A translucent single-crystal ingot beside sliced wafers and an electroded plate on a granite bench
COMPANY

Founded on a material. Built around one facility.

TRS Technologies was founded in 1991 to take relaxor-PT single crystals out of the laboratory and into production. It still makes its piezoelectric ceramics and crystals under one roof in State College, Pennsylvania, today as a subsidiary of TAYCA Corporation.

Founded
1991
Parent
TAYCA Corporation
Quality
ISO 9001:2015
Facility
State College, PA
LeadershipCareers
THE COMPANY

From a Penn State laboratory to a production line.

A platinum crucible, a ceramic sample holder and a sintered PZT disc on a laboratory bench

Dr. Thomas R. Shrout founded TRS Ceramics in 1991 to make the relaxor-PT single crystals he had studied at Penn State into materials a transducer designer could specify. The first Navy small-business research award came the same year, and the company's early work was funded largely by SBIR and STTR programs for sonar, ultrasound and capacitors.

The crystals became products under Dr. Jun Luo, who joined in 2004 and still directs crystal manufacture: the TRS X2B, X4B and X4B-HQ lines that ship into medical ultrasound and naval programs. Around them TRS built the ceramic side of the house — soft and hard PZT, high-temperature and electrostrictive compositions — and the machining, electroding, poling and inspection every part passes through.

In 2018 TRS became a subsidiary of TAYCA Corporation, a specialty-chemicals and electronic-materials group in Osaka whose piezoelectric business it now anchors in the United States. The address and the people who answer the phone did not change.

The founder · Dr. Thomas R. Shrout

  • 17 patents and more than 250 co-authored papers

  • ISI Highly Cited Researcher in Materials Science, 2003

  • IEEE Fellow, 2012, for advanced piezoelectrics for ultrasound transducers

  • Industry Week '25 Winning Technologies', 1997

Papers by TRS staff and collaborators
MILESTONES

What changed, and when.

  1. Founded

    TRS Ceramics opens in State College; its first SBIR award comes the same year.

  2. Crystal growth

    Dr. Jun Luo joins to lead single-crystal growth and development.

  3. First composite

    The first production single-crystal 1-3 composite ships in September.

  4. TAYCA

    TRS becomes a subsidiary of TAYCA Corporation, Osaka.

  5. New leadership

    Stephen Dynan is appointed President and Chief Executive Officer.

  6. Finance

    Zachary Stimely joins as Chief Financial Officer.

PARENT COMPANY

A subsidiary of TAYCA Corporation.

TAYCA Corporation makes titanium dioxide, surfactants, conductive polymers and piezoelectric materials from Osaka, Japan. It acquired TRS in 2018 and pairs TRS's single-crystal technology with its own piezoelectric ceramics research.

In Japan, TRS's PZT ceramics are marketed through TFT Corporation, TAYCA's wholly owned piezoelectric sales company. Everywhere else, the contact is the one at the foot of every TRS page.

TAYCA Corporation
LEADERSHIP

The people accountable for every shipment.

Five people run the company, its finances, its crystal science, its factory floor and its materials engineering. All of them sit in State College.

  • President and Chief Executive Officer

    Stephen A. Dynan

    Has run piezoelectric materials businesses since 2003: Piezo Kinetics, HC Materials and CTG Advanced Materials, then QorTek, before joining TRS in 2022. A Penn State materials scientist.

    At TRS since 2022LinkedIn
  • Chief Financial Officer

    Zachary J. Stimely

    Joined from Penn State's College of Engineering, where he was Financial Officer; earlier Chief Financial Officer of QorTek and Controller at Avail Technologies. Susquehanna University.

    At TRS since 2025LinkedIn
  • Director and Chief Scientist, Crystal Manufacture and Development

    Dr. Jun Luo

    Leads single-crystal growth and development, and developed the TRS X2B, X4B and X4B-HQ product lines. Principal investigator on nine SBIR and STTR projects; three book chapters and more than forty papers.

    At TRS since 2004LinkedIn
  • Director of Manufacturing

    Scott Seigworth

    Runs the factory floor, from pressing and sintering to machining, plating and test. Joined as Production Coordinator in 2012 after production roles at United Chemical Technology and W. R. Grace.

    At TRS since 2012LinkedIn
  • Engineering Manager, PZT and Single Crystal Materials

    Sinan Dursun

    Owns the materials engineering behind both routes, ceramic and crystal. Joined as Crystal Growth Scientist after process-development work at QorTek and a Penn State postdoctorate.

    At TRS since 2023LinkedIn
HOW WE WORK

One roof, from powder to accepted part.

A change at any stage is a conversation with the person who runs it.

A row of crystal-growth furnaces in an industrial hall, one lid open and glowing

The powder is formulated here, the ceramic is pressed and fired or the crystal grown here, and the same people machine, plate, pole and inspect what comes out. A specification can therefore be met at whichever stage actually solves it, a new composition included, and a drawing that changes is a conversation rather than a hand-off between suppliers.

  1. Powder

    Formulated and synthesised in-house, so a composition can be tuned.

  2. Formulation

    Soft, hard, high-temperature or electrostrictive; or a crystal charge.

  3. Pressed, sintered or grown

    Ceramics are pressed and fired; single crystals are grown.

  4. Machined, electroded, poled

    To the shapes and tolerances on the published sheets.

  5. Inspected and accepted

    Every part against its specification, under ISO 9001.

Track record

  • 132 SBIR and STTR awards from the Navy, Air Force, NASA and the Department of Energy sbir.gov

  • A seat on the IEEE P1859 working group for relaxor single crystal standards

  • Fifteen reprints, from fine-grained PZT to Mn-doped PIN-PMN-PT Publications

CAREERS

Work on the material itself.

At TRS you are part of a team delivering custom solutions for customers in medical ultrasound, semiconductor, industrial sensing and other industries.

The work is the material itself. Crystal growth, ceramic processing, machining and plating, test and inspection, quality, maintenance, finance and administration all happen on one site in State College, Pennsylvania, and every role is on site.

A small manufacturer means you see the part leave. The person who formulates a powder knows who will press it, and the person who poles a part knows which program it ships into.

TAYCA Corporation has owned TRS since 2018, which gives a small company in central Pennsylvania a long-term owner in the same business.

Benefits

  • 401(k) with company match

  • Health, dental and vision insurance

  • Life and disability insurance

  • Health savings and flexible spending accounts

  • Paid time off

As listed on TRS's current postings.

See open roles on IndeedSend a résumé
[email protected]+1 814.238.7485

TRS Technologies is an Equal Employment Opportunity employer.

Talk to the people who make it.

Talk to an engineerCall +1 814.238.7485
[email protected]