profile BeRex
product?” In late 2003, his friend introduced Lee to Alex Yoo, an electrical engineer with a PhD from Oregon State University.
This duo teamed up with Young Moon Kim, who has a friendship with Lee that dates back to the 1960s, and the three of them started developing a gain block amplifier for the wireless infrastructure market. This self- funded venture initially made rapid progress – but then the team came across a stumbling block. When they started talking to potential customers prior to production of their device, they discovered that many of these firms were starting to focus their efforts towards Korea.
Although Lee’s early years were spent in Korea – he went to Seoul National University – by then he had put down roots in California. Yoo, too, had a family in Silicon Valley, so relocating would involve some hardship. But moving to Korea made a lot of sense from a business perspective, so the founders decided to head to Seoul, forming BeRex Corporation in 2004.
A year later the company started delivering its first product, and thanks to rapidly increasing sales, it reached profitability in 2007. Since then, the company has always been in the black, with revenue growing every year. What’s more, it has no debt.
The company’s success can be put down to a variety of factors: It launched a strong product in a receptive market at the right time; its rivals were complacent and failing to focus on the needs of the customer; and it adopted a fabless approach, working with local foundries.
Arguably, it is the latter factor that has contributed most to the success. On paper, outsourcing growth is more expensive than carrying it out in-house (with the benefits greatest in high-volume markets, such as the production of HBT power amplifiers for mobile phones). But in practice, in the low-volume markets that BeRex serves, the fab is a not an asset – it’s a burden. Not everyone appreciated that back in 2004, but more and more people are coming round to that way of thinking.
An outsourcing model
One of the biggest benefits of the fabless approach, according to David Snook, Sales and marketing Manager for BeRex Inc., is that it allows a company to tap into the capacity of a foundry, without having to incur its maintenance costs. What’s more, he says that a fabless firm does not have to worry about ensuring a sufficient wafer throughput to maintain product quality and reliability. “To do that, you have to have a lot of product coming out of the fab.”
22
www.compoundsemiconductor.net April / May 2012
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