Burlington business EMP Shield is pursuing federal CHIPS Act funding to bring a multi-billion-dollar semiconductor project to Coffey County.
If everything pans out, EMP Shield would add more than 1,200 jobs paying an average of over $65,000 per year. Kansas 76th District Representative Eric Smith of Burlington says growing the local job market is only part of the benefit to Coffey County and the surrounding area.
He says the increased workforce will likely translate into significant growth in permanent residence.
The planned facility would occupy a 300-acre plot of land and would see a partnership between EMP Shield and six out-of-state suppliers. The goal is to produce microprocessor components needed for the semiconductor industry, using gallium nitride to produce high-speed, high-power, high-efficiency chips.
Kansas Governor Laura Kelly says currently the main supplier of microchips is China and that “is a problem.”
Established in 2018, EMP Shield is already well known in protecting electronic devices from destructive magnetic pulses, having won the state’s Coolest Thing Made in Kansas competition in 2020. It also has a customer base including the US Department of Defense, several other federal agencies and the intelligence community as a whole.
As part of this effort, EMP Shield is collaborating with several partners, including Coffey County government, all Coffey County public school districts and Flint Hills Technical College. FHTC will serve as the academic technical programming provider for the initiative.
FHTC President Dr. Caron Daugherty says the tentative timeline for this programming is roughly two years, however, she explains they will be providing as much “workforce development” as “credit-based programming.”
Daugherty adds the college wants to be a part of the movement to make “Kansas a destination” for employment where employees feel valued and families want to live. She says this initiative is the “critical opportunity” to accomplish that goal.
