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UNITED STATES SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
Washington, D.C. 20549
Form 10-K
FOR ANNUAL AND TRANSITION REPORTS PURSUANT TO
SECTIONS 13 OR 15(d)
OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934
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ANNUAL REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE
SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1933 |
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For the fiscal year ended December 31, 2004 |
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TRANSITION REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE
SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934 |
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For the transition period
from to |
Commission file number: 000-31635
Endwave Corporation
(Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter)
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Delaware
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95-4333817 |
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(State of incorporation) |
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(I.R.S. Employer Identification No.) |
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776 Palomar Avenue
Sunnyvale, CA
(Address of principal executive offices) |
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94085
(Zip code) |
(408) 522-3100
(Registrants telephone number, including area code)
(Former name, former address and former fiscal year, if
changed since last report)
Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the
Act: None
Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(g) of the
Act: Common Stock, $0.001 par value
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant (1) has filed
all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of
the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding
12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant
was required to file such reports), and (2) has been
subject to such filing requirements for the past
90 days. Yes þ No o
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is an accelerated
filer (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the
Act). Yes o No þ
Indicate by check mark if disclosure of delinquent filers
pursuant to Item 405 of Regulation S-K is not
contained herein, and will not be contained, to the best of the
registrants knowledge, in definitive proxy or information
statements incorporated by reference in Part III of this
Form 10-K. o
The aggregate market value of the common stock held by
non-affiliates of the registrant as of June 30, 2004 was
approximately $48.4 million. Shares of voting common stock
held by directors, executive officers, and by each person who
beneficially owns 10% or more of the outstanding common stock
have been excluded as such persons may be deemed to be
affiliates. This determination of affiliate status is not
necessarily a conclusive determination for other purposes. The
aggregate market value has been computed based on a price of
$7.95, which was the closing sale price June 30, 2004 as
reported by the Nasdaq National Market.
The number of shares outstanding of the registrants common
stock as of March 18, 2005 was approximately 10,540,982.
ENDWAVE CORPORATION
FORM 10-K
December 31, 2004
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1
FORWARD-LOOKING INFORMATION
This report and the filings incorporated into this report by
reference contain forward-looking statements within the meaning
of Section 17A of the Securities Act and within the meaning
of Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as
amended, that are subject to the safe harbor created
by those sections. These forward-looking statements can
generally be identified as such because the context of the
statement will include words such as anticipates,
believes, continue,
estimates, expects, intends,
may, opportunity, plans,
potential, predicts or will,
the negative of these words or words of similar import.
Similarly, statements that describe our reserves and our future
plans, strategies, intentions, expectations, objectives, goals
or prospects are also forward-looking statements. Discussions
containing these forward-looking statements may be found, among
other places, in Business, Risk Factors,
and Managements Discussion and Analysis of Financial
Condition and Results of Operations as well as any
amendments thereto reflected in subsequent filings with the
Securities and Exchange Commission. These forward-looking
statements are or will be, as applicable, based largely on our
expectations and projections about future events and future
trends affecting our business, and so are or will be, as
applicable, subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause
actual results to differ materially from those anticipated in
the forward-looking statements. The risks and uncertainties are
attributable to, among other things: our ability to achieve and
maintain profitability; our customer and market concentration;
our ability to penetrate new markets; fluctuations in our
operating results from quarter to quarter; our reliance on
third-party manufacturers and semiconductor foundries; acquiring
businesses and integrating them with our own; component, design
or manufacturing defects in our products; and our dependence on
key personnel. Because the risks and uncertainties referred to
above, actual results or outcomes could differ materially from
those expressed in any forward-looking statements made by us or
on our behalf and you should not place undue reliance on any
forward-looking statements. Further, any forward-looking
statement speaks only as of the date on which it is made, and we
undertake no obligation to update any forward-looking statement
to reflect events or circumstances after the date on which the
statement is made or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated
events. New factors emerge from time to time, and it is not
possible for us to predict which factors will arise. In
addition, we cannot assess the impact of each factor on our
business or the extent to which any factor, or combination of
factors, may cause actual results to differ materially from
those contained in any forward-looking statements. Except as
required by law, we undertake no obligation to publicly revise
our forward-looking statements to reflect events or
circumstances that arise after the date of this report or the
date of documents incorporated by reference in this report that
include forward-looking statements.
PART I
Introduction
We design, manufacture and market radio frequency, or RF,
modules that enable the transmission, reception and processing
of high frequency signals in telecommunication networks, defense
electronics and homeland security systems. Our high-frequency RF
module designs can accommodate a wide range of component
performance and assembly process variations, resulting in ease
of manufacture and high test yields. These attributes, coupled
with our automated test systems, allow us to use cost-effective,
offshore contract manufacturers to assemble and test the
majority of our products. Our RF modules are typically used in
high-frequency applications and include integrated transceivers,
amplifiers, synthesizers, oscillators, up and down converters,
frequency multipliers and microwave switch arrays.
We were originally incorporated in California in 1991 and
reincorporated in Delaware in 1995. In March 2000, we merged
with TRW Milliwave Inc., a RF subsystem supplier that was a
wholly-owned subsidiary of TRW Inc., now owned by Northrop
Grumman Space & Mission Systems Corp. In connection
with the merger, we changed our name from Endgate Corporation to
Endwave Corporation. As a result of the merger, we became one of
our industrys largest commercial suppliers of microwave
and millimeter wave RF
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subsystems with a substantially increased customer base and
design and manufacturing capacity. On October 17, 2000, we
successfully completed the initial public offering of our common
stock.
