- AR RF/Microwave Instrumentation celebrates its 50th anniversary in 2019.
- Amplifier Research (AR) was born in the basement of the house of one of its two founders before becoming an international company bringing together the entities AR RF/Microwave Instrumentation, AR Modular RF, SunAR RF Motion, and AR Europe.
Like many American technology companies, the history of AR RF/Microwave Instrumentation begins in the basement of the home of Donald Shepherd, one of its founders and now Chairman of the Board of Directors of AR Worldwide.
Donald Shepherd used to say that it was the basement was the best place to start a business because the only place to go from there is up. In 1969, he sold his first amplifier, which he delivered himself. The American company’s activity then experienced rapid growth. Its turnover grew by 25% per year between 1970 and 2001.
In 1970, the company moved to new premises before moving to a new headquarter in 1973. In 1972, it began to sell its amplifiers in Europe. The AR Europe entity was created in 2008 to better serve European customers.
AR RF/Microwave Instrumentation is today an international company designing and selling RF and microwave solutions: CEM and RF test instrumentation, RF amplifiers and modules, booster amplifiers for military communications, positioning equipment, towers and turntables, antenna systems and reverberation chamber stirrers.
In 50 years, AR’s offer has expanded significantly. Here are the products that have marked its half-century of existence:
- 1976: 10,000 watt tube amplifiers
- 1988: 100 watts 100-1000 MHz solid-state amplifier with instantaneous bandwidth Class A
- 2012: First 16,000 watts solid-state linear amplifier from 10 kHz to 225 MHz.
- 2014: Class A power amplifier from 50,000 watts to 225 MHz
- 2015 : High power amplifier class A and AB from 0.7 to 6 GHz
- 2017 : U series amplifiers from 10 kHz to 1000 MHz and up to 25 W
- 2017 : The 20000SP1G2 20,000W broadband microwave amplifier (1 to 2 GHz) is named EMC Product of the Year by EMC Live
- 2018 : The “U” series of Class A RF power amplifiers incorporates a 250W model that covers the 100 kHz-1000 MHz frequency range.
- 2018: The AA Series generation system is named EMC Product of the Year by EMC Live. This system combines amplifier and antenna in a single housing to generate fields up to 50 V/m in two bands from 18 to 40 GHz.
