Soaring demand for sophisticated electronic devices that can be as small as a coin has helped propel a major expansion for a Colorado Springs company.

Spectrum Advanced Manufacturing Technologies, a more than quarter-century-old microelectronics manufacturer and whose products serve the aerospace and medical industries, the Department of Defense, NASA and other clients, said Tuesday it plans to add at least 100 high-paying jobs and grow the size of its Springs facilities by more than 50%.

The company made its announcement at a news conference attended by Gov. Jared Polis, Colorado Springs Mayor Yemi Mobolade and other local government officials and business leaders — and in the midst of the crowded exhibition floor during the 39th Space Symposium trade show being held this week at The Broadmoor hotel on the city’s southwest side.

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“Each win is a great success and so Spectrum adds to the aerospace success story; it’s also over 100 good-paying jobs,” Polis said after the news conference. “But what we value in the Pikes Peak region and across our state is a well diversified economy, so we’re never too reliant on any one employer, which might have business ups and downs. Because Colorado’s the best place to do business and the best place to live, we’re winning many, many expansions of companies that are growing right here in Colorado.”

Spectrum, founded in 1997, engineers and manufactures circuit boards and assemblies based on plans and specifications from its clients.

Those products — including circuit boards that Spectrum executive chairman Michael Freeman says could range in size from a quarter to 5-feet long — go into equipment and technology that include Psyche, NASA’s deep space exploration spacecraft that was launched in October; the space agency’s Mars Curiosity Rover; the Navy’s MK 48 heavyweight torpedo; and the augmented reality headset developed by Ocutrx Technologies, a medical device startup and Spectrum’s California-based parent company.

In the case of the Psyche mission, Spectrum created circuit boards that are at the heart of the spacecraft’s communications systems, the company has said.

The demand for Spectrum’s products has been growing exponentially and the company needed to expand operations, said Freeman, who’s also the CEO of Ocutrx Technologies. Ocutrx purchased Spectrum last year and kept the company’s operation and employees in the Springs.

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“This is amazingly significant and it’s something we had to do because our revenue is just going skyrocketing,” Freeman said. “We just didn’t have the space. Some of our defense contracts and some of our NASA contracts have doubled and tripled and so we ran out of space. We had to get more space just to cover what we promised to deliver.”

Spectrum considered Tulsa, Okla., where Ocutrx has a presence. The company chose Colorado Springs for its expansion, in part, because of financial incentives offered by the Colorado Economic Development Commission, the city of Colorado Springs and El Paso County, Freeman said.

In February, the commission, a state-appointed panel, approved up to $1.28 million in performance-based Job Growth Incentive Tax Credits for Spectrum over eight years. To qualify for the credits, Spectrum must meet job creation and salary requirements spelled out in an agreement with the state.

Spectrum, which currently employs about 65 people, plans to expand its workforce by a minimum of 100 over the eight-year period, Freeman said.

In a news release detailing Spectrum’s expansion, state officials announced those jobs will pay an average annual wage of $85,407, though Freeman said after Tuesday’s news conference the jobs are in the neighborhood of $65,000 a year. The positions, according to the state, will include marketing and sales, engineers, inspectors, accountants, production associates, administrative support and technicians.

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Spectrum, which occupies a 30,000-square-foot building northwest of Fillmore Street and Mark Dabling Boulevard on Colorado Springs’ northwest side, has agreed to lease a next-door, 3,000-square-foot building as part of its expansion, Freeman said. The company also has purchased a second adjacent building that it will expand to 12,500 square feet, he said.

The Colorado Springs Chamber of Commerce & EDC, meanwhile, facilitated a local incentives package with the city and county valued at $275,496, according to the news release. That figure includes more than $250,000 offered through the Pikes Peak Enterprise Zone, a state income tax credit program administered by El Paso County.

“Their (Spectrum) decision to grow operations here by adding 100 employees and expanding their advanced manufacturing facility shows their confidence in our workforce, our education system, our infrastructure and our culture of supporting industries critical to our nation’s future,” Cami Bremer, chairwoman of the Board of El Paso County Commissioners, said during Tuesday’s news conference.

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Spectrum’s workforce expansion continues a string of job announcements in Colorado Springs over the past two years. More than 4,200, high-wage jobs have been announced for the area over that period by existing businesses or newcomers, who also plan to spend more than $2 billion on capital investments, Chamber & EDC officials have said.

“Not enough,” Mobolade said after the news conference. “We need more. And not just jobs, we need high-paying jobs. … It’s increasingly getting more and more expensive to live in a great city like ours. We consistently are showing up in all of the top rankings (of national publications). So many people want to move here. And we can only do so much to bring the cost of housing down. At the end of the day, we’ve just got to pay people more money.”