Facilities & Capabilities
Located on a 3-acre campus adjacent to the BT Madley Satellite Earth Station in Herefordshire, the company’s head office is the central hub for its production capabilities and its administrative functions.
A global footprint
ETL Systems has been at the forefront of RF design and manufacturing for over 35 years, and we have maintained our leading position through extensive internal investment in both our products and our capabilities.
Advanced Manufacturing
The Hereford site is home to a wide spectrum of capabilities, encompassing RF testing, software design, automated circuit board assembly, concept design, pick and place machinery, and machining workshops. C4, our production building, is fitted out with cutting-edge manufacturing equipment, including 3 Surface Mount Technology (SMT) lines.
Innovation-Driven R&D
The Research and Development laboratory in Rickmansworth hosts a dedicated in-house design and engineering team specialising. This is where the bulk of ETL’s innovation is put into action. Most recently, the R&D team have undertaken projects delivered alongside the European Space Agency and the UK Space Agency, as part of contracts awarded through a rigorous selective programme.
Global Presence
With satellite offices in both the USA and Canada, as well as a dedicated facility for manufacturing our Travelling Wave Tube Amplifier (TWTA) product line in Hook, UK, ETL Systems boasts a global footprint. The scale of its operations enables the company to respond with agility and decisiveness to changing industry needs.
Hereford
The Hereford campus contains our purpose-built manufacturing facility. This houses: three high-specification Surface Mount Technology placement systems capable of placing up to 32,000 components per hour, supporting both prototype and volume production; eight zone reflow ovens; robotic soldering systems. In addition to our cutting-edge manufacturing facility, we have integrated logistics capabilities that include an automated warehouse management system; automatic control of moisture-sensitive devices and FIFO and FEFO material handling; and full material traceability through bar code scanning and digital tracking.
This supports high volume, high reliability production.
Hook
ETL acquired Spacepath Communications in 2024. The Hook manufacturing facility produces ETL’s travelling wave tube amplifier (TWTA) range, which serves uplink applications across all mission-critical satcoms segments, including DSNG, tactical communications, and large teleports.
In addition to producing the established portfolio, the ETL R&D team is focused on advancing uplink amplifier design in line with evolving technology-driven markets. To support frequencies utilised by new Q and V-band transponders, high-power supplies able to drive TWTAs that operate at significantly higher voltages are required, together with sophisticated protection circuitry that safeguards the huge investment these programmes represent. ETL is positioning itself to meet these needs.
Montreal
ETL acquired Canadian company IRT Technologies in 2025. At its Montreal site, ETL Systems Canada designs and manufactured solid state power amplifiers (SSPAs) for signal uplink. The SSPA team has invested in both gallium arsenide (GaAs) and gallium nitride (GaN) semi-conductor technologies, enabling it to supply high efficiency, lightweight high power amplifiers ideal for emerging satellite markets, such as LEO and MEO.