Most of our RF modules are deployed in telecommunication
networks, including current and next-generation cellular
networks, carrier class trunking networks and point-to-point
transmission networks. Our target customers for these
applications are telecommunications network original equipment
manufacturers and systems integrators, collectively referred to
in this report as telecom OEMs. Telecom OEMs provide the
wireless equipment used by service providers to deliver voice,
data and video services to businesses and consumers. Telecom
OEMs that purchased our products accounted for 86% of our total
revenues during 2004 and included Nokia, Nera ASA, Stratex
Networks, Inc., Powerwave Technologies, Inc. (formerly LGP
Allgon), Siemens AG and Ceragon Networks Ltd.
Our RF modules are also designed into various applications
outside of the telecommunications network market, including
defense electronics and homeland security systems. Our target
customers in the defense electronics market include defense
systems integrators and their subcontractors that design
aerospace systems, defense systems, weapons and electronics
platforms for domestic and foreign defense customers. Our target
customers in the homeland security market include those
customers that are taking advantage of the properties of
high-frequency RF to create new capabilities designed to detect
security threats. In this report, we refer to our target
customers in the defense electronics and homeland security
markets as defense and homeland security systems integrators.
Revenues from this group of customers, including The Boeing
Company, SafeView, Inc., Lockheed Martin Corporation, Suntron
Corporation and Raytheon Company, accounted for 13% of our total
revenues in 2004.
Industry Background and Markets
High-Frequency RF Technology
The applications of RF technology are broad, extending from
terrestrial AM radio at the low end of the frequency spectrum,
which is less than 1 MHz (megahertz, or million cycles per
second), to atmospheric monitoring applications at the high end
of the frequency spectrum, which is around 100 GHz
(gigahertz, or billion cycles per second). Our products employ
microwave and millimeterwave technology. Microwave technology
refers to technology for the transmission of signals at high
frequencies, from approximately 1 GHz to approximately
20 GHz. Millimeterwave technology refers to technology for
the transmission of signals at very high frequencies, from
approximately 20 GHz to as high as 100 GHz. The term
microwave, however, is commonly understood in the industries we
serve, and we use that term in this report, as meaning both
microwave and millimeterwave.
Our RF modules are typically designed to operate at frequencies
between 5 GHz and 100 GHz, which we refer to in this
report as high-frequency RF. Due to their physical attributes,
high-frequency RF signals are well-suited for applications in
telecommunication networks requiring high data throughput,
defense systems demanding advanced radar and communication
capabilities and homeland security systems requiring detection,
measurement and imaging capabilities not available by
conventional means.
Telecommunication Networks
Applications of High-Frequency RF Technologies in
Telecommunication Networks. High-frequency transceiver
modules are an integral part of microwave radios, which in turn
play a key role in many telecommunication networks. Microwave
radio links have a number of applications:
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Cellular Backhaul. The communication link between the
cellular base station site and a mobile telephone switching
office, or MTSO, is referred to as cellular backhaul. This is
currently the largest use of microwave radios. In most parts of
the world, cellular backhaul is typically accomplished through
the use of microwave radios either because of their ease of
deployment and low overall cost relative to available wireline
options or because adequate wireline facilities are not
available. In the United States and Canada, cellular backhaul
has been accomplished typically through the use of high-speed
telephone lines because low-cost wireline facilities are readily
available. |
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Carrier Class Trunking. Communications carriers
require high capacity links between major voice and data
switching centers, referred to as trunk circuits, to deploy
their networks. While fiber optic cables are the most common
type of trunk circuit facility, microwave radios are often used
for portions of these circuits when the intervening terrain,
such as mountains or bodies of water, is difficult to traverse
or as redundant backup for the fiber optic network. |
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Private Voice and Data Networks. When private users, such
as companies and universities, deploy stand-alone campus area or
metropolitan area voice and data networks, they often encounter
situations where it is not possible to access a direct physical
path between their facilities due to distance or intervening
structures and roads. If third-party wireline facilities are not
available or cost-effective, a microwave radio link is often
used to provide the network connection. In addition, companies
often implement microwave facilities as redundant backup for
their wireline facilities. |
Increased Demand for Microwave Radios in Telecommunication
Networks. The demand for microwave radios and the
transceiver modules used to build them is increasing. As service
providers deploy more cellular base stations to serve their
growing subscriber base and upgrade existing facilities, they
will require more microwave radio links for cellular backhaul.
We believe this projected increased demand is driven by several
trends within the telecommunications industry:
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Growth of Wireless Telephony in Developing Nations.
Developing nations, such as Russia, China, India and nations in
Eastern Europe, have experienced a dramatic increase in wireless
cellular telephony over the past few years. For example, in
February 2005, Nokia publicly announced that its sales in China
grew 44% from 2003 to 2004 and that China could become its
largest market within three years. Nokia attributed its growth
in China to both increased deployment in rural areas and a
strong replacement market in urban areas. We believe this growth
in cellular telephony will continue in China and other
developing nations. We expect that this growth will result in
increased demand for microwave backhaul radios because these
countries lack well-established wireline infrastructures. |
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Increase in Data-Intensive Cellular Traffic.
