INDUSTRY NEWS


Delta RF Technology Inc. purchased high power RF amplifier manufacturer Silicon Valley Power Amplifier Corp. (SVPA) The purchase will allow Delta RF to offer a broader array of products and gain a step of vertical integration in the commercial FM radio market.

Unitek Miyachi International Ltd. acquired selected assets of MicroJoin Inc. Assets purchased from the Palomar Companies include property, all products, systems, equipment and designs, patent rights, trademarks, brand, company and domain names. The former MicroJoin will cease operations.

MEMSCAP has entered an agreement to acquire substantially all of the business and assets of JDS Uniphase's Cronos MEMS business unit. The acquisition provides MEMSCAP with a fully operational unit that is established in MEMS design and foundry services, as well as in optical MEMS.

Peregrine Semiconductor announced a dedicated company unit specifically targeted at developing products for the stringent quality needs of the space and defense markets. Peregrine's co-founder and CTO, Ronald Reedy, will head the division as VP of space and defense at the company.

Avnet RF & Microwave has launched Wavelength Design Solutions (WDS) , a new business unit that will provide services and products to offer a total solution to customers incorporating wireless technology into their end products. WDS was created to help meet the growing demand from original equipment manufacturers, original design manufacturers and enterprises that plan to incorporate wireless technology into their end products, but do not necessarily have the technical expertise and resources to do the job internally.

Boldt Metronics International Inc. (BMI) has expanded its manufacturing capabilities to a new location in Shanghai, China. BMI opened the new Asian factory to stay ahead of increased demand, especially from the telecom industry, a very fast growing market in the Far East. From this 15,000 square-foot facility, BMI will manufacture its EMI shield and contacts for the Asian market.

RF Micro Devices Inc. has opened a new sales and customer support office located at The Imperial Tower, Tokyo, Japan. The Japan sales and customer support team, which will be located in the new office, was first established in January 2001.

With a focus on increasing the development of advanced hybrid technology for the automotive and telecom industries, the TT Electronics BI Technologies Electronic Components Division recently invested more than $3 M in the expansion of the Fullerton, CA, microcircuits facility. By doubling the size of the factory to include a 5500 square-foot class 10,000 clean room with class 100 operational areas and investing in high speed automated equipment for all microcircuit operations, the company is also positioned to respond to the recent demands for military grade chip and wire hybrids.

Talley Communications Corp. has purchased a new corporate headquarters facility in Los Angeles, CA, more than doubling the size of the prior building. This 80,000 square-foot warehouse and sales facility will allow the company to better service its customers with wireless communications infrastructure, mobile communications and power products.

Merrimac Industries Inc. has opened a new 36,000 square-foot Multi-Mix® manufacturing facility in San Jose, CA. This state-of-the-art facility more than doubles the company's existing system in New Jersey, and is optimally organized for high volume production.

Fox Electronics Inc. has announced a major increase in its worldwide production capacity and a significantly expanded presence in the Asian-Pacific region. The company added a 73,000 square-foot production facility outside of Shanghai to its worldwide manufacturing operations. The facility complements the company's existing design and production capabilities and will serve both international and domestic US market demand. In related news, the company created Fox Electronics-Asia. The Hong Kong headquarters will open this month.

SEMX Corp. announced that Polese Co. and Talon Composites have entered into an arrangement for Polese to produce Talbor®, a metal matrix composite consisting of aluminum and boron carbide. This composite will be supplied primarily to the nuclear waste industry for neutron shielding applications.

Actel Corp. and Infineon Technologies AG have entered into a cooperation to develop flash memory field-programmable gate array solutions for production in 0.13-micron chip processes. Building on Actel's flash-based ProASIC FPGA family and Infineon's process technology and manufacturing expertise, the development program will extend the capability of flash-based FPGA technology in both current and new ASIC alternative market segments.

W.L. Gore & Associates Inc. and Alvesta announced a decision to cross-license four-channel parallel optic transceivers as defined by the QuadLink MSA, a multi-source agreement defining small footprint four-channel optical transceivers. The two companies have entered into a technology license agreement that enables both companies to manufacture fully compatible 10-gigabit optical transceivers based on the same underlying optical, electrical and mechanical design.

Rogers Corp. was recognized at SEMICON West 2002 in San Jose, CA, with the 2002 Advanced Packaging Award for its ZYVEX™ Liquid Crystalline Polymer laminates. Rogers was one of 14 recipients of the award.

