Tekmos' Blog

Much is being said in the news about the spread of Corona Virus (COVID-19). As the leader and President of Tekmos, I would like to reassure our customers by stating that “the internal supply chain for Tekmos does not go through China. Tekmos has received inquiries from customers. While we have several partners located in Asia, none of Tekmos product is manufactured in the People’s Republic of China. As a result, we do not anticipate any supply chain disruption as a consequence of the outbreak of the virus.”

The outbreak of corona virus disease (COVID-19) was first reported from global economic hub, Wuhan, China, December 31, 2019. The US Center for Disease Control (CDC) and The World Health Organization (WHO) are working closely with global experts, governments and partners to rapidly expand scientific knowledge on this 40 year old virus and to slow the spread of this outbreak.

Corona virus represents the name of a number of different viruses that infect humans, other mammals and birds. Typically, in humans it causes a mild respiratory infection resembling a cold. The infamous SARS virus is a corona virus. It gets its name from its appearance in electron microscopy where it has a fringe or halo surrounding the viral body. (see photo) The latest outbreak in China is of a strain called COVID-19 or SARS-CoV-2. It is characterized by a high morbidity (high infectious rate) but low mortality. There is no vaccines or antiviral drugs to treat corona virus infection, but it is susceptible to desiccation, heat and detergents like most enveloped viruses. (D.R. Schneider, PhD).

Tekmos did experience some slow down due to the Chinese New Year celebrated in many areas of Asia, during the start of 2020. Tekmos wants our buyers and distributors to be aware that all is going “business as usual for Tekmos and our customers.”

Adrian DeLeon is the Post Manufacturing Test Floor Manager for Tekmos, a highly focused, and challenging leadership position in an often-fast paced environment. He is accountable for managing communications with test floor crew, production, customer service, and operations of schedules and systems that guarantee inventory control, finished goods, shipping of products, and an overall effective and efficient production flow.

2020 is his 6th year at Tekmos. Adrian was sought out by the Vice President of Operations after meeting at one of the elite trainings the Boy Scouts of America has to offer, the Wood Badge. Adrian is an Eagle Scout, the highest rank in Boy Scouts of America, a distinction that several Tekmos Team members hold including President Lynn Reed. Adrian has also earned every merit badge, an accomplishment in itself. Only 4% of Boy Scouts have achieved this rank since its inception in 1911.

Some of the priorities of the test floor include: Managing and ensuring safe, quality test floor operations for the testing and programming of various semiconductors, microcontrollers and microchips. Other priorities include the enforcement and maintenance of quality control and environmental industry-respected best practices to meet customer, and applicable regulatory requirements.

Tekmos uses several types of machines needed in Fabless facilities, such as hot and cold temperature forcing probes, bake ovens, gravity-fed MCTs, an automatic multitester, a pick-and-place Aetrium, V-Tek Tape & Reel machines, and the newest machine, the Exatron pick-and-place handler.

Tekmos uses ATEs to reduce manufacturing costs, improve yield, and specifically to prevent defective devices ending up with consumers. Tape and reel equipment as the name implies, is the equipment used in packing and sealing finished products into individual pockets of a carrier tape, and in rolling this tape onto a reel. Tekmos uses tape and reel when a customer requires it as well as for large quantity part orders. Taping and reeling is an alternative packaging process for small surface mount devices that are impractical to ship in tubes. Tekmos ships parts in tubes, tape and reel and other packaging when required.

Tekmos is streamlining sample ordering with our website online form inquiries.

Our marketing team has begun the process to place Tekmos standard parts in an online inquiry system that customers will be able to purchase samples of parts to qualify for their systems, and request quantities of 100 parts for smaller orders.

We will start with the 80C51 microprocessor family and will add the Flash Memory parts upon completion of the data base creation for the 80C51 microprocessors. The price for each part will be visible to customers that visit our website. There will be an “Order Now” icon that a customer can go to, find the part they are looking for, advise whether the purchase is for samples, or if already qualified, and purchase a quantity of 100 by filling in the form that will be sent to Tekmos Customer Service Department at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

We have decided to do this to make it easier for our customers to order samples as well as for customers who require a smaller quantity. Larger quantity purchases are available through our distributors and sales reps, and at the This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. link provided on our website. Members of our sales team always respond to customers within a 24 hour period to provide a quote and to assist with purchases.

Tekmos has introduced a new and exciting development in our production. With the start of several government contracts we have been given the opportunity to expand our product reliability and dive into military level testing. Zachary Kolb was hired and brought onto the Tekmos team to take the lead on our new level of reliability testing.

There are several types of testings we have begun that follow the Department of Defense Test Method Standards for Microcircuits (MIL-STD-883). Some of these methods are not done in house and are sent off to our local reliability counterpart, Criteria Labs who are do tests such as UHAST, Vibration Frequency, and temperature cycle tests.

One of the test methods from the MIL-STD-883 we have now begun to use is placing all production parts under a seal/leak test. Once completed and retuned we re-test these parts on sight for a final inspection before they are sent out the door.

One of the central tests we use in house to measure product reliability is a Tri-temperature parametric testing. When our microcircuit has been released as a production part our AC and DC parameter tests are also released. In turn, we take our device and place it on our DUT board and then put them under temperature using a temptronic thermostream. We then cool the device under test to -55 degrees C and allow our AC and DC parameters/patterns to run through the part.

Once tested we can then see the effects that the lower temperature has on the timing of our devices. With the same thermostream we can test the same device at 125 degrees Celsius. We then compare both temperatures to our room temperature, 25 degrees’ Celsius test. At that point, we are able to identify how various temperatures effect our parametric tests and justify the amount of stress we can have on our products while they are still capable of passing within an acceptable parametric limit. Testing these functional tests at multiple temperatures allows us to conform to MIL-STD-883 for Tri-temp testing.

Inventory management is a large part of what keeps the manufacturing side running smoothly at Tekmos. Due to the high volume at which parts are manufactured and sold, we require inventory to match up precisely with our accounting software. This is so sales may be able to quote correct quantities available for purchase, as well as start new inventory lots when needed.

At the start of each month, our inventory room and test floor is cross reviewed against our digital backlog and adjusted according to the physical inventory we have on hand. It is my job as the inventory control manager to track down any inconsistencies we have, and correct them. This can consist of entering any missing travelers into our database, converting untested stock to finished goods stock, and removing any parts deemed as rejects due to production failures or other testing.

Often times, our engineers will need various amounts of parts in order to do further testing into the quality and reliability of our microchips, along with other studies. In these instances, we use a logged tracking system to check in/out parts, record where these parts are going, who has them, and whether or not they will be returning to finished goods to be sold.

As our stock levels currently hold over 600 different types of microprocessors for various applications, monthly inventory can seem overwhelming at times. Luckily we have implemented small but impactful changes in the systems we use to make this task a bit easier on everyone. We keep track of our chips using the systems previously described, as well as others such as physically marking inventory boxes to clearly show which parts have had significant movement over the past month, and those that have not.

Another way we maintain and keep a strong hold of inventory is in visibility, segregation, and separation. This focuses on where the parts are in their journey from production to customer and how they are marked along the way.