Industry News
Agilent Technologies Inc. and Xpedion Design Systems Inc. announced they have signed a definitive agreement for Agilent to acquire Xpedion, a privately held company that provides software for wireless and high speed digital circuit and systems design in the communications industry. The transaction is subject to standard closing conditions. Financial details were not disclosed.
e2v technologies plc’s subsidiary, e2v technologies S.A.S., has conditionally agreed to acquire Atmel Grenoble S.A.S. The acquisition is seen as an opportunity to strengthen the Group’s position as a major global provider of specialized electronic components and subsystems.
EFJ Inc. announced that it acquired 3e Technologies International (3eTI), a privately held, Maryland-based company. 3eTI is a technology-based company that offers security solutions for wireless platforms such as WiFi, mesh networking and Bluetooth. 3eTI also develops and sells secure wireless infrastructure that meet Federal Information Processing Standards, FIPS 140-2 validated 802.11i-compliant wireless networking standards.
EADS Test & Services has acquired Get Electronique, Castres, France. This small-size company specializes in services in industrial electronics and brings EADS Test & Services additional competencies in electronics repair, maintenance and sustainability in particular for activities aimed at prolonging the service life of systems and installations in such industries as aeronautics, defense, transport and energy. Get Electronique will become a 100 percent subsidiary of EADS Test & Services.
Tech-Etch Inc., Plymouth, MA, has acquired the business, facility and assets of the Metals Division of Innovex Inc., located in Litchfield, MN. This business was formerly known as Litchfield Precision Components. Tech-Etch will continue to operate the business in Litchfield and retain the experienced and talented team of managers and employees.
Flomerics Group plc announced that it has reached an agreement on the proposed acquisition of the entire share capital of NIKA GmbH, the Engineering Fluid Dynamics software company based in Frankfurt, Germany, and specializing in simulation tools for the prediction of fluid flow and heat transfer. NIKA’s computational fluid dynamics technology is derived from €8.5 M of product development investment, primarily in Russia where scientific expertise is excellent and costs are low. NIKA’s technology enhances Flomerics’ existing product range and gives access to a much wider potential customer base of design engineers outside Flomerics’ existing core market.
Axiom Microdevices Inc., a provider of fully integrated complementary metal oxide semiconductor power amplifiers, has formed Axiom Microdevices Europe Ltd. and appointed Alex Lloyd as the director of business development for Europe. In addition, Axiom Microdevices has engaged MJL Technology Ltd., a supplier of semiconductor and IT solutions, to represent and distribute its products in the South Korean region.
Nu Horizons Electronics Corp. announced the opening of the company’s first office in Australia, located in Melbourne, Victoria. This location provides local sales and engineering support within Australia and was established as part of the company’s ongoing Asia Pacific expansion plans.
Anaren Inc. announced that its board of directors has approved the expansion of Anaren’s design and manufacturing facilities in East Syracuse, NY and Suzhou, China. The East Syracuse, NY expansion includes the construction of a 54,000 square foot addition to the company’s 105,000 square foot headquarters, and will more than double the company’s existing Space and Defense Group operations. Anaren requested and received a grant from New York’s Empire State Development to help fund the expansion. The project is expected to be completed in the second quarter of calendar year 2007.
LTX Corp., a provider of semiconductor test solutions, announced that it has completed the relocation of its Westwood, MA corporate headquarters to a new facility in Norwood, MA. LTX’s new 56,000 square foot facility is located in a 49 acre research and development office park less than two miles from its previous facility.
Sirific Wireless Ltd. announced the launch of its operations in Korea. The new office will house sales and applications engineering teams to provide immediate support for domestic handset manufacturers and multinational OEMs with offices in Korea.
picoChip announced that it is expanding its technical support network with the establishment of a new office in Boston, MA. The company already has a sales office in San Jose, CA, and the new Boston office will act as a technical support center for North America.
D2 Technologies announced that it has opened a design center in Hsinchu City, Taiwan. The center will be responsible for a variety of R&D projects aimed at advancing the state of the art of VoIP technology.
