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SemiWiki: CEO Interview with Russ Garcia, Menlo Micro
Key Takeaways:
Russell (Russ) Garcia is a veteran technology executive with over 30 years of leadership experience in semiconductors, telecommunications, and advanced electronics. As CEO of Menlo Microsystems, he has led the commercialization of disruptive MEMS switch technology across RF, digital, and power systems.
Previously, Russ founded the advisory firm nGeniSys, served as an Executive in Residence at GE Ventures, and held senior leadership roles at Microsemi, Texas Instruments, and Silicon Systems. He also served as CEO of WiSpry and u-Nav Microelectronics, where he oversaw the launch of the industry’s first single-chip GPS device. Russ remains active as a board member and industry advisor.
Tell us about your company:
Menlo Micro is setting a new standard in chip-based switch technology with its Ideal Switch by addressing the limitations of traditional electromechanical relays (EMRs) and solid-state (SS) switches.
Following the path of other disruptive innovators, our RF products are enabling customers in high-growth markets, particularly AI, aerospace, and defense to miniaturize their systems while enhancing performance, capability, and reliability. Driven by AI-fueled growth in data and the xPUs supporting the expansion, we’re responding to customer demand by delivering best-in-class miniature RF switch products – necessary for testing existing and future generations of high-speed digital data buses – and scaling to support increased adoption among the top semiconductor manufacturers. We’re also expanding our high speed and high-performance RF switch products into the aerospace and defense sectors with engagements with top defense, radar, and radio OEMs. With product adoption accelerating in the RF segment, the company is developing and positioning a new smart power control product platform to expand in AC/DC power distribution and control to meet a growing demand in microgrids, data centers, and factory automation.
Our technology overcomes system-level bottlenecks caused by traditional switching, enabling customers to push performance boundaries such as accelerating AI GPU testing, delivering step-function improvements in size, weight, power, and performance for satellite communications beamforming, enhancing filtering in mobile radios, reducing energy consumption in factory automation, and improving fault detection and power distribution in energy infrastructure.
What problems are you solving?
Across industries, engineers face critical limits with traditional switching technologies. EMRs are large, slow, and prone to mechanical wear. SS switches suffer from high on-resistance, leakage, and heat generation, which limits scalability, reliability, and efficiency.
In semiconductor testing, switch performance directly affects test speed, accuracy, and cost. Traditional switches degrade signals and limit bandwidth, increasing complexity and slowing time-to-market. Aerospace and defense systems demand rugged, reliable switches that meet tight size, weight, and power constraints, yet traditional options lack durability or require bulky protection. Power systems, from industrial automation to energy grids, face thermal inefficiencies that drive overdesign, and slow switching speed limits responsiveness to system faults.
Menlo’s technology is unique because as it is a true metallic conductor rather than a semiconductor, it delivers near-zero on-resistance, ultra-low power loss, and minimal heat generation. This eliminates the need for heat sinks and complex cooling, significantly improving thermal and power efficiency.
Built on a MEMS process, it achieves chip-scale integration, enabling up to 10x or more reductions in footprint and higher channel density for compact, scalable designs. It maintains reliable operation across extreme environments, from cryogenic to +150°C, and withstands shock and vibration, making it ideal for mission-critical applications.
With billions of cycles and no mechanical degradation, its long life combined with low power consumption and minimal thermal management reduces total cost of ownership through fewer replacements, simpler designs, and lower maintenance.
By solving the longstanding trade-offs between speed, power, size, and reliability, Menlo enables engineers to build smaller, faster, more energy-efficient, and reliable RF and power control systems.
