Industry News
Roger W. Sudbury, a longtime MIT Lincoln Laboratory staff member and dedicated IEEE volunteer, passed away on August 22, 2010. Joining Lincoln Labs in 1969 as a technical staff member researching solid-state devices for modern radars, he went on to become the Laboratory’s executive officer, serving within the Director’s Office. He was a dedicated volunteer for the MTT-Society and IEEE for 30 years, and his wisdom, honesty and energy were widely respected by all who worked with him. Sudbury was nationally recognized as a visionary leader in the development of gallium-arsenide monolithic circuits for applications in electronically scanned radars. The work that he led at the Laboratory encouraged and influenced efforts at a number of major electronic firms, leading to the United States’ world leadership in military solid-state radars for missile and air defense. Sudbury was valedictorian of his high school class in 1956 and was one of the initial National Merit Scholars. In 1960, he graduated from the Georgia Institute of Technology with a degree in electrical engineering with highest honors and did his graduate work at MIT. Through his 41-year career at Lincoln Laboratory, he served as a knowledgeable adviser and mentor, receiving the MIT Lincoln Laboratory Career Achievement Award “in recognition of his lifetime commitment and technical contributions for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and MIT Lincoln Laboratory and for his exceptional service to the nation.” He was active in a leadership role in the IEEE, most recently serving on the IEEE Board of Directors as Director of Division IV: Electromagnetism and Radiation, and chaired its Employee Benefits and Compensation Committee, and was to be the 2011 Chair of the IEEE Strategic Planning Committee. He was President of the IEEE Microwave Theory and Techniques Society in 2000, and in 2010 was the recipient of the Society’s Distinguished Service Award “for outstanding and dedicated service to the Society.” He was elevated to the member grade of IEEE Fellow in 2004 for “contributions to leadership in gallium-arsenide integrated circuits.”
Infineon Technologies AG and Intel Corp. have entered into a definitive agreement to transfer Infineon's Wireless Solutions (WLS) business to Intel in a cash transaction valued at approximately $1.4 B. WLS, a provider of cellular platforms to top tier global phone makers, will operate as a standalone business serving its existing customers. WLS will also contribute to Intel's strategy to make connected computing ubiquitous from smartphones to laptops to embedded computing.
As part of the recent merger that added Mimix Broadband Inc. and its subsidiaries to the M/A-COM Tech family of companies, Mimix Asia has changed its operating name to M/A-COM Tech Asia. M/A-COM Tech Asia is focused on the design and manufacture of innovative products aimed at addressing the microwave and millimeter-wave applications requirements of its customers across the globe. Located in Hsinchu Science-Based Industrial Park, the M/A-COM Tech Asia facility is ISO 9001-registered and includes a Class 10,000 clean room for die picking and visual inspection and 8,000 square feet of production floor space. M/A-COM Tech Asia also has an ISO 9001-registered design center in Belfast, Northern Ireland, for product development and qualification with comprehensive assembly and test facilities for designing industry-leading devices.
RF Monolithics Inc. (RFM) announced that Murata Electronics North America Inc. has purchased 533,000 shares of RFM Common Stock at $1.31/share, representing a small premium over RFM's recent 30-day volume weighted average price, in a private transaction. The purchase represents less than five percent of RFM's outstanding stock. Additionally, RFM and Murata Manufacturing Co. Ltd., Murata Electronics North America's parent, have entered into a collaboration agreement.
MtronPTI announced it is collaborating with Jackson Labs Technologies Inc. for development and marketing of Global Positioning Satellite – Disciplined Oscillators (GPSDO) modules. The partnership takes advantage of Jackson Labs Technologies Inc.'s extensive technology portfolio and combines this with MtronPTI's oscillator product and manufacturing expertise to provide state-of-the-art timing and frequency solutions to customers.
WiSpry Inc. announced that the company has signed an agreement with NTT DOCOMO Inc. to jointly develop tunable filters for mobile phone applications based on WiSpry's RF-MEMS technology. Under the terms of the agreement, both companies will work together and draw on each other's expertise to design and develop new and enhanced tunable filters. WiSpry will supply tunable RF-MEMS technology, and DOCOMO will provide system and application technology. This project is expected to provide tunable filters for use in mobile phone platforms.
