Tekmos' Blog

Many companies are finding great and creative ways to be involved with their customers. In the rapidly changing electronics industry, targeting customers who use electronic components in any specialized field, communicating with the right targeted customers can be challenging. Taking the same approach used in the mass advertising of consumer products would be a colossal waste of time and money since such a small percentage of the audience would have any interest in the product or, in many cases, even understand what the products are.

Freescale semiconductor has taken an approach that seems to work quite well. In late June, I attended the Freescale Technical Forum in Austin. (Conveniently located in Tekmos’ home town, Austin.) I do not have the official count of attendees but it was huge, taking over multiple ballrooms on multiple floors of the JW Marriot Hotel. According to my count, there were 269 sessions on many, many topics. Several sessions were hands on and their rosters were filled to capacity. I do not intend to give a review of the conference here. That can be found in other sources. I expect one or both keynote presentations will be available on the web. Additionally, there was a large room set up with many displays of products that contain Freescale components. An ideal place to make contact with technical people from a wide range of companies. There was a large truck outside that was set up to display many IoT products. The conference also highlighted many of Freescale’s partners. The combination of Freescale Semiconductor with NXP creates the fourth largest semiconductor company in the world. It should be noted here that Tekmos is a partner with Freescale. We developed many replacement processors and controllers that Freescale made up until the fab was wiped out by Fukushima Tsunami.

The main point of this article is to comment on what a good conference Freescale Semiconductor put on and how this type of forum can help the entire industry. I should also mention that this is the tenth year of the Freescale Technical Forum. I encourage our readers to seek out information from other sources about the content of the conference especially the technical. The technical content is outside the focus of the article, but I do encourage the reader to look into the new products announced at the conference.

The Tuesday keynote speaker was Gregg Lowe, the CEO of Freescale. Much of the emphasis was on IoT in automobiles. Again, seek out a web version of the presentation. Freescale processors and sensors are very compatible this aspect of the IoT. One of the human interest stories was a dramatization of how Freescale’s partner, Cadillac, using technology from Freescale, created a system that sets off an alarm if the driver falls asleep. This alarm likely saved the life of a Freescale employee’s grandfather.

The Wednesday keynote speaker was Steve Wozniak. Always good to hear his opinions expressed with a fair amount of wit. I expect this wide ranging talk to show up on the internet too.

Along with the move to our new facilities, Tekmos is getting a new logo.

So how did this happen? 

Our current logo is just our name in the common Ariel font.  We stepped out of the box when we added a maroon underline.  It worked, but it was pretty bland. 

The act of moving into a new building means that we have to pay for a sign.  Our artist suggested that it was a good time for a new logo, so I turned him loose.  What I got back was our name in all caps, a more distinctive font, and a stylized chip.

Many companies pay staggering amounts of money for a graphic symbol that is to represent their company.  AT&T has a stylized globe.  Mercedes has their three point star.  McDonalds has its golden arches.  And Tekmos now has a chip.  And I love it. 

Bob Abrams and I spent a week in Japan last month.  The purpose of the trip was two-fold.  First, we had scheduled visits with current customer to review project status.  We also visited multiple prospective customers as part of our overall Japanese development strategy.  From a business point of view, the trip was quite successful.

We can summarize a business trip as being a plane trip, a hotel, a customer visit, back to the hotel, and then back to the plane.  And after a while, all business trips can seem the same.  I had decided a while ago to try to incorporate a little tourism into each trip, and this trip was no exception.  After all, Japan is an interesting country, and it would be a shame to see nothing more than the inside of a hotel.

On this trip, Bob and I were able to do two tourist things.

Being old, I like to see things that are older than I am.  So on a side trip to Nagoya, we visited the castle.  Originally built in 1612, it has been restored, and is an interesting look into Japan’s past.  While having a military aspect, is was more of a palace for the Tokugawa family.  The castle is topped off by two golden dolphins (Kinshachi), which is a tradition dating back to 1334.  Bob and I also had a tea ceremony before we returned to Tokyo.

