RF Monolithics, Inc. (RFM)

Founded in 1979 by three engineers from Texas Instruments (TI), RFM designs, develops, manufactures and markets a broad range of radio frequency (RF) component and module products in two product groups: Communications and Low-power. The Communications Products Group includes filter and frequency control products. The Low-power Products Group includes low-power components and Virtual Wireâ short-range radio products. These products use surface acoustic wave (SAW) technology and are either manufactured as discrete devices to perform specific functions or as integrated modules to provide system performance. To date, RFM has shipped over 245 million devicesto a worldwide customer base, and the Company offers over 1000 resonators, filters, and related components and modules to OEMs in the
automotive, telecommunications, consumer, and industrial market segments worldwide.

RFM has over 500 employees, with sales offices located in California, Georgia, Minnesota, and Europe. RFM's principal administrative, sales, marketing, research and development, and manufacturing facilities are located in Dallas, Texas in two adjacent buildings totaling 90,000 square feet. Manufacturing SAW components is a highly complex and precise process that is sensitive to contaminant levels in the manufacturing environment, impurities in the materials used, and performance of manufacturing personnel and production equipment. Therefore, included in these two buildings are state-of-the-art clean rooms and factories for the production of our components.

The manufacturing operations are divided into two key areas: wafer fabrication and assembly. Fabrication of deposited and patterned wafers occurs in a clean-room environment. Thin aluminum films are precisely deposited onto quartz substrates that are subsequently etched with very small (micron and submicron) patterned structures called dies. Approximately 2000 die exist on a single wafer. RFM recently completed expansion of its wafer fabrication factory, adding facilities and new automated wafer processing equipment.

In the assembly operation, RFM produces components in three distinct package types. These packages include the TO39 components, surface-mount (SMT) components and module devices. TO39 component manufacturing involves the assembly of single-die devices into leaded metal packages in which the leads are used to mount the packages through holes in printed circuit boards. SMT package products contain SAW die and in some cases, other electronic components as well. In this manufacturing process, automated procedures allow up to 400 devices to be processed at a time using custom-designed equipment representing unique application of existing manufacturing technology. Module manufacturing consists of assembling multiple devices, one or more of which is a SAW.