Partners and Rivals [MicroBusiness]

I worked for a research organization in a large corporation in the 1980s and 1990s. We were developing gallium arsenide (GaAs) technology and demonstrating its capabilities. The technology had promise for applications in several of the company’s businesses, mostly serving the defense market. Our research organization was leading the charge, or at least we viewed it that way. At the time, GaAs had shown potential but had not yet had significant commercial success. GaAs for digital applications was still a serious research interest, but our primary focus was analog–microwave and millimeter-wave.