The Lehigh Valley has a sterling reputation within technology circles and is positioned to once again be a national stalwart of innovation, tech industry leaders and a Pennsylvania state official said at Lehigh Valley Economic Development Corp.’s Fall Signature Event on Nov. 8.
The event, “Lehigh Valley’s Technology Sector: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow,” sponsored by Intel®, was attended by about 200 people at Iacocca Hall at Lehigh University. 
LVEDC celebrated the storied history of the region’s semiconductor industry - which began in 1951 with the first mass production of transistors by Western Electric in Allentown - and looked ahead at what must happen for it to grow.
Mike Burns, Co-Founder and Executive Chairman of iDEAL Semiconductor in Bethlehem, said that when he worked in Silicon Valley, “everyone knew Lehigh Valley.”
Many of the industry leaders there had once worked in the Lehigh Valley at the former Western Electric/Bell Labs or its successors such as Agere, Lucent, and LSI. They reminisced about it.
“The Kevin Bacon game was played, you know, how many steps removed from Bell Labs are you?” said Burns, also a partner at Murray Hill Group.
Those experts were responsible for developing the technology that powers the world today, said Jill Bennett, Vice President, Xeon® & Networking Engineering Director, Network & Edge Group at Intel®.
“It is amazing that so much innovation that surrounds us in our daily lives has been created here in Lehigh Valley,” she said.
“Developments like voice switches and T1 transport, which for decades managed nearly every phone call in the country, had their origins right here in the Lehigh Valley,” Bennett said. “Standards and products like USB that we plug into today. were developed here. Conductivity like firewire for Apple computers, Bluetooth, or Read Channel, which are state of the art for reading hard disk drives, were invented and designed here. Components in the first iPhone had their origin here. I worked on digital signal processors that went into the first digital cellular phones that were built by Nokia and Motorola. And lastly, the Intel® cellular network processors that manage your mobile calls, your texts, your applications, are engineered right here in Allentown.”
Today, the Lehigh Valley’s technology industry features about 30 companies that collectively employ about 1,500 people and produce technology relied upon by brands such as Google, Microsoft, Meta, AWS, AT&T, Verizon, Netflix, and Nokia.
Semiconductor technology firms operating in the Lehigh Valley include AAYUNA, Broadcom, Cisco, Coherent, Infinera, iDEAL Semiconductor, Intel®, and POET Technologies. They are supported by Lehigh Valley firms such as Air Products, Evonik, EMD Electronics, and LBN that supply components and raw materials.
Together, they are creating solutions that allow data and electricity to be transmitted faster, with less heat, in smaller hardware.
And those companies are looking to grow.
“We're looking at increasing our capacity here, growing more,” said Doug Dopp, Senior Director of Manufacturing at Broadcom and senior leader of its wafer fabrication facility in Upper Macungie Township that employs about 350 people. “Our business is doing very, very well.”
Dopp, Burns, Ed Pullin of Intel®, and Wayne Barz of Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Northeastern Pennsylvania participated in a panel discussion at the Fall Signature Event moderated by LVEDC President and CEO Don Cunningham.
Pullin, IP Marketing Director in the Network Edge Group at Intel®, said the tech industry continues to find the Lehigh Valley a strong place to do business because of the number of highly skilled professionals with roots tracing back to Bell Labs and its successors.
“When I was at Lucent, I would walk down the hall to talk to the guy that wrote the standard. That’s how talented they were, that's how advanced they were, back then in the ‘90s. I want that expertise that was born here, bred here. I want it to grow here,” Pullin said.
Dopp said the Lehigh Valley advantage includes having the plethora of businesses that make supplies and provide services to semiconductor companies.
“It's the companies like Air Products and EMD. And, you know, the small manufacturers that make our test equipment in Emmaus. It's that ecosystem that keeps us here. And we need to grow that. We need to grow that to grow our business.”
Growth will require expanding the workforce substantially. Nationwide, the semiconductor industry is looking to fill 100,000 jobs, said Barz, Chief Investment Officer at Ben Franklin Northeast, which operates the TechVentures incubator where many technology firms get their start.
The Lehigh Valley’s technology companies plan to work together to introduce high school students to those careers and build a pipeline of talent, Barz said.
The military is an obvious source of new workers who have sought-after skills and could easily be trained, Burns said.
“We have systems operators trained with discipline, that understand accountability, who come out and look for jobs,” he said.
Barz said attracting a workforce for technology companies has always been challenging, but it’s made easier by the fact that the Lehigh Valley boasts multiple, diverse firms, ranging from those developing semiconductors using photonics to those that manage power.
Regions need a critical mass of companies to have a viable ecosystem, Burns said.
“It is the magic of Silicon Valley. And it's the magic of what has made Austin what it is. You need many companies. I know that the governor is working on that. I think it's critically important.”
In August, the Lehigh Valley applied to the federal government to be designated as a Tech Hub, which could have brought up to $75 million to the region to expand the semiconductor and advanced materials manufacturing industries.
The government is seeking to vastly expand domestic production of technology such as semiconductors, to protect national security. Much of the production currently occurs in Asia.
LVEDC submitted the application on behalf of a broad regional coalition that included tech companies, colleges and universities, state and local governments, and partners in labor, economic development, community services, and workforce development.
The Lehigh Valley’s application was not among the 31 chosen by the U.S. Economic Development Administration in October. But the process was fruitful nonetheless because it brought together the tech industry and its partners. They now are collaborating on shared needs such as building supply chains and developing a future workforce, and three or four companies are planning to expand, Cunningham said.
“The benefits of this coalition are tremendous, but it's really renewed the focus in the Lehigh Valley on development and opportunities around the sector, better understandings of the ecosystem behind it, the supply chain that links it together, and the partnerships that can be developed,” he said.
The state wants to help keep that momentum going, said another speaker at the Fall Signature Event, Jen Gilburg, Deputy Secretary of Technology and Entrepreneurship at the Pennsylvania Department of Community & Economic Development.
She said the Lehigh Valley’s application to be a Tech Hub was “super strong,” and it was disappointing that it wasn’t successful. When future federal funding opportunities arise, she said, the Lehigh Valley “is super poised to capitalize on that.”
Gilburg said Gov. Josh Shapiro’s administration is creating a long-term economic development strategy for Pennsylvania, which has been lacking in recent years, and that will help the Lehigh Valley.
“There's a lot of foundational things that we're working on addressing so that we can supercharge growth and entrepreneurship and technology growth and reputation for the state of Pennsylvania,” she said.
The plan will include building partnerships with educational institutions and workforce development organizations, something the Lehigh Valley already has done, she said.
“These partnerships are exactly what we want to leverage. I think you guys have a jumpstart on it. So, expect a lot more to come, expect a lot of activity from the state,” she said.
Intel, the global technology company that employs about 300 semiconductor designers in the Lehigh Valley, was presenting sponsor for the Fall Signature Event.
The cocktail sponsor was Klunk & Millan. Gold sponsors were International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 375, J.G. Petrucci Co., Lafayette College, Lehigh University, Service Electric, and Workforce Board Lehigh Valley. Silver sponsors were B Braun Medical, Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Northeastern Pennsylvania, Boyle Construction, BSI Corporate Benefits, Fitzpatrick Lentz & Bubba, Murray Hill Group, and St. Luke’s University Health Network.
The event included a display of technology, ranging from wafers and semiconductors that are currently produced to those that were produced in the past. The National Museum of Industrial History in Bethlehem displayed some of the first transistors and components that were made at Western Electric more than 70 years ago.
(Photos by Marco Calderon Photography)