ERIE, Pa. — KYOCERA AVX, the electronic component manufacturing company, has started construction of a 49,000-square-foot manufacturing and design center in Penn State Behrend’s Knowledge Park. The facility, which is expected to open in April 2025, will annually produce more than 1.2 million high-precision crystal oscillators for use in aerospace, military, autonomous vehicle and commercial drone applications.
Crystal oscillators are specialized timing and frequency-control devices that are used in satellites, radar systems and smartphones. Erie’s involvement in the technology accelerated in 1930, when Frank Dawson Bliley founded Bliley Technologies, which made quartz crystals for the amateur radio market. During World War II, the company produced crystals for the U.S. Signal Corps.
KYOCERA AVX purchased assets from Bliley Technologies in 2023. The company — a U.S. subsidiary of KYOCERA Corp., a multinational ceramics and electronics conglomerate that generates $15 billion in annual revenue — committed to keeping the business in Erie.
“The employee commitment is what keeps us here,” said Keith Szewczyk, vice president and senior director of KYOCERA AVX, Erie. “The knowledge base that we have will continue to grow on the Penn State Behrend campus. It’s just a natural fit.”
The company frequently hires graduates of Behrend’s electrical engineering technology program.
“That program is very attractive to us,” Szewczyk said. “We’re looking forward to continuing to leverage that.”
The Knowledge Park facility will triple the size of KYOCERA AVX’s cleanroom operations, which produce oscillators for commercial satellites. The proximity to Behrend will enhance the company’s research collaborations with the college, including capstone research projects in the School of Engineering.
“I think the intensity of that research engagement will grow,” said Chancellor Ralph Ford. “The company will now be located across from our campus, with access to a pipeline of student talent and our research and development facilities. That’s going to create more opportunity.”
Ford said he sees that as a win not only for Behrend, and for KYOCERA AVX, but for the broader Erie community.
“It flips the script,” he said. “Too many times, in communities like ours, we have seen companies leave. Here, the investment is coming in. That’s what we want. That means the world sees value in what we’re doing.”