Corporate history Siae Microelettronica

1 corporate history

1.1 1952–1970s: origins , initial growth
1.2 1980s-2000s: digital , worldwide company
1.3 present day

corporate history
1952–1970s: origins , initial growth

edoardo mascetti, after graduating in 1949 in electrical engineering @ polytechnic university of milan , working electronic designer siemens, founded own company , named siae, acronym società italiana apparecchiature elettroniche company manufactured measurement systems such electro-mechanical testers, analog oscilloscopes, telephone system analyzers , signal generators. siae s sales volume in 1955 6.224.000 italian lire , doubled end of 1957.

a 431a-model oscilloscope siae part of synthesizer in studio di fonologia musicale di radio milano(rai) until dismissal on 1983 , on permanent display original study equipment @ musical instrument museum hosted @ castello sforzesco, milan.

siae oscilloscope 431a (introduced in 1963) used synthesizer in studio di fonologia musicale di radio milano



company s headquarters in cologno monzese, approx. 1966

a few years after founding siae, edoardo mascetti co-founded in 1958 microelettronica s.p.a., company business design of telecommunication equipment radio , landline systems , located in basement in milan. in 1963, 2 complementary companies merged siae microelettronica s.p.a. , headquarters moved nearby town of cologno monzese, larger area available accommodate new offices , manufacturing plant.

the new company counted less 50 employees , focused business on telecommunication systems, rising capillary diffusion of telephone systems in italy. analog multiplexing systems telephone providers constituted company s principal product; nonetheless, in 1963, company began active collaboration enel, italian provider of electric power, in order create supervision system national distribution network, successful outcome later fostered similar activities in northern europe , in norway.

by mid 60s, company began actively promoting products advertising in technical journals natural consequence of growing business, first large-scale commercialized radio transceiver: 3-channel 3-b3 , later rt450 (1966), capable of aggregating 48 channels uhf band. rt450 equipment certified it:telettra under commercial name h450 fallback link high-capacity solutions. power-line communication systems manufactured company in years along first fixed , mobile communication terminals in vhf band (1972) vehicular communications (precurring modern mobile phones) , anti burglar alarm systems.

2.3ghz modulator rt12 transceivers, exploiting microstrip technology on ptfe connections , electromagnetic coupling filtering , splitting purposes (1978).

by 1973, whole new internal division created design of television broadcasting equipments (repeaters , transmitters) main customer national television company rai. first television products based on thermo-ionic tubes though improvement of solid state technologies replaced vacuum tubes. similar improvements in printed board manufacturing made microstrip circuits viable solution increasingly-high microwave frequencies , in 1978 rt12 radio equipment boasted first direct-conversion 2.3 ghz synthesized modulator , aggregate 120 telephone channels. in these years, company manufactured historical link connect milan , rome branches of corriere della sera newspaper.

the employees hundred though company still remained family-run business lead founder , tight board of managers through 70s. computer-aided design of electronic circuits approached , exploited improve yield , reduce design time critical high-frequency sections.

1980s-2000s: digital , worldwide company

rt20 digital radio transceiver, carrying 30 telephone channels , operating @ 0.9ghz of carrier frequency (1981).

the 80s witnessed 2 intertwined aspects boosted activities: digital revolution reached commercial radio links , rt20 leveraged 4-qam modulation in order provide low-capacity links while increased globalization opened international markets , company business expanded norway, great britain , gradually europe. quality control system implemented meet , certify improved production standards.

in partnership it:telettra, company developed multi channel radio network covering national extents, named riam, national electric company, enel. radio equipments governed microprocessor, in wake of widespread usage of these new components offered huge range of new possibilities coordinating radio components when compared traditional dedicated circuits.

with increased demand traffic, higher frequencies needed , in second half of 80 s company commercialized 18 ghz radio transceiver capacity 2mbit/s, based on specifications of enel. 13 ghz equipment 4mbit/s instead first provided mercury operator in uk.

thin film manufacturing techniques printed circuit boards adopted during 80s company microwave products beyond 10 ghz ad-hoc equipments , production lines (yellow room) , upgraded chip-and-wire technologies in white rooms (clean room). documents show rt28 transceiver remained in service until 2008 in italian aosta valley.

