Taoglas opens IoT design center in San Diego

Antenna maker Taoglas USA has opened a facility in San Diego for its North American customers.

In the midst of explosive wireless device growth in the Internet of Things (IoT) market,  the company has quadrupled the original size of its local facility — now more than 16,000 square feet.

The new Taoglas IoTx Center offers a fully equipped design and test location that supports companies seeking a competitive, time-to-market advantage for machine to machine (M2M) and IoT applications.

According to Taoglas, the location offers support for customers at all stages of their product design cycle — from concept to certification readiness.

“This kind of open-door policy is rare in the antenna and wireless device testing business,” explained Dermot O’Shea, president of Taoglas USA. “We have expanded our engineering team, added more test equipment, and now have two chambers here to increase design and test capacity. As well as being able to prototype antennas and PCBs, we can test the antenna and devices in operation on site to ensure they work reliably in the real world.

“We have also now added an antenna and cable assembly operation so we can quickly produce antenna and custom RF cable orders here in San Diego,” O’Shea said. “Quite often customers require products in a few days rather than weeks and we have now facilitated that demand with this new move.”

Taoglas has dedicated the facility to support it’s North American customer base. San Diego was chosen due to the strong, experienced talent pool in the areas of antenna and hardware design.

In addition to the site’s two CTIA calibrated anechoic chambers, the campus includes a custom antenna and RF cable assembly facility, expanded development and office space as well as a well-equipped, sound-proofed customer lounge area with workspaces and other features to accommodate customers while testing and product development are in process. Taoglas will increase its San Diego staff by 50 percent this year and expects to double that in the next three years.

“Our enlarged San Diego facility reflects our growth rate last year of almost 100%,” explained O’Shea. “We’re bullish about the potential in the Internet of Things (IoT) market, which is key for us. The vendors in this space who we support not only need the off-the-shelf or custom antennas we offer, they need design services and assistance.  All our services have clear explanations and fast deliverables, all available on our website.  You just select your service code, or call our sales, and we will book you in for work on your device immediately. No waiting around or complicated contractual discussions.

“First time certification is also critical so wireless OEMs can avoid the hardware failures that are so common in the IoT sector. Having two anechoic testing chambers means we can work on multiple devices in real time, helping customers get successful products into the market first time and on time.”

According to International Data Corp., the IoT market will grow to $1.7 trillion by 2020, with a compound annual growth rate of 16.9 percent. “We’re currently shipping millions of antennas per month into the IoT market,” O’Shea said. “Our larger campus here will be well utilized.” Taoglas also has offices in Minneapolis, Ireland, Taiwan and Germany.

According to Rory Moore, a prominent San Diego technology company founder and investor, in addition to being CEO of Southern California startup incubator EvoNexus, “The enlarged Taoglas campus is another sign of success in the local innovation economy.  San Diego already has a strong base in IoT growth and this large new Taoglas IoTx facility cements San Diego as an IoT hub in a very hot sector. I also like the fact that Taoglas has been collaborating with SDSU (San Diego State University), building useful bridges between the business and educational communities.”