Data-intensive 2.5G applications, such as sending
email, transmitting digital images from camera-equipped cellular
telephones and downloading music and ring tones, are gaining
popularity. The increased use of these data-intensive
applications is dramatically increasing the volume of backhaul
traffic as compared to voice-only services, necessitating
additional high-speed backhaul capacity. In locations where
microwave radios currently fulfill the backhaul requirements,
this increased demand will necessitate equipment upgrades or
replacements. Where cellular backhaul is currently provided by
wireline solutions, such as in the United States and Canada,
these higher capacity requirements can make microwave radio
backhaul solutions more cost-effective than wireline solutions
because the incremental cost of added wireline capacity will, in
some deployments, exceed the amortization cost of wireless
solutions. In addition, adequate wireline solutions may not be
available due to their technical limitations. |
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Deployment of Third-Generation Networks. Telecom OEMs and
service providers are deploying new cellular systems known as
third generation, or 3G, networks. We believe the
deployment of these 3G networks will require a proportionately
larger number of microwave radios. These networks support many
data-intensive services, such as internet access via cellular
phone or personal digital assistant, which require an even
greater backhaul capacity than the current 2.5G applications
noted above. We believe 3G networks will have a compounding
effect on cellular backhaul needs because more base stations and
more backhaul capacity per base station must be deployed in
order to provide the required bandwidth and maintain quality of
service. As the density of base stations increases, we expect
there will be a shift to higher frequency backhaul to support
more efficient re-use of the available wireless spectrum. |
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Introduction of Other High Capacity Data-Only
Telecommunication Networks. We believe the introduction of
fixed wireless access data networks will also increase demand
for microwave radios. Various approaches are being considered
for the widespread implementation of fixed wireless access
networks, including the IEEE 802.16 WiMAX standard. WiMAX is
supported by a large industry consortium, which includes market
leaders such as Cisco Systems, Inc., Ericsson and Intel
Corporation. Such fixed wireless access networks will, like
cellular telephone networks, face the technological and cost |
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issues associated with connecting individual access points to
the wireline network infrastructure. This need for backhaul
represents an opportunity for microwave radios, particularly
because the anticipated high bandwidth requirements of fixed
wireless access networks are served more cost-effectively by
microwave radios than wireline alternatives. |
Defense Electronics
High-frequency RF modules are an integral part of various
defense electronics systems. Key applications in this market
include:
Electronic Warfare Systems. Most military aircraft are
equipped with systems designed to detect if they have been
targeted by an opposing forces weapons system, and are
often equipped with electronic countermeasures that jam the
targeting radar. These systems employ a variety of
high-frequency RF modules.
Radar Systems. RF modules are used in traditional radar
systems to detect large objects at significant distances. In
addition, many new weapons systems employ complementary
sophisticated radar systems designed to detect small vehicles
and combat personnel. These new systems often use higher
frequencies in order to provide greater resolution.
Intelligent Battlefield Systems. The United States
military has initiated an effort called the intelligent
battlefield with the goal of providing the military with
comprehensive, real-time information about the situation on the
battlefield. Intelligent battlefield systems aggregate data from
multiple radar and video sources that survey the battlefield and
relay information nearly instantaneously to battlefield
commanders. Such systems require high-bandwidth communication
capabilities similar to those found in commercial
telecommunication systems.
High Capacity Communications. A modern, widely dispersed
military force requires communication systems for voice, video
and data wherever and whenever it is needed. Many military
communication systems, whether terrestrial, airborne or
satellite, employ wireless technology to meet these
requirements. As the data rates in these systems increase, the
systems must be able to operate at higher frequencies to take
advantage of the bandwidth that is available in those
frequencies.
For these reasons, as well as the United States militarys
concentration on upgrading existing electronic platforms rather
than building new platforms, demand for high-frequency RF
modules in the defense electronics market is growing.
Homeland Security Systems
The global escalation of terrorist and insurgency threats is
resulting in increased governmental and private concern over
providing adequate security measures. Many existing security
systems and personnel screening techniques are inadequate to
address these increasing concerns. The need for new, more
capable systems has accelerated security system development.
Because of their physical properties, high-frequency RF signals
can be used in various detection and imaging systems applied to
threats of violence. For example:
Advanced Personnel Screening Portals. The human body
reflects certain high-frequency RF signals. As a result,
high-frequency RF signals can be used in advanced personnel
screening portals that generate images showing weapons,
including plastic explosives or ceramic knives, which are not
detectable with conventional metal detection portals. These
systems can operate very quickly, permitting a highly efficient
and low-cost screening operation.
Long Distance Personnel Detection. High-frequency RF
signals can be used to detect the presence of humans at
significant distances, much in the same way lower frequency
radar systems can detect metal objects at a distance. This
phenomenon can be employed as a radar fence to detect intrusion
along lengthy security perimeters such as airport runways,
military bases and international borders.
We believe that the growth of these new security markets for RF
modules may prove significant. The United States
governments spending on homeland security more than
doubled from $17 billion in government fiscal year 2001 to
over $40 billion in government fiscal year 2006.
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Our Opportunity
Historically, when telecom OEMs and defense electronics and
homeland security systems integrators incorporated
high-frequency RF modules into their products, they designed and
manufactured them internally. However, faced with the need to
generate greater cost efficiencies and technological innovations
with fewer resources, we believe these OEMs and systems
integrators are increasingly looking to merchant suppliers for
these items.
We have observed a trend of increasing use of merchant suppliers
in the telecommunications network market. Of the top eleven
microwave radio manufacturers that collectively represent 95% of
the microwave radio unit volume worldwide, six exclusively use
merchant suppliers for their transceiver modules, currently one
is implementing a transition to the exclusive use of merchant
supply and two source a portion of their requirements from
merchant suppliers. Two of the microwave radio manufacturers
made the decision to move to merchant suppliers exclusively
within the last 18 months. We believe the same dynamic will
also occur in the defense electronics and homeland security
markets.