18ghz rt28 split-mount transceiver, capable of 2mbit/s communication (1986)

in 1986 company introduced split-mount configuration, indoor unit (idu) connected outdoor unit odu. idu provides network interfaces , carries out baseband tasks while communicates odu, means of intermediate frequency, tasked of radio frequency up/down conversion , connected antenna. split-mount configuration still in use in several modern radio products , boost in sales @ time recognized in 1988 edition of major companies of europe.

in 90s diffusion of data services , sdh required higher capacities transported , in 1992 company provided hs13 sdh equipment sip telephone company (later become telecom italia) entering market of high-capacity microwave radio links , introducing enhanced techniques counteract non-idealities in communication channel , transceiver hardware.

simultaneously, subsidiaries opened in latin america , far east. meet international standards control , supervision of increasingly complex networks of radio links, company developed own network management system providing unified interface products. 1 of first versions of monitoring software still in use of 2012 it:tetra network.

in meantime, production of television transmitters , repeaters halted in order focus activities towards core business of backhauling radio links. increased volume of chip , wire components fostered introduction of improved cleanrooms, upgraded 10 000 class. company further evolved internally expand business , offer services surrounding mere provision of hardware, such network planning, assistance, installation , contributed activities of international standardization bodies.

in late 90s company commercialized family of products design dedicated booming market of gsm cellular mobile communications. in 1999, offer expanded support high-capacity sdh traffic , number of multiplexing equipments developed address increased complexity , demanded flexibility of network configurations , interfaces.

present day

the twenty-first century inaugurated first direct collaboration , commercial relationships china in 2014 lead dedicated subsidiary, siae telecommunications shenzhen limited. first european subsidiary opened in 2002 in paris while first non-european branch initiated activities in 2006 in bangkok. production , assembly processes began transitioning manual automatic smt placement equipment in 2000s cope volume of 15 000 radios/year while yearly sales in 2002 increased 25.8%.

in partnership cisco, company developed algorithms , dedicated implementations adaptive bandwidth , adaptive modulation schemes, allow react impaired communication conditions (such rain) gracefully reducing link throughput instead of temporarily suspending communication (out of service). such solutions, extensively relied upon network planning, standard in modern point-to-point radio links backhauling.

in wake of global migration circuit switching towards ip packet networks, company developed full ip equipments in split-mount , full-outdoor versions , dual native radios, supporting both tdm , ethernet modes, popularity positively affected company s sales volume. meet ever-increasing demand higher throughput without need additional bandwidth, licensed @ price in dedicated bands, frequency reuse dominated subsequent industrial developments , adoption of dual-polarization techniques commercially proposed in 2007, when company , vodafone (omnitel time) presented paper 2xstm1 frequency reuse system xpic @ european conference on fixed wireless network technologies 2007 in paris.

thanks full ip , xpic equipment sales, yearly production of radios hit 70 000 in 2011 while sales income topped 180 million euro , end of 2012 number of people employed company exceeded 1000 on 25 world branches, 700 of located in cologno monzese headquarters.

the juridical literature reports of litigation initiated in 2006 nec corporation against siae microelettronica on alleged infringement of several former s patents in courts of milan , munich. case closed in 2010 bilateral agreement withdraw infringement, nullity , opposition actions pending worldwide.

although not directly involved in antenna manufacturing, company , polytechnic university of milan patented in 2011 dielectric antenna mm-wave communications based on novel design aimed @ reducing overall size, application targeted small form factor radio equipments. visual impact of transceivers began in years earn importance deployment of urban links, existing environment should affected little possible access stations , backhauling transceivers antennas.

in 2013 company entered millimeter-wave market full-outdoor transceivers in e-band. in 2014, product portfolio included v band radios small cell backhaul , nlos solutions urban communications may benefit exploiting reflections on buildings in order increase coverage. new network monitoring software released in 2014 offer enhanced features network operators managing , evaluating aggregated performances, gaining more , more relevance key figures in assessment of traffic bottlenecks , overall behavior of complex network.

in 2014 labs management system terrestrial networks , 2 families of equipment fiber optic telecommunications—omsn (optical multi-service node) , tss (transport service switch)— transferred alcatel lucent (now nokia) new dedicated company, sm optics, subsidiary of siae microelettronica.

from 2014 2016, through entirely owned company twist-off in padua (italy), siae microelettronica active in researching applications of orbital angular momentum of light (oam) communications applied long-distance links. field tests of principles published , filed under industrial patent based on twisted parabola. means increase capacity , frequency reuse orbital angular momentum multiplexing compared traditional mimo spatial multiplexing techniques in terms of antenna size/spacing/occupation , achievable performance, resulted in critical assessment showing both have equal performances. near field properties of oam beams @ microwaves have been investigated resulting in valid theoretical , practical demonstrations lay ground short-range secure communications application contactless payments , transactions, filed under dedicated patent.

the company continues long standing cooperation strategy research institutions , in 2015 joined laurea magistrale plus program, promoted university of pavia master s degree achieved extended , close participation in existing companies activities.

in 2016 company presented, @ mobile world congress, layer-3 vpn services on microwave radio links using sm-os, based on software-defined networking (sdn).

in 2016, internal team of researchers coauthored receiver , modem , antenna chapters in comprehensive book describing electronic design of transceiver frontends backhauling.