MACOM Technology Solutions Holdings, Inc. (MACOM) designs, develops, and manufactures differentiated semiconductor products and solutions for the Industrial and Defense (‘I&D’), Data Center and Telecommunications (‘Telecom’) industries for customers who demand high performance, quality and reliability.
The company has application expertise, combined with expertise in analog and mixed signal circuit design, compound semiconductor fabrication (including gallium arsenide (‘GaAs’), gallium nitride...
MACOM Technology Solutions Holdings, Inc. (MACOM) designs, develops, and manufactures differentiated semiconductor products and solutions for the Industrial and Defense (‘I&D’), Data Center and Telecommunications (‘Telecom’) industries for customers who demand high performance, quality and reliability.
The company has application expertise, combined with expertise in analog and mixed signal circuit design, compound semiconductor fabrication (including gallium arsenide (‘GaAs’), gallium nitride (‘GaN’), indium phosphide (‘InP’) and specialized silicon), advanced packaging and back-end assembly and test. The company offers a broad portfolio of thousands of standard and custom devices, which include integrated circuits (‘IC’), multi-chip modules (‘MCM’), diodes, amplifiers, switches and switch limiters, passive and active components and radio frequency (‘RF’) and optical subsystems, which make up dozens of product lines that service over 6,000 end customers in the company’s three primary markets.
The company’s products are electronic components that its customers generally incorporate into larger electronic systems, such as wireless basestations, high-capacity optical networks, data center networks, radar, medical systems, satellite networks and test and measurement applications. The company’s primary end markets are: (1) I&D, which includes military and commercial radar, RF jammers, electronic countermeasures, communication data links, satellite communications (‘SATCOM’) and various wired and wireless multi-market applications, which include industrial, medical, test and measurement and scientific applications; (2) Data Center, which includes intra-Data Center, Data Center Interconnect (‘DCI’) applications, at 100G, 200G, 400G, 800G, 1.6T and higher speeds, enabled by the company’s broad portfolio of analog ICs and photonic components for high speed connectivity customers; and (3) Telecom, which includes carrier infrastructure, such as long-haul/metro, 5G and 6G infrastructure, satellite communications and Fiber-to-the-X (FTTx)/passive optical network (‘PON’), among others.
The company continues to develop new products and technologies to improve its ability to serve the company’s primary markets. The company’s growth strategy is focused on expanding its addressable markets and product portfolio, strengthening the company’s customer relationships and capturing more design wins in order to increase the company’s market share. As the company grows its portfolio and technology base, the company’s customers will select more of the company’s components for use in their systems.
The company’s manufacturing model consists of operating internal semiconductor wafer fabrication and assembly and test facilities supplemented with external foundry and assembly and test partners. The company operates semiconductor fabrication facilities at the company’s Lowell, Massachusetts headquarters, and in the company’s Ann Arbor, Michigan, and Limeil-Brevannes, France locations. Certain of the company’s facilities have achieved certification to the IATF16949 automotive standard, the AS9100D aerospace standard, the ISO9001 international quality standard, the ISO14001 environmental management standard and the ANSI/ESD S20.20:2021 standard. The company manufactures compound semiconductors including GaAs, GaN and InP. The company has been accredited by the United States Department of Defense with ‘Trusted Foundry’ status, a designation conferred on microelectronics vendors exhibiting the highest levels of process integrity and protection.
The company also utilizes external semiconductor foundries to access additional process technologies and capacity. In aggregate, the company utilizes a broad array of internal, proprietary process technologies and commercially available foundry technologies, which allows the company to select the most appropriate technology to solve the company’s customers’ needs. This strategy is intended to provide the company with dependable supply, control over quality, reduced capital investment requirements, faster time to market and additional outsourced capacity when needed. In addition, the know-how developed through the continued operation of the company’s internal fabrication lines provides the company with the expertise to better manage the company’s external foundry suppliers.
Research and Development
The company’s research and development efforts aim to rapidly develop new and innovative products, process technologies and packaging techniques. The interaction of semiconductor process technology, circuit design and packaging technology defines the performance parameters and differentiation of the company’s products. Some of the company’s core competencies are the ability to model, design, test, integrate, package and manufacture differentiated solutions for the company’s customers. The company’s integrated and customized solutions offer customers high performance, quality, reliability and faster time to market.
Circuit Design and Device Modeling Expertise. The company’s engineers are experts in the design of analog and mixed signal circuits capable of reliable, high-performance RF, microwave, millimeter wave and optical signal transmission and conditioning. The company’s staff has decades of experience in solving complex design challenges in applications involving high frequency, high power and environmentally rugged operating conditions.