Ansoft Corp. has collaborated with Novas Software Inc. to integrate Nexxim,® Ansoft’s circuit simulation software for high performance IC design, with Novas’ Verdi™ Automated Debug System to create an enhanced verification solution. The integration ensures that Nexxim circuit simulation results are readily available in Novas’ open Fast Signal Database format, linking Nexxim’s high capacity, high accuracy, circuit simulations with Verdi’s comprehensive debug platform.
Radio Waves Inc. announced that they are partnering with Eupen Cable to supply their customers with Eupen Elliptical Waveguide. Radio Waves customers can source microwave antennas and elliptical waveguide as a single package from Radio Waves and have one source for ordering and support.
Wavesat announced they are working with Texas Instruments to develop a 5.8 GHz mini-PCI module and reference design. The product will be commercially available by Q4 of 2006 from Wavesat.
Applied Wave Research Inc. (AWR®) and Peregrine Semiconductor announced the availability of a process design kit for Peregrine’s UltraCMOS complimentary metal oxide semiconductor silicon-on-sapphire process in AWR’s Analog Office® design suite, a software product developed specifically for analog and radio frequency integrated circuit design.
Kepco Inc., a designer and manufacturer of well-regulated DC power supplies and associated electronics equipment, announced a new partnership agreement with TestMart Inc., a marketplace operator and service provider for the IT, network maintenance, and test and measurement industry, who will provide a product catalog and government marketplace services to better serve and expand Kepco’s federal customer channel.
Modelithics and Johanson Technology announced the immediate availability of high accuracy models for Johanson Technology’s inductor and capacitor products. Complimentary use of these models for qualified designers can be arranged by request at www.modelithics.com/mvp/johanson/. In addition, Johanson Technology has contracted Modelithics to expand its offering of high accuracy substrate-scalable and parts-value-scalable Global Models for several other capacitors, ceramic chip inductors and wire wound inductors.
Avago Technologies announced that it has extended its agreement with TSMC to include the two next generations of its enhanced-performance image sensor products.
Antenna Development Corp. (AntDevCo) is a New Mexico custom spacecraft and missile antenna design and manufacturing company. While employed at the New Mexico State University Physical Science Laboratory, AntDevCo’s principal engineers, Bruce Blevins and Thomas Greenling, developed a miniature X-band quadrifilar helix for the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center’s Space Technology 5 (ST-5) spacecraft. This quadrifilar helix antenna — mounted as the primary antenna on three satellites — was launched into an Earth orbit on March 22nd, 2006, and completed the mission on June 30th.
K&L Microwave Inc. has received ISO 14001 certification for its Environmental Management System (EMS). Implementing an ISO-certified EMS greatly improves the company’s ability to manage environmental issues and demonstrates sound environmental management.
Amphenol RF announced that it is now authorized to market the QMA interface as a member of the Quick Lock Formula® Alliance. Amphenol RF signed a QMA and QN license agreement with Huber + Suhner AG and Radiall SA earlier this year and is now QLF® certified on the QMA interface with the QN to shortly follow.
The Micromanipulator Co. Inc. announced that it has received notification of the issue of US Patent number 7,043,848 B2. This patent is for control of drift of a probe’s position under conditions of stress and special environments.
Pulse,® a Technitrol company, announced it has joined the Multimedia over Coax Alliance (MoCA®) and will introduce a series of RF diplexers, filters and network interface devices to help enable home networking of digital entertainment between MoCA devices.
Northrop Grumman Corp. honored six suppliers who have demonstrated exceptional performance and teamwork on the National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS) program. The company presented NPOESS Outstanding Supplier Awards to ITT, Raytheon Intelligence and Information Systems, Maxwell Technologies, ABB Bomem, RT Logic and Earth Resources Technology Inc. during its third annual NPOESS Supplier Conference.
RFMD® announced that the company has commenced mass production shipments of its RF3159 linear EDGE power amplifier to Samsung Electronics for use in at least 15 EDGE-enabled handsets.
