Spectrum Control announced the opening of a System-in-Package (SiP) Design Center in Milton Keynes, United Kingdom (UK), focused on RF and microwave front-ends for aerospace and defense applications. The center establishes a European capability with a UK-based team responsible for the design, productization and in-service support of off-the-shelf and custom front-end SiPs for UK and European customers.
For European programs, the location in which a front end is designed, built and supported is equally important to how it performs. The Milton Keynes center, located at Spectrum Control’s existing UK site, gives UK and European customers in-country RF architecture with mission integration support, production and qualification in Great Yarmouth, creating UK-based engineering support for the SiPs Spectrum Control develops throughout their service life. It also addresses a shift in how programs are executed: shorter development cycles, more off-the-shelf sourcing and a denser RF environment at the tactical edge.
“European integrators want to shape the RF architecture, not inherit one,” said Ian Dunn, chief technology officer. “Having SiP designers in the same time zone, and often in the same room, changes the pace and quality of that collaboration. The UK facility is modeled after our successful SiP capability in the United States, so European programs get it as a local resource rather than an import.”
“Our customers in the UK and across Europe are being asked to field more capability in less space and on shorter timelines, and they want the people who designed it to stay with the program for its life,” said Miro Blicharz, chief RF engineer for the UK team. “The tri-band radar module we are showing at EuMW puts RF, digital, power supply and the power amplifier into each of its eight transmit/receive channels. Bringing the amplifier inside the module is the hard part of that integration, and it is exactly the experience we will carry into SiP designs in Milton Keynes, build in Great Yarmouth, and support from the UK.”
Risk-Reducing Design Philosophy
That is the premise behind Spectrum Control’s risk-reducing design philosophy. Complex front-ends are composed from known-good, electrically isolated RF building blocks that combine gain, filtering, frequency conversion, switching, clocking, and embedded power and control. Each block is pre-tested and characterized before integration, so system behavior is predictable, integration cycles shorten and rework is confined to a single block rather than a full redesign.
A UK Design-to-Production Path
Modeled on Spectrum Control’s established SiP design and qualification practices, the Milton Keynes SiP Design Center will focus initially on multichannel receive and transmit front ends for radar, electronic warfare, communications and space payloads. The team will work alongside the production group in Great Yarmouth, where the company has invested in automated microelectronics manufacturing for aerospace and defense, giving UK and European customers a design-to-production-to-support path that stays within the UK.
Tri-band Radar Transmit/Receive Module at EuMW
An example of the Design Center capability will be shown by Spectrum Control (Stand H15) at EuMW 2026. A miniaturization concept for a tri-band radar transmit/receive module developed for a customer program will be showcased. Each of the module’s eight channels integrates RF, digital, power supply and high-power amplification, with digital band selection across all three bands, and the unit scales from a single module to a rack-based active array. The concept shows the next step in density for a design already in work, and the level of integration the Milton Keynes team will carry into SiP form factors.
Visitors can meet the UK design team at the stand throughout the show.