(November 1, 2005) — Armed with $10 million in new state money, the Infotonics Technology Center in Canandaigua can expand its array of capabilities.

Gov. George Pataki traveled to Henrietta on Monday to announce the funding, which comes from pools set aside in the state budget by Pataki and the state Senate. That will bring the total amount of public and private money committed to the research and development center to more than $150 million, Pataki said during his visit to RPC Photonics Corp., one of several companies working on research projects at the center.

Steven Bolte, chairman of the center's board and manager of Xerox Corp.'s Joseph C. Wilson Center for Research and Technology, said the Infotonics center would use the money to invest in new equipment that would help expand its abilities in packaging - the discipline that explores how to integrate and arrange systems and components on a silicon wafer.

The new equipment will be particularly helpful to small companies looking to get their ideas to market, Bolte said. One of the center's missions is to help commercialize discoveries made by researchers.

Opened in May 2004, the Infotonics Technology Center is a state Center of Excellence. The center is a partnership among government, business and academia aimed at developing and commercializing new technologies in photonics and microsystems.

Companies working at the center are conducting research that could lead to such developments as improved pill-sized cameras for internal medical use, devices that analyze DNA more quickly, or sensors that can power themselves by harvesting energy from the motion of objects.

Officials have said the center could lead to the creation of more than 5,000 jobs both at the center and through companies that use the center's services. Right now, there are 15 research projects ongoing there, and the center itself employs 42 people, said spokesman Ron Roberts.

The center was formed in 2001, with Xerox Corp., Eastman Kodak Co. and Corning Inc. as its chief corporate backers. It opened its Canandaigua research and development center last year.

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