Analog Devices Inc. (ADI) introduced a high performance development platform for wireless infrastructure equipment designers who need to quickly evaluate systems using digital pre-distortion (DPD) techniques in multi-carrier cellular base stations. ADI's mixed-signal digital pre-distortion development (MS-DPD) platform seamlessly integrates a complete high performance RF and mixed-signal transmit chain from ADI with any field-programmable gate array (FPGA) development kit with a high-speed mezzanine card (HSMC) connector from programmable-logic vendor Altera Corp.
WIN Semiconductors Corp., a pure-play Gallium Arsenide (GaAs) foundry, and Presto Engineering, a semiconductor product engineering company, announced a strategic collaboration to deliver characterization and testing services for companies developing products utilizing GaAs technology from WIN. The agreement covers wafer-level and packaged part development activities, including design characterization and production testing. Customers of WIN Semiconductors can now gain access to these highly specialized GaAs testing services from the Presto Engineering Hubs in Silicon Valley and in Grenoble, France.
Linwave Electronic Manufacturing Services, a division of Linwave Technology, announced the opening of a new UK-based high technology microwave manufacturing centre. The facility will support key activities of diode manufacturing, MMIC packaging and high frequency/precision manufacturing solutions. The facility, which is a technology partnership between e2v and Linwave Technology, has been enabled by the transfer of equipment, processes and 15 highly skilled personnel into the new facility. Focused around a 2000 sq ft class 10,000 clean room, the facility offers a background dust count of below 10,000 parts per milion localised to class 100 under laminar flow for critical operations.
Skyworks Solutions Inc., an innovator of high reliability analog and mixed signal semiconductors enabling a broad range of end markets, announced that Samsung is leveraging several of its solutions for its newest femtocell offering, including Verizon's Wireless Network Extender. Samsung's latest offering, the new code division multiple access (CDMA) plug-and-play personal base station, or femtocell, for homes or small offices, provides customers with enhanced cellular coverage, helping to eliminate "dead spots". It also reduces the need for a landline given its ability to manage up to three calls simultaneously with a fourth channel reserved for emergency 911 calls.
Tektronix Inc., a manufacturer of oscilloscopes, announced that its next-generation, scalable performance oscilloscope platform will make broad use of IBM 8HP silicon germanium (SiGe) technology. Tektronix demonstrates its commitment to help engineers around the world speed debug and test tomorrow's designs. The 130 nanometer (nm) SiGe bipolar complementary metal oxide semiconductor (BiCMOS) foundry technology offers 2× performance over the previous generation, and targets delivery of oscilloscopes with real-time bandwidth beyond 30 GHz.
AT4 wireless Inc. (Taiwan) announced new testing services to cover Release 8 (LTE) and Release 7 (HSPA+) under ISO 17025 accreditation. AT4 wireless started operations in Taiwan last October 2009, and during 2010 this testing laboratory obtained ISO 17025 accreditation and became GCF and PTCRB accredited laboratory for GSM, GPRS, EDGE, W-CDMA and HSPA conformance testing, including Protocol and RF. With this new accreditation, the scope of services is one of the most complete in Asia.
Cobham SATCOM, a manufacturer of Inmarsat satellite communications equipment, announced that its HGA-7001 High Gain Antenna system has been certified on the Airbus Long Range family of aircraft. This complements an ever growing range of airframes on which the system is deployed, including Boeing B737, B747, B767, B777 and B787 and Airbus A320, A350 and A400M, and confirms the general appeal and acceptance that this product enjoys in the aeronautical market.
Agilent Technologies Inc. announced it is the recipient of Frost & Sullivan's 2010 Global Award for Product Line Strategy in the Microwave Test Equipment Market. The award is conferred on the company that has developed a comprehensive product line that addresses the breadth of the market it serves. The award recognizes the extent to which the product line meets customer demands and adds value for customers.