FINANCIAL NEWS

Linear Technology Corp. reports sales of $140.8 M for the fourth quarter ended June 30, 2002, compared to $200.0 M for the same period in 2001. Net income for the quarter was $55.0 M (17¢/diluted share), compared to $84.8 M (26¢/diluted share) for the fourth quarter of last year.

RF Micro Devices Inc. reports sales of $103.9 M for the first quarter ended June 30, 2002, compared to $70.1 M for the same period in 2001. Net income was $2.3 M (1¢/diluted share), compared to a net loss of $28.4 M (17¢/share) for the first quarter of last fiscal year.

Ansoft Corp. reports sales of $9.3 M for the first quarter ended July 31, 2002, compared to $11.2 M for the same period in 2001. Net loss was $3.3 M (28¢/diluted share), compared to a net loss of $498 K (4¢/diluted share) for the first quarter of last year.

Merrimac Industries Inc. reports sales of $6.46 M for the second quarter ended June 29, 2002, compared to $6.77 M for the same period in 2001. Net loss was $54,000 (2¢/share), compared to a net income of $136,000 (5¢/share) for the second quarter of last year.

Unity Wireless Corp. reports sales of $273,756 for the second quarter ended June 30, 2002, compared to $570,559 for the same period in 2001. Net loss was $1.39 M (4¢/share), compared to a loss of $611,856 (2¢/share) for the second quarter of last year.

Peregrine Semiconductor has raised $14 M in the first tranche of its Series A1 round. This investment was led by Morgenthaler Ventures and Wasserstein Ventures .

CONTRACTS

Lorch Microwave , Salisbury, MD, has been awarded a multi-year contract to supply RF and microwave filters to a multinational defense contractor. The contract is valued in excess of $6 M.

Eagleware has been awarded a small business innovation research phase II contract by the Air Force for enhancements to the GENESYS integrated system-synthesis-circuit design environment. This two-year contract will fund the development of synthesis technology not available in the market today.

On behalf of the German Armed Forces, the Federal Office for Defense Technology and Procurement has contracted Rohde & Schwarz to supply VHF/UHF communications for the TIGER and NH90 military helicopters. The order totals more than Euro 26 M and includes the delivery of M3AR airborne transceivers with the associated control units and several special test systems.

Reynolds Industries has been awarded a contract from Bechtel to provide more than 800 cable assemblies for the US Navy. This award represents Reynolds' fifth configuration of nuclear cable assemblies designed and engineered to meet the US Navy's quality and 20-year life expectancy requirements.

PERSONNEL

Apex Microtechnology Corp. has appointed Debbie Drysdale as its new president and CEO. Most recently, Drysdale served as VP and general manager of the DSP Standard Product division in the Semiconductor Products Sector at Motorola.

Elgar Electronics Corp. has appointed Joseph A. Budano president and CEO. Prior to joining the company, Budano spent seven years at Acterna, where he most recently served as group president of the multi-media group.

RF Micro Devices Inc. has appointed Albert E. Paladino chairman of the board of directors. Paladino has served as an outside director of RF Micro Devices since 1992.

Park Electrochemical Corp. has elected Gary M. Watson the company's senior VP-engineering. Watson has held senior engineering, technology, research, project management and operations positions at various companies. Watson has specialized in, among other things, coating technology.

Rockwell Collins has appointed Ken A. Peterman VP of business development for government systems. In this role, Peterman will be responsible for worldwide sales and marketing activities for Rockwell Collins Government Systems, which provides defense electronics products and systems for airborne, ground and shipboard applications.

SEMX Corp. has named Pradeep Gandhi VP and engineering manager for its Polese Company Inc. division. Gandhi brings with him vast experience in the fields of electronic materials and ceramic packaging, including low temperature co-fired ceramics. Gandhi comes to Polese from Ormet Circuits Inc., where he was president.

GIL Technologies Inc. has hired Douglas J. Sober as its VP, quality assurance. Sober is expected to play an important role in furthering the company's reputation for high manufacturing standards. Sober brings over two decades of base material and printed board expertise to the position. In related news, GIL named Derrick Neo as the company's business director of Asia. Neo will manage the company's new Asian sales office in Shenzhen, China, and will direct all of GIL's sales operations throughout the Asian rim.

