MACOM Technology Solutions is a developer and producer of
radio
Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a trans ...
,
microwave
Microwave is a form of electromagnetic radiation with wavelengths ranging from about one meter to one millimeter corresponding to frequencies between 300 MHz and 300 GHz respectively. Different sources define different frequency rang ...
, and
millimeter wave
Extremely high frequency (EHF) is the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) designation for the band of radio frequencies in the electromagnetic spectrum from 30 to 300 gigahertz (GHz). It lies between the super high frequency band and th ...
semiconductor
A semiconductor is a material which has an electrical conductivity value falling between that of a conductor, such as copper, and an insulator, such as glass. Its resistivity falls as its temperature rises; metals behave in the opposite way. ...
devices and components. The company is headquartered in
Lowell,
Massachusetts
Massachusetts (Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut Massachusett_writing_systems.html" ;"title="nowiki/> məhswatʃəwiːsət.html" ;"title="Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət">Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət'' En ...
, and in 2005 was Lowell's largest private employer. MACOM is certified to the
ISO 9001
The ISO 9000 family is a set of five quality management systems (QMS) standards that help organizations ensure they meet customer and other stakeholder needs within statutory and regulatory requirements related to a product or service. ISO 9 ...
international quality standard and
ISO 14001
ISO 14000 is a family of standards related to environmental management that exists to help organizations (a) minimize how their operations (processes, etc.) negatively affect the environment (i.e. cause adverse changes to air, water, or land); (b) ...
environmental standard. The company has design centers and sales offices in North America, Europe, Asia and Australia.
History
Early history
MACOM was founded in the 1950s as Microwave Associates by the engineers Vessarios Chigas, Louis Roberts, Hugh Wainwright and Richard M. Walker. The company was initially a small supplier of
magnetron
The cavity magnetron is a high-power vacuum tube used in early radar systems and currently in microwave ovens and linear particle accelerators. It generates microwaves using the interaction of a stream of electrons with a magnetic field whil ...
s to the
U.S. Army Signal Corps
The United States Army Signal Corps (USASC) is a branch of the United States Army that creates and manages communications and information systems for the command and control of combined arms forces. It was established in 1860, the brainchild of Ma ...
. The name was changed to M/A-COM in 1978 to reflect the company's growing involvement in the
telecommunication
Telecommunication is the transmission of information by various types of technologies over wire, radio, optical, or other electromagnetic systems. It has its origin in the desire of humans for communication over a distance greater than that ...
industry and the merger with DCC,
Digital Communications Corporation. During this timeframe, the company produced low power wideband RF amplifier modules for use in test & measurement. In May 1981, MACOM acquired
Ohio Scientific. In the 1990s, MACOM was acquired by
AMP Inc., which was in turn acquired by
Tyco Electronics.
2000–2010
In 2001, Tyco acquired
Com-Net Ericsson and placed the company under the administration of MACOM, as part of the deal, the company acquired the
EDACS radio systems team and products and merged them with its own
OpenSky resources. The deal also allowed MACOM to become the second largest two-way radio communications manufacturer in the United States. The combined company subsequently developed a
P25 radio offering, and has grown its critical communications systems business to be a large player in the modern wireless two-way communications market. In June 2003,
XMA Corporation, located in
Manchester, New Hampshire, purchased from MACOM the
Omni Spectra line of coaxial
attenuators and terminations.
On May 13, 2008, Tyco Electronics announced that it would sell its RF Components and Subsystem Business to
Cobham plc
Cobham Limited is a British aerospace manufacturing company based in Bournemouth, England.
Cobham was originally founded by Sir Alan Cobham as Flight Refuelling Limited (FRL) in 1934. During 1939, British airline Imperial Airways performed s ...
for $425 million. Tyco Electronics retained the wireless communications part of MACOM, but renamed it Tyco Electronics Wireless Systems. On September 29, 2008 Tyco Electronics and Cobham announced the completion of the sale of Tyco Electronics’ M/A-COM Radio Frequency Components and Subsystems business to Cobham plc. Tyco Electronics kept its Wireless Systems business unit, and changed its name from M/A-COM to Tyco Electronics Wireless Systems.
