As Seen in Electronics Sourcing:

E-Commerce Solution for High Reliability Marketplace

Spirit Electronics’ CEO, Marti McCurdy, introduces the company’s e-commerce shopping cart tailored to the aerospace and defense market

Spirit Electronics’ e-commerce purchasing interface has been requested up and down the supply chain for greater access and flexibility in component sourcing. Where aerospace and defense (A&D) purchasing has often included heavily managed orders and agreements, the streamlined e-commerce cart provides immediate availability, secure credit card purchasing and on-hand inventory access.

For cybersecurity and control, suppliers and customers within a secure supply chain have continually improved their software, enabling e-commerce. Spirit invested heavily in enterprise resource management to achieve real-time reporting on orders, backlogs and manufacturing lead times across its business units and services. The Spirit team can identify and address disruptions, delays and issues proactively, making Spirit’s online purchasing process possible.

Automation lets Spirit move on-hand inventory into the online marketplace. Secure data exchange and automation enables purchasing authorized OEM components directly from inventory on suppliers’ shelves. Spirit’s biggest integration offers Texas Instruments Store inventory for direct ordering, in real time, through the e-commerce cart.

Automation also makes e-commerce orders a lower- touch workflow. Online orders and inbound inventory can be shipped same day. The Spirit team has the capability to support a leaner process that meets expectations for self-service and speed. Spirit’s e-commerce inventory is a strategic stocking operation rather than a large, stocked warehouse. Automated inventory management offers insight to high-demand products customers want to see in an easy-access online storefront.

Spirit already operates at a high level of supply chain security for the defense industry. When implementing online ordering, the company is already an authorized distributor with a quality management system and counterfeit prevention in place. Regarding cybersecurity, Spirit has implemented secure ordering and data management. The e-commerce cart features customer validation steps to enable export controls and secure high-reliability products.

A&D e-commerce customers are typically looking for smaller quantities. Customers also have flexibility around date codes, lot requirements and purchasing controls. Customers with no flexibility can use Spirit’s direct sales channel.

E-commerce is a great fit for customers in commercial high-reliability and new space markets. These customers often compete with prime defense contractors for priority access to components. E-commerce enables immediate access to available inventory to support faster production and launch schedules.

As seen in AZ Big Media:

Profiles in Success: Marti McCurdy, Spirit Electronics

Marti McCurdy, owner and CEO of Spirit Electronics, is a veteran not only of the semiconductor business, but also of the United States Air Force. McCurdy’s focus as CEO is to serve the aerospace and defense industry for high reliability components. She exercises her engineering knowledge of space qualified flows and sophisticated testing to deliver flight class devices. Nearly seven years ago, McCurdy became owner of Spirit Electronics, a distributor and outsourced semiconductor assembly and test (OSAT) provider that has experienced rapid growth in Phoenix. Az Business talked with McCurdy about her role as a game-changer in her industry.

Az Business: Were you always interested in an engineering career?

Marti McCurdy: I think my mind works that way, so yes. I grew up in central Pennsylvania and it is just the nature of the beast there that you don’t hire people to do things: you just do them yourself. My father went to the junkyard and bought 13 Volkswagens that didn’t work and built my brother and me a car. I have a lead foot and I blew it up. Dad helped me get the engine out and we fixed it. Then, unfortunately, I blew it up again. He goes, “Well, you know how to take it out now. Come back when you need help.” So, it was just one of these things growing up there: You’re just expected to fix everything yourself.

AB: What attracted you to Spirit Electronics?

MM: I’ve been in the back-end test side of the semiconductor business in the military and aerospace sector most of my career. I also am a veteran, so I did similar things in the military. I felt like getting into the mix of aerospace or defense product distribution was a natural progression.

AB: Have you enjoyed it so far?

MM: Yes. I think there are challenges with the amount of tech that’s booming in Arizona right now. Luckily, Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego and Chris Camacho at the Greater Phoenix Economic Council are great to work with because we really struggle to get enough employees. We’ve doubled in size almost every year for six years, but it’s a struggle to get people and we’re trying to hire from within Arizona. It’s just the way the world is at the moment. So, that’s been a challenge.

AB: What business advice do you have for others looking to find success? 

MM: I think you have to be determined and bullheaded, as I am. But I can also tell you that I’m very protective of my team. I love all of them and I couldn’t be here without them. Building a great team was probably the biggest lift next to the engineering piece, so building the best team you can build is key.