We believe there are several key characteristics that telecom
OEMs and defense and homeland security systems integrators value
in a potential supply partner of high-frequency RF modules:
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Low Cost. Telecom OEMs and defense and homeland security
systems integrators are under increasing pricing pressure from
their customers so they expect effective cost reduction programs
from their merchant suppliers. These cost-reduction programs
require merchant suppliers to make a comprehensive effort at
multiple levels, including the integration of multiple
functions, efficient manufacturing, effective supply chain
management and use of low-cost sub-contractors, as appropriate. |
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Technical Depth. These OEMs and systems integrators seek
merchant suppliers of RF modules that have significant
experience in and understanding of the overall system design.
This depth and breadth of understanding is crucial to
determining appropriate overall system level tradeoffs and in
providing advice to the OEM or system integrator, thereby
enabling the OEM or system integrator to design and deploy its
systems more cost-effectively. |
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Flexible Production. Volatility of demand is common in
the market for RF modules, especially in the telecommunications
network market. Therefore, these OEMs and systems integrators
need merchant suppliers that can accommodate fluctuations in the
demand, whether in mix or quantity, in the normal course of
business and can flexibly scale their manufacturing to match the
fluctuating demands of the OEM or systems integrator. |
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Innovative Technology. New technology is the key to
providing enhanced performance and continued cost reduction.
These OEMs and systems integrators value this capability and
therefore prefer partners that create new technologies offering
additional functionality, higher reliability, lower cost and
better performance. |
We believe that few merchant suppliers comprehensively address
all of these requirements. Many of the merchant suppliers that
populate the industry are small and lack the requisite
operational strength and technical capability. Many merchant
suppliers use labor-intensive circuit manufacturing and test
methods that limit their ability to produce high-frequency RF
modules in high volume and at a low cost. Others have limited
in-house RF design expertise and rely on third parties for their
circuit designs. Fewer yet provide new technologies to the
industry.
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Our Strengths
We are a provider of high-frequency RF modules to telecom OEMs
and defense and homeland security systems integrators. We
believe we possess several key strengths that enable us to
provide our customers with superior products and services. These
strengths include:
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Cost-Effective Volume Manufacturing. Our high unit
volumes enable us to achieve lower manufacturing costs than many
of our competitors as we increase our materials purchasing
power, amortize our overhead expenses over a larger number of
units and gain labor efficiencies. The combination of our
proprietary semiconductor components and technology, our ability
to design highly-manufacturable products and our automated
testing capability differentiate us from the labor-intensive
methods often used in our industry. We contract with
third-party, offshore manufacturers for added cost savings. |
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Depth and Breadth of Technical Expertise. We have
extensive experience in the design and manufacture of
high-frequency RF modules for a broad range of products. Our
intellectual property and highly-skilled technical team are
critical when dealing with the higher frequencies required by
emerging applications. Our technical team has broad expertise in
device physics, semiconductor device and circuit design, system
engineering, test engineering and other critical disciplines. In
addition, our large library of proprietary circuit designs
enables us to introduce new products rapidly and
cost-effectively. We believe the depth and breadth of our
technical expertise differentiates us from many of our
competitors, enabling us to optimize our products for critical
performance factors and to assist our customers in developing an
optimal overall design. |
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Scalable and Flexible Manufacturing. Our use of
third-party contract manufacturing and innovative supply chain
management techniques enables us to adjust rapidly, efficiently
and flexibly to our customers varying quantity and product
mix requirements, which are often created by unexpected needs
and seasonal variations in demand. |
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Next-Generation Technology. We have invested in the
development of next-generation circuit and packaging
technologies that allow us to provide our customers with
high-performance and low-cost solutions. Many of our competitors
do not have the capability to produce proprietary circuit
designs and therefore are limited to using standard,
commercially-available semiconductor devices. We are able to
develop new semiconductor devices on a custom basis to optimize
the overall design. We have augmented our circuit design
capabilities with advancements in circuit packaging that allow
further enhancement of the design. This gives us the flexibility
to optimize our product designs for our customers and their
specific applications. |
Our Strategy
Our objective is to be the leading merchant supplier of
high-frequency RF modules. Our strategies to achieve that
objective focus on revenue growth, manufacturing efficiency and
flexibility and technical breadth and strength:
Accelerate Revenue Growth
Increase our Telecommunications Network Business. We have
long-standing customer relationships with many major telecom
OEMs. We intend to use our customer base and track record, in
conjunction with our low-cost manufacturing expertise, to
increase our revenues. For a customers new designs, we
intend to capture their business by designing and manufacturing
new transceiver modules. However, if a customer is already
producing a transceiver in-house, we intend to capture this
additional business by taking over the production of their
transceiver module designs and moving the production to our
offshore contract manufacturing facilities where we can lower
production costs by using our innovative supply chain management
techniques. Subsequently, we plan to redesign our
customers existing transceivers to lower costs further. In
this market, we intend to generate additional revenues by
offering both new product lines and frequencies. For example, in
2004, Nokia, Nera ASA and Siemens AG each expanded their
relationship with us through purchasing new transceiver modules
at different frequencies, Nera ASA chose to outsource all of its
internal
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transceiver manufacturing to us and Siemens AG chose to
outsource a portion of its internal transceiver manufacturing to
us.
Expand into New Growth Markets. While our core market
historically has been the telecommunications network market, we
intend to leverage our high-frequency RF module expertise to
expand in new growth markets, such as defense electronics and
homeland security systems, to increase revenues and diversify
our customer base. We are actively expanding our business in the
defense electronics and homeland security markets with recent
initiatives such as our acquisition of JCA and the formation of
our Endwave Defense Systems division, our execution of a
multi-year supply agreement with SafeView, Inc. and a teaming
agreement with Signal Technology Corporation Microwave Systems,
a subsidiary of Crane Co. In 2004, revenues from defense and
homeland security systems integrators accounted for
approximately 13% of our total revenues. We believe we are well
positioned to take advantage of these markets as high-frequency
RF modules become a more integral component of defense
electronics and homeland security systems.
