San Mateo Daily Journal - It is Rocket Science

News Article

By Bill Silverfarb

Dr. Lawrence Ives founded Calabazas Creek Research in 1994. The company builds prototypes of new devices for the government and private companies that are manufactured by across the United States.
From his home office in San Mateo, Dr. Lawrence Ives develops radio frequency technology that specializes in high-power microwaves and other components for research that increasingly makes the universe a smaller place.

And when U.S. Rep. Jackie Speier, D-San Mateo, calls the work Lawrence and his team of scientists do at Calabazas Creek Research "rocket science," she is not kidding.

The company has secured 15 patents in the past decade or so that the U.S. departments of Defense and Energy have helped fund and have led to smaller and more powerful devices used in satellites, radar and medical devices.

Lawrence typically works alone from home while his nine employees build prototypes of the products the company develops in a lab at Communication & Power Industries in Palo Alto.

The team at Calabazas is skilled in advanced electron optics design, thermomechanical analysis, electromagnetic analysis, software development and mechanical design of vacuum electron devices and other vacuum products.

Ives is an expert in designing electron guns, gyrotron circuits, collectors and waveguide components. Gyrotrons are high-power, high-frequency microwave and millimeter wave radio frequency sources used for fusion research and industrial heating.

When looking for a job at Calabazas, your resume might want to say "rocket scientist" on it under job title.

"The work we do has never been done before," Ives told the Daily Journal.

And while his team does not manufacture any of the high-tech devices they create in Palo Alto, they do license the technology to the government and private commercial companies for production that creates jobs all over the country.

Calabazas is currently involved in a variety of hardware development programs funded by the Department of Energy, the National Science Foundation, the Department of Defense and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration that is focused on extending high power microwave generation, transmission and efficiency.

It also develops software that simplifies the analysis of complex three-dimensional geometrics and allows for experiments with high-voltage, high-current, electron-driven sources of electromagnetic radiation.

The software is used in a variety of applications including for directed energy weapons, nuclear effects simulation and imaging concepts for the medical industry such as ultrasounds.

Ives works in a "niche" field, with only a handful of companies, big or small, in the United States that research and develop these new technologies.

"There is a desire to have higher power and higher frequency out of these devices," Ives said.

His work helps astrophysicists study the origin of and uncover the basic physics of the universe.

Calabazas has developed its cutting-edge technologies with federal grants from the Small Business Innovation Research Program. The program doles out more than $2 billion annually to small companies based on their technological advances. Last year, Calabazas received about $1 million in grant money for its research.

But proposed legislation may open the grants up to hedge funds or venture capitalists that could impact smaller businesses such as Calabazas, Ives said.

The grant money could start flowing to giant Wall Street corporations rather than the true small companies the program was set up to benefit, Ives said.

Ives hopes the bill, House Resolution 1425, will get amended to be more small-business friendly.

In the meantime, Calabazas, founded in 1994, continues to develop technologies here in the Bay Area. From his San Mateo office, Ives has access to technology and services not available anywhere else in the world.

"All of our money is spent here in the United States to create jobs here," he said.

In the economic downturn, Congress has made it a mission to create more manufacturing jobs in the country in the coming years and Speier has made it a point to highlight the companies locally that create manufacturing jobs.

"Calabazas Creek Research is the kind of company that shows how America can innovate itself out of the job crisis. This is rocket science! We are lucky to have the quality and quantity of highly-skilled engineers and scientist here in the Bay Area who develop these technologies. Now more than ever we must focus our attention on making it in America and induce companies to bring their manufacturing back to our shores," Speier said.

The work is so specialized, that Ives himself often does not understand the work his colleagues do.

"The challenge is explaining to the public what we do," he said. "All the work is highly specialized and sometimes I don't understand the work my team does and they don't understand what I do. But we come together and make it work."

There is no end to the research Ives and his team can do.

"The desire for higher power and higher frequency does not stop," he said. "At least until I retire."

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