Altra Broadband Inc., a networking offshoot of Pittsburgh software maker Ansoft Corp., has set up a research and design facility in the Irvine Spectrum.
“We’re right in the shadow of Broadcom,” said Lawrence Williams, vice president of technology at the new firm. “This is Broadband Alley.”
The company plans to spend a least $500,000 on a research lab and wants to hire 30 employees, mostly engineers, by next year, Williams said.
“That’s our optimistic growth estimate,” he said. “One of the challenges is attracting the talent.”
Williams said he hopes to lure workers in a tech market hungry for talent by emphasizing Altra’s growth plans.
“We have the market,” he said. “We have the money. We have the location. The business plan is there. Now we need the talent.”
Ansoft, which makes design software for technology engineers, launched Altra in July to develop fiber-optic and wireless networking products. Altra officials are looking to expand the capacity of networks equipped by companies such as Lucent Technologies Inc., Nortel Networks Corp. and JDS Uniphase Corp.
Altra picked the Irvine Spectrum because of the area’s concentration of broadband communications companies, Williams said, particularly the “kingpins”: Broadcom Corp. and Conexant Systems Inc.
He also cited the Spectrum’s proximity to the University of California, Los Angeles, where Broadcom co-chairman Henry Samueli taught electrical engineering and oversaw broadband research. “That’s arguably the best program in the world for broadband,” Williams said. “A lot of Ph.D.s from UCLA come down to Irvine. They see the smashing success of Broadcom, and everyone wants to do it now.”
Altra is moving into the 6,000-square-foot Laguna Canyon Road facility recently vacated by Valence Semiconductor Inc., which moved to larger quarters in the Spectrum.
“It’s almost like an incubator,” Williams said of the site. “We bought everything from Valence,all the furniture, the computer network,everything. We just have to buy a new coffee machine.”
Altra is looking to develop products that alter the polarization of electromagnetic waves and boost capacity on existing networks, Williams said.
He compares it to adjusting an antenna to improve radio reception.
“You’re matching the polarization properties of the antenna,the direction of the electric field,to the incoming electromagnetic waves,” Williams said. “We’re developing products to do that in wireless and optical fiber.”
The company doesn’t have any products yet. Altra plans to develop networking components and license its designs to others.
“We hope to demonstrate the technology within the next year,” Williams said.
Williams has worked for Ansoft for six years, most recently as director of high-frequency products. Altra Chief Executive Prem Kumar has been with the parent company in Pittsburgh for 11 years.
John Bosko, the broker with Charles Dunn who represented Altra Broadband locally, said the company signed a four-year lease.
“We plan to expand significantly,” Williams said. “We hope to outgrow (the space) before the lease is up.”
Robert van Leeuwen, a 16-year aerospace industry veteran, is set to run the facility. Williams said Ansoft intends to spin off Altra eventually. n
