Excellence in modern wireless data transmission technologies, creativity in solutions, accuracy in design, precision in production and logistics make SAF Tehnika a unique manufacturer of point-to-point microwave data transmission equipment. Originally incorporated and having its headquarters in Northern Europe, SAF Tehnika had become a global reach company within just a decade, covering all relevant market segments and deploying its products in more than 100 countries worldwide.

Normunds Bergs

CEO of SAF Tehnika

About Us

Customer-supportive business philosophy is the fundamental element driving SAF Tehnika`s research and business development. We’re constantly monitoring industry trends to meet the current demands, but to increase the satisfaction of our customers requires foresight and the courage to act on it. SAF welcomes daring and visionary product development decisions, which has helped us thrive and successfully compete with the major players. In addition to an industry-standard portfolio containing a full range of modular split-mount and full outdoor Native Ethernet/IP microwave systems for licenced and licence-free frequencies, SAF Tehnika boasts about several industry unique and new market-shaping products such as the Integra and Spectrum Compact. To complete the offer, SAF Tehnika maintains and provides an outstanding technical support service – an often underestimated feature and a stumbling stone for our competitors.

Affordable broadband connectivity and mobile communications have become the backbone of the modern world – important business tools with a decisive impact on the competitiveness of our customers. To support them we are constantly striving to increase mobility and openness to fresh ideas, which are the defining features of our company. SAF Tehnika has proved time and time again that it can swiftly adapt to the challenges of a changing environment and the ever-increasing pace of technological innovations.

Accumulated experience, world-class intellectual capacity and a team of like-minded suppliers are the essential assets behind Customized Microwave SolutionsTM - our commitment to an industry-rare capability to design, develop and produce hundreds of supported, customer-tailored product variations, as well as numerous specific, user-adapted application techniques and features for our products all linked together by a feature-rich SAF Network Management System.

Mobile and alternative operators, PTT/fixed operators, broadband access providers, ISPs, governments, utility companies and many others across the world are already working with SAF Tehnika – the supplier of reliable and energy-efficient products, ensuring unparalleled delivery terms and worldwide warranty services, as well as extremely effective and direct management-level communication. Broad expertise for a fair price is our proposal for time&money-sensitive customers who value investments in high class services and sustainable solutions to benefit from the emerging age of green and smart economies.

SAF's team of direct sales representatives in Europe, North and South America, Africa, South and East Asia, together with a worldwide network of authorized partners, are always ready to assist and provide up-to-date information on the available product options and solutions. Visit www.saftehnika.com to learn more about our products and reach the headquarters directly to join the ever-growing number of satisfied SAF customers.

 

History

1999 - 2002

Commercial success of AM-10 called for expansion of business. Investment was provided by leading Baltic IT enterpreneurs and JSC SAF Tehnika was established at the end of 1999. In order to enter new and much broader market of ETSI-regulated radio relay systems, the CFM line of products was introduced, making use of then widely available, but quite expensive Hewlett Packard microwave transmitters and self-made patented signal filtration method for the modem module. However, to make it the all-time sales hit of the company, SAF had to overcome the early setback – discontinuation of HP transmitters. Strategic decision to avoid outsourcing and make its own transmitters resulted in significantly improved R&D capacity and increased cost-effectiveness of the re-designed product. Now SAF had a competitive world-class PDH system with sufficient know-how and resources to make its own radio unit for any 6-38GHz licensed band.

2002 - 2009

Success of CFM systems not only ensured growth of SAF in the aftermath of „Dot-com bubble”, but also layed the foundation for vast partner network and facilitated rapid increase of international presence. By 2004, when SAF launched IPO with the initial market capitalization of more than €50 million, the company has become a trusted and reputable microwave radio vendor, actively working on expansion of its product portfolio by an SDH system, which was expected to be a door opener to the major customers in the industry. In March of 2008 saw a birthday of the first CFIP radio – one of the world’s first compact full outdoor hybrid IP/TDM system, which over years, in shapes of CFIP-106/108 and Lumina (Ethernet only), repeated the success story of CFM.

2009 -

In a bit more than 10 years a start-up led by enthusiastic engineer had grown into multinational vendor having a diverse porfolio of competitive products used by large mobile operators and thousands of customers with tremendous profile variety all across the globe. To expand its business even more, SAF takes full use of creative capacity of its talented staff. Recently introduced SAF Integra – the world’s most compact system for licenced spectrum, as well as Spectrum Compact – unique state-of-the-art spectrum monitoring tool, are the inevitable milestones on the path of our historic development. Quite natural fruits of the carefully nourished tree of customized solutions.