Grow through Acquisitions. Since our initial public
offering in October 2000, we have acquired and integrated five
businesses or product lines. As a result of these transactions,
we have increased our revenues and market share, broadened our
product portfolio, diversified our customer base, gained
expertise outside our core telecommunications network market and
added key members to our staff. We believe the consolidation of
high-frequency RF module suppliers will continue and will
provide us additional opportunities for attractive acquisitions.
It is our intent to continue to pursue strategic acquisitions
that will further strengthen our competitive position and
revenue growth as appropriate.
Offer the Highest Level of Manufacturing Efficiency and
Flexibility
Continually Improve Manufacturing Efficiency. The
manufacturability of our designs, our automated test processes
and our continuing improvement efforts have enabled us to bring
labor-saving manufacturing technologies to an industry that has
historically used labor-intensive manufacturing techniques. We
intend to continue to improve our lean manufacturing methods and
further enhance our manufacturing expertise. This will be
particularly important for our high mix product line, primarily
manufactured in our Diamond Springs facility.
Outsource to Low-Cost, Contract Manufacturers. In 2002,
we began moving most of our high-volume manufacturing to HANA
Microelectronics Co., Ltd., or HANA, in Thailand, a low-cost,
offshore contract manufacturer. We consign raw materials to
HANA, as well as provide the specialized assembly and test
equipment needed to manufacture our products. HANA provides the
direct labor to assemble and test our products. Our readily
manufacturable designs, which can tolerate a wide range of
component performance and assembly process variations, and our
automated production test systems enabled this transition to
offshore contract manufacturing. The portion of our product
revenues attributable to products manufactured offshore
increased from approximately 8% in 2002 to over 80% in 2004.
This transition significantly improved our product margins and
converted many of our fixed costs into variable costs. This
conversion of our cost structure enables us to adjust costs
flexibly in response to changing customer demand and the
seasonality of our telecommunications network business. We
intend to continue to use contract manufacturers to enable us to
respond flexibly to changing customer demands and the
seasonality of our business.
Reduce Raw Materials and Component Costs. The costs of
raw materials and components employed in high-frequency RF
modules are a major part of the overall manufacturing cost. We
have reduced the cost of these components by re-designing them,
leveraging our purchasing power and selecting more
cost-effective suppliers. As an outgrowth of our operational
presence in Asia, we continue to identify low-cost, high-quality
suppliers for several of the raw materials and components used
in our products.
Employ a Fabless Semiconductor Model. Semiconductors are
both a critical technical element and a major cost component of
our products. Since our inception, we have focused on producing
high-frequency RF modules based on internally-designed
semiconductors processed by third-party semiconductor
fabrication facilities, or foundries. Our use of third-party
foundries gives us the flexibility to use the process technology
and materials best suited for each application, allows us to
leverage our purchasing power and eliminates the need for us to
invest in and maintain our own foundries. We intend to continue
to use third-party
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semiconductor foundries, particularly as we introduce new
products incorporating more advanced semiconductor materials.
Leverage Technical Breadth and Strength
Broaden our Product Portfolio. We are enlarging the scope
of our product offerings both in the frequency ranges in which
our products are designed to operate and in the type of
functionalities we support. This allows us to address a broader
range of applications in our customers systems and further
expands our market opportunities. For example, during the last
year we have introduced a new microwave switch product for the
homeland security market and a high performance synthesizer for
the emerging gigabit ethernet bridging market.
Develop New Circuit and Packaging Technologies. A key
component of our value proposition is providing our customers
with powerful and cost-effective technologies that offer them a
major technical and economic advantage. We have developed and
maintain a strong base of high-frequency RF technology supported
by an experienced design team, a large library of circuit
designs, extensive proprietary know-how and a large portfolio of
patents. Our efforts to create new technology have led to 38
issued United States patents. We intend to continue to invest in
research and development, maintain a team of talented engineers
and scientists, and build on our manufacturing technologies. To
that end, we recently introduced a proprietary circuit
technology known as Multilithic Microsystems, or MLMS, and a
proprietary circuit packaging technology called Epsilon, both of
which reduce the cost of producing our products and improve
technical performance.
Products and Technology
Products
Our RF modules are typically used in high-frequency applications
and include integrated transceivers, amplifiers, synthesizers,
oscillators, up and down converters, frequency multipliers and
microwave switch arrays. Depending upon the requirements of our
customers, we supply our products at the following levels of
integration:
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Single-Function Modules. Single-function modules are
simple, standardized products that perform a single function,
such as amplification, frequency multiplication or signal
mixing. We employ these modules in the design of prototype or
low production volume systems that do not warrant the
development of a custom, fully-integrated module. |
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Multi-Function Modules. Multi-function modules are
customized, complex products that combine a number of individual
functional elements into a single package. These modules are
typically more cost-effective for higher-volume applications and
provide greater reliability and performance than systems
assembled by the customer using single-function RF modules. |
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Integrated Subsystem Modules. Integrated subsystem
modules combine several functional RF blocks, such as
amplifiers, switches or oscillators, with various types of
control and support circuitry, such as a microprocessor or a
power supply, to form a stand-alone subsystem. These complex
subsystem modules, such as those we supply to Nokia, combine RF
capability with sophisticated analog and digital system
interface capabilities. |
9
The following diagram illustrates the varying levels of product
integration available to our customers. The shaded area in the
lower left portion of the diagram represents a single-function
module used for intermediate frequency amplification. The shaded
area on the right side of the diagram represents a
multi-function RF module. The area enclosed by the box
represents an integrated subsystem module.
