Industry News
ATK (Alliant Techsystems) has acquired Mission Research Corp. in a strategic transaction that will enable an advanced aerospace and defense technology pipeline spanning concept development to full-scale production. The company, which has approximately 560 employees, has anticipated current-year sales of between $170 and $180 M. With new revenues from the acquisition, ATK is increasing guidance for fiscal year 2005 sales growth to between 12 and 15 percent. Guidance for fiscal year 2005 EPS remains at between $3.80 and $3.95 as the accretive acquisition is expected to help offset significant pension expense next year.
TriPoint Global Communications Inc. announced that it has acquired one hundred percent of the stock of Channel Master International GmbH. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed. Headquartered in Pforzheim, Germany, Channel Master International GmbH engages in business development for satellite communications customers in Europe, Africa, the Middle East, China and the South Pacific region.
Amplifier Research (AR) announced that it has changed its name to AR Worldwide. For 35 years, AR has played a major role in the success of the automotive, medical, military, aerospace and telecom industries. The company’s products, which include amplifiers, antennas, transient generators and complete test systems, are used for a variety of critical applications including testing in a multitude of industries throughout the world and feature innovative technology, advanced design, durability and longevity, mismatch capability, an unlimited support network and less cost watt-for-watt.
REMEC Inc. announced that it has formed its Base Station (BTS) Evolution Team, a creative consortium focused on driving the company’s strategy and platform evolution for integrated radio solutions. The BTS Evolution Team is an internal cross-functional group that is focused on understanding customer requirements for next generation BTS platforms and developing REMEC’s future radio solutions that meet these requirements. In related news, the company announced that it has joined the software defined radio forum to actively promote RF front-end interoperability. REMEC is active in standards promotion by actively participating in open base station architecture initiative, WiMAX, antenna interface standards group and advanced telecom computing architecture.
Vida Products Inc., the newly formed high-Q filter and low phase noise oscillator supplier, announced the creation of a quick reaction upgrade and repair facility for YIG-based synthesizers previously manufactured by other suppliers such as VertiCom, which ceased operation in late 2002. Several hardware and software upgrades are available that significantly improve the performance of older YIG-based synthesizers such as the MTS-1000, MTS-1500 and MTS-2000 that were manufactured by VertiCom.
Tanner EDA has opened a wholly-owned subsidiary in Hsinchu, Taiwan, to accommodate increasing customer demand in Asia for cost-effective, Windows-based EDA tools. This is Tanner’s second office in the region, following the establishment of Tanner Research Japan in April 2003.
EM Research Inc., manufacturer of standard and custom-designed low cost, miniature phase-locked oscillators and frequency synthesizers from 5 MHz to over 15 GHz, has expanded its Verdi, NV facility to accommodate a significant increase in engineering and manufacturing demands. Part of the company’s expansion was to enhance its environmental test laboratory with additional thermal shock chambers, burn-in ovens and vibration tables.
Accumet Engineering Corp., a Massachusetts-based company specializing in ultra-precision service for lapped and polished dielectric substrates, announced that its commitment to high customer service, continuous improvement and technical excellence has earned them company-wide ISO 9001:2000 certification through the certification body of TUV America Inc.
Tensolite’s Long Beach, CA, RF/microwave connector facility has been recommended for registration to ISO 9001:2000 for the design and manufacture of standard and custom RF/microwave connectors and cable assemblies including semi-rigid, delay lines and phase matched assemblies that are used in military and commercial applications.
Spectrum Control Inc. has received QS 9000:1998 certification and ISO 9001:2000 upgrade certification. These certifications acknowledge the company’s continued focus on quality and customer satisfaction. The company’s decision to pursue QS 9000 certification follows the introduction of several products designed specifically for applications within the automotive industry.
Techtrol Cyclonetics Inc., New Cumberland, PA, announced that it has achieved registration to the ISO 9001:2000 quality standard as of November 4, 2003.
Anatech Electronics Inc., a manufacturer of RF and microwave filters, announced that its facility has been ISO 9001:2000 certified. This emphasizes the company’s commitment in providing quality products and service. The certification was provided by QAS, which is a United Kingdom Accreditation Service accredited company, through International Management Systems Marketing.
Skyworks Solutions Inc. has received Mexico’s prestigious National Export Award in the maquiladora category. The award, which recognizes Skyworks’ best-in-class module manufacturing and test facility in Mexicali, was presented to the company by Mexican president Vicente Fox in a ceremony held at Los Pinos, the presidential residence in Mexico City. In related news, the company announced that it has shipped more than 25 million DCR™ transceivers.
