Business

Monday April 6, 2009

Mini-Circuits to hire 300 design engineers

By DAVID TAN


MINI-CIRCUITS Technologies (M) Sdn Bhd will over the next couple of years recruit 200 to 300 design engineers for its research and development (R&D) team in Penang.

Chairman Datuk Seri Kelvin Kiew told StarBiz the newly set up RM700mil R&D centre was currently recruiting 30 design engineers.

“Over the next five years, the group will spend over RM500mil on the R&D centre and the plant in Bayan Lepas,” he said, adding that Mini-Circuits was one of the world’s top five producers of radio frequency (RF) components.

Kiew said the R&D centre would be developing the new range of RF mixers, RF amplifiers, and RF power splitters for use in base stations, satellites and telecommunications infrastructure industry.

Datuk Seri Kelvin Kiew

“These products receive, amplify and split audio and visual signals. Otherwise, these signals cannot be seen or heard,” he said.

Kiew added that the telecommunications infrastructure industry in China was picking up.

“In China, there are new projects being implemented such as the laying of fibre-optic cables and setting up of satellites and transmission base stations that require the use of our RF products. In the United States, too, we can see such new projects being rolled out as a result of government spending,” he said.

An engineer at the Mini-Circuits plant in Bayan Lepas working on RF equipment

Kiew said Mini-Circuits was a medium-sized player that specialised in the production of high mixed customised RF components, which could yield better margins.

  • E-mail this story
  • Print this story