Circuit Technologies
In high-frequency RF modules, the choice and implementation of
the basic circuit technology determines the performance, cost
and manufacturability of the product. Currently, the majority of
our products employ one of two alternate technologies, either
hybrid microwave integrated circuit, or HMIC, technology or
monolithic microwave integrated circuit, or MMIC, technology. In
each case, we apply our circuit design capabilities to develop
custom circuits that are optimized for cost, performance and
manufacturability. All of our products manufactured at HANA
employ MMIC technology. We have advanced the design of our HMIC
and MMIC circuits significantly and have benefited from those
advancements in reduced costs and higher production yields.
Multilithic Microsystem technology, or MLMS, is a proprietary
next generation circuit technology, which we believe will
significantly reduce costs and improve performance.
10
The following table compares various characteristics and our
assessment of the relative merits of these three distinct
circuit technologies:
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Circuit Technologies |
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Endwave Next-Generation |
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Current Technology |
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Technology |
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HMIC |
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MMIC |
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MLMS |
| Circuit Type |
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Description
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Individual devices bonded to a substrate and then interconnected
with bond wires
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Monolithic semiconductor substrate with patterned devices and
interconnections
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Individual devices flip chip attached using our patented flip
chip assembly technology to a complex substrate
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Module Design
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Multiple circuits cascaded to form a functional block
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Multiple circuits cascaded to form a functional block
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Single substrate can form a complete system on a
chip functional block
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Substrate
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Ceramic with single top layer metallization
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Semiconductor material, typically gallium arsenide
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Next generation, multi- layer substrate containing metal,
capacitive and resistive layers
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Active Devices
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Individual RF devices attached to substrate
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Devices patterned into various areas of the substrate; active
device area is a small fraction of total substrate area
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Individual RF devices especially designed for flip chip assembly
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Application
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Used for rapid prototyping and low volume production
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Used for high volume automated or third-party assembly
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Used for high volume automated or third-party assembly
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Number of Bond
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High Often hundreds
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Moderate Often tens per
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Low Often fewer than
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Wires (which require manual tuning)
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per module
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module
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10 per module
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Performance
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Variable Units must be hand-tuned to required
specifications and performance may be variable
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Good MMIC circuit designed for consistent
performance, limited by substrate characteristics
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Excellent Very consistent performance due to lack of
bond wires and improved substrate material
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Design Difficulty
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Moderate The most flexible circuit technology for
customizing RF performance; can be designed very quickly by us
because of our large library of HMIC core elements
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Difficult Complete circuit and all interactions must
be concurrently analyzed; complicated by sub-optimal substrate
properties of semiconductor materials for interconnection and
filter elements; single-substrate process must be used for all
devices
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Moderate Multi-layer properties of substrate
facilitate ease of design; layers optimized for their function
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Relative Cost
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High Material costs are modest, but high assembly,
test and rework labor costs
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High Material cost of large semiconductors is
expensive
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Moderate Device and substrate costs are lower than
MMICs; assembly process automated for lower labor costs than
HMICs
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Status
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In production
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In production
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In final testing and qualification
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11
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Circuit Packaging Technologies |
In high-frequency RF modules, the circuit packaging technology
also significantly impacts cost and performance. The majority of
our current products employ planar packaging technology,
especially our high-volume commercial products. To improve the
performance and reduce the cost of packaging, we have developed
our proprietary Epsilon packaging technology.
The following table compares current RF packaging technology
with our new Epsilon packaging technology and our assessment of
the relative merits of these two distinct circuit packaging
technologies:
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Circuit Packaging Technologies |
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Current Technology |
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Endwave Next-Generation Technology |
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Planar |
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Epsilon |
| Package Type |
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Description |
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Circuit substrates mounted to metal carrier and then enclosed
with metal cover; entire assembly mounted to conventional
printed wiring board |
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Circuit substrates mounted directly to composite printed wiring
board using chip on board approach and then enclosed
with non-metallized plastic cover |
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Size and Weight |
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Metallic parts add significant thickness and weight |
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Significantly thinner and lighter than planar packages |
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Performance |
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Good Good performance with adequate RF gasket seal |
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Excellent RF cavity sealed better than planar
packages |
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Design Difficulty |
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Moderate Requires separate design effort for carrier
and cover with interfaces to printed wiring board |
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Low Fewer elements to design and fewer mechanical
interfaces to manage than planar packages |
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Manufacturability |
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Eight major assembly steps |
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Four major assembly steps |
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Relative Cost |
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High Material costs are significant |
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Low Metal carrier eliminated and plastic cover is
more cost-effective |
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Status |
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In production |
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In final testing and qualification |
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12
Sales and Marketing
We focus on the global telecommunications network, defense
electronics and homeland security markets. We sell our products
through our direct sales efforts, which are supported by a
network of domestic and international independent
representatives. For each of our major customers, we assign a
technical account manager, who has responsibility for developing
and expanding our relationship with that customer. Our direct
sales efforts are augmented by traditional marketing activities,
including advertising, participation in industry associations
and presence at major trade shows.
Our products are highly technical and the sales cycle can be
long. Our sales efforts involve a collaborative and iterative
process with our customers to determine their specific
requirements either in order to design an appropriate solution
or transfer efficiently the product to our offshore contract
manufacturer. Depending on the product, the sales cycle can
typically take anywhere from 2 to 12 months.
Customers
We sell our products primarily to telecom OEMs and defense and
homeland security systems integrators. During 2004, we shipped
products to more than 100 different customers. Our top
customers, which accounted for approximately 90% of our total
revenues in 2004, and the markets they served, were:
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| Telecommunications Network |
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Defense Electronics and Homeland Security |
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Nokia |
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The Boeing Company |
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Nera ASA
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SafeView, Inc. |
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Stratex Networks, Inc.