On March 30, 2009, the company acquired all of the outstanding stock of M/A-COM Technology Solutions Inc., the primary operating subsidiary of MACOM and the related foreign operating subsidiary, M/ACOM Technology Solutions Limited from Cobham. Cobham plc announced that it had sold M/A-COM's commercial business segment, M/A-COM Technology Solutions, to
John Ocampo, the owner of
GaAs Labs, on March 31, 2009. In May 2010, MACOM acquired
Mimix Broadband, a
fabless
Fabless manufacturing is the design and sale of hardware devices and semiconductor chips while outsourcing their fabrication (or ''fab'') to a specialized manufacturer called a semiconductor foundry. These foundries are typically, but not excl ...
supplier of
GaAs
Gallium arsenide (GaAs) is a III-V direct band gap semiconductor with a zinc blende crystal structure.
Gallium arsenide is used in the manufacture of devices such as microwave frequency integrated circuits, monolithic microwave integrated circ ...
semiconductors.
2011–present
In May 2011, MACOM acquired
Optomai Inc. a semiconductor company that developed integrated circuits and modules for 40 and 100-Gbit/s
fiber optic
An optical fiber, or optical fibre in Commonwealth English, is a flexible, transparent fiber made by drawing glass ( silica) or plastic to a diameter slightly thicker than that of a human hair. Optical fibers are used most often as a mean ...
networks. The company announced it had reached a deal to purchase
Mindspeed Technologies, a network infrastructure semiconductor business in November 2013. In February 2014, the company announced that it had sold Mindspeed's wireless business to
Intel Corporation
Intel Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Santa Clara, California. It is the world's largest semiconductor chip manufacturer by revenue, and is one of the developers of the x86 series ...
. On February 13, 2014, the company purchased
Nitronex LLC, a privately held designer of
Gallium nitride
Gallium nitride () is a binary III/ V direct bandgap semiconductor commonly used in blue light-emitting diodes since the 1990s. The compound is a very hard material that has a Wurtzite crystal structure. Its wide band gap of 3.4 eV affords it ...
semiconductors for $26 million. That same year, MACOM also purchased the RF and microwave company
IKE Micro and SiPh services company,
Photonic Controls.
In November 2014, MACOM reached an agreement to buy
BinOptics Corporation, a provider of InP lasers that started at
Cornell University
Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to teac ...
, for $230 million. In November 2015, the company announced that it planned to acquire the Japanese optical subassembly supplier,
FiBest Limited, before the end of the first quarter in 2016. In December 2015, MACOM acquired
Aeroflex
Aeroflex Inc. was an American company which produced test equipment, RF and microwave integrated circuits, components and systems used for wireless communications. Its headquarters were located in Plainview, New York. In May 2014, Aeroflex was ...
's diode business, Aeroflex Metelics from Cobham for $38 million in cash. In January 2017, MACOM acquired
Applied Micro Circuits Corporation.
Operations
Technology
MACOM develops and supplies semiconductor technologies for optical, wireless and satellite networks. The company has a portfolio of analog RF, microwave, millimeterwave and photonic semiconductor products. MACOM has 16 Design and Operational centers worldwide including 11 in the United States, two in Ireland and one in Australia, Japan and Taiwan.
MACOM produces an array of chip technologies, including gallium arsenide (GaAs),
gallium nitride
Gallium nitride () is a binary III/ V direct bandgap semiconductor commonly used in blue light-emitting diodes since the 1990s. The compound is a very hard material that has a Wurtzite crystal structure. Its wide band gap of 3.4 eV affords it ...
(GaN),
silicon photonics
Silicon photonics is the study and application of photonic systems which use silicon as an optical medium. The silicon is usually patterned with sub-micrometre precision, into microphotonic components. These operate in the infrared, most commo ...
(SiPh),
aluminum gallium arsenide
Aluminium gallium arsenide (also gallium aluminium arsenide) ( Alx Ga1−x As) is a semiconductor material with very nearly the same lattice constant as GaAs, but a larger bandgap. The ''x'' in the formula above is a number between 0 and 1 - this ...
(AlGaAs),
indium phosphide
Indium phosphide (InP) is a binary semiconductor composed of indium and phosphorus. It has a face-centered cubic ("zincblende") crystal structure, identical to that of GaAs and most of the III-V semiconductors.
Manufacturing
Indium phosphide c ...
