everything RF recently interviewed Tim Avicola, the president & CEO of Elite RF. Tim is a seasoned RF power amplifier design engineer with over 30 years of experience in designing and manufacturing RF power amplifiers. His deep hands-on expertise and market insight are key to designing cutting-edge robust RF amplifiers and staying ahead of the competition by anticipating client needs and aligning technology deployment with business strategy. Tim successfully built a startup power amplifier venture into a $50 million business in the cellular communications field and led Motorola's cellular feedforward engineering group. He has a deep passion for RF engineering and applies his knowledge to continuously drive his company forward.
Q. Can you tell us about Elite RF? When was the company formed and what were the objectives?
Tim Avicola: Elite RF was founded in 2014 with a commitment to designing and delivering high-quality products in the RF amplifier space while maintaining the highest reliability, performance and durability standards. I and my core engineering team have been designing RF amplifiers for 35 years now and have been a part of this industry since the 1980s. RF amplifier is not a commodity product that can be bought off-the-shelf every time. The majority of the RFQs that we get have custom requirements or modifications to our standard designs. Unlike other companies, we interact with our customers often to get them exactly what they want in a short lead time. Customer satisfaction is our main objective, and this philosophy has been instilled at every level in our organization. Agility and responsiveness keep us ahead of the competition. Our design philosophy is to design for longevity and superior performance; hence we can offer the best warranty in the market across all our product categories.
Q. Can you tell us about your range of Solid-State RF Power Solutions?
Tim Avicola: We classify our offerings into 2 product categories – RF amplifiers and high-power microwave generators. We cover different bandwidths from 4 KHz to 40 GHz and RF power of 1 W to 100 kW. We manufacture RF amplifiers in different form factors like modules, modules with cooling mechanisms, rack mounts with or without front panel display, or systems with embedded software controls. We do custom designs for form, fit, and function. Last year, we launched a new line of solid-state high-power microwave generators as a reliable substitute in applications requiring magnetrons as a microwave source. Currently, we see a lot of demand for 433 MHz, 915 MHz, 2.45 GHz and 5.8 GHz generators of different power from 150 W to 30 kW. In the first half of 2024, we introduced RF amplifier systems designed for the EMC, EMI and high-power test market.
Q. What market segments do you cater to? Which segment is the largest for you?
Tim Avicola: Our focus areas are military, medical, communications, aerospace, research, semiconductor, plasma-assisted process, commercial, automotive and EMC test markets. Today, medical and military constitute around 60% of our business. Due to our new product launches, we are seeing a rise in orders for high-power microwave generators and EMC amplifiers.
Q. How do you differentiate your RF Amplifier Solutions from other manufacturers?
Tim Avicola: The core difference is in our design philosophy and our approach to customer interaction. Engineers like to talk with engineers to get their questions answered. So, we prefer to get on an engineering call with customers during the start of the sales cycle. From a product design perspective, we focused on R&D to design RF building blocks in the initial 5 years of our company. We have over 250+ designs covering various frequencies. This foundation enables us to use these design blocks directly in our customer orders reducing the lead time for custom designs and helping us win the business. Our 30+ years of practical experience in working with RF also adds a lot of technical value to our customer discussions.
Q. Elite RF has an extensive catalog of standard products - What is the breakup between catalog products and custom solutions? What is the process and timeline for developing a custom solution?
Tim Avicola: 40% of our revenues come from building custom solutions for our customers. We follow a standard engineering process to make sure all customer-defined specifications are documented and understood by our engineers. Customer requirements evolve over the course of our association as they go through their product development cycle, and hence we do weekly or bi-weekly calls with them to make sure we are on the right path. This also provides updates to the customers on the project timeline. We have worked on a variety of custom projects, and we have been able to design within 60 days with 95+% first-pass success which is a unique value proposition in our industry. A customer is always short on time, so we must get it right the first time when we turn on the amplifier or the generator.
Q. Can you tell us about your RF Power Solutions for the Medical Industry? What are the specific design features and specifications that make these amplifiers ideal for the Medical Sector?
