RF Engines Limited - Small Company, Big Ideas

RF Engines Limited (RFEL) is a UK-based electronics design and IP (Intellectual Property) company who specialize in the design and licensing of high specification signal processing cores, system on chip designs and FPGA based board solutions for applications in the defence, communications and instrumentation markets (RF Engines Ltd, 2003).

They currently employs 22 members of staff: 6 senior digital design engineers - salary range £40k to £47k; 3 digital systems engineers - salary range £28k to £32k; 4 principal digital system design engineers - salary range £44k to £51k; 2 senior digital systems engineers - salary range £42k - £45k; 1 IT manager; 3 directors (CEO, sales and technical); 1 finance & personnel administrator; 1 office & finance assistant and a salaries administrator (part time) (J.Elliott, personal communication, April 3, 2009). Looking at the company organization chart,seen below, one would not expect to find nearly 70% of the staff design engineers, many of these having recently moved from companies such as ARM, BAE SYSTEMS and DSTL (RF Engines Ltd, 2008). Obviously having such a large base of designers, recruited from different backgrounds, gives RFEL knowledge and expertise in key design areas such as RF and software engineering, modelling, algorithm development and digital implementation. These skills increasing their capability in the market place and provide a more competitive edge over similar companies, considering the specialist nature of their work.


The core of the business, the main source of income, comes from the production of custom, high-specification FPGA designs, these being supplied as either "off-the-self" IP and system cores; providing specific functionality for the end user or implemented in COTS or custom hardware, or incorporated into finished products specific to the client (Cravotta, 2009, para. 2). All of the "off-the-shelf" cores are based on patented DSP techniques and licensed on a per-use basis, where each "use" is defined as a single instantiation of the core on a physical FPGA device, the cost of the standard signal processing cores starts at around $2,000, this increases with complexity (RF Engines Ltd, 2009). As well as licensing these cores RFEL also provides system design and consultancy services for other companies who require specialized designs and the experience that RFEL offers, this is usually on a pre-arranged contract basis, although licensing deals are often applied to designs to reduce the up-front cost for the client, benefiting both parties. In the past they have won contracts for DSTL, Thales UK, QinetiQ and surprisingly, secured contracts with a prime US defence contractor (ElectronicsWeekly, 2002) and a Korean firm (Bush, 2008).

Interestingly designs are specifically targeted at devices from the two major FPGA vendors, Xilinx and Altera. This could be seen as limiting but the majority of the markets use devices from these vendors and RFEL is a Xilinx AllianceCORE partner. The partnership involves RFEL optimizing their products for efficient use in Xilinx products and supplying high performance signal processing cores to them and their partners, creating a much larger market opportunity for both Xilinx and RFEL. This undoubtedly one of the contributing factors for them entering both the US and Asian markets, securing contracts as mentioned above.

RFEL is a private company limited by shares, registered with Companies House. Through obtaining their abbreviated accounts as of last year an estimate of their market value is $2,000,000 (Companies House, 2008). This being based on their share premium and called upon share capital, and would be similar this year if no further shares have been issued.

For such a small company RFEL has certainly shown that it can provide some of the most innovative designs in the marketplace, helped by its partnerships and the drive of its design engineers. They have certainly exploited the niche in the market for high-end DSP solutions, and as long as clients are willing to outsource for highly optimized (in terms of speed, power consumption and performance) specialized functionality, then the way technology is heading RFEL have certainly built a platform for a prosperous future.

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References

Bush, S. (2008, August 13). Korea calls on the Isle of Wight for DSP algorithm. ElectronicsWeekly.com. Retrieved April 3, 2009, from http://www.electronicsweekly.com/Articles/2008/08/13/44319/korea-calls-on-the-isle-of-wight-for-dsp-algorithm.htm
Companies House. (2008, April 30). company details: RF ENGINES LIMITED. Retrieved April 3, 2009, from http://wck2.companieshouse.gov.uk/a71a55ee822a1dcb0bcf7d1c37c8fb0c/compdetails
Cravotta, R. (2009). EDN DSP Directory. Retrieved April 3, 2009, from http://www.edn.com/index.asp?layout=DSPComp&year=2009&company_id=15120&industryid=47331&referalid=96
ElectronicsWeekly. (2002, May 22). UK firm wins digital filtering IP supply deal with US prime defence contractor. ElectronicsWeekly.com. Retrieved April 3, 2009, from http://www.electronicsweekly.com/Articles/2002/05/22/25358/uk-firm-wins-digital-filtering-ip-supply-deal-with-us-prime-defence.htm
RF Engines Ltd. (2003, October 06). Isle of Wight base company scoops major Customer Contracts and Industry Award. Retrieved March 28, 2009, from http://www.rfel.com/download/P03024-Electronic_industry_award.pdf
RF Engines Ltd. (2008, September 28). RF Engines Ltd (RFEL) continued expansion. Retrieved March 28, 2009, from http://www.rfel.com/Newseventsdetail.asp?ID=112
RF Engines Ltd. (2009). RFEL: Questions and Answers . Retrieved April 3, 2009, from http://www.rfel.com/faq.asp