Key Product Milestones

2000 – CFM - first (23GHz) split-mount PDH system capable of 8Mbps (4xE1) transmission capacity. Later highly modified versions support up to 37Mbps

2003 – CFM FODU –
first full outdoor PDH unit, initially supporting 2xE1 capacity. Later versions support 34Mbps, as well become the first radios powered by PoE

2004 – CFM-M-MUX –
one of the world’s first highly modular PDH system with 10/100 Ethernet, V.35, T1/E1/E3 interfaces

2006 – CFQ -
the first split-mount SDH system. Initial version (with narrow-band modem) – 16xE1/STM-1 capable (155Mbps per radio). Later versions (with wide-band modem) – up to 3xSTM-1 (312Mbps per radio)

2008 – CFIP-108 –
one of the world’s first hybrid IP/TDM all outdoor 108 (106) Mbps radio system in compact form factor

2009 – CFIP Lumina –
first Native Ethernet/IP power efficient all outdoor 360Mbps radio system with 256QAM and built-in advanced GigE switch (QoS, STPs, VLAN support) CFIP PhoeniX – split mount hybrid IP/TDM 360Mbps radio system with up to 20xE1

2010 – FreeMile
17/24 (since 2012 also in 5.8GHz MIMO version) – first-in-the-market 100+Mbps radio system bringing advanced hybrid IP/TDM functionality to licence-free bands of 17 and 24GHz (later – also 5.8GHz).

2011 – CFIP Marathon – advanced hybrid IP/TDM 300MHz/1.4GHz full indoor radio system for long-haul point-to-point applications CFIP PhoeniX M – split mount system with unified-band modem with XPIC, 256QAM (360Mbps per radio) and advanced protection configuration (e.g. 2+2, E1 SNCP etc.) support CFIP Lumina LL – 28µs 6GHz+ radio optimized for low latency applications

2012 – CFIP Low Latency Active Repeater
– highly competitive 6GHz+ 35ns radio unit for use in low latency networks

2013 – Spectrum Compact – world’s first hand-held powerful RF spectrum monitoring tool for 6-11GHz, 10-17GHz, 17-24GHz 24-40Ghz bands

Integra - unique next generation full outdoor radio system in ultra compact, low-weight form factor, supporting 1024QAM (420Mbps per radio), with built-in advanced network processor providing SyncE/1588v2 PTP support, 256-bit AES encryption and Layer2 header compression 

Marathon II
 – 1.4GHz high power full indoor system with 0.25-8MHz channel b/w (12xE1) and fractional E1 support, with serial port for traffic transport. 

PhoeniX C 
– very compact split-mount system with Carrier Ethernet functionality, optionally available with DVB-ASI interface for digital video broadcasting applications

2014 – 2-8GHz Spectrum Compact. SAF Tehnika continued to expand the Spectrum Compact family by introducing the device for 2-8GHz frequency bands.

CFIP PhoeniX IRFU - The Indoor Radio Frequency Unit (IRFU) is created by giving PhoeniX indoor unit (IDU) the necessary hardware to function as a radio transceiver within the frequency range of 4-13GHz.

Integra S – Taking into account various customer needs, the Integra-S was created. Slip-fit solution was introduced for customers who opt only for the radio part without the antenna.

2015 – SG Compact 6-12GHz - Microwave signal generator with the same form-factor as Spectrum Compact. SG Compact is an essential tool for antenna alignment and testing, and top choice for LoS verification applications. 

