Q: Last year, we asked what impact the worldwide economic crisis had on the markets you serve and on how you run your business under these conditions. One year later, what is your perspective? Are things getting better? If you sell into the aerospace and defense market, what are your projections for the coming year?

A: Two years ago, most of the RF/Microwave market was highly challenged by the worldwide economic crisis. Instead of retrenching in the downturn, M/A-COM Tech invested heavily in engineering and lean operations to well position ourselves for the market resurgence we’re experiencing today. We’ve seen many of the multi-market application areas which we are focused on come back to life with excellent growth potential that should continue into the coming year. While we are seeing an overall shift in spending in the aerospace and defense market, we also see opportunities there for agile, innovative, and cost aware companies such as M/A-COM Tech.

Q: There remains a serious shortage of RF engineers out there – what’s the solution? Is your company involved in programs that might promote or encourage talented engineering students to pursue a career in the microwave industry?

A: There’s no magic bullet. Wireless is continuing to be more and more pervasive around the world so we expect new applications to drive the demand for even more RF engineers. We at M/A-COM Tech actively engage with universities in multiple countries for research, internships, and recruiting to promote what the microwave industry has to offer in terms of challenging innovation and long term career tracks given the state of the economy.

Q: Now that the Far East is growing its own RF and microwave component and subsystem manufacturing, have you seen any “inbound” competition?

A: We have seen some of this in more mature markets that are undergoing commoditization due to the influx of competition. However, for multi-market applications the demand is typically for very high performance and customization. While this makes our customers’ needs a challenge for these competitors it’s been second nature for M/A-COM Tech for 60 years.

Q: If you could list three markets or technologies that will drive the industry in the next two years, what would they be?

A: Almost irrelevant of any one specific market, leaders in the microwave industry must deliver solutions that enable high data rates and high efficiency transmission for fixed and mobile applications – think M/A-COM Tech.

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