Case Study: SNC Prioritizes In-House RF Antenna Production
SNC’s radio frequency (RF) antenna chamber provides a significant step toward the company becoming a one-stop shop for defense electronic systems. Launched in 2023, the RF antenna chamber is a great example of SNC’s ability to develop new processes today to meet the needs of tomorrow.
Problem: Antenna design and manufacturing was not previously a typical in-house service at SNC, but when its engineering and operations teams identified a potential issue with antenna delivery which could jeopardize product delivery to the customer, they knew they had to take action.
SNC’s Solution: The answer was to bring antenna production, design and qualification capabilities to SNC’s production facility in Sparks, Nevada – including a brand new Radio Frequency Antenna Chamber (RFATC),
"The chamber allows us to make sensitive measurements of antenna products in support of technology development and product verification testing," said David Azzi, senior director of engineering, manufacturing & testing.
The RFATC is a 60 ft. long tapered chamber used to perform antenna test measurements. It is certified from 200 MHz – 40 GHz, but is capable of performance down to 100 MHz and up to 100 GHz. Within the 16 ft. tall chamber are the motorized source and test unit positioners. This allows automated testing of antenna characteristics.
On a grander scale, this meant that nearly anything requiring an antenna — which includes most products manufactured at the Sparks, Nevada facility — would benefit from more cost control, accurate scheduling, quality metrics, and a quicker turnaround time.
"We can now control our own destiny, which gives us the advantage of being a 'one-stop shop' for defense electronic systems," said John Drafton, director of operations.
This also provided SNC the ability to outsource its RF capability to other companies that design their own antennas. Most companies outsource their antennas to other testing houses to do the qualification portion. SNC was able to capitalize on its added production capability, opening it up to new untapped customer markets.
Initial approval to build the RFATC was received in January 2022, and the critical design review was held with NSI-MI (the chamber integration vendor) in May 2022. Construction started in October 2022 and finished in January 2023. In a total of 26 months, SNC had the final sign-off.
"Having this resource allows SNC to develop and test new antenna solutions for a wide variety of products. Being located at a central SNC facility allows easy access and flexibility to support many different internal customers while enabling competitive pricing through cost savings," said Azzi.
The opportunity to develop new antenna technologies and increase productivity would not have been possible without a team looking for a way to solve a problem, create better flow, and keep SNC’s mission top-of-mind.
