Tekmos' Blog

After 6 years at our present location in east Austin, Tekmos is moving to new facilities in west Austin. And we are taking advantage of the move to address the new normal for professional employees. Before the Covid pandemic, we had perhaps 10% of the company working remotely. During the initial lock-down, this percentage went up to 75%, though it has drifted back down to about 50%. We believe that there has been a fundamental change in office organization, and that working from home is not a temporary reaction to the pandemic, but instead a permanent change in the way of doing business. We choose to embrace this change.

The new facilities are mainly for manufacturing. Testing, baking, tape and reeling, and shipping must be done on-site. On the other hand, professionals will work remotely, reducing the need for on-site offices and cubes.

There have been problems associated with half of the company working remotely, with the main one being communications, both external and internal. Externally, the traditional phone system doesn’t work well when there is no one around to answer the phone. So, we are replacing it with a VOIP based system. As a side note, switching to a VOIP system has led to interesting discussions about who really needs a phone.

These days, almost all external customer communications are through video calls. The only calls coming in through the land line are an occasional new customer query, an occasional finance question, and with the clear majority of incoming calls being spam. Does an engineer need a VOIP license, or will he be equally served by transferring the occasional call to him? We decided to drop engineering and most manufacturing from the system, and will use call forwarding to cell phones for those few legitimate calls.

The big communications issue is internal communications, which is mostly resolved with IT solutions. We have provided cameras and headsets, and switched to Microsoft Teams for meetings and informal conversations. That is working well, with most people having adapted to using it as the main means of communication. We are going to switch to a cloud based Microsoft mail server to allow for a tighter integration of email with Teams. File sharing is more difficult, since we are no longer on the same network. We solve this by doing a two-step transfer, using the company servers as an intermediate step. Accounting is also affected, and we are going to switch to a cloud based system.

Tekmos makes replacements for obsolete parts. While we can recreate any old design, our biggest obstacle comes in the packaging of the obsolete parts. In many cases, the packages themselves are obsolete. An example is the BQFP (Bumpered Quad Flat Pack), which was a high pin count package originally developed by AT&T and Intel, and which reached its peak volumes with the Intel 80386SX processor. Today, we are unaware of any vendor that offers this package. Another package that gives us problems are the PLCC packages. The 20 pin is unavailable, and the 28, 68, and 84 pins have very limited availability.

A simple solution is to have customers change their PCB to accommodate a new package. But this has problems. Frequently, the demand for older products is driven by regulatory demands. The same regulations that demand the continued use of obsolete parts also require the use of the original PCBs. Changing the board can require a new, expensive, and time consuming qualification. Remaking the original packages also poses problems.

Older plastic packages require mechanical tooling to form them into the correct shapes. The three main tools are the book mold, which forms the package, the de-junk tool, which removes extruded plastic from between the leads, and a shear and form tool, which cuts the leads from the lead frame, and bends them into the correct shape. These tools are expensive, costing roughly $100K each. An older package may also require a leadframe, which is generally purchased in 50K minimum quantities. Remaking the package can cost on the order of $350K up front, provided you can locate an assembler willing to do it.

Alternatives are needed, and Tekmos offers several. One option is the use of a LGA package. LGA stands for Landed Grid Array, and can be thought of as a BGA type package without the balls. It looks like a PCB with plastic on one side. The parts are formed in a block, and cut apart with a saw, so packages of any size can be made. Tekmos uses this approach to replace smaller PLCC packages. Because the LGA packages are quite thin, they have a maximum size of about 10 mm. Larger packages would tend to warp, and become difficult to attach to the customer’s board.

A second option is adapter cards. These come in two varieties. One option is to use a pattern on the bottom of the adapter that matches up with the original package footprint. We then attach our circuit to the top of the adapter. Our circuit must use a smaller package than the adapter, but this is not a problem with current packaging technology. This approach has a difficulty in that the connections are made under the adapter card, and are difficult to inspect.

Tekmos makes frequent use of interns, particularly over the summer months. These are college students, majoring in engineering or computing science. The challenge is how to make effective use of a smart, but relatively untrained employee who may only be available for 8 to 10 weeks. Here is how we do it.

Every company has a combination of both low and high priority projects. The high priority projects are customer driven, and all have deadlines. These are not projects for interns. The low priority projects are another matter. Low priority projects are typically for internal use. There is no specific deadline, and they are usually not manned. And so these are what we assign to the interns. If they succeed, then we have solved a problem. If they don’t, then we are no worse off than we were before. Fortunately, we have had a good deal of success with interns, and have been successful every time.

Past projects have included an interface between our tester and our handler that also allowed for a manual start button. Another project involved the use of DSP algorithms for testing a codec circuit. And a third was a test case where we extracted a circuit schematic from a physical layout.

This summer, we have had our two interns, Byron Seaberg and Gavin May, working on a dedicated tester for one of our high-volume parts. We have a handler capable of 7 site testing, but we don’t have a tester to go with it. One of our engineers had put together a schematic, but the resulting board had issues. So, we assigned one intern to hardware problems, and the second intern to software problems. The hardware intern identified several wiring issues on the board where 2.5 volt signals were connected to 3.3 volt flash memories. He corrected the schematic, turned the board, and is now debugging it before he returns back to school (MIT). Our software intern has assisted by writing code to exercise the board, and working on USB protocols to interface the tester with a PC. Again, it is a rush to finish before he returns to school (UC Berkley).

We try to create jobs that will not only benefit us, but will benefit the interns. The main benefit is doing actual engineering work in an engineering environment.  We also try to enhance their experience by letting them participate in engineering design reviews and in manufacturing meetings. This makes the internship a win-win proposition for both of us.

Tekmos Engineer Intern program provides an opportunity to apply what learning in academic pursuits to real world situations, allowing future engineers to enhance skills, further learning, and gain valuable experience. Our interns are technically excellent Graduates who are looking to forge a career with one of the most successful companies within the field of mixed-signal integrated circuits.

Several of our engineers were mentored through our Intern program and currently serve in full time positions including Kelsey Casto, Director of Quality for Tekmos who came to Tekmos as a Junior in college. She has risen up in her 6 years at Tekmos. Clay Abel has worked at Tekmos through high school and breaks from college, and now works as a full-time engineer.

This summer we have a new intern in Byron Seaberg and a returning intern in Gavin May. Byron Seaberg learned about Tekmos in high school through Lynn Reed and Jon Gehm, who were both active in Boy Scout Troop 70. Lynn was Byron’s scoutmaster for a period of time and both Lynn and Jon had a large impact on him through the organization. Byron did reach Eagle Scout alongside several other current Tekmos employees Alan Reed, Clay Abel and Adrian De Leon.

Byron became interested in engineering through his high school robotics team. He always enjoyed math and science classes during school, and engineering provided a hands-on application of those subjects. Byron is hoping to gain some practical experience with the design and implementation of application specific circuits. He is from Austin, TX. And his hobbies include reading, rock climbing, and board games. Byron graduated in May from Texas A&M University with a major in Mechanical Engineering and minor in Electrical Engineering. He will be pursuing his M.S. in Mechanical Engineering at MIT in the Fall.

Gavin May learned about Tekmos through the mentor-ship at his school. Gavin had been mentored by Lynn Reed last summer and returned. Gavin has always enjoyed new things, as well as math and science, so engineering was a clear pathway for him. He hopes to gain real technical experience during his time at Tekmos, and to learn all that he can from the Tekmos Team.

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.”