Contracts
Raytheon Co. has won an initial $38 M contract from the Global Positioning System Joint Program Office at the US Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center to design next-generation global positioning receivers. An additional award to complete development and fabricate pre-production receiver cards for test and integration in host systems could follow.
L-3 Communications announced that its Interstate Electronics Corp. subsidiary was awarded $37 M for the first phase of the US Air Force Modernized USER Equipment Program by the US Air Force NAVSTAR Global Positioning System Joint Program Office. The total potential contract value for IEC, including future options, is $90.6 M.
Ducommun Inc. announced that its Ducommun Technologies Inc. (DTI) subsidiary has been awarded a $3.8 M contract from Raytheon for the manufacture and subsystem integration of electromechanical enclosures for the 63V1 and 63V3 radar systems used on the F-15 aircraft. This contract consists of 63V1 radars for Japan and 63V3 radars for multiple customers. The period of performance is through 2007 and the work will be performed at DTI’s Phoenix, AZ facility.
TriQuint Semiconductor announced that the Office of Naval Research has awarded TriQuint a 20-month, $3.1 M contract to improve manufacturing methods of producing high power, high voltage, S-band GaAs amplifiers.
Electron Energy Corp. (EEC), a producer of rare earth magnets and magnet systems, has been awarded a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II contract by NASA to continue researching high temperature magnetic bearings technology. NASA’s Glenn Research Center, Cleveland, OH, selected EEC to receive the $600,000 contract for development through November 2007. EEC will team with Texas A&M University to complete the project.
TRAK Microwave Corp. announced that it has been selected by Harris Government Communications Systems, Melbourne, FL, to be a supplier for its AN/GSC-52 Modernization (52MOD) Program. The AN/GSC-52 terminal is one in a family of Defense Satellite Communication Systems Network Terminals operated by the Army, Navy and Air Force throughout the world. The primary program function of 52MOD is to modernize and extend the life of AN/GSC-52 terminals. TRAK will supply Harris with frequency up/down block converters to support the upgrade activity. The complete modernization program is scheduled to be completed over a multi-year period of performance.
Gennum Corp., a volume manufacturer of barium strontium titanate (BST) capacitor chips, announced that Paratek Microwave Inc., a designer of radio frequency solutions, has selected Gennum’s manufacturing process for its proprietary products geared towards the RF markets. The primary application for the products will be in the cell phone market where they will be used to increase the performance of handsets and reduce component size thus allowing incremental form factor reduction and/or feature adds.
RF Engines, a designer of signal processing solutions for FPGA, has been awarded a contract by Thales’ Land and Joint Systems Division for the supply of a complex channelizer design. Building on the successful launch of the ChannelCore product line in December of 2005, this contract calls for a modified version of that product to meet a specific channel plan and FPGA resource availability. Use of the ChannelCore design has enabled Thales to utilize a small FPGA in the project, therefore meeting both space and power consumption targets.
Symmetricom Inc. announced that the company was chosen to supply its master reference oscillator for the Mobile User Objective System (MUOS) satellite led by Lockheed Martin for a US Navy customer. MUOS is a next-generation narrowband tactical satellite communications system designed to significantly improve communications for US forces on the move. Symmetricom’s ultra stable frequency reference was selected based on the program’s cost, performance and schedule requirements.
Unity Wireless Corp. has received purchase orders for its integrated wireless subsystem product from a North American-based wireless network customer. These integrated wireless subsystems form a substantial component of a rapidly deployable, compact base station being readied for deployment by the customer in preparation for use during the present hurricane season.
Financial News
Andrew Corp. reports sales of $551 M for the third quarter of fiscal 2006 ended June 30, 2006, compared to $487 M for the same period in 2005. Net income for the quarter was $7 M ($0.04/per share), compared to a net income of $13 M ($0.08/per share) for the third quarter of last year.
Fairchild Semiconductor reports sales of $409.5 M for the first quarter ended April 2, 2006, compared to $362.8 M for the same period in 2005. Net income for the quarter was $26.6 M ($0.21/per diluted share), compared to a net loss of $10.4 M ($0.09/per diluted share) for the first quarter of last year.
