His Royal Highness The Duke of Kent visited RF Engines Limited (RFEL) at their offices on the Isle of Wight yesterday. The visit was part of a tour to meet with Isle of Wight companies that have recently won the Queen's Award. The UK has always been a leader in innovation and these awards are designed to recognise companies that are pioneering new and innovative technologies that can compete successfully in the world market and bring in business from around the globe.

RF Engines won the 2009 Queen's Award for Innovation, and CEO John Summers, said that receiving the Award has boosted awareness of the company in the global market, and helped to draw attention to its unique solutions for Digital Signal Processing (DSP). "We provide solutions for the most challenging DSP problems," he explained. "Many problems can be solved using standard software and firmware solutions but, when these run out of steam, companies come to us for our expertise in knowing how to achieve better performances and faster response times because we do this every day. Our team includes several PhDs and is probably one of the leading centres of excellence for DSP in the world."

HRH Duke of Kent meets John Summers CEO

The company develops (and patents as appropriate) products based on high performance, state-of-the-art, digital signal processing techniques that enable fast moving events or fleeting, hopping signals occurring in the radio spectrum to be identified and analysed. These designs are incorporated into an increasing number of RFEL's own products as well as their customers' products.

RFEL's solutions have a variety of applications such as in the design of efficient wireless communication (satellite and terrestrial) networks, test and measurement instrumentation, homeland security surveillance systems, bespoke wideband receivers/transceivers and in systems to detect signals from fast moving missiles or other military threats.

RFEL is based on the Isle of Wight, started business in 2000 and employs over 20 highly qualified personnel. It has been profitable for several years and has been steadily growing year on year both in revenue terms and head count. RFEL's customers are mainly 'Tier 1' companies in each of its main markets, including Thales (UK), QinetiQ (UK), UK Ministry of Defence, Rheinmetall (Germany), CEA (France), Acqiris (Switzerland) and LIG Nex1 (Korea), as well as many other major international clients.

John Walker and William Wyatt-Millington demonstrating the product to HRH Duke of Kent