Semiconductor Process Technology. The company leverages its semiconductor wafer fabrication capabilities and the company’s foundry suppliers to offer customers the right process technology to meet their particular requirements. Depending on the requirements for the application, the company’s semiconductor products may be designed using an internally developed or externally sourced process technology.
Packaging Expertise. The company’s extensive packaging expertise enables the company to model the interaction between the semiconductor and its package. The company’s engineers adjust the design of both the semiconductor and the package, to optimize performance. The company offers products in a variety of different package types for specific applications, including plastic over-molded, ceramic and laminate-based packaging.
Systems Expertise. The company’s engineers’ radar, optical, microwave and millimeter wave system-level design expertise allow the company to offer differentiated solutions that leverage multiple process technologies and are integrated into a single, higher-level assembly, thereby delivering the company’s customers enhanced functionality. The company’s system-level RF design knowledge, broad technology portfolio, in-depth understanding of critical system requirements, integration expertise and track record of reliability make the company a valued resource for its I&D customers faced with demanding application parameters.
The company continues to invest in proprietary processes, circuit design and packaging technologies to enable the company to develop and manufacture high-value solutions.
Markets and Products
The company’s core strategy is to develop and innovate high-performance products that address its customers’ technical challenges in the company’s primary markets: I&D, Data Center and Telecom. While sales in any or all of the company’s primary markets may slow or decline from period to period, over the long term the company expects to benefit from growth in these markets. The company expects its revenue in the I&D market to be driven by the expansion of the company’s product portfolio that services satellite and space communications, civil and military radar, electronic warfare, test and measurement, scientific, medical and other industrial applications. The company expects revenue growth in the Data Center market to be driven by the adoption of higher speed processing technologies and the upgrade of data center architectures utilizing 100G, 200G, 400G, 800G, and 1.6T interconnects, which the company expects will drive adoption of higher speed optical and photonic links. The company expects its revenue in the Telecom market to be driven, in part, by 5G and future generation telecommunication deployments and expansion of optical networks, with continued upgrades and expansion of communications equipment and increasing adoption of bandwidth-rich services.
Industrial & Defense. In the I&D market, military applications require advanced electronic systems, such as radar warning receivers, communications data links and tactical radios, unmanned aerial vehicles, RF jammers, electronic countermeasures, smart munitions and satellite communications. Military applications are becoming more sophisticated and requiring more high-speed bandwidth, favoring higher performance semiconductor ICs based on GaAs and GaN technologies due to their high power density, improved power efficiency and broadband capability.
The company’s analog design capabilities, technology portfolio, in-depth knowledge of critical radar system requirements, integration expertise and track record of reliability make the company a valued resource for its I&D customers faced with demanding application parameters. Further, the company has been accredited by the United States Department of Defense with Trusted Foundry status, which differentiates the company as a trusted manufacturer of ICs for the U.S. military and aerospace applications. For radar applications, the company offers standard and custom amplifiers, discrete components, switch limiters, phase shifters and integrated modules for transmit and receive functions in air traffic control, marine, weather, and military radar applications. For military communications data link and tactical radio applications, the company offers a family of active, passive and discrete products, such as Monolithic Microwave Integrated Circuits (‘MMICs’), control components, voltage-controlled oscillators, transformers, power pallets, amplifiers and diodes. Manufacturing products in the company’s Lowell, Massachusetts Trusted Foundry offers the company a competitive advantage in the I&D market because of certain customers’ requirements for a domestic supply chain.
Growth in the I&D business is also driven by multi-market applications encompassing industrial, medical, test and measurement and scientific applications, where analog RF, microwave and millimeter wave semiconductor solutions are gaining prevalence. In addition, evolving medical technology has increased the need for high-performance MMICs and other semiconductor solutions in medical imaging and patient monitoring to provide enhanced analysis and functionality.
In MRI systems, the company provides critical non-magnetic diode products for body coils. For sensing and test and measurement applications, the company’s heterolithic microwave integrated circuit, or HMIC, process is ideal for high-performance, integrated bias networks and switches. The company’s catalog of general purpose GaAs ICs includes low noise amplifiers, switches and power amplifiers that address a wide range of applications such as industrial automation systems to test and measurement equipment.
