About Us
Innovative RF Solutions Since 1984
Kengineering Technical Services (KTS) was founded in 1998 by Ken, working in RF since 1984, during the Y2K buildup. It began as a side business aimed at solving complex engineering challenges in the semiconductor industry. Over time, KTS evolved into a leading RF systems engineering company, providing customized solutions, repair services, and innovative product development across multiple industries
Ken Knierim
Owner
Our Story
The semiconductor industry often faces engineering challenges that fall outside the scope of small production companies. Many engineering departments struggle to balance manufacturing demands with innovation, leading to missed opportunities—especially in the RF field, which has long been considered a lost art.
At KTS, we took on these challenges head-on. Our first RF match network was developed in response to a customer’s request to replace an orphaned industry-standard design. It quickly became a core product. From there, our RF generator repair and refurbishment services expanded at the request of end users needing reliable support.
Our evolution into contract manufacturing began when a customer needed assistance in developing a prototype plasma system to replace a discontinued OEM system. This project deepened our expertise in plasma applications, control systems, metrology, and system integration.
Today, KTS is a diversified engineering company specializing in RF solutions, system development, and advanced manufacturing. Our broad industry experience provides unique technical insights, allowing us to take on “impossible” projects and deliver successful results for our customers.
Custom Project Case Study
Case Study for Environmental Simulator (Re-Entry Environment Communications)
A customer inquiry into KTS’ ICP plasma source led to a challenge.
While discussing the performance of the source, the customer noted that the environment inside the ICP (Inductively Coupled Plasma) ion source seemed to have some in common with a spacecraft re-entering the atmosphere. The customer asked if it would be possible to create a version of the source that could be used for simulating the communications blackout condition as spacecraft re-enter the atmosphere. Such a system could assist development of better communication links at a significant cost reduction since it could be ground-based and reduce the use of expensive high energy re-entry vehicles (spacecraft) for such testing. The customer explained that one of their customers had expressed a skepticism whether this would work, as currently-designed configurations use large industrial installations to attempt this.
KTS worked with the customer to develop a low-cost technology demonstrator to prove simulator would work and to more fully define the testing environment. After successful test and development, a full-function, higher energy configuration was specified by the customer with significant increases in performance and thermal capacity. KTS used several internally-developed products to create a reliable high-energy environment simulation system with multiple chamber configurations to simulate different aspects of a re-entry profile. While not all phases of the environment can currently be simulated, the framework and development path demonstrated are a typical example of concept to hardware and evolutionary development at KTS.