As seen in Phoenix Business Journal:

Spirit Electronics Small Business OSAT Grows Around Semiconductor Desert Oasis

Greater Phoenix is a growing semiconductor oasis in the desert. Large-scale commercial manufacturing is making news with new fabs, and supporting businesses like outsourced semiconductor assembly and test provider Spirit Electronics see opportunity for significant expansion.

As the desert cluster grows, an entire ecosystem of support businesses will thrive around it. Spirit fills a niche demand among the local aerospace and defense industry for American-based authorized distribution, assembly and testing services.

Vertically Integrating to Secure the Supply Chain

The A&D demand for defense-grade and space-grade technology adapts more slowly than commercial manufacturing, making it more sensitive to supply chain bottlenecks. Spirit has added solution-focused services that specifically address supply chain constraints. These have included supplier-managed inventory and 3PL services, lead trim and form and robotic BGA solder exchange, MIL-STD-883 testing, radiation testing and circuit card PCB assembly.

Small Business Among the A&D Cluster

Spirit Electronics was founded in 1979 as an authorized component distributor for A&D. Current CEO Marti McCurdy acquired the company in 2017. A veteran of semiconductor testing and the U.S. Air Force, McCurdy was in tune with the supply chain’s testing needs. She grew Spirit’s team to over 40 employees with specialized skills in supply chain management, lab operations, and test engineering. Spirit is now a veteran-owned, woman-owned small business with HUBZone certification.

“When you have an aerospace cluster or a semiconductor cluster like we are growing in Phoenix, services and supply chain businesses move in to support that growth,” explains McCurdy. “Spirit has been part of this local cluster from the beginning, giving us a unique insight into the supply chain. We see the massive opportunity for growth in the Phoenix area and are expanding capacity among our business units to meet those needs.”

A&D has a foundational industry presence in the Valley alongside the burgeoning semiconductor industry. Major companies like Northrop Grumman, Boeing, Honeywell, Lockheed Martin, L3 Harris, and General Dynamics have a significant presence in the Greater Phoenix area and are pushing aerospace technology to new heights.

New Space and New Supply Chain Heights

Among Spirit’s A&D customers, commercial space and satellite programs are revolutionizing space exploration. This New Space industry demands high-reliability electronics to operate numerous small satellites and satellite constellations in addition to deeper space missions with NASA. Spirit provides tailored screening and qualification testing programs to guarantee components and assemblies will be able to function in the harsh temperatures and radiation of the space environment.

With New Space programs launching faster, Spirit’s end-to-end supply chain services support component sourcing, logistics, testing and PCB assembly to deliver fully qualified and ready-to-use electronics. Spirit also offers application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) that allow customers to create a custom chip with a faster time to market.

Spirit’s ASIC Programs and Foundry Services

With high commercial demand among major chip manufacturers, Spirit’s ASIC programs offer faster lead times, full qualification and extended manufacturing life for A&D customers with application-specific needs. Spirit can take an ASIC through design, foundry, assembly, test and storage. Spirit offers foundry services through Texas Instruments fabs to support 65nm tech nodes and higher, an essential in the A&D industry.

Spirit’s Small Business Workforce Development

The Spirit team has been the foundation of the company’s growth. While integrating new services vertically, Spirit’s team organization has expanded horizontally, adding skilled technicians, engineers and operational managers to support multiple business units. The team has grown over 280% in 6 years.

Spirit’s team takes pride in the company’s small business agility to offer unique solutions to customer challenges. The team operates under rigorous industry standards while still offering flexible customer service. The Spirit team is highly collaborative, talented and diverse driving innovation in the company.

Spirit added significant recruiting support to continue team growth. The local workforce for semiconductor manufacturing will require specialized education opportunities, and Spirit is growing local partnerships to improve training offerings that directly support critical skills. Spirit has also partnered with ASU to continue expanding the workforce and R&D.

In both workforce and supply chain, the greatest challenge for the local industry is sustainable growth. As a small business, Spirit is excited to continue innovating new solutions to support the business, the team and its customers.

As seen in In Business:

Supporting Disrupted ASIC Programs amidst Foundry Consolidations

Local company brings leading-edge technology to the forefront for the A&D market

The microelectronics supply chain has seen its share of challenges in recent years, while efforts to ensure its stability in the U.S. are unprecedented. One way that companies ensure semiconductor supply continuity is by developing their own Application Specific Integrated Circuits, or ASICs. An ASIC contains multiple components designed to work together to perform a specific function integral to the application’s operation.

From processing to sensing to memory and power management, a single multi-function ASIC can reduce the demands and lead times in a supply chain. A customer may capitalize on its design investment by creating multiple ASICs to support a range of product applications and performance requirements. By building a proprietary library of ASIC designs, the customer can ensure it will have the ICs needed for the life of its application, thus reducing reliance on an external supplier.

