We spoke with Jim Francis, CEO of Micro-Ant
1. Tell us about your company.
Micro-Ant develops and manufactures custom antenna solutions for defence, aerospace and commercial uses. These solutions include passive and active antennas for satellite, point to point and IOT communication in the form of flat panels, parabolic, beam forming, COTM, COTP, etc., all using proprietary technology belonging to Micro-Ant.
Micro-Ant also provides full spherical pattern radiation test reports for satellite operators certification of its antennas. Micro-Ant conducts qualification testing for 100% of its antennas before delivery to customers. Recently Micro-Ant’s subsidiary, Kore Composites, began producing carbon fibre reflectors (both segmented and unsegmented) for Micro-Ant’s antenna customers. Micro-Ant was forced to do this because other reflector manufacturers were failing to produce compliant reflectors that were being used with Micro-Ant’s antennas. The non-compliance was due to poor RMS, rigidity and reflectivity which caused loss of gain, poor axial ratio and non-compliant side lobes. Kore uses Micro-Ant’s propriety manufacturing processes to produce compliant products at competitive prices.
2. What industry challenges are having the biggest influence on your work at the moment?
The industry demands higher performing antennas with wider frequency bands in smaller, lighter configurations including in some cases, beam forming and tracking solutions. The industry is constantly changing and while these are challenges, Micro-Ant is successful in adapting to overcome them timely and efficiently.
3. What innovative solutions are you working on to address the issue?
Ka band wide band (3.5 GHz) antennas for GEO, MEO and LEO constellations; Ka and Ku band flat panels for manpack solutions; Small Ka band COTM solutions for airborne and land-based applications; Maritime and airborne Iridium beam forming antenna for HGA Certus use; These are all innovative solutions that Micro-Ant has and is completing to address the industry challenges.
4. Do you have any interesting plans for the next couple of months?
We are working on some interesting projects at the minute. We are developing wide band Ka solutions, Kore Composites, Ka and Ku flat panels, airborne Ka antenna and airborne Iridium HGA which we’ll be launching in the next few months.
5. Has your business been impacted by Covid19 and what steps have you taken to mitigate this?
Micro-Ant took aggressive action early to maintain a healthy environment for work and operation challenging its employees to protect their own salary income by keeping themselves COVID free as well as keeping a safe working environment. We were able to avoid any shutdowns or scaling back with zero COVID cases for over 75 employees. This enabled us to keep product flowing to our customers.
6. Why do you feel it is important to be a member of SIG?
It is important for Micro-Ant to contribute to SIG to describe the solutions that are available and possible to address some of the challenges that the industry faces for terminals and to provide solutions to make the industry more profitable. Communication and collaboration between organisations are key factors in progressing the whole industry.