SCIENCE / TECHNOLOGY : Rockwell to Offer Outside Companies Its Services on Semiconductor Design

In a move to boost sales and reduce production costs, Rockwell International has begun offering its semiconductor research and design services to outside defense and aerospace companies.

Rockwell’s Microelectronics Technology Center has supplied electronic microchips to other Rockwell divisions for about 15 years. Formerly known as the Microelectronics Research and Development Center, the operation was renamed when it moved from Anaheim to Newport Beach early this year.

Fred H. Cherrick, the center’s marketing director, told the industry newsletter Aerospace Daily that the company’s goal is to quadruple sales in the next 5 years by selling its services to outside companies. Cherrick said the center’s gross sales are in “the tens of millions of dollars.”

By offering its products to outside customers, Rockwell also hopes to lower its production costs and expand the number of uses for those products, Cherrick said in an interview with The Times.

The first product to be offered for sale is a custom integrated circuit using silicon-on-sapphire technology, a process that makes circuits more resistant to radiation damage.

“This kind of circuit is used in space or missile applications in which regular circuits would be temporarily or permanently damaged by radiation,” Cherrick said.