PALMER TWP., Pa. – Coherent Corp., a maker of lasers and semiconductor materials with a Northampton County factory, will receive $15 million in federal funding from the Department of Defense.

The money comes from the CHIPS and Science Act — the acronym stands for Creating Helpful Incentives to Produce Semiconductors — and promotes investment in technology and production of semiconductors, known as chips. The tiny electronic devices are the basis of modern electronics and now viewed as an important component of national security.

President Joe Biden signed the CHIPS Act in 2022, saying the U.S. needed to encourage domestic development and production of semiconductors.

Sohail Khan, executive vice president with Coherent, said the grant will accelerate commercial production of silicon carbide and single-crystal diamond chips that are known as wide-bandgap and ultrawide-bandgap semiconductors. Those devices will be used in electric vehicles, high-speed trains and mobile industrial machinery.

“They also enable smart power grids to efficiently respond to fluctuations in energy demands,” Khan said.

The Department of Defense seeks more semiconductors for hybrid electric vehicles, aircraft components, Navy vessel power systems and other uses.

Coherent is part of a technology hub the Department of Defense established in North Carolina to boost semiconductor production.

Coherent is based in Saxonburg, Pennsylvania, near Pittsburgh, and has a plant in Palmer Township.

Shares in the company are traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol COHR. The closing price Tuesday was $57.48, giving the company a market capitalization of $8.7 billion.

In the last 52 weeks, the shares have traded as high as $67.94 and as low as $26.29.