II-VI Incorporated, a global leader in engineered materials and optoelectronic components, is a vertically integrated manufacturing company that develops innovative products for diversified applications in the industrial, optical communications, military, life sciences, semiconductor equipment and consumer markets.
Headquartered in Saxonburg, PA, II-VI maintains research and development, manufacturing, sales, service and distribution facilities worldwide, producing a variety of application-specific photonic and electronic materials and components deployed in various forms, including integrated
with advanced software.
Why Saxonburg? In 1971, a couple of entrepreneurs had a vision for a niche market for optics for CO2 lasers and did very well. This early success attracted more researchers, including those drawn from local universities such as Carnegie Mellon.
With this great deal of perfectly suited DNA available in the local area, the company found it was significantly ahead of the curve regarding lasers. With a highly developed product for that market, repeatable sales became the norm, since CO2 lasers use up optics and need to be replaced.
Over the years, II-VI grew both organically and through acquisition, with annual sales of about $1.6 billion today. In fact, it has recently increased capacity in Saxonburg for CO2 laser optics and diamond optics for extreme ultraviolet lithography systems that will enable the shrinking of microelectronics found in consumer electronics. And as icing on the cake, II-IV is proud to be the official high-tech partner of the Pittsburgh Penguins.