Taoglas opens new IoT Design and Support Centre in Minneapolis to meet increased demand for services
Taoglas, a provider of IoT antenna and RF solutions, has opened a new downtown Minneapolis facility to support 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, reportedly features a state-of-the-art antenna and RF test and design laboratory, including a large 5-metre anechoic chamber. This 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.
“The greater Minneapolis area has really been a strong growth area for Taoglas over the last few years, as home to many of our customers, partners and one of our top distributors, Digi-Key,” says Dermot O’Shea, Taoglas joint-CEO. “Minneapolis is one of the country’s fastest-growing technology centres 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 Taoglas. We look forward to serving our customers and partners from this new location.”
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.
“Minneapolis has made strong investments in technology and tech education over the past several years,” said Minneapolis mayor Jacob Frey. “Those investments have paid dividends with companies like Taoglas committing to our city, adding jobs here, and helping make Minneapolis one of the fastest-growing tech-hubs in the country.”
Expanding Taoglas offering into the region
Taoglas needed a larger footprint not only for the engineering staff, but also for a state-of-the-art RF anechoic chamber and design laboratory. Taoglas’ 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. Taoglas Minneapolis 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 characterisation.
“As wireless and IoT devices continue to grow in sophistication, so too must the sophistication of the antennas and RF devices that provide access to connectivity,” said Ronan Quinlan, Taoglas joint-CEO. “This new facility allows us—and our partners and customers—to perform a wide variety of tests in our Minneapolis location, helping speed time to market. We’re happy to be a part of Minneapolis’ growing role as a city of technology innovation.”
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