Tim Avicola: RF energy forms the centerpiece of many technologies like MRI, ablation, diathermy and more. Medical companies operate in the ISM band. Due to the strong customer base in the medical sector, we now have a product catalog of high-efficiency RF amplifier modules focused on the ISM band. In many cases, we combine these existing designs with required modifications to develop a more complex high-power system. Our experience ranges from designing a simple 150 W microwave generator at 2.45 GHz to developing a highly complex 67 MHz 6 kW amplifier 22U rack system with embedded software controls.
Q. In addition to RF amplifiers, Elite RF also provides a broad selection of microwave generators. Can you tell us more about this segment? Is it a significant part of your business? What prompted your entry into this market?
Tim Avicola: We launched our first 2.45 GHz 6 kW solid-state microwave generator in 2023 as an alternative to magnetrons in the lab-grown diamond process. The diamond space is picking up due to the work done by universities and companies in creating GaN chips on diamond as a substrate. The US introduced the CHIPS Act in 2022 to boost semiconductor manufacturing in the country. This microwave generator segment got more interesting for us when a customer came up with a unique application. A few of those applications are high-power microwaves for hydrogen production, nuclear fusion, semiconductor coating, directed energy weapons, particle acceleration, etc. This is becoming a critical segment for us, and we look to be a key player in this market in the coming 5 years.
Q. Over the years, magnetrons have been replaced with solid-state RF generators. What is your take on the future of this segment? What are some advantages or properties of Solid-State Generators over Magnetrons?
Tim Avicola: The future for the industry is very bright due to the advancement in GaN technology. Ten years ago, getting 100 W out of an RF transistor was a challenging task. Now there are devices that can output 1500 W of power. Obviously, we design a circuitry around these GaN transistors for harmonics, heat dissipation and other parameters for better efficiency of the system. Solid-state is becoming prominent in applications where stable frequency and RF power are critical for product quality or process efficiency. Solid-state offers 10 times the life than magnetrons, low in-process system failure, instant start and stop, and many more benefits that will drive its demand. While solid-state systems are capital intensive, it is far ahead of magnetrons when we look at the total cost of ownership over a 5-year period due to their low operational costs.
Q. Do you develop amplifiers for EMC Testing? Can you tell us about this product range? What are the specific design features and specifications that make these amplifiers ideal for EMC testing?
Tim Avicola: Yes, we offer amplifiers for the EMC and high-power test applications. We launched these amplifiers in Q1 of 2024 and are seeing good traction for this product category. Our current portfolio covers the standard bandwidths and high RF power required by these labs. Our EMC amplifier series covers from 9 KHz to 40 GHz and power output up to 4 kW. Some of the popular spectrums we see are 9 KHz to 400 MHz, 80 MHz to 1000 MHz, 1 GHz to 6 GHz, 6 GHz to 18 GHz, K- and Ka-Band.
Q. Can you tell us more about your manufacturing facility? Do you manufacture and test your products in-house?
Tim Avicola: We saw a significant increase in demand post-Covid, and hence we moved into a 22,000 sq. ft facility last year to accommodate the increasing production demand. All our business functions are under one roof. We have our partner contract manufacturer for PCB, PCB assembly and metal fabrication within 50 miles of our facility. We do final assembly and burn-in tests at our facility before shipping out to our customers.
Q. Who are your customers? Where are they located? What is the percentage breakdown by geographic region?
Tim Avicola: We have customers all over the US, Canada, Europe, the Middle East and Southeast Asia. USA is our primary focus market contributing 95% to our top line. We are working towards getting more traction from Canada, Australia and European countries like France, Germany, Switzerland and more.
Q. How does 2024 look for Elite RF? Are there any new products on the horizon?
Tim Avicola: Last 3 years, we have invested significant capital in developing new product categories like high-power microwave generators and EMC amplifier systems for expansion into new markets. We have worked on different high-power projects for our medical and military customers and that is our niche. There is a new product category on the horizon, but it's too early to comment.