Personnel
Flann Microwave announced the appointment of James Watts as Chief Executive Officer (CEO), with effect from 1st September 2010. Ian Crane is now stepping into the position of Chief Technical Officer (CTO). This interchange of roles provides a sound basis for the future growth of Flann and continues the tradition of technical leadership. In the five years that Watts has been with Flann, he has led the Design and Development group and has presented lectures and papers on millimeter and terahertz technology and applications. He has previous experience working for Plessey Radar, DERA and QinetiQ on antenna systems and millimeter-wave radar.
International Manufacturing Services Inc. (IMS) , a manufacturer and supplier of high quality thick film resistors, terminations, attenuators, couplers, thermal management devices, planar dividers and planar filters to the electronics industry, announced the appointment of John J.B. Silvia Jr. as President. Silvia has served IMS for more than 27 years and has been a member of IMS's Board of Directors since 1990. He has served as Vice President of Manufacturing from 1990 to 1998, and Vice President of Operations up to the present. In his role as President, Silvia will work closely with all departments to ensure the continued success of IMS.
Rep Appointments
Channel Microwave, a supplier of ferrite and waveguide components, announced the appointment of Spartech-South as its company's representative. Spartech-South will cover Florida and the Dixie land states. Spartech-South brings 40 years of sales experience and expertise to the RF and microwave industry.
MITEQ Inc. announced the appointment of Lionheart Northwest Inc. as the company's exclusive sales representative in Washington State, Oregon, Idaho and British Columbia. Lionheart Northwest Inc. will represent MITEQ's Component division of products, which includes amplifiers, mixers, frequency multipliers, passive power components, switches, attenuators, limiters, phase shifters, IF signal processing components, oscillators, synthesizers, integrated multifunction assemblies and fiber optic products. Lionheart Northwest Inc. can be contacted at sales@lionheartnw.com.
AtlanTecRF, a UK-based manufacturer of microwave and RF components and equipment, has announced the appointment of Giza Technologies as the company's exclusive representative for France. The broad AtlanTec-RF range will complement Giza Technologies' existing product lines and the operation will be overseen by the French distributor's Managing Director, Fabrice Hery, who offers a wealth of knowledge and experience of microwave and RF.
Star Microwave Inc., a provider of technology solutions for the growing requirements for catalog and specialized designs of high-power drop-in and connectorized isolators and circulators, for the US and international markets, has announced the expansion of regional sales representatives with the appointment of Matrix Sales Inc., Chelmsford, MA, phone: (978) 459-4000, web site www.matrixsalesinc.com.
Paciwave Inc., a supplier of microwave solid-state switches, attenuators, DLVAs and custom integrated microwave assemblies, announced the expansion of its network of regional sales representatives with the following new representative appointments: DURA Sales of Southern California (909-612-1044), located in Diamond Bar, CA, will be representing the company in the SoCal territory; Microcom Sales of Midland Park, NJ (201-669-7599), will be representing the company in Upstate New York; Potomac Technical Sales of Salisbury, MD (410-860-1985), will be representing the company in the mid-Atlantic states including southern New Jersey, eastern and central Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia and the Washington, DC area; Hi-Peak Technical Sales of Hudson, NH (508-878-8711), will be representing the company in Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Massachusetts and northern Connecticut; GIGACOMP GmbH (+49-89-32208783) and sister company GIGACOMP AG (+41-31-868-4455) will be representing the company in Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Czech Republic, Holland, Belgium and Luxemburg; Syratron Marketing Pvt. Ltd. (+91-80-2559-1031) will be representing the company in India.
Lorch Microwave announced the appointment of GLOBES Elektronik as the company's exclusive sales representative in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. GLOBES will represent Lorch's complete range of RF and microwave products, which include discrete, cavity, ceramic and tubular filters, digitally- and manually-controlled tunable filters, RF components and multi-function assemblies.
Spanawave Corp., a supplier of RF, IF, and microwave components, assemblies, transceivers and test fixtures covering from DC to 26 GHz, announced new regional sales representative appointments: Val Jackson & Associates Inc. of Port Angeles, WA (360) 452-7308 will be representing the company in northern California, northwestern Nevada, Oregon and Washington; Grant Technical Sales LLC of Phoenix, AZ (602) 625-3196 will be representing the company in Arizona, New Mexico and Texas (El Paso County only).