PULSE
»»
“ 25% of our parts are semi-custom, so there has always been the possibility with our 25,000 part numbers to tweak the standard product to really meet what the customers need.”
Could you go into detail about the process of coming up with customized solutions for your clients? First of all, we have to distinguish if we have to start from scratch, or if we can adjust something that we already have. Having a big portfolio, especially below 15 watts, we are really great at making a lot of things possible—changing output voltages, changing power, dealing with high isolation voltages, and optimizing the parts. This is what we are really strong at, even in lower quantities. On the other hand, there are sometimes certain requirements where people would like to have a new development. If the volume justifies it, we are definitely interested in doing it. The process is pretty simple. Our local application engineers and sales representatives are working with the customers and seeing if customization is an option, if they aren’t already designing a new part to the customer’s specifications.
in a module and selling it versus doing everything discretely. This became an industry standard. On the flipside, you cannot have a patent for it. We are basically taking what everyone can do discretely but we are putting it in a small footprint, optimizing it and making it available for a large number of applications. In the DC/DC converter sector, below 15 watts, we are pretty much the market leader. We know this because we are also getting reverse engineered a lot. As soon as we have a new product, we have about half a year to promote it really well before other companies and private labelers have it. A good example of this is the R-78 switching regulator. That is definitely a part that eventually became an industry standard in the past. People were interested in this R-78 because they had a heat problem or a space problem on the board. What’s also helping us is that the big players are obsoleting parts, so with this family, we have some parts that are now industry standards and we’ve created a demand. Another sector where we have created an industry standard is the reinforced segment of low power DC to DC converters. Anything below 10 watts, we now have reinforced converters up to 10 Kilovolts of isolation, which is something that wasn’t there before and is something that medical customers have been asking for.
What kind of volume is necessary in order to develop a custom part?
In what direction is the industry headed in the next couple of years?
We can do a tweak starting at a couple hundred pieces. If we have to do something from scratch and get it approved, then it requires a bit bigger volume. We also have to understand that customs are much easier in the DC world, but dealing with AC voltages, it can get a little trickier—not for our ability to make the custom, but more for the approval process.
At the moment RECOM is a $50 million company. In next 3 to 5 years, we want to be a $100 million company, which is what our CEO, Karsten Bier, believes is possible. For that, we definitely are entering new markets, diversifying from just the plain industrial side, which will continue to be strong in. The important question that faces engineers these days is “Make, or buy?” In some cases for engineers, it will be necessary that they design their own power supply. However, in a lot of other applications, they don’t have the resources to do that, so that is definitely an opportunity for us. With strong distribution partners and sales rep firms, we are taking advantage of this development. ■
Have any of RECOM’s innovations led to the creation of industry standards? First of all, when you look at our DC to DC converters in general, this technology is not that old—it’s maybe 25 or 30 years old. This also led to a whole new idea of putting everything
8
Visit: eeweb.com