality, low-noise quartz crystal frequency control products.

 The new facility will be part of the Knowledge Park at Penn State Erie research and development hub for forward-thinking, knowledge-driven businesses, which is located on the Penn State Behrend campus in Erie, Pennsylvania. Work began on the new 49,000-square-foot facility on February 17, 2024; the official groundbreaking ceremony took place on April 12, 2024; and it’s projected to open on April 30, 2025.

 KYOCERA AVX acquired assets of Bliley Technologies — a global leader in the design and development of innovative, low-noise frequency control products with more than 90 years of R&D experience and more than 65 years of space heritage in low earth orbit and geostationary equatorial orbit applications — in October 2023.

 The new KYOCERA Components Corporation (Erie) facility at Knowledge Park is a high-tech space designed to fuel the development of cutting-edge precision timing and frequency control products engineered to satisfy the rapidly evolving demands of global military, aerospace, industrial, communications, autonomous vehicle and commercial drone applications. The 49,000-square-foot space will feature engineering labs, environmental testing labs, sound sensitive measurement rooms, ISO Class 7 and Class 8 cleanrooms that will support the mass production of parts approved for use in LEO and medium earth orbit applications, and automated testing and assembly equipment that will ensure higher-quality, higher-precision product yields. It will also support continued collaboration with Penn State Behrend, which will facilitate continued advancements in innovative product and technology solutions and generate a high-tech engineering workforce. 

Upon completion, the new facility will enable the production of more than 1.2 million patented and currently unrivaled low-power oven-controlled crystal oscillators (OXCOs), which provide superior holdover performance compared to micro electromechanical systems (MEMS), a year. It will also produce a variety of temperature-compensated crystal oscillators (TXCO), voltage-controlled crystal oscillators (VCXOs), high-precision AT-, SC-, IT- and FC-cut crystals, quartz and lead zirconate titanate (PZT), lithium niobate, langatate, yttrium calcium oxoborate (YCOB) transducer blanks, as well as an array of disruptive new products based on Bliley Technologies and KYOCERA AVX IP. These high-quality, low-noise quartz crystal frequency control products effectively suppress phase noise, ruggedly withstand random and micro vibrations, reliably endure low-gravity environments, maintain superlative frequency stability and endure fast and wide temperature variations, which makes them essential solutions for an increasingly expansive range of sophisticated electronics applications. They are also certified to ASD9100 Rev D and ISO 9001, J-STD-001 Class 3, IPC-A-610, IPC-7711 and IPC-7721, qualified to MIL-PRF-55310, and compliant with International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR), REACH and RoHS directives and MIL-STD-883B, MIL-STD-202 and MIL-O-55310 environmental and qualification testing standards.

“The new KYOCERA Components Corporation (Erie) manufacturing and design center being built on the beautiful Knowledge Park campus at Penn State Behrend will triple our current cleanroom capabilities, which will allow us to mass produce high-reliability frequency control products optimized to satisfy the needs of the burgeoning LEO and MEO markets, and further our longstanding collaboration with Penn State University,” said Keith Szewczyk, vice president and senior director – KYOCERA AVX Crystals. “It will also enable us to produce more of the same high-quality electronic components that made Bliley a global leader, as well as to design and develop new products based on both Bliley and KYOCERA AVX IP, including technologies that combine our low-power technology with Bliley’s quartz crystal technology to create the next generation of precision timing products. So, we’re thrilled to celebrate the official groundbreaking for this new development and look forward to opening the doors and starting the production lines next spring.”