Aeroflex Inc. is an American company which produces and markets RF and microwave integrated circuits, components, and systems used for wireless communications. Aeroflex consists of Aeroflex Microelectronic Solutions (AMS), a fabless

Fabless semiconductor company

A fabless semiconductor company specializes in the design and sale of hardware devices and semiconductor chips while outsourcing the fabrication or "fab" of the devices to a specialized manufacturer called a semiconductor foundry...

 manufacturer of rad-hard

Radiation hardening

Radiation hardening is a method of designing and testing electronic components and systems to make them resistant to damage or malfunctions caused by ionizing radiation , such as would be encountered in outer space, high-altitude flight, around nuclear reactors, particle accelerators, or during...

 and hi-rel semiconductor devices and Aeroflex Test Solutions (ATS), which produces electronic test and measurement equipment

Electronic test equipment

Electronic test equipment is used to create signals and capture responses from electronic Devices Under Test . In this way, the proper operation of the DUT can be proven or faults in the device can be traced and repaired...

. Competitors of Aeroflex include Agilent, National Instruments

National Instruments

National Instruments Corporation, or NI , is an American company with over 5,000 employees and direct operations in 41 countries. Headquartered in Austin, Texas, it is a producer of automated test equipment and virtual instrumentation software...

, Anritsu

Anritsu

is a Japanese corporation that is in the test and measurement market. Products include microwave, RF, and optical signal generators , spectrum analyzers, and network analyzers. It was formed with the merger of two companies, the Annaka Corporation and Kyoritsu Electric in Japan in 1931. In 1990...

, and Rohde & Schwarz

Rohde & Schwarz

Rohde & Schwarz is an independent group of companies specializing in electronics. Well known as a manufacturer of electronic test equipment, they also manufacture equipment used for broadcasting, radiolocation, and radio communications...

.

AMS

• Hi-rel MSI integrated circuits
• RF and microwave discretes
• Mixed signal and digital ASIC
  ASIC
  ASIC may refer to:* Application-specific integrated circuit, an integrated circuit developed for a particular use, as opposed to a customised general-purpose device.* ASIC programming language, a dialect of BASIC...
  
  s
• Motion control

ATS

• Wireless communications test (the TM500 LTE
  3GPP Long Term Evolution
  3GPP Long Term Evolution, usually referred to as LTE, is a standard for wireless communication of high-speed data for mobile phones and data terminals. It is based on the GSM/EDGE and UMTS/HSPA network technologies, increasing the capacity and speed using new modulation techniques...
  
   test system was Aeroflex's top-selling product in FY 2010 )
• Avionics
  Avionics
  Avionics are electronic systems used on aircraft, artificial satellites and spacecraft.Avionic systems include communications, navigation, the display and management of multiple systems and the hundreds of systems that are fitted to aircraft to meet individual roles...
  
   test
• Signal generators
• Spectrum/signal analyzers

History

In 2002, purchased IFR Systems Inc, a Wichita, Kansas

Wichita, Kansas

Wichita is the largest city in the U.S. state of Kansas.As of the 2010 census, the city population was 382,368. Located in south-central Kansas on the Arkansas River, Wichita is the county seat of Sedgwick County and the principal city of the Wichita metropolitan area...

 test equipment manufacturer. In 1998, IFR previously purchased Marconi Instruments

Marconi Instruments

Marconi Instruments was a British company, one of the Marconi group of companies, formerly part of GEC. The company was based in St Albans, Colchester and Stevenage . Prior to the consolidation in Stevenage, its main site was at Longacres on the eastern outskirts of St Albans, where it was the...

, a British test and measurement equipment manufacturer.

In 2008, purchased Gaisler Research, a designer of rad-hard IP for space applications, including the open source LEON

LEON

LEON is a 32-bit CPU microprocessor core, based on the SPARC-V8 RISC architecture and instruction set. It was originally designed by the European Space Research and Technology Centre , part of the European Space Agency , and after that by Gaisler Research. It is described in synthesizable VHDL...

 processor.

In 2010, purchased Wavetek

Wavetek

Wavetek was an electronic test equipment manufacturer that made function and signal generators.Before Terrence Gooding, president and CEO of Wavetek, made Wavetek private in 1991, the company had 800 employees, 260 of whom worked in San Diego. The company had plants in the US states California,...

, a San Diego, California

San Diego, California

San Diego is the eighth-largest city in the United States and second-largest city in California. The city is located on the coast of the Pacific Ocean in Southern California, immediately adjacent to the Mexican border. The birthplace of California, San Diego is known for its mild year-round...

 test equipment manufacturer. The company was renamed Willtek.

On August 15, 2007, Aeroflex was taken private by a group of private equity firm

Private equity firm

A private equity firm is an investment manager that makes investments in the private equity of operating companies through a variety of loosely affiliated investment strategies including leveraged buyout, venture capital, and growth capital...

s including Veritas Capital, Golden Gate Capital, GS Direct.

On November 10, 2010, Aeroflex announced an initial public offering of 17.25 million shares .

In FY 2010, AMS and ATS contributed almost equally to net sales. The majority of sales, particularly for AMS, are in the space, avionics, and defense markets.