Anaren, Inc.
provides high-frequency
microwave
microelectronics
, components, and assemblies for
wireless
,
aerospace
, and defense
electronics
applications.
[1]
The company is headquartered in and operates five manufacturing facilities, each of which is subsidiary of Anaren, Inc. These include Anaren Microwave,
Syracuse, New York
; Anaren Ceramics,
Salem, New Hampshire
; MS Kennedy, Syracuse, New York; Unicircuit,
Littleton, Colorado
; and Anaren Communications,
Suzhou
, China.
History
[
edit
]
Anaren was founded by Hugh A. Hair and Carl W. Gerst in 1967. Both were RF engineers who left
General Electric
to focus on a new company that would develop several new RF technologies, including the circuit-etching technologies called
stripline
manufacturing. The company started with a few dozen employees and a small facility in
Syracuse, New York
and its first customers were many manufacturing firms in the U.S. defense and aerospace sector including Hughes,
Litton Industries
(now part of
Northrop Grumman
), and
Raytheon
.
[1]
Contracts and assignments secured during the company's early years included: a
microwave landing system
for jetliners funded by the
United States Department of Defense
under
FAA
supervision; "wideband microwave tracking receivers" for use in direction-finding systems; and the company's first DFD (digital frequency discriminators) and ESM (
electronic support measures
) to help fighter jets and seaborne vessels detect, identify, and elude the radar signals of hostile craft.
[1]
The company originally built custom solutions, many of which later became commercial products. In contrast to the smaller volumes of the custom products, these commercial products were marketed by the company on a larger, high-volume scale. The
Cold War
arms race drove the bulk of business over the company's first decade. By 1981, the company had grown to around 200 employees, achieved sales over $8,000,000, and required more space, which led to the construction of its current headquarters campus in
East Syracuse, New York
.
[1]
With the decline of Cold War spending in the mid-1990s, the company diversified from the defense market by entering the commercial wireless infrastructure market with its Xinger-brand surface mount (SMT) component family, which included
hybrid couplers
,
directional couplers
, and
power dividers
. Shortly thereafter, the company established two operating groups: a Space & Defense Group focused on the company's traditional military and aerospace customers, and a Wireless Group focused on wireless infrastructure customers including operators of
Cellular networks
.
Although the company's Wireless Group was created to meet the needs of the wireless base-station market, later generations of passive components have become small enough to be used in mobile electronics.
[3]
The newer subminiature Xinger line of passive components are used in consumer devices such as cell phones, PDAs, wireless laptops, WLANS, Bluetooth applications, and set-top boxes.
The Space and Defense group remains a significant part of Anaren's business. In August 2012, Anaren's Space & Defense Group received contracts in excess of $11.5 million for passive ranging subsystems for airborne applications.
[4]
Anaren was acquired by the privately held company
Veritas Capital
in February 2014 and delisted from the NASDAQ.
[5]
Technologies
[
edit
]
Wireless Group Technologies
[
edit
]
Anaren manufactures high-volume standard components for commercial wireless infrastructure and consumer electronics
OEMs
.
The surface mount components include couplers, power dividers, and balun transformers. They are used in both base station equipment and
Consumer electronics
products including mobile phones,
Bluetooth
headsets, set-top boxes, and laptop computers.
[6]
Resistive components include terminations, resistors, and attenuators. They are used in wireless, military, instrumentation, and aerospace applications.
[7]
The Anaren Integrated Radio (AIR) modules incorporate
RF
Transceivers
from
Texas Instruments
and
Broadcom
.
[8]
[9]
These modules typically incorporate a transceiver IC, matching circuit, and antenna, for adding
Bluetooth low energy
,
Zigbee
, or proprietary RF links to a system. Applications for wireless modules include
Wireless sensor networks
,
Smart grid
, and
Real-time locating system
.
In 2014, Anaren acquired Cellular Machines, an
IoT
company specializing in monitoring temperature data of refrigeration equipment.
[10]
Space & Defense Group Technologies
[
edit
]
Anaren's Space & Defense Group is a subcontractor to several military and aerospace companies, including Raytheon,
[11]
Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, BAE, and Thales. They manufacture RF components for use in threat detection, communications, navigation, and other functions in ground, sea, space, and aircraft applications. Anaren's standard and custom RF solutions include:
- Printed circuit board
and
ceramic
based RF assemblies are used by defense and aerospace OEMs and subcontractors
[7]
- integrated microwave assemblies
[12]
- multi-chip RF modules
[13]
- Active Electronically Scanned Arrays
- broadband receivers for missile applications
[14]
- RF and
LO
distribution for complex receivers
- Beamformers
for satellite communications antennae
[15]
- switch matrices for redundancy and signal routing
- antenna feed networks for surface, airborne, and space radars
- digital RF memories and frequency discriminators
- RF integrated backplanes
References
[
edit
]
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
"Anaren History"
. Archived from
the original
on September 11, 2017
. Retrieved
January 28,
2013
.
- ^
Anaren FAQs
- ^
Richardson RFPD Introduces 400W SMT Hybrid Coupler And Matching Termination From Anaren
, rfglobalnet.com, September 11, 2012
- ^
Anaren Receives Contracts in Excess of $11.5 Million
, microwavejournal.com, August 17, 2012
- ^
"Veritas Capital"
. Archived from
the original
on April 24, 2014
. Retrieved
April 24,
2014
.
- ^
Jack Browne:
Product Snapshot: Anaren's Xinger
, mwrf.com, Jan. 20, 2004
- ^
a
b
Jack Browne:
Preparing RF/MW Parts For Space
, mwrf.com, Oct. 2, 2012
- ^
Nicolas Mokhoff (January 12, 2012).
"RF warhorse takes on TI transceiver as booster"
.
eetimes.com
. Archived from
the original
on January 21, 2013
. Retrieved
June 22,
2022
.
- ^
"AIR Module Enabled by Broadcom's WICED Smart Bluetooth Technology"
.
circuitcellar.com
. January 13, 2015.
- ^
"About Cellular Machines"
.
Cellular Machines
. Archived from
the original
on February 27, 2015
. Retrieved
February 27,
2015
.
- ^
"Anaren Awarded $8.3 Million Initial Contract by Raytheon to Support U.S. Navy's Air and Missile Defense Radar Program (AMDR)"
. April 7, 2014
. Retrieved
February 27,
2015
.
- ^
Jack Browne:
Assemblies Combine Multiple Components
, mwrf.com, July 10, 2012
- ^
Anaren RF Multi-Chip Modules
Archived
April 2, 2013, at the
Wayback Machine
, anaren.com
- ^
Anaren's CEO Discusses F2Q 2012 Results
,
seekingalpha.com
, Jan. 26, 2012
- ^
Anaren Microwave, Inc. History
, fundinguniverse.com