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Lockheed Martin Corporation |
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Powerwave Technologies, Inc. (formerly LGP Allgon)
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Suntron Corporation |
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Siemens AG
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Revenues from all of our telecom OEM customers comprised 86% of
our total revenues in 2004. While we intend to increase our
revenues in the defense electronics and homeland security
markets, we expect that the majority of our revenues will be
attributable to a limited number of telecom OEMs for the
foreseeable future.
13
Acquisitions
As part of our growth strategy, we have made acquisitions
designed to increase revenues and gain market share. We have
completed the following acquisitions since our initial public
offering:
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| Acquisition |
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Structure |
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Key Benefits |
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JCA Technology, Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of New Focus,
Inc., a subsidiary of Bookham Technology plc
July 2004 |
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Purchased all of the outstanding capital stock of JCA, whose
primary product line was microwave amplifiers serving the
defense electronics industry |
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Provided significant market position in
RF amplifiers and modules for defense and related
applications
Expanded relationships with existing customers,
including Raytheon Company, Lockheed Martin Corporation and BAE
Systems plc
Added new customers, including Thales Group SA,
L-3 Communications Corp. and Xicom Technology
Formed core of Endwave Defense Systems division |
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Verticom, Inc. May 2003 |
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Purchased assets including customer contracts, equipment,
inventory, product designs and other intellectual property
required to manufacture and supply YIG-based frequency
synthesizers |
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Enhanced high-performance oscillator technology
Added new customer relationship in the defense
electronics market
Added new product application in the defense
communication satellite terminal market |
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Arcom Wireless Incorporated, a subsidiary of Dover
Corporation February 2003 |
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Purchased assets including customer contracts, equipment,
inventory, product designs and other intellectual property
required to manufacture and supply a 58 GHz integrated
transceiver |
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Expanded relationship with an existing customer
Enhanced market position as a leading supplier of
58 GHz products |
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Signal Technology Corp. Fixed Wireless Division
September 2002 |
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Purchased assets including customer contracts, equipment,
inventory, product designs and other intellectual property
required to manufacture and supply several transceiver products |
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Expanded relationships with existing customers
including Stratex Networks, Inc. and Nera ASA
Added new customers including Siemens AG and Ceragon
Networks Ltd.
Significantly increased our product portfolio
Facilitated move to offshore production |
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M/A-Com Tech, Inc.,
a subsidiary of Tyco Electronics formerly known as Stellex
Microwave Systems April 2001 |
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Purchased assets including customer contracts, equipment,
inventory, product designs and other intellectual property
required to manufacture and supply yttrium iron garnet-based
frequency synthesizers |
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Added new product capabilities in high performance
oscillators
Added new customer relationship with Stratex
Networks, Inc.
Added new application in high capacity microwave
radios |
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Competition
Among merchant suppliers in the telecommunications network
market, we primarily compete with Eyal Microwave Industry,
Filtronics plc, the Forem division of Andrew Corporation, Linkra
Srl, Microelectronics
14
Technology Inc., REMEC, Inc., Teledyne Technologies
Incorporated, Thales Group SA, and Xytrans Inc. In addition to
these companies, there are telecom OEMs, such as Ericsson and
NEC Corporation, that use their own captive resources for the
design and manufacture of their own high-frequency
RF transceiver modules, rather than use merchant suppliers
like us. We believe that over one-half of the high-frequency RF
transceiver modules manufactured today are being produced by
these captive resources. To the extent that telecom OEMs
presently, or may in the future, produce their own
RF transceiver modules, we lose the opportunity to gain a
customer and related sales. Conversely, if they should decide to
outsource their requirements, this may significantly expand the
market available to us. In the defense electronics and homeland
security markets, we primarily compete with Aeroflex
Incorporated, AML Communications Inc., Chelton, Ltd., CTT Inc.,
Herley Industries, Inc., KMIC Technology, Inc. and Teledyne
Technologies Incorporated.
We believe that the principal competitive factors in our
industry are:
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Product pricing and the ability to offer low-cost solutions; |
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Technical leadership and product performance; |
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Product breadth; |
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Time-to-market in the design and manufacturing of
products; and |
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Logistical flexibility, manufacturing capability and scalable
capacity. |
Research and Development
Our research efforts focus on developing new proprietary circuit
and packaging technologies, such as MLMS and Epsilon, and
integrating our technology into new semiconductor materials,
such as indium gallium phosphide. Our product development
activities focus on designing products to meet specific customer
and market needs and introducing these products to
manufacturing. Our technical approach emphasizes the following
capabilities:
Custom Semiconductor Design Capabilities. Our ability to
design custom semiconductors allows us to optimize and reduce
the cost of designs beyond what is possible with standard,
off-the-shelf semiconductors.
Breadth of Expertise. We are experienced in a broad range
of technical disciplines and possess the know-how to design
products at multiple levels of integration.
Computer Modeling Capabilities. Our extensive computer
modeling capabilities allow us to create designs quickly and to
minimize the number of iterations required to develop
specification compliant, cost-effective designs.
Extensive Library of Circuit Designs. Our extensive
library of circuit, module and subsystem designs enables us to
generate new designs and produce prototypes quickly to meet our
customers time-to-market demands.
Automated Testing Processes. High-frequency RF products
require extensive testing after assembly to verify compliance
with customer specifications. We use high speed,
custom-designed, automated test sets that are capable of rapidly
testing a complete RF module. This increases throughput in
the manufacturing process and reduces the skill level required
to conduct the tests. Concurrently with the development of these
test methods, we develop data analysis and reporting tools to
facilitate rapid communication of test data to our customers.
