Supporting Customers and Suppliers for over 40 Years
Meet the Rochester Team at Stand E65 at the Southern Manufacturing & Electronics Exhibition 2023
Rochester’s 40-year history is rich in innovation to support obsolete semiconductors.
With the introduction of every New Year comes a human need for reflection of years past. In our drive to do better, we look to the rear-view mirror for glimpses of experiences that may help to guide us more effectively forward. It is equally important to look proudly upon our accomplishments which then become our Legacy.
The evolution of Rochester Electronics tells a story of a company that has advanced to support the needs of both its customers and the top semiconductor suppliers in the industry. Rochester’s 40-year history is rich in innovation to support obsolete semiconductors. Some may ask how innovation applies to supporting older technology, but a road never travelled requires creative thinking. This is “the definition” of innovation.
How it started
When Rochester Electronics was founded by Curt Gerrish in 1981 the pace of technological advancements within the semiconductor industry began to result in a significant increase of end-of-life (EOL) components. Customers with long product lifecycles, and a need for ongoing “spares and repairs”, were met with increasing component obsolescence critical to their applications. What were initially thought to be inexpensive component replacements, often resulted in costly re-design and re-qualification.
With over 20 years of experience working at Motorola Semiconductor, Curt identified this need and established a vision which has become Rochester Electronics. Providing customers with an ongoing source of supplier authorised components following EOL; while ensuring a traceable, certified, and guaranteed supply supporting High-Reliability and Industrial Customers with longer product lifecycles.
The innovative model Curt envisioned ensured both Suppliers and their valued Customers receive the same high level of product lifecycle service required to keep their businesses moving.
How it’s going
Through the years Rochester has continued to increase Supplier authorizations while expanding our product offering to include both active and EOL semiconductors. Today Rochester has over 70 supplier authorizations (which include acquisitions) with over 15 billion devices in stock encompassing greater than 200,000-part numbers warehoused in the United States at our Newburyport, MA, and Portsmouth, NH locations. Our factory-direct offering negates the need for expensive testing. Rochester is AS6496 compliant.
Moving beyond in-stock inventory, the Rochester vision has expanded to include licensed manufacturing which began with the transfer of an Intel Military Product line in 1995. This led to an enhanced customer quality and reliability program that resulted in Rochester achieving ISO9001 certification in 1998.
Fast forward to today, Rochester has manufactured more than 20,000 device types. With over 12 billion die in stock, we have become the world’s largest die bank and have the capability to manufacture over 70,000 device types. Our build-to-order (BTO) devices use information and technology transferred directly from the OCM. All product is sold with the OCM’s full approval under the original manufacturer’s part number.
Also available at our Newburyport, MA location is our Manufacturing Services. Our portfolio includes a Hermetic assembly line fully developed with QML certification to MIL-PRF-38535 and we have achieved plastic assembly qualification. Rochester’s in-house testing services, DSCC QML approved to MIL-STD-883, received QML Space Level Certification in 2007. Providing high-quality testing solutions for both suppliers and customers alike, a Reliability testing lab with QML certification, archive, and analytical services were added.
Supporting customers requiring design and authorised product replication, we established our first U.S. Design and Technology office located in Rockville, MD in 2008. This team can replicate an original device with full support from the original device manufacturer. The result is a form, fit, and functional replacement guaranteed to the original datasheet performance. No software changes required. A second team was added in 2016 located in Burnsville, MN specializing in Analog design capabilities. Examples of completed product replications include the Intel 80C196 processor, the ADI ASDP-2101 digital signal processor and the NXP 80C592 microcontroller.
Most recently, we proudly announced receiving the IATF 16949:2016 certification for the manufacture of semiconductor components at our US-based facilities. Obtaining this certification demonstrates our commitment to providing customers with the highest standards of products and services within the automotive industry.
While developing and expanding our product-focused service solutions, so are we increasing warehouse capacity, automating processes for efficiency, and further expanding global sales support, both physically and digitally.
In founding Rochester Electronics as the worlds’ first authorised distributor of EOL components, Curt Gerrish is respected as an industry pioneer. A lot has changed in 40 years, but not Rochester’s determination to make customers glad they called. This principle is engrained in everything we do.
Rochester is focused on providing Authorised solutions to meet the ever-growing needs of the semiconductor industry anytime, around the globe, now and in the future – Rochester is here to keep your business moving.
Find out more : www.rocelec.com