Tyco Electronics, a business segment of Tyco International Ltd., was recently awarded the Bronze Performance Award from Smiths Aerospace. To qualify for the award, Tyco Electronics HARTMAN product team exceeded 95 percent quality and 90 percent delivery benchmarks set by Smiths.
RF Micro Devices Inc. has begun production shipments of its quad-band, EDGE-capable power amplifier module to a top-tier handset manufacturer. The company anticipates broad adoption of this PA module across numerous handset platforms and the module is expected to be one of the company’s highest volume products.
Contracts
EMS Technologies Inc. has received a contract award from EADS Astrium for work on the Eutelsat Hot Bird 8 spacecraft. The Hot Bird 8 satellite, the latest broadcasting satellite for Eutelsat, will be a Eurostar 3000 series satellite with 64 Ku-band transponders to provide video, radio and data services from 13 degrees east longitude. The spacecraft is scheduled to launch in early 2006. It is scheduled to provide commercial services for a minimum of 15 years. The contract is valued at over $2 M. In related news, the company announced the opening of its Washington, DC marketing and sales office in Ballston, VA. The office will serve primarily as a convenient, local presence for EMS’s SATCOM, space and technology, and wireless divisions.
Merrimac Industries Inc. has received an order valued at $1.1 M from The Boeing Co. Integrated Defense Systems, Seal Beach, CA, to supply beamforming networks, and RF/microwave signal processing components on Boeing’s global positioning system IIF satellites. Boeing exercised its first contract option for Merrimac to provide additional signal processing components on Space Vehicles 4, 5 and 6. The order is part of the contract from Boeing estimated to reach $4.4 M that Merrimac announced on September 3, 2003.
Trilithic Inc., a supplier of custom filters based in Indianapolis, IN, announced that SPPI, Long Island, NY, has awarded the company a contract for a series of eight different low cost, hermetically sealed subminiature RF filters. The contract is valued in excess of $760,000.
Anritsu announced that it has chosen ORIX Rentec Ltd. to be its European rental partner for 3G products. The partnership offers operating leases such as short- and long-term rental, providing Anritsu’s customers with alternative competitive financing options. The partnership will make it easier for Anritsu’s customers to acquire the full range of Anritsu’s 3G products, without having to go through the CAPEX justification process.
NERA Broadband Satellite AS has awarded Precise Time and Frequency Inc. a contract for the design, manufacture and supply of the timing and reference subsystem for gateways to be used in the iPSTAR satellite system. Through the iPSTAR system, Shin Satellite Public Co., based in Thailand, will supply low cost broadband services in the Asia-Pacific region, offering broadband communications via satellite, delivering high speed Internet services at speeds of 10M b/s to the end user and 4M b/s from the end user.
TRAK Microwave Corp. was awarded a Federal Supply Schedule contract from the US General Services Administration (GSA) on the company’s GPS time and frequency systems product line. The GSA contract, number GS-07F-5546P, became effective January 15, 2004 under special item number 602-7, time and frequency standards and calibration instruments solicitation number FCGS-W8-98-0316-N.
Financial News
Ansoft Corp. reports sales of $14 M for the third quarter of fiscal 2004 ended January 31, 2004, compared to $12.4 M for the same period in 2003. Net income was $941,000 ($0.07/per diluted share), compared to a net loss of $58,000 ($0.00/per diluted share) for the third quarter of last year.
New Market Entry
VIDA Products Inc., a new microwave component and subsystem company, has been formed in Santa Rosa, CA. The company will concentrate on military and commercial applications for high Q, broadly tunable, filters, oscillators and frequency synthesizers. The company’s products will utilize the unique performance advantages of YIG technology that are further enhanced by new developments recently introduced by VIDA, such as extended temperature range performance, insensitivity to vibration, low drive power requirements and the use of thin film YIG resonators. The company is located at 3581 Westwind Blvd., Santa Rosa, CA 95403 (707) 541-7000, fax: (707) 541-7030, www.vidaproducts.com.
Personnel
|  | M2 Global Inc. announced that its president and chairman of the board, Douglas Carlberg, has been reappointed to the Shingo Prize Board of Governors. Previously, Carlberg served as vice president of operations for Harris Corp. microwave communications division. Under his leadership, the division’s San Antonio operation received numerous awards. The Shingo Prize was established in 1988 to promote awareness of lean manufacturing concepts and to recognize companies that achieve world-class manufacturing status. | |||||||||||
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Sarantel, a UK manufacturer of miniature antennas, has strengthened its board by appointing David Dey as chairman and Jayne Chace as a non-executive director. Dey brings vast experience in the telecommunications industry to Sarantel, having held senior management roles at Plessey, British Telecom and Energis. Chace, a strategic global marketing executive, will help to further boost the company’s global marketing drive.