Our research and development and related engineering expenses
were $9.2 million, $4.5 million and $5.0 million,
in 2002, 2003 and 2004, respectively. The increase in 2004
spending as compared to 2003 was primarily the result of
research and development expenses incurred by JCA during the
second half of 2004. The decrease in 2003 spending as compared
to 2002 was primarily attributable to a significant reduction in
the size of our engineering team in 2002 in order to match our
investment in research and development with then current market
needs.
15
Patents and Intellectual Property Rights
Our success depends, in part, on our ability to protect our
intellectual property. We rely primarily on a combination of
patent, copyright, trademark and trade secret laws to protect
our proprietary technologies and processes. As of
December 31, 2004, we had 38 United States patents issued,
many with associated foreign filings and patents. Our issued
patents include those relating to basic circuit and device
designs, semiconductors, Multilithic Microsystem technology and
system designs. Our issued United States patents expire between
2007 and 2020. We also license technology from other companies,
including Northrop Grumman Corporation. There are no limitations
on our rights to make, use or sell products we may develop in
the future using the technology licensed to us by Northrop
Grumman Corporation, provided that the products are for
commercial customers and non-satellite applications.
We maintain a vigorous technology development program that
routinely generates potentially patentable intellectual
property. Our decisions as to whether to seek formal patent
protection and the countries in which to seek it are done on a
patent by patent basis and are based on the economic value of
the intellectual property, the anticipated strength of the
resulting patent, the cost of pursuing the patent and an
assessment of using a patent as a strategy to protect the
intellectual property. With regard to our pending patent
applications, it is possible that no patents may be issued as a
result of these or any future applications or the allowed patent
claims may be of reduced value and importance. Further, any
existing or future patents may be challenged, invalidated or
circumvented thus reducing or eliminating their commercial value.
To protect our intellectual property, we enter into
confidentiality and assignment of rights to inventions
agreements with our employees, and confidentiality and
non-disclosure agreements with our strategic partners, and
generally control access to and distribution of our
documentation and other proprietary information. These measures
may not be adequate in all cases to safeguard the proprietary
technology underlying our products. It may be possible for a
third party to copy or otherwise obtain and use our products or
technology without authorization, develop similar technology
independently or design around our patents. In addition,
effective patent, copyright, trademark and trade secret
protection may be unavailable or limited outside of the United
States, Europe and Japan.
Operations
We currently have our products manufactured in two locations.
Domestically, we operate a plant in Diamond Springs, California
for those products that are being produced in low volumes. Our
domestic manufacturing operations are primarily for defense
electronics applications, which must be manufactured within the
United States due to government export control regulations. The
majority of our products are manufactured in Thailand by HANA
Microelectronics Co., Ltd., or HANA, a contract manufacturer.
Under our manufacturing contract, HANA supplies the physical
plant, direct labor, basic assembly equipment and warehousing
functions. We supplement those activities with our own
full-time, in-country staff consisting of two employees and six
independent contractors who provide production planning, process
engineering, test engineering and quality assurance support. We
own certain assets held in HANAs factory, including
specialized test and assembly equipment and various raw material
and product inventories. Our arrangement with HANA allows us to
reduce our labor and facility expenses while maintaining tight
control of process and quality. To reduce our costs further, we
have identified lower cost Asian sources for various raw
materials, especially basic metal and circuit board components.
Our manufacturing agreement with HANA currently expires in July
2005, but will renew automatically for a one-year period unless
either party notifies the other of its desire to terminate the
agreement at least 90 days prior to the expiration of the
term. In addition, either party may terminate the agreement
without cause upon 120 days prior written notice to the
other party, and either party may terminate the agreement if the
non-terminating party is in breach and does not cure the breach
within 30 days after notice of the breach is given by the
terminating party. While our relations with HANA are favorable
and we do not anticipate an interruption in our arrangement with
HANA, there can be no assurance that HANA will not seek to
terminate its agreement with us.
We design custom semiconductor devices. However, we do not own
or operate a semiconductor foundry and rely on a limited number
of third parties to produce these components. Our use of various
third-party
16
semiconductor foundries gives us the flexibility to use the
process technology that is best suited for each application and
eliminates the need for us to invest in and maintain our own
semiconductor facilities. Our primary semiconductor foundry is
Velocium, a division of Northrop Grumman Space
Mission & Systems Corp., which is the holder of
approximately 33.0% of our common stock, and a wholly-owned
subsidiary of Northrop Grumman Corporation. In this report, we
refer to the Northrop Grumman Space & Mission Systems
Corp. foundry by its tradename, Velocium. Velocium produced over
85% of our semiconductors in 2004. We also use other suppliers
for some of our products. The loss of our relationship with or
our access to any of the semiconductor foundries we currently
use, particularly Velocium, and any resulting delay or reduction
in the supply of semiconductor devices to us, would severely
impact our ability to fulfill customer orders and could damage
our relationships with our customers. Our current supply
agreement with Velocium expires in December 2005. While we
believe we are a significant customer of and do not anticipate
an interruption in our relationship with Velocium, there can be
no assurance that Velocium will renew its agreement with us. We
estimate that it may take up to six months to shift product of a
given semiconductor circuit design to a new foundry.
All of the manufacturing facilities we use worldwide are
registered under ISO 9001-2000, an international certification
standard of quality for design, development and business
practices. We maintain comprehensive quality systems at all of
these facilities to ensure compliance with customer
specifications, configuration control, documentation control and
supplier quality conformance.
Backlog
Our order backlog consists of a combination of c