Data Center. Demand by Data Center providers for faster data delivery speeds at cost-effective prices is growing rapidly, where higher speeds are necessary to process the current growth in traffic. To solve these challenges, the company leverages its broad optical and photonic portfolio of products to enable the company’s customers to deliver optical transceivers that meet the requirements of today’s Data Center deployments. By building a comprehensive portfolio of complementary products that enable the company’s customers’ optical transceiver applications, the company can offer high performing, cost-effective component solutions for next-generation networks.
The company enables the market with a complete product portfolio of Pulse Amplitude Modulation (‘PAM-4’) Physical Layers (‘PHYs’), Transimpedance Amplifier (‘TIAs’), Modulator Drivers, Lasers and Photodetectors, and in some cases, individual component designs are optimized for use together as a chipset.
To address the company’s primary markets, the company offers a broad range of standard and custom ICs and components. The company’s product catalog consists of thousands of products, including the following key product platforms: amplifiers, ICs, diodes, switches and switch limiters, passive and active components and multi-chip modules. Many of the company’s product platforms are leveraged across multiple markets and applications. For example, the company’s application expertise in power amplifier technology is leveraged across both scientific laboratory equipment applications and commercial and defense radar system applications. The company’s diode technology is used in switch filter banks of military tactical radios, as well as medical imaging MRI systems.
Telecom. Underlying growth in the Telecom market is driven by the ever-growing need for increased bandwidth to support data rich applications and services such as video conferencing, cloud computing, video-on-demand and social media. Growth in next generation Internet and Internet of Things, or IoT, applications drives global demand for communications infrastructure equipment requiring amplifiers, filters, receivers, switches, synthesizers, transformers, upconverters and other components to expand and upgrade cellular backhaul, cellular infrastructure, wired broadband and fiber optic networks. Semiconductor products and solutions must continually deliver greater bandwidth and functionality as the demands of the company’s customers and end users increase.
The company’s expertise in system-level architectures and advanced IC design capability enables the company to offer network original equipment manufacturer (‘OEM’) customers highly integrated solutions optimized for performance and cost. The company’s portfolio of opto-electronics products includes clock and data recovery, optical post amplifiers, laser and modulator drivers, transimpedance amplifiers, transmitter and receiver applications in 2.5/10/40/100/400 gigabits per second long haul, metro, data center links and FTTx fiber optic network components that enable telecommunications carriers and data centers to cost-efficiently increase their network capacity by a factor of four to ten times over earlier generation solutions. The company matches its opto-electronic components to its laser and photodetector products enabling the company’s customers to buy more complete solutions for their opto-electronic systems. For optical communications applications, the company utilizes a proprietary combination of GaAs, InP and Silicon Germanium (‘SiGe’) technologies to obtain advantages in performance and size.
For wired broadband applications, the company offers OEM customers the opportunity to streamline their supply chain through the company’s broad catalog of active components such as active splitters, amplifiers, multi-function ICs and switches, as well as passive components such as transformers, diplexers, filters, power dividers and combiners.
Wireless applications include terrestrial and space-based radio frequency, microwave and millimeter wave communication systems, also known as satellite communications, or SATCOM. SATCOM systems can support commercial and defense applications, and in some cases, include deployment of large satellite constellations to support connectivity.
The company’s major product families are amplifiers, amplifier linearizers, attenuators, bias networks, capacitors, clock and data recovery, crosspoint switches, filters, frequency conversion, frequency generation, front end modules, GaN power amplifiers, hybrid amplifiers, integrated IC & modules, lasers, laser drivers, modulator drivers, limiters & detectors, linear equalizers, low noise amplifiers, MMIC power amplifiers, network connectivity solutions, optical clock recovery modules, passives, phase shifters, phase detectors, photodiodes, photoreceivers, pin diodes, radar core chips, RF over fiber modules, RF power pallets, Schottky diodes, silicon transistors, SDI cable products, space qualified modules, SSPA modules, RF switches, transimpedance amplifiers, true time delays, and varactor diodes.
Sales and Marketing
The company employs a global multi-channel sales strategy and support model intended to facilitate customers’ evaluations and selections of the company’s products. The company sells through its direct sales force, its application engineering staff, the company’s global network of independent sales representatives, resellers and distributors. The company has strategically positioned its direct sales and applications engineering staff in locations worldwide, augmented by independent sales representatives and distributors with additional domestic and foreign locations to offer responsive local support resources to the company’s customers and to build long-term relationships. The company’s application engineers visit customers at their engineering and manufacturing facilities, aid them in understanding the company’s capabilities and collaborate with them to deliver products that can optimize their system performance. The company’s global independent sales representatives and distributor network allow the company to extend its sales capabilities to new customers in new geographies more cost effectively than using the company’s direct sales force alone.