Bob isn’t as old as I, and wanted to see more modern things.  So on the last day of our visit, we spent the afternoon looking at ham radio electronics, and then at other consumer electronics in Electronic Town (Akihabara) in Tokyo.  I think we were both impressed with the modern toilets on display.

Last month Tekmos traveled to exhibit at another high temperature conference. This time it was the GEA Geothermal Energy Expo 2014 at the Oregon Convention Center in Portland, Oregon. The expo is billed as "the world's largest gathering of vendors providing support for geothermal resource exploration, characterization, development, production and management." Since the folks from Tekmos have spent most of their careers involved with microelectronics, it was fascinating to talk with the attendees and vendors who manufacture and use the massive equipment associated with the geothermal industry. Even though the exploration for and harnessing of geothermal energy makes use of equipment that is thousands of times bigger than our microelectronic circuitry, many pieces of equipment cannot function without the much smaller electronic components like those that Tekmos designs and manufactures.

The expo gave us a chance to talk in depth with various equipment vendors about the performance and electrical characteristics they need most when choosing components for their new products. We were again reminded of the need to listen carefully and to clarify terms. Some of the vendors at the Expo talked about their requirement for maximum operating temperatures of 300 degrees without mentioning they were speaking in degrees Fahrenheit. Others at the conference needed 250 degrees operating temperature, without mentioning they were speaking in degrees Celsius, the units generally used in the electronics industry. The 300 degrees Fahrenheit, about 150 degrees Celsius, is pretty straight forward for Tekmos using standard bulk silicon technology but 250 degrees Celsius will require our SOI processing.

This second high temperature conference of the year for Tekmos yielded a number of new contacts as well as a chance to visit with other customers that we have known for some time. We also received a number of inquiries about our standard products where the high temperatures are not required. There were even some inquiries about Tekmos supplying parts that are going obsolete by the original vendors. While this has been a major focus of Tekmos throughout its 17 year history, we were a little surprised since our focus at this geothermal conference was "Hot Chips", our relatively recent thrust into the high temperature market.

As we often do, we also took some time to visit a local attraction. We had a tasty lunch at a great Chinese restaurant suggested to us by a local who thought we looked lost as we got off the light rail. We were primed for our visit to Portland's Lan Su Chinese Garden, the most authentic Suzhou-style Chinese garden outside China. Its name is poetically interpreted as "Garden of Awakening Orchids." It was assembled by 65 Chinese artisans who spent 10 months assembling and completing structures that were crafted in China. From the Hall of Brocade Clouds, past the Scholars Courtyard, to the Tower of Cosmic Reflections, the Garden is a sea of tranquility near center of the bustling city of Portland. It was a welcome period of peace and quiet between our travel to Portland and our manning the booth at the Geothermal Expo.

When it comes to reasons for Tekmos Team Members to gather for good food and celebration, they can always be invented, but this event was for our nation’s birth, the 4th of July, and a 3 day weekend. Every holiday Tekmos staff have a “potluck dinner” where each brings a favorite dish or, if one is culinary challenged, bring chips, corn on the cob or a store bought banana cream cake. Everyone is expected to pitch in.

On the menu for this 4th of July BBQ were hamburgers, bratwurst, corn on the cob, homemade potato salad by Alison, deviled eggs by Lynn, and celebratory mozzarella and cherry tomato hors d’oeuvre by Carole, hot artichoke spinach dip with grilled pita bread by Leslie, cole slaw by Zeta, and homemade apple pie by Jon’s son, Ryan.

Food specialties were shared from favorite family traditions and recipes. The designated Tekmos griller is Phil, Tekmos’ all around machine guru. Phil’s family owned a steak house so it was only natural that he would take Bison burger and hamburger to make specialty burgers. An added bonus is that Bison is a very lean meat and healthier. They were cooked to perfection.

The piece de resistance of the 4th of July Barbecue was Jon’s son, Ryan’s homemade apple pie, a recipe passed down from his great grandmother. The apple pies were served with fresh whipped cream, not from the container.

The 4th of July annual celebration of the founding of our nation is often celebrated with fireworks, picnics, barbecues, and favorite summertime dishes of hot dogs, hamburgers, potato salad and apple pie. You can’t get more American than that.