High Speed RF / Microwave ATE

Roos Instruments, Inc. was founded in 1989 by a group RF Microwave engineers, out of the bench-top test equipment industry, to create an automated microwave test system using a fundamentally new approach.  The concept was to combine personal computer and object oriented software technology with high speed microwave measurement technology creating the worlds first true Microwave ATE system.  A true ATE system is one that is designed with the sole purpose of testing parts at the highest throughput possible while operating in all types of environmental conditions anywhere in the world.  The goal was to produce a turnkey test solution to microwave parts producers with an order of magnitude higher throughput.

The US military was in the midst of a large Manufacturing Technology research and development effort ( the Man Tech program ) looking for novel approaches to speed the production of microwave hardware while lowering the cost.  RI was awarded a grant to prototype and demonstrate our Microwave ATE concepts.  Under the leadership and vision of it's founder Mark Roos,  a 10 to 100 times improvement in test throughput was demonstrated, which lead to a firm contract to produce a marketable product. This first product addressed the X and Ku band interests for the military radar market covering the 100 MHz to 20 Ghz range.  The direction and funding of the Man Tech program allowed Roos Instruments to be born without the need for venture capital funding and is still today internally funded as well as employee owned and operated.  

RI knows that there is more to a successful ATE system than just testing parts fast.  Industry leader such as IBM, ITT, Motorola, Northern Telecom, Philips Semiconductor, and Rockwell all rely on the steady, reliable RI performance. Our customer support strategy combines large company quality, commitment and experience with small company speed and flexibility.  Roos Instruments' extensive experience enables our staff to provide assistance with all of our customers' specific issues such as part handling, wafer probing, test fixtures, connectivity, correlation and test data handling.  The combination of a truly scalable architecture and microwave test expertise has allowed RI  to become the industry leader having produced ATE systems testing applications from 10 KHz IF receivers to 200 GHz military radar applications.  The sum of these parts brings our customers the total RF / Microwave solution.