Taoglas Opens New IoT Design and Support Center in Minneapolis
Taoglas, one of the leading antenna companies has inaugurated a new facility in downtown Minneapolis, USA to support the increasing demand for its products and services for development of Internet of Things (IoT) devices and solutions. The new facility, located on the first floor of The 15 Building in downtown Minneapolis, features a state-of-the-art antenna and RF test and design laboratory, including a large 5-meter anechoic chamber. It is the latest Taoglas location to receive an upgrade and the first such facility in the Midwest dedicated to the IoT market.
Founded in 2004 with global headquarters in Dublin, Ireland, and U.S. headquarters in San Diego, Taoglas has nine facilities around the globe with approximately 350 employees worldwide. The new location will support the growing demand for Taoglas antennas and RF solutions in the Midwest U.S. region. As president of Taoglas U.S., Dennis Kish will lead the Minneapolis office. He joined Taoglas earlier this year after having served as president of Google Fiber.
According to Dermot O’Shea, Taoglas joint-CEO, the greater Minneapolis area has really been a strong growth area for Taoglas over the last few years, as home to many of its customers, partners and one of the top distributors, Digi-Key. Minneapolis is one of the country’s fastest-growing technology centers and its universities are becoming well-known throughout the world for their ability to produce strong RF and wireless engineers. The growth of IoT companies, in particular, has been prominent in the region, making it a natural home for the company. Taoglas Minneapolis opened its doors six years ago with a smaller facility and Taoglas is investing millions into a new lab to service increased demand. The Minneapolis team is now seven employees strong, and Taoglas plans to expand as its business in the region grows.
The company needed a larger footprint not only for the engineering staff, but also for a state-of-the-art RF anechoic chamber and design laboratory. Its Satimo SG24-L chamber is ideal for fast over-the-air (OTA) testing of antenna and mobile device conformance in the frequency range of 400 MHz to 6 GHz. It handles all LTE, GNSS and Wi-Fi protocols and offers a measurement speed up to three times faster than the previous Satimo version. The Taoglas Minneapolis facility can now perform a wide variety of tests, including antenna and OTA measurements for GSM, GPRS, UMTS, LTE, Wi-Fi, TRP / TIS, and sophisticated antenna characterization.
