MWJ: Can you give us a little history of how XMA started and its legacy to the Omni Spectra line of products?
Marc Smith: In 2003, several Millimeter and Microwave pioneers successfully acquired key assets and rights to the Omni Spectra Brand from MA/Com and continued the legacy of high performance, state of the art RF products. The primary focus at the time was to continue our passive coaxial product portfolio, and, continue the sale and support of attenuators, terminations, dc blocks, power dividers, equalizers and other important passive devices. Ten years ago, those quality products served as a launching pad for XMA as a company, plus, allowed our continued growth through new product development into higher frequency bands.
MWJ: Omni Spectra has a long history of making some of the most reliable, high performance components in the industry – how is XMA carrying on that tradition?
Marc Smith: At XMA-Omni Spectra, we continue to focus on key product quality initiatives that align with our customer’s demands, similar to Omni Spectra from years past. Our vision has always been to service the RF community by proactively introducing tools which assist design engineers as well as scientific communities. When design integrity is coupled with our registered AS9100 Quality Management System, our formula for success directly mirrors building blocks from the legacy brand known as Omni Spectra. XMA continues to invest in capital solutions which help raise the bar on performance and reliability. We strongly believe our responsibility to the RF community is to carry on Omni Spectra’s integrity with pride and passion, equal to levels which our pioneers once created. A belief that helps maintain Omni Spectra as a powerhouse within the industry today and into the future.
MWJ: What other product lines does XMA produce in addition to the Omni Spectra products?
Marc Smith: Three distinct XMA product lines have advanced outside of the legacy Omni Spectra brand. Our first, and primary focus, is found within the millimeter wave frequencies, largely at 40GHz to 65GHz EHF range, bands at Ka and V. Many legacy Omni Spectra products (manufactured by XMA) perform within the lower SHF range (6GHz to 26.6GHz), Bands C, X, U and K, so our emphasis has focused on raising the performance levels for higher millimeter wave products, thus complementing our existing lower frequency Omni Spectra product families.
A second family of investment is slated for low PIM products to support Digital Antenna Systems (DAS). XMA currently holds a strong product position within the DAS market, Low PIM attenuators, terminations and couplers, will help maintain our market position with key customers.
A third area of investment, granted more long term, is surface mount technology and offering solutions at the chip level. XMA has the unique fortune of hosting resistor based fabrication internally using thin film sputtering principles, our hope is to move current chip based designs (currently used on finished goods) to chip level, pre-packaged solutions. We anticipate a teaming arrangement with other players within the industry to make this transition a success.
MWJ: XMA expanded its in-house capability with soft-board technology processes a few years back, how has that helped your customers?
Marc Smith: The primary benefit of having soft-board technology in house is to promote flexibility for manufacturing within XMA, basically offer vertical integration within our company. XMA soft-board design and manufacturing directly supports micro and millimeter wave finished goods, those that require sophisticated solutions internal to the overall product. As an example, core bill of materials for XMA couplers, power dividers and equalizers, include board level fabrication performed internally at XMA. This vertical integration within XMA provides flexibility when creating new designs, changing existing designs, or providing unique solutions for our customers.
MWJ: Earlier this year, XMA Corp was host to Vice President Joseph Biden, US Secretary of Labor Thomas Perez, and NH Governor Maggie Hassan to discuss the future of high technology and work force development programs for the Microwave and RF Industry – how was XMA selected for that honor?
Marc Smith: For the past 3+ years, XMA has experienced growth and strives to locate, hire, and train new local talent. Through a collaborative arrangement between XMA, the State of New Hampshire’s Department of Resource and Economic Development (DRED) and the Federal Workforce Development Program, many employees were hired for key positions within XMA. Federal matching grant initiatives were a key element to our success in finding local talent within New England. Our efforts were an inspiration to the current administration in Washington, so Vice President Biden, US Secretary of Labor Perez and Governor Hassan of NH, paid XMA an honorary visit to learn more about our success story and to hopefully benchmark our efforts for others to follow across the Nation.
MWJ: What were some of the main ideas presented at the visit?
Marc Smith: The primary focus centered on job creation within New England for professional RF talent currently unemployed. By having companies like XMA provide “on the job” training for key RF Engineering and support personnel, we help reduce unemployment scenarios for RF professionals and in parallel “test drive” candidates for open positions, allowing candidates to also “test drive” the culture at XMA. Overall a win-win for all parties. This program has proven extremely successful to our growth strategies.
MWJ: What kind of custom products does XMA design and produce?
Marc Smith: Our experience in passive coaxial designs, coupled with High Reliability manufacturing, provides added benefits to our customers relative to custom designs. XMA custom designs range from sophisticated thin film resistive materials to unique interface options at low volume and high reliability. Our current family of high frequency attenuators, couplers and power dividers were derived from a host of custom designs, all created to fill gaps within our customer portfolios.
MWJ: XMA currently serves both commercial and military markets – what are your primary markets for growth in the near future?
Marc Smith: XMA Omni-Spectra is investing heavily into products that support the EHF frequencies (1.85mm at 65 GHz). We believe the telecommunications industry will be a key market in future years. All indications show 5G technology will require products that support higher frequency bands, like Ka and V.
In addition, I believe our High Reliability products will play an important role within military and deep space markets. XMA currently hosts a wide variety of “High Rel” products, and we plan to couple our millimeter wave technology to these markets for total customer solutions.
MWJ: XMA has differentiated itself with the use of a proprietary resistive “thin-film” hybrid – how was that developed and what are its main advantages?
Marc Smith: “Thin Film” resistive manufacturing is relatively old on the technology curve, however XMA has capitalized on the process to reduce time to market and remain focused on vertical integration within our facility. The XMA thin film efforts were created under the original Omni Spectra brand, however, XMA carried the process one step farther by hosting thin film fabrication at the resistor level, supporting our finished goods. Since we own and internally support our resistive sputtering process, XMA manufactures chip and rod based thin film resistors quickly and organically. We no longer rely on external resources to provide resistors, we simply incorporate our chip designs into new products providing extreme flexibility when meeting customer demands.
MWJ: How are XMA products distributed and what geographic regions present the most for future growth?
Marc Smith: XMA promotes our branded products via key distribution channel partners. We have a well-organized tiered distribution model which focuses attention on key Tier 1 partners, while still supporting other groups that may not have the infrastructure to support our growth demands, but, still service key RF accounts. Specialized distributors within the RF markets are key to our growing success, and we selectively chose strategic partners that complement our product portfolio and mission.
Specific geographic growth regions for XMA are Europe and Asia. We currently have limited exposure and brand recognition within these regions, however our range of products align perfectly with market demands in both Europe and Asia. Fortunately for XMA, we started the process of signing strategic partners to best fill the market demands within those regions.