Provigent, a provider of system-on-a-chip solutions for the broadband wireless transmission market, announced it has secured a credit line of $5 M from Plenus Venture Lending.
New Market Entries
Founded in October 2005, Centerline Technologies has been established to meet the changing needs of advanced materials processing. The company’s goal is to provide a world-class resource to develop sophisticated manufacturing processes to produce materials with exceptional quality, delivery and value. Services include lapping, polishing, dicing, laser machining and planarizing of filled vias. For more information, visit www.centerlinetech-usa.com or e-mail: sales@centerlinetech-usa.com.
Bradford RF Sales has been formed as a manufacturer’s representative firm for New England. Mike Crittenden, owner, was the former director of sales for Microwave Development Co. and had over eighteen years with the company selling to military and commercial customers. He can be reached at (978) 521-1701 or via e-mail at mike_bradfordrfsales@comcast.net.
Coaxial Precision Assemblies Inc. (CPA) designs and manufactures semi-rigid, hand-formable and flexible cable assemblies as well as connectors. Cable assemblies can be phase, delay or amplitude matched. The quality of workmanship shows in both good electrical performance and tight tolerance of dimensions from unit to unit. The company can be contacted at 7439 La Palma Avenue #228, Buena Park, CA 90620 (562) 472-0083 or fax: (562) 684-4545.
Personnel
John H. Warner, Jr.
Jacket Micro Devices (JMD) Inc. announced that Joseph A. Crupi has been named to the JMD board of directors. Crupi has had a distinguished career in the electronics and communications industry. Most recently, he was the vice president, Broadband Communications Group at Texas Instruments.
Mimix Broadband Inc. announced that its shareholders have elected John H. Warner, Jr. to its board of directors, increasing the number of directors to eight. Warner is currently executive vice president of Science Applications International Corp. (SAIC). He joined SAIC as a member of the technical staff in 1973 and served on its board of directors for nearly twenty years.
WJ Communications Inc. announced the appointment of Patrice Daniels to its board of directors. She was elected to WJ’s board and appointed as a member of its Audit Committee, effective immediately. The company also announced that Dag Wittusen has resigned from his position as a member of the board of directors of WJ for personal reasons. Daniels is currently chief operating officer of International Education Corp., a private post-secondary education company.
Casey Krawiec
EMS Technologies Inc. has reported that Francis J. Erbrick and Bradford W. Parkinson were elected to join its board of directors at the Annual Meeting of Shareholders. Erbrick and Parkinson join the six directors who had been previously serving, and who were also re-elected to additional one-year terms at the Annual Meeting. Erbrick has worked since 1997 as a consultant with the Business Technology Office of McKinsey & Co., Stamford, CT (since 1997), providing information technology consulting services, typically to large companies. Parkinson holds the title of Professor Emeritus at Stanford University, where he continues to have substantially full-time research and student advisory responsibilities.
Peregrine Semiconductor announced that Craig H. Ensley has joined its executive team as president and chief operating officer, and has been elected to the board of directors. Ensley has 30 years of broad experience in the semiconductor and systems technology industries, spanning venture capital start-ups to multi-hundred-million dollar public corporations. Most recently, Ensley was with Cirrus Logic, where he led repositioning of the firm to be a highly profitable mixed-signal analog IC company.
Casey Krawiec
StratEdge announced that Casey Krawiec has been promoted to vice president of North American sales. Krawiec joined StratEdge in August 2002 as senior account manager. His experience includes engineering and sales in the microelectronics and telecommunications industries, especially with high frequency semiconductor packaging and assembly. Prior to joining StratEdge, Krawiec spent seven years at Kyocera America, San Diego, CA, where he held the positions of offshore sales manager and sales engineer.
