KTS, short for Kengineering Technical Services, was formed in 1998 as a side business for Ken during the Y2K buildup to address shortcomings in the semiconductor business world. Specific engineering projects and tasks were outside the scope of many small production companies and a need existed for wide-ranging talent to address these engineering needs. Demands on the engineering departments of these small companies are traditionally pulled by the needs of the manufacturing groups, leading to missed opportunities. Many of these opportunities are RF related, a field that has been a personal interest of Ken’s since grade school.
The curiosity and passion for all things RF has opened many doors, as this field has been considered somewhat of a lost art by many. KTS traditionally hasn’t done significant marketing because our talents are sought out by others. For instance, the original match network was developed as a replacement for an existing workhorse design in the industry which had been orphaned by the OEM going out of business. KTS was asked if they could build a replacement match network and it became a standard product to this day.
Our RF systems repair operations stems from the needs of our customers. An end user of our match networks needed support for the matches ours were replacing on their production tools and asked us to enter into this business. Contract manufacturing also came from a customer need when a customer needed help getting a prototype system started up. We partnered with them to build small desktop plasma systems to replace a system that had been discontinued by its O.E.M. An additional benefit provided by this partnership is an increased understanding of the nuances of industrial plasma applications. It also led to many new developments in mechanical designs, software, and control systems, document controls, metrology, and processes for small and large system integration requirements.
We’re now a wide-ranging system engineering company with an emphasis on RF services and solutions. We’re diversified into many different industries which has provided wide-ranging insight on technical matters and cushioned us economically from specific industry cycles. This volume of experience and “Ken-do” attitude enables us to take on so-called “impossible” projects and create successful results and successful customers.