ASIC design is the intellectual property of the customer. The customer provides its design to a foundry for manufacture. The customer-foundry relationship is an important consideration. Recent foundry consolidations are leaving customers with last time buys or limited access to support their ASICs, which can lead to manufacturing delays or stoppages.

Spirit Electronics, a distributor and outsourced semiconductor assembly and test provider based in Phoenix, offers support for ASIC programs with full screen and qualification for military and space applications. Spirit offers foundry services supporting U.S.-based manufacturing for analog, mixed-signal and RF integrated circuits. One of Spirit’s foundry providers is Texas Instruments. Spirit has partnered with TI to offer and manage foundry services for its customers, providing access to TI’s advanced manufacturing and wafer processing.

Spirit offers support for ASIC redesign if needed for customers without a GDS2 or RTL files from their current provider. Spirit can port them over to a TI foundry on very similar technology nodes and processes. Spirit’s in-house fabric and IP portfolio reduces the overall design cost for ASICs, accelerates customer designs and enhances design compatibility for optimum performance and flexibility. The tools that Spirit brings to the party empower ASIC designers with efficiency and effectiveness to bring leading-edge technology to the forefront for the A&D market.

Spirit manages the ASIC program from design to delivery. Its ASIC engineering experts have large IP libraries for reference in the design stage so customers don’t have to design from scratch. Spirit recently added ASIC expert and semiconductor veteran Naveed Sherwani, Ph.D., to its team. Dr. Sherwani has more than 300 designs in his portfolio and continues to provide cutting-edge digital solutions in the ASIC design world.

Spirit works with the foundry for quantity management and to maximize space on the wafer for each production run. Customers choose from ceramic or organic substrates to mount the ASIC die. Spirit’s test capabilities can characterize substrates for thermal requirements. Substrate characterization can enhance ASIC reliability and performance.

Spirit packages the ASIC into its final form, working with the customer’s packaging supplier or sourcing the package from a trusted partner.

ASIC testing and qualification can include:

• Wafer sort
• Advanced assembly
• Electrical characterization
• Screen and qualification for Class B and Class S high reliability components
• Radiation Testing
• MIL-STD-883 testing (of which Spirit is a qualified DLA commercial lab provider)

ASIC programs support long-term production, even into end-of-life and legacy applications.

Spirit Electronics, a distributor and outsourced semiconductor assembly and test (OSAT) provider, offers support for Application-Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs) with full screen and qualification for military and space applications. Current foundry consolidation is leaving customers with last time buys or limited access to support their ASICs. Spirit can help them avoid ASIC program disruption and loss.

“Spirit Electronics is here to offer support for redesign if needed (meaning customers without a GDS2 or RTL files from their current provider),” says Spirit CEO Marti McCurdy. “We can port this over to a Texas Instruments foundry on very similar technology nodes and processes.”

Spirit is offering full-turnkey, vertically integrated services for finished goods for Space or Military qualified parts, including:

• Design: Analog, Digital, Mixed Signal and RF
• Foundry Services at Texas Instruments (TI) or other wafer foundries by customer request
• Package assembly
• Electrical test program development
• Screening
• Qualification
• Radiation Testing
• DPA (Device Physical Analysis)
• Delivery – fully qualified drop-in replacement for current ASICs.

Spirit Electronics offers foundry services supporting U.S.-based manufacturing for analog and mixed-signal integrated circuits. Spirit’s foundry access includes 45- to 130-nm technology nodes in 300 mm wafer fabs. With corporate consolidation and long-lead-time pressures demanding greater capacity from existing fabs, Spirit’s foundry services open an accessible supply chain channel for ASIC manufacturing.

Spirit recently added semiconductor veteran Dr. Naveed Sherwani to its engineering team in support of their ASIC product enablement programs. Spirit is committed to providing US Sourced, Made in the USA ASICs that support legacy replacement and advanced solutions.

About Spirit Electronics:

Spirit Electronics is an end-to-end supply chain services company headquartered in Phoenix, AZ. Spirit offers MIL-STD-883 testing, circuit card assembly, device analysis, ASIC programs and authorized distribution of high-reliability electronic components. Spirit’s supply chain solutions are changing the definition of distribution by providing full-turnkey OSAT (outsourced semiconductor assembly and test) services to deliver products to aerospace and defense customers fully qualified and ready for use. Spirit is a veteran-owned, woman-owned small business (VOWOSB) with HUBZone certification founded in 1979.