Give us some background on LeCroy. When and where was the company founded?
Walter LeCroy founded the company in 1964. The original remit was designing electronics for High Energy Physics Experiments. The company undertook research into silicon germanium and CMOS ICs in the 1970s, and produced more than 40 custom developed ICs and hybrid circuits. The company registered more than 100 patents in high speed signal acquisition and processing which drew it into the test and measurement market.
The company has been at the forefront of oscilloscope technology - can you give us some examples?
Out of the IC research LeCroy developed a 40GS/s A/D monolithic chip, the world's fastest. The company has also developed the world's fastest sampling scope at 100GHz and the world's fastest real time scope at 45GHz.
Last but not least, LeCroy propose the only wide bandwidth 12 bit oscilloscope in the market.
Where is the company's headquarters? Where is the research and development undertaken? What is the investment in R&D?
The company is headquartered in Chestnut Ridge, New York. Oscilloscope hardware research and development is carried out there for oscilloscopes and in Beaverton for active probes. The European main office is located in Meyrin, next to Geneva, and most of the software development is done there . LeCroy also produces a range of protocol analysers and these are developed in Santa Clara, California. The company is dedicated to staying at the forefront of both the test and measurement technologies, so we invest 20% of our annual revenues in research and development.
LeCroy has developed and patented a technology called Digital Bandwidth Interleave (DBI). What is this, and what is its impact on oscilloscope development?
DBI, a proprietary, patented LeCroy technology, provides the ability to double or triple the bandwidth available in raw silicon by splitting a high bandwidth signal into multiple paths of lower bandwidth, acquiring these lower bandwidth signals with best-in-class silicon chip technologies, and then re-assembling the separate lower bandwidth paths into a single high bandwidth path using digital signal processing (DSP). Sample rate and acquisition memory are likewise doubled or tripled along with the bandwidth. DBI is the only method that allows real-time oscilloscope bandwidth to go beyond the limits of what is possible with chip bandwidth alone, and is an absolute necessity for customers who are testing leading-edge technologies. We are now on our seventh generation of DBI technology.
How does the business split between oscilloscopes and protocol analysers? What is the revenue split between the main geographic markets?
Our annual sales run rate to September this year is $200m. Oscilloscopes represent 85% of sales, and protocol analysers, the remaining 15%. Our revenue distribution is split equally between the US, Europe and Asia. We use a mix of direct sales and the distribution channel to address all markets.
LeCroy recently acquired Eric Bogatin Enterprises? What does this company add to LeCroy's technology armoury?
Eric Bogatin is a world-leading expert on signal integrity. It is a topic he has studied and developed his whole working life. He now works exclusively for LeCroy. He has written six books on signal integrity and interconnect design, and over 200 papers. He has a website - www.bethesignal.net/bogatin/ - which is required reading for anybody involved in signal integrity matters. He will be presenting a two-day training seminar in Cambridge on January 12/13 next year. The two topics will be Differential Pair Design and S-Parameters for Signal Integrity.
How is business shaping up so far this year for LeCroy?
The first quarter of our 2012 financial year from July to September has been excellent. We have posted record orders of $50m, and record sales of $49m, which represents a 25% year on year sales growth. Our operating income is $6.9m, 14% of sales. We were aiming for $200m sales this year and we have just increased our guidance for FY2012 from $200m to $205m
