The History of Marktech Optoelectronics

By early 1986, Marktech had established a network of representatives and regional distributors stocking packages. Despite our superior luminosity, promoting our standard devices was challenging since our Toshiba privately labeled components and Marktech were unknown entities in the North American market. Despite this, we began to receive inquiries for nonstandard devices that were custom-designed for specific applications, such as binning for various outputs, including forward voltage, power, and luminosity. As more of these opportunities arose, we investigated smaller Japanese manufacturers that focused on custom devices. When Mark Campito worked at Xciton, he was involved with a manufacturer named Pan Electronics, which had an application for automatic focus sensors for cameras. His contact at Pan was Mr. Homma, who previously worked at Sharp. During our initial visit to the Toshiba Factory, Silwalker had arranged a visit to Pan for us. During the discussions, we learned that Mr. Homma was interested in starting his own company.  Mr. Homma had an incredibly diverse background in optoelectronics, which included designing solar cells for satellites, multi-chip assemblies, photodiodes, and flex circuits, to name a few. Toshiba, on the other hand, focused on large quantities of orders for standard components.  The company Mr. Homma envisioned focused on custom-designed optoelectronic components and assemblies at smaller volumes, allowing us flexibility and the potential to sell products that were not easily second-sourced. As a result, Marktech took an equity position in this new company that Mr. Homma named Optrans. As with our relationship with Toshiba, Marktech established itself as a design center for Optrans and began to correlate all our equipment readings with Optrans.

By late 1985, we could begin our sales and marketing campaigns. We eventually had contractual agreements with 19 representative groups covering the continental U.S. and Canada. We also signed six regional distributors. Due to initial budget constraints, our sales travel was limited; however, we arranged a two-day technical seminar for all our representatives and distributors at our headquarters. Following this, we relied on sales and marketing tools, including a technical video recording, which reiterates our product line and essential technical information. In addition, we provided our data book, which listed our representatives on the back cover, a cross-reference guide, monthly newsletters, sample cases, ads in various trade publications, and a list of target accounts based on our prior experience at Xciton, National, and IDI. 

Despite our best efforts, our promotion and design wins for the newly redesigned LEDs and displays from Toshiba were slow, and most of our sales were derived from ongoing IDI customers. The first breakthrough for Marktech occurred in late 1986 when our representative in Colorado contacted us regarding an OEM that was developing an oximeter device. This device would be the first noninvasive medical product to measure the oxygen in the bloodstream and blood pressure. They needed two chips (dies) in the red and infrared range, with a ±1-nanometer tolerance. Marktech was well-suited for this application, as we had access to Toshiba’s chips, in-house measuring capabilities, and a wafer probe. None of our competitors were focused on this type of application. Our OEM customer informed us they could not find other suppliers with wavelength binning capabilities. After multiple visits to the OEM, we provided the initial design and prototype tooling for a chip-on-board (COB) package. The whole design process took almost 18 months. This resulted in our first large volume order, reinforcing our concept of being an engineering design house focused on application support. Having secured our first design win, we successfully targeted medical equipment manufacturers and became the primary supplier to oximeter manufacturers over the next few years.

Optoelectronics is unique because there are no exact second sources, and chips and packaging vary from manufacturer to manufacturer. Most engineers design standard products with price and lead-time advantages when focusing on optoelectronic components, but performance is often compromised.  Rather than compromise the designer with a standard product, we focused on working with design engineers who can benefit from a custom device. Once we understood the application, Marktech could assist the OEM in many ways, from chip binning to packaging, yielding optical and electrical characteristics with in-house testing capabilities. This has become our niche!    

Our next significant opportunity came from our New York representative, who covered Symbol Technologies. Symbol was one of the first companies to design a commercial bar scanner. Marktech acted as a go-between for Toshiba in this application. The issue was that Symbol wanted an LED instead of a laser for scanning. Back in the 80s, the cost of a laser was too high; however, to successfully design an LED, we needed to convert mcd readings into watts. At that time, all of Toshiba’s visible measurements were in millicandela. Marktech’s engineers developed a milliwatt-per-steradian reading, which worked with Symbol’s application. We further arranged the meetings between Toshiba Japan and Symbol to ensure the scanner’s success. Although Marktech did not benefit from the forthcoming blanket orders that continued for years, we proved an invaluable asset as a design center for Toshiba.

Over the next few years, our sales and design wins increased primarily due to Toshiba’s ultra-bright red LEDs and chips. Direct access to their entire optoelectronic product line and engineering services was one of the primary reasons for our success during the mid-to-late 1980s. All this changed in 1991 during a meeting at the Toshiba headquarters, where we were informed that we would now be part of Toshiba America’s sales network. This decision was primarily based on our sales growth. We initially met with Toshiba America at their headquarters in Irvine, California, with Ted Franceschi, Senior Vice President, and Mr. Shinzo Sato, formerly a Director of Toshiba America. Our integration into the Toshiba America organization was complex, as Toshiba had coverage of both North and South America, comprising large representative organizations, as well as Avnet and Arrow, two of the world’s largest distributors. Marktech, in comparison, was an ill-fitting jigsaw piece in a giant puzzle, given our size and the engineering niche we occupied in optoelectronics.

Both Ted and Mr. Sato acknowledged the concern of integrating Marktech into Toshiba’s sales organization, and they arrived at an ingenious solution: adding Marktech to the DOBIC (Discreet, Optoelectronic, Bipolar, Integrated Component) group, which was managed by both.  On the plus side, we maintained a high profile within the DOBIC organization and were managed by dedicated product managers. In addition, we maintained our connection to the Toshiba factory in Japan, which shielded us from yen-to-dollar fluctuations. The most significant advantage was that we now officially represented Toshiba, which opened doors for us with large OEM customers. On the negative side, we were limited to just LEDs and chips. Fortunately, many of our sales were in these two product groups.

Once officially part of the DOBIC group, we spent the following months revising our organization. To begin with, we were now officially a Value-Added Toshiba Distributor along with another West Coast organization (William J Purdy group) and could no longer privately label our LED components. As a result, our literature had to show the Toshiba part numbers except for a custom-designed product unique to Marktech, which included displays we had recently designed and produced in Taiwan. Based on these factors, we decided to continue to grow our data books with Toshiba part numbers where applicable. Other changes included our territory being limited to North America, resulting in the discontinuation of our international representatives. We would now report directly to Toshiba America’s DOBIC group, and our first product manager was John Boehm, who, years later, became our West Coast sales manager. The relationship with DOBIC became very close, and they helped facilitate more sales through excellent marketing and engineering support, numerous OEM visits, new product introductions, and joint sales campaigns. Despite all the dramatic changes to our internal and external organization, our sales continued upward.