Aeroflex/KDI Resistors announced the appointment of Richard Galgano as general manager of Aeroflex/KDI-Resistor Products. Galgano succeeds Robert Hathaway who recently announced his retirement as Aeroflex/KDI-Resistor Products general manager. Hathaway will continue working with resistor products in a consulting capacity. Prior to re-joining Aeroflex, Galgano held various product, process and manufacturing engineering management positions at SGS-Thomson, L-3 and EMC Technologies. Since 2002 he has managed his own business, providing consulting services to a wide variety of top-tier companies, including Aeroflex.
Alexander Duesener
Cadence Design Systems has appointed Alexander Duesener as group director of marketing for the company’s activities in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA). He will hold overall responsibility for platform, product, kits and corporate marketing in EMEA. In his previous role as technical advisor, Duesener was instrumental in helping to define and drive implementation of innovative marketing strategies around core products and new strategic initiatives such as Cadence kits for vertical markets and product segmentation.
Sabritec, a custom connecting devices manufacturer, has strengthened its operations within Europe with the appointment of Steve Humphries as European sales manager. In this position, Humphries will be responsible for building on the relationships and partnerships already established throughout Europe by providing commercial and technical product support locally. Prior to joining Sabritec, Humphries was the European sales manager for Florida RF Labs and EMC Technology, where he was responsible for all sales within Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
Steve Humphries
Dow-Key® Microwave Corp. announced that Twyla Veal has been named regional sales manager. In her new position, Veal will manage all sales activity in southern California, New England, upstate New York and Canada. In addition, she will oversee service and technical support for customers in these regions. Prior to joining Dow-Key Microwave, Veal spent 10 years at Relcomm Technologies Inc., where, most recently, she served as sales and marketing services manager.
NEC Corp. of America Inc. announced the appointment of James Limanowski as the central regional sales manager for NEC’s Radio Communications Systems Division. Limanowski will oversee sales, networking and promotional activities required to grow NEC’s microwave presence in the Midwest.
M/A-COM Inc. announced that Ian Gresham, senior principal engineer at the company’s Lowell, MA headquarters, has been awarded the 2006 Outstanding Young Engineer Award from the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) Microwave Theory and Techniques Society (MTT-S). Gresham was given the award in recognition of his leadership in the research and development of technological advances in millimeter-wave silicon and gallium arsenide-based circuits including system-on-chip applications for commercial and defense applications.
Twyla Veal
Cascade Microtech announced that Eric Strid and Reed Gleason, co-founders of Cascade Microtech, have received the Southwest Test Workshop Lifetime Achievement Award for more than 25 years of outstanding technical contributions to the field of RF wafer level measurements, including the development of the Pyramid probe, a unique production probe card technology that enables highly accurate and reliable at-speed production tests on high performance, high speed and high density semiconductor and related devices. Strid and Gleason were recognized at SWTW 2006, a research forum sponsored by the IEEE Computer Society that focuses on all aspects associated with microelectronic wafer and die level testing.
Rep Appointments
DesignAdvance™ Systems Inc., a developer of design automation software for users of EDA and MCAD tools, announced its entrance into the European PCB design market with the appointment of CADLOG as its distribution partner. CADLOG, based in Rome, Italy, is a supplier of design tools and services for the PCB and electronics industries in Italy and southern Europe.
Ian Gresham
Mica Microwave announced the appointment of Brennan Associates as its exclusive sales representative in Florida, Georgia, Tennessee, Mississippi, North Carolina and South Carolina. Brennan Associates’ main office is located at 1428A Gulf to Bay Blvd., Clearwater, FL 33758 (727) 446-5006, fax: (407) 239-6229 or e-mail: sales@brennanassoc.net.
Renaissance Electronics announced the appointment of the company’s newest sales representative servicing the country of Israel — RST Reut-Systems and Advanced Technologies for its waveguide product line. Moshe Shani of RST can be contacted via e-mail: moshe@rst-tech.co.il or phone: 972-(0) 52-6545000.
Panasonic Industrial Co. announced the appointment of Digi-Key as an authorized distributor for its line of RF modules including the PAN802154 wireless communication module supporting the 802.15.4 radio standard and the ZigBee™ specification.