Integra-W Best solution for wideband high-capacity applications.Integra-W supports channel bandwidth of up to 112 MHz and up to 1024QAM modulation support for network upgrades

 

 

Corporate Executives

Normunds Bergs

CEO, Chairman of the Board
Normunds Bergs, born in 1963, is Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of SAF Tehnika. Bergs is one of the founders of Fortech (co-founding company of SAF Tehnika) where during the periods from 1990 to 1992 and 1999 to 2000 he acted as Managing Director and General Director, respectively. Following Fortech’s merger with Microlink in 2000, and the establishment of SAF Tehnika, Bergs became CEO of SAF Tehnika and a Member of the Management Board of Microlink. From 1992 to 1999 he worked at World Trade Center Riga, where he held the position of General Director and became a Member of the Board of Directors in 1998. He is a long-term president of Latvian Electrical Engineering and Electronics Industry Association and a member of the Supervisory Council of Latvian Chamber of Commerce and Industry. Bergs graduated Riga Technical University in 1986 with a degree in radio engineering.
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Didzis Liepkalns

CTO, Member of the Board

Didzis Liepkalns, born in 1962, is Member of the Board and Technical Director of SAF Tehnika.  D. Liepkalns founded a private enterprise SAF in 1995 and co-founded the company SAF Tehnika in 1999. From 1985 to 1990 he worked as an engineer at the Institute of Electronic Engineering and Computer Sciences. Liepkalns graduated Riga Technical University in 1985 with a degree in radio engineering.

Zane Jozepa

CFO, Member of the Board
Prior to joining the company in May 2015, Zane worked for SIA Citrus Solutions, the company providing design, building and maintenance services for engineering and technical systems and infrastructure, and being daughter company of the leading IT and telecommunications services provider in Latvia – Lattelecom. Initially, she started as financial controller and become a Head of Finance in 2008 and a Board Member in 2012. Within the company, Jozepa was responsible for organization and supervision of financial management, budgeting, including goal setting and control. She has been involved in the new business development and strategy setting, processes of control and analysis. Besides she has experience as credit and price setting administration got in SIA CocaCola HBC Latvia from 2004-2006. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in finance management from Banku Augstskola (BA School of Business and Finance). Jozepa does not have SAF Tehnika shares.
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Janis Bergs

Vice President of Sales and Marketing, Member of the Board
Janis Bergs (born in 1970) has more than 20 years’ experience in IT industry. From 2000 until 2006 he served as Board member and later as CEO of the largest Baltic’s IT company Microlink. In 2006, he with other partners started company FMS that became a leader in Latvian ERP market. In 2014 FMS was sold to largest ERP software company in Nordic VISMA. After acquisition, FMS was renamed to Visma Enterprise and he worked there until January 2015. J. Bergs was Member of SAF Tehnika Council from November 2006 until August 2010, long term Chairman of Board of Latvian ICT Cluster and over 10 years served as Board member of Latvian IT and telecommunication association. He has graduated Riga Technical University as a radio engineer and holds MBA degree from Riga Business School.

Juris Ziema

Head of Production, Vice-Chairman of Council
Juris Ziema, born in 1964, co-founder of the company, is Vice-Chairman of the Council and Production Department Director. From 1998 to 1999 he worked as an engineer at Didzis Liepkalns' private enterprise SAF. From 1987 to 1999 Ziema worked as an engineer at the Institute of Electronic Engineering and Computer Sciences. J.Ziema has graduated Riga Technical University with a degree in radio engineering in 1987.
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Career

„A high-tech company with a human heart” is the ultimate personnel recruitment guideline that SAF has followed since its foundation.

To ride the wave of technological advancements, SAF firmly supports academic/lifetime education of our employees. We cherish talent and creativity, admire competence and experience sharing. The company itself is structured to ensure free-floating of ideas between all management levels. Sophisticated machines and challenging tasks need intelligent people.

To ensure versatility and competitiveness on a global scale, SAF keeps a diversity of skills and knowledge in very high regard. Extensive language skills and the understanding of different cultures, in addition to strong capability in the core field of responsibility, is inevitably becoming a necessity for a company of our profile. We do our utmost to maintain a comfortable, aesthetic and ergonomic work environment where such skills can flourish.

In creating a strong and determined team, SAF ensures its employees with not only a motivating salary but also offers additional benefits such as health insurance, additional vacation days for years with SAF, bonuses for employees for important life events.

Various activities and events are regularly held in the company, such as – SAF Talks, SAFathlon, SAF Trivia Night, New Year's party, photo contests and other team building activities. Our team has participated in cycling and running marathons for many years.

Dream big, think broad, do great, dare a lot, learn more and SAF will be happy to have you!

Job applications

CONSTRUCTOR / MECHANICAL ENGINEER

VENTILATION AND REFRIGERATION UNIT TECHNICIAN

ELECTRONICS/RADIOENGINEER (LV)

JUNIOR TESTING SPECIALIST

PROGRAMMER (LV)

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