IPC International Community magazine an association member publication
Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1537730
F ounded in 1983, Accurate Circuit Engineering (ACE) in Santa Ana, California, is a PCB prototype manufacturer and industry leader in radio frequency (RF) and microwave boards. It started as a family company and still adheres to those values by knowing its staff well and tailoring work and education to encourage them to stay at the company. George Zell and Charles Lowe founded ACE as a small circuit board shop with five employ- ees. Four decades later, it has expanded to three buildings and 72 employees. ACE was incorpo- rated in 1985. James Hofer joined the company in 1999 as director of operations and is now a partner. "ACE is good people doing something they love," James says. "I am passionate about what I do, and ACE allows me to pursue that passion. I came from a flex and rigid-flex background, so when I joined the company, I decided we needed to find a niche. I thought I would change ACE into flex and rigid-flex, but they were running a lot of thick backplanes and ATE test boards. So, we decided to go with RF, microwave, and antenna, matching the lines and equipment already in place." ACE is a successful boutique busi- ness with repeat customers. They like it that way. "We've been offered incentives to increase running pro- duction orders," James says. "We're not interested. We get frequent emails to be acquired by the big By Linda Stepanich, Contributing Editor, Community Magazine