Celerity Digital Broadband Test, a division of L-3 Communications, has named Sue Guzman VP of sales. Guzman, who was the western regional sales manager at Teradyne Inc. before joining Celerity, will be responsible for worldwide sales and support, customer satisfaction and rev- enue growth. In related news, the company named Lucy McGuire as western regional sales manager. In this position her responsibilities will include sales, customer service and market development. Prior to joining the company, McGuire was employed by Rational Software as an account executive.

Semflex has hired Jerry Parsons as eastern regional sales manager. Parsons will service the company's customer base in 23 states east of the Mississippi. He brings more than 30 years of sales experience to the position.

Fox Electronics has appointed Stephen So managing director of the newly formed Fox Electronics-Asia to its comprehensive sales network and establish a complete, support and logistics center headquartered in Hong Kong. So most recently served as general manager of Bostex Electronics Pte Ltd. in Singapore.

Palomar Technologies has appointed Wai Seng Chew as director of the company's Asian office. Chew is responsible for business in China, Taiwan, Japan, Korea, Hong Kong, Thailand, Malaysia, The Philippines, Singapore and Indonesia.

Trompeter Elec-tronics has named Ron Desilets to the new position of Mil/Aero business development specialist. His responsibilities will include project sales development and customer support to the military and aerospace markets. Desilets brings more than 20 years of RF and microwave experience to the new position, most recently working in a con-tract capacity with Raytheon Electronic Systems.

TRU Corp. has named Nina Lynch communications coordinator. Lynch, who most recently served as associate producer for New England Cable News, will be responsible for all corporate marketing communications.

REP APPOINTMENTS

Hittite Microwave Corp. appointed Micro Lambda LLC as its sales representative firm in Pennsylvania and southern New Jersey.

Powell Electronics Inc. is now an authorized distributor of Applied Engineering Products (AEP) . Powell will provide the value added distribution services of packaging, kitting and materials planning through its 11 US facilities.

Future Electronics signed an agreement with ILSI America to be a worldwide distributor for ILSI America's broad product line of crystals and oscillators.

Advanced Control Components Inc. , Eatontown, NJ, has made a series of manufacturing representatives appointments. T&E Repco will cover Florida, Georgia, South Carolina and Alabama, while Wavetec will handle Texas. Internationally, Elkay International will be responsible for India, Giza Technologies SA for Spain, SM Engineering Corp. for Korea and Univision Technology Inc. will handle the Republic of China.

AMCOM Communications Inc. , Clarksburg, MD, has appointed KJS Marketing to be the exclusive representatives for Illinois, Missouri, Minnesota, Kansas, Iowa, Nebraska and Wisconsin.

SRI Connector Gage Co. has announced a number of distribution and representative changes. Microwave Components Inc. , Stuart, FL, and Microtek Inc. , West Pont, PA, were named franchised distributors. Comm Tech Sales LLC , Dallas, TX, was appointed representative for Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Louisiana, while EG Holmes & Associates Inc. will be covering most of Florida in addition to the other Southeastern states. Internationally, Global Overseas Co. was appointed representative for South Korea, RF Design will cover South Africa, INTELCOM Ltd. will be responsible for New Zealand and Microwave & Coaxial Components will handle Spain.

Littelfuse Inc. has appointed TTI Inc. as an authorized distributor. The agreement, which includes all Littelfuse circuit protection components, enhances the company's ability to serve the growing market for its range of products.

WEB SITES

OPHIR RF has launched its all new Web site, www.ophirrf.com, which now includes a product search capability, a simple to use 'request for quotation' facility, and a local company representative identifier by selection from a map. Designed for ease of use, visitors to the new site can also request literature, ask for help from an applications engineer and receive new product alerts.

BTC Electronic Components has added a Live Chat feature to its Web site, www.btcelectronics.com. Customers are now able to inquire about any electronic component need, one-on-one, in real time without having to wait for a response via e-mail. Along with the chat feature, product releases that will inform customers of the diverse product offerings by BTC have been added.

Natel Engineering Co. has unveiled its new Web site offering microelectronic design tips, product information and manufacturing solutions. The site, www. natelengr.com, provides an illustrated look at the company's comprehensive microelectronics manufacturing capabilities. Highlights include an on-line facility tour, application examples, and free access to design guides and educational materials.