The company’s products are principally sold in North America, Asia and Europe, which is where the company concentrates its direct sales force, applications engineering staff, independent sales representatives and distributors. Sales to the company’s distributors accounted for 29.3% of the company’s revenue in 2024. The company’s agreements with sales representatives, resellers and distributors may provide for an initial term of one or more years with the opportunity for subsequent renewals or for an indefinite term, and also typically provide that either party may terminate the agreement for convenience with a minimum period of prior notice to the other party, usually between 30 and 90 days.
The company’s sales efforts are focused on the needs of its customers in its three primary markets rather than on particular product lines, facilitating product cross-selling across end markets, and within key accounts. Through the company’s website, customers can inquire about the company’s products, request samples and access the company’s product selection guides, detailed product brochures and data sheets, application notes, suggested design block diagrams and test fixture information, technical articles and information regarding quality and reliability.
Customers
The company’s customer base is diversified and includes OEM customers, contract manufacturers, resellers and distributors. One of the company’s resellers accounted for 11.3% of the company’s revenue in the year ended September 27, 2024 (fiscal year 2024). For fiscal year 2024, sales to the company’s top 25 direct customers accounted for an aggregate of 47.0% of the company’s revenue.
Competition
The company primarily competes with Analog Devices, Inc. (‘ADI’), Broadcom Inc. (‘Broadcom’), Credo Technology Group Holding Ltd. (‘Credo’), Marvell Technology Inc. (‘Marvell’), MaxLinear Inc. (‘MaxLinear’), Microchip Technology Incorporated (‘Microchip’), NXP Semiconductors N.V. (‘NXP’), Qorvo, Inc. (‘Qorvo’), Semtech Corporation (‘Semtech’), Skyworks Solutions, Inc. (‘Skyworks’), and Sumitomo Electric Device Innovations, Inc. (‘Sumitomo’).
Trademarks
‘MACOM,’ ‘MACOM Technology Solutions’ and related logos are trademarks of MACOM.
Research and Development
For the year ended September 27, 2024, the company's research and development expenses were $182.2 million.
Intellectual Property
As of September 27, 2024, the company had 726 U.S. and 451 foreign issued patents and 178 U.S. and 311 foreign pending patent applications covering elements of semiconductor devices, circuit design, manufacturing and wafer fabrication. The expiration dates of the company’s patents range from 2024 to 2043.
Environmental Regulation
The company is subject to regulation by the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration and similar health and safety laws in other jurisdictions.
The company markets and sells its products both inside and outside the U.S. Most of the company’s products are subject to the Export Administration Regulations, administered by the U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of Industry and Security (‘BIS’).
The company’s European products and technologies are subject to the European Union Dual-Use Regulation (EU) No. 2021/821 (the ‘EU Regulation’), which governs the export of certain goods, software and technology that can be used for both civil and military applications.
Acquisitions
In March 2023, the company completed the acquisition of Linearizer Technology, Inc. (‘Linearizer’), a developer of modules and subsystems, including solid state amplifiers (‘SSPAs’), microwave predistortion linearizers and microwave photonics based in Hamilton, New Jersey (the ‘Linearizer Acquisition’). The company acquired Linearizer to further strengthen the company’s component and subsystem design expertise in the company’s target markets.
In May 2023, the company completed the acquisition of the key manufacturing facilities, capabilities, technologies and other assets and certain specified liabilities of OMMIC SAS, a semiconductor manufacturer based in Limeil-Brevannes, France with expertise in wafer fabrication, epitaxial growth and MMIC processing and design. The company is referring to this acquisition as the MACOM European Semiconductor Center Acquisition (the ‘MESC Acquisition’). The company completed the MESC Acquisition to expand its European footprint and to enable the company to offer higher frequency GaAs and GaN MMICs.
In December 2023, the company completed the acquisition of certain assets and specified liabilities of the RF business of Wolfspeed, Inc. (‘Wolfspeed’) (the ‘RF Business,’). The RF Business includes a portfolio of GaN on Silicon Carbide products used in high-performance RF and microwave applications.
History
The company was founded in 1950. It was incorporated under the laws of the state of Delaware in 2009. The company was formerly known as M/A-Com Technology Solutions Holdings, Inc. and changed its name to MACOM Technology Solutions Holdings, Inc. in 2016.