(InP),
silicon
Silicon is a chemical element with the symbol Si and atomic number 14. It is a hard, brittle crystalline solid with a blue-grey metallic luster, and is a tetravalent metalloid and semiconductor. It is a member of group 14 in the periodic ta ...
(Si),
heterolithic microwave integrated circuit (HMIC), and
silicon germanium (SiGe). The company's acquisition of BinOptics in 2014, allows them to use self-aligning etched facet technology to ensure an efficient manufacturing and testing process.
[ Much of MACOM's current sub-microwave RF product line are generic substitutes for the Motorola SPS MRF series Beryllium Oxide devices produced in the mid 1990's, rebranded with revised device datasheets.
]
Markets
MACOM creates semiconductors for a variety of industries: while the company does provide some semiconductors for consumer electronics, its products are primarily used in commercial and industrial applications. In the aerospace and defense industries, MACOM supplies contractors (like Northrop Grumman
Northrop Grumman Corporation is an American multinational aerospace and defense technology company. With 90,000 employees and an annual revenue in excess of $30 billion, it is one of the world's largest weapons manufacturers and military techn ...
) with components that are designed to be integrated into surveillance devices (such as radar). MACOM components are also used by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (abbreviated as NOAA ) is an United States scientific and regulatory agency within the United States Department of Commerce that forecasts weather, monitors oceanic and atmospheric conditi ...
(NOAA) and the Federal Aviation Administration
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is the largest transportation agency of the U.S. government and regulates all aspects of civil aviation in the country as well as over surrounding international waters. Its powers include air traffic ...
.
The company's networking and communications products are used in satellite applications, and they're consumed by clients like Cisco
Cisco Systems, Inc., commonly known as Cisco, is an American-based multinational digital communications technology conglomerate corporation headquartered in San Jose, California. Cisco develops, manufactures, and sells networking hardware, ...
for wired and wireless networking applications. MACOM also creates high-speed optical networking components in high-margin specialized spaces such as data centers, long-haul communications, and metro core networks.
MACOM received a Technology & Engineering Emmy Award
The Technology and Engineering Emmy Awards, or Technology and Engineering Emmys, are one of two sets of Emmy Awards that are presented for outstanding achievement in engineering development in the television industry. The Technology and Engineer ...
for its development of technology that enables high density video switching and routing solutions in 2015. The technology is important in broadcast video infrastructure.
The company also provides power transistors to clients in a variety of industries. For instance, their MOSFET product line has been used in medical instruments (such as MRI systems and CAT scanners) and automotive ignition systems.
Litigation
On January 15, 2009, the State of New York terminated its contract with Tyco Electronics Wireless Systems (often referred to as M/A-COM) due to ongoing and unresolved deficiencies with the OpenSky system.
On February 13, 2009, Tyco Electronics filed a complaint against the New York State Office for Technology (NY-OFT), in the New York State Court of Claims, disputing the claims made by the OFT. In the complaint, Tyco Electronics disputed many of the NY-OFT’s public criticisms of both the company and the system, maintaining that SWN (which included OpenSky) ‘worked as contracted.’ The complaint also claimed the state hindered the company’s ability to build the system in a timely manner, defamed the company by stating that its technology did not work, and that the state inappropriately drew $50 million from the standby letter of credit the company established for the project.
In June 2014, a Judge ruled that Laird Technologies, Inc. was no longer allowed to supply Ford Motor Company with GPS Modules after MACOM sued for patent infringement.
In April 2016, MACOM filed a suit against the German technology company, Infineon Technologies
Infineon Technologies AG is a German semiconductor manufacturer founded in 1999, when the semiconductor operations of the former parent company Siemens AG were spun off. Infineon has about 50,280 employees and is one of the ten largest semicon ...
after alleging that the Infineon was in breach of contract
Breach of contract is a legal cause of action and a type of civil wrong, in which a binding agreement or bargained-for exchange is not honored by one or more of the parties to the contract by non-performance or interference with the other pa ...
, covenant of good faith and fair dealing and interference with contract.
References
External links
*
Cobham plc
Official XMA Corporation website
{{DEFAULTSORT:M A-COM Technology Solutions
Manufacturing companies based in Massachusetts
Companies listed on the Nasdaq