VICOR CORP (VICR)

Vicor designs, develops, manufactures and markets modular power components and power systems that convert electrical power. Its products convert AC voltage from a primary source into the stable DC voltage needed to power devices and subsystems, and further convert DC voltage where required, using transformation, isolation, rectification and regulation functions. The company's strategy rests on differentiated product performance (efficiency, power density, thermal performance, transient response and noise profile), design flexibility through its "Power Component Design Methodology," and a competitive total cost of ownership. Many products use patented or proprietary high-frequency switching topologies, semiconductor circuitry, magnetic structures and packaging.

Products fall into two categories. Advanced Products are the company's most innovative offerings and implement its proprietary Factorized Power Architecture (FPA), which separates power conversion into individual components optimized for specific functions, with regulation occurring first. Brick Products are largely integrated power converters ("bricks") with multiple conversion stages, used in conventional architectures such as Centralized Power Architecture, Distributed Power Architecture and Intermediate Bus Architecture. Vicor also offers "front-end" devices that convert AC to regulated DC, along with electrical and mechanical accessories and design tools. Its strategy emphasizes investment in Advanced Products, targeting high-growth segments with a low-mix, high-volume operating model, while sustaining a profitable Brick Products business in mature segments with a high-mix, low-volume model.

The company's earliest market focus was telecommunications infrastructure, which uses 48V DC distribution, and its core competencies remain tied to 48V distribution. It also addresses other standards, including 380V for data centers, 110V for rail, 28V for military and avionics, and 24V for industrial automation. Applications include enterprise computing and microprocessor-based systems, data center server racks, large-scale LED lighting, laboratory, diagnostic and test equipment, small-cell wireless base stations, and higher-power defense and industrial equipment.

Vicor is headquartered in Andover, Massachusetts, where its manufacturing facility is located. Other domestic offices are in Santa Clara, California; Lombard, Illinois; and Lincoln, Rhode Island. Its Vicor Custom Power subsidiaries, Freedom Power Systems and Northwest Power, are in Cedar Park, Texas, and Milwaukie, Oregon. Vicor Japan Company, a 92.5%-owned subsidiary in Tokyo, handles sales and customer support for products customized for the Japanese market, and Technical Support Centers abroad provide auxiliary services. In enterprise computing and other segments served with FPA, Vicor competes with developers and manufacturers of integrated circuits and semiconductor-based modules; with Brick Products it competes with makers of integrated power supplies. Vicor was incorporated in Delaware in 1981, completed its IPO in 1991, and its Common Stock trades on NASDAQ under VICR.