The English Electric Valve Company or EEV, is a specialist component and sub-system designer, developer and manufacturer. As e2v (its current name) it has 6 European and US manufacturing facilities and its HQ in Essex, England.
The company was founded in Chelmsford, Essex in 1947 under Semyon Aisenstein.[1] Its initial name was the Phoenix Dynamo Co Ltd, though it immediately changed its name to English Electric Valve Company Ltd. It was soon noted for supplying 3" orthicons for the worldwide television transmission of the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II at Westminster Abbey. Aisenstein was replaced in 1953 by Jim Young.[1] In 1959 Bob Coulson established Traveling-wave tube and Microwave tube sections and they were producing ceramic hydrogen thyratrons as well.[1] By this time EEV was the largest hi-tech manufacturing company in the UK.[2] A year later they won an EMMY award for outstanding contribution to Electronics Technology in developing the 4½"orthicon tube.[3] Then in 1961 they acquired Associated Electrical Industries Valve business based in Lincoln. Sir Charles Oatley was a director of the company from 1966 to 1985.[4] In 1962, EEV opened its first office in America in Buffalo, NY. In the 1970s EEV collaborated with QinetiQ in the development of the pyroelectric vidicon, the first thermal imaging detector.[5] The company has received 13 Queen's Awards for Technology in its history, most recently in 2006 for low light imaging devices and in 2004 for thyratrons for cancer radiotherapy treatment. Also, in 1972, they opened an office in Paris, France and in 1977 they open another office in NY but this time in Elmsford. Hugh Menown, responsible for developing double-cathode and hollow anode thyratrons, was awarded the MBE in 1982.[6]
In 1988 the English Electric Valve Company formally changed its name to EEV. Then in 1992, EEV supplies CCD into the XMM Newton Space Mission which was one of the first major missions by the European Space Agency.
In 1999 EEV briefly changes its name to Marconi Applied Technologies as part of the rebranding of GEC to Marconi. Following a management buy out in 2002 the company changed its name to e2v technologies.