Ansoft Corp. announced the appointment of Thomas A.N. Miller as chief financial officer. Miller has served as a director since 1984 and served as the company’s chief financial officer from 1994 to May 1997. Most recently, Miller was serving as executive vice president responsible for communicating Ansoft’s achievements and business strategy to Wall Street and the financial community. He replaces outgoing CFO Anthony L. Ryan, who is leaving the company to pursue other career opportunities.
| | AVCOM of Virginia Inc. announced the appointment of Pat Piper as director of worldwide sales. Piper brings over 20 years experience in the satellite industry to AVCOM, including 16 years with Midwest Communications/Harris Broadcast, designing, building and selling SNG trucks and Satellite Earth Stations. In addition, he was sales manager for MCL and ETM selling satellite transmitters, and most recently served as satellite product manager for Richardson Electronics. In related news, the company has named Probe Inc. as its new marketing firm. | |||||||||||
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AMI Semiconductor (AMIS) announced that Alun Roberts has joined the company as strategic marketing director to support AMIS in promoting new initiatives in its integrated mixed-signal and structured digital products divisions. Roberts comes to AMIS from Austin-based Legerity Inc., where he served as marketing director for the company’s high performance analog business.
Michael Ferrantino Sr., president and CEO of Valpey Fisher Corp., announced that Paul Cunningham has joined the company as senior EMS account manager for frequency control products. Cunningham has over twenty years experience in the electronics industry. Most recently he has spent the last twelve years at Pioneer-Standard Electronics Inc. as EMS senior account manager.
Adhesives Research Inc. has hired Tee Wee Ang as the regional sales manager for its Japan, Taiwan and China territories. In this position, he will be working from the company’s new sales office and technical center in Singapore and will manage the company’s sales to electronics, industrial, medical and pharmaceutical accounts. Ang previously worked as a sales and marketing account manager for ISI-Dentsu Singapore, where he provided design and product lifecycle management services through the utilization of IT solutions.
Rep Appointments
Modelithics Inc. announced the appointment of Melcom Electronics Ltd. (www.melcom.co.uk), Chertsey, UK, as a reseller for its EDA RF/microwave model library software, measurement and modeling services in the UK and the Republic of Ireland. The company has also signed Conifer Technology (www.conifertechnology.com), Boulder, CO, as its representative in the western US.
MI Technologies has selected Mediterranean Technologies (Med Tech) of Rome to represent the company’s line of RF and microwave test and measurement products to customers in Italy. Mediterranean Technologies has a long association with MI Technologies having served as the company’s product service and technical support partner in Italy since 1997. The company has also selected AO Technologies of Etang la Ville, France to represent its line of RF and microwave test and measurement products to customers in France. AO Technologies will work together with Cal Info Mesure of Drancy, France, which provides product service and technical support to MI Technologies’ customers.
Inter-Continental Microwave announced the appointment of ten sales representatives: Electronic Instrument Associates-Central Inc. will represent North and South Dakota, northern Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota and Wisconsin; Jay Stone & Associates will handle northern California and northern Nevada; Odyssey 1 will be responsible for Arizona, Colorado, Montana, Nevada (Clark County), New Mexico, Texas (El Paso), Utah and Wyoming; BSW Test Systems and Consulting AG will cover Austria, Germany, Switzerland, Netherlands, Belgium and Luxemburg; IT Globe will be responsible for India; MB Electronique will handle France; SE Technologies will cover Taiwan, China and Hong Kong; Spark Measurement Technologies will handle Turkey; Tony Chapman Electronics Ltd. will be responsible for the United Kingdom; and LP Instruments will take care of Italy.
Mimix Broadband Inc. announced the appointment of manufacturer’s sales representative firms in targeted regions worldwide to sell the company’s monolithic microwave integrated circuits products for microwave and millimeter-wave wireless communications applications. The appointments include the following firms and their associated territories: Advanced Communications Sales will represent northern California; Datamatik will cover Norway and Elexience will be responsible for France; M. Lader Co. will handle Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia, Maryland, Washington, DC, Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, South Carolina, Kentucky, Georgia and Alabama; mmWave Technologies Inc. will be responsible for Canada; and Omecon Electronic GmbH will handle Germany.
Web site
Universal Air Filter Co. has launched a Web site, www.uafdefense.com, geared to the specific thermal management information needs of military defense electronics equipment designers. This Web site was designed as a one-stop source of information critical to making the right forced air thermal management component choice, including details on filter media and frame options, applicable NEBS standards, EMI/RFI shielding strategies and step-by-step prototype considerations.