Industry News

VXI Technology purchased the Mechanical Data Acquisition Business Segment from Agilent Technologies , announcing its initial entry into this market. This Lake Stevens DSA division has been providing data acquisition solutions since 1972 and has a large installed customer base worldwide.


BAE SYSTEMS North America completed its acquisition of Washington, DC-based Advanced Power Technologies Inc. (APTI), following receipt of regulatory approval. The $27 M cash transaction complements the company's intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance exploitation and information processing for defense, civil and commercial uses. The 17-year-old APTI will change its name to BAE SYSTEMS Advanced Technologies, a fully integrated organization operating within the company's Information and Electronic Warfare Systems (IEWS) business unit. IEWS is headquartered in Nashua, NH.

Cree Inc. announced that Sumitomo Corp. has agreed to purchase approximately $100 M of Cree's light emitting diode products through Cree's fiscal year ending June 2004 subject to end customer demand and other terms and conditions. Cree and Sumitomo anticipate that the purchases will cover Cree's full line of LED products representing its standard brightness devices, its MegaBright™ and other mid-brightness devices, and its XBright™ LEDs.

Circuit Check Inc. announced the acquisition of Southwest Test Inc. Under the terms of the acquisition, Circuit Check will purchase the operating assets and liabilities of Southwest Test. This strategic combination will create a large fixture manufacturer in North America offering electronics test solutions to multiple end markets.

Rogers Induflex N.V. of Gent, Belgium, and Prymetall GmbH & Co. KG of Stolberg, Germany, announced that they have entered into a long-term agreement to work together as partners in the development of an advanced cable shielding product line. Prymetall will supply copper strips to Rogers Induflex N.V. to be laminated and slit into tapes. In addition to supplying the copper, Prymetall will also assume primary responsibility for the sales and marketing of the products.

A "know-how" transfer and license agreement has been established between Degussa AG and LPKF Laser & Electronics AG . With this contract, Degussa AG has obtained the license to produce and sell doped, cross-linkable PBT (polybutylene terephthalate) granulate. As a result, a special doped thermoplastic material is available worldwide for the electronics industry, significantly increasing the applications for LPKF laser technology in the three-dimensional molded interconnect devices industry. On the basis of this granulate, the surface of thermoplastics can be activated and metallized by a laser system developed and sold by LPKF. This technology was developed to transfer conductor functions directly onto the inside of the casing. This results in process and cost advantages for the production of three-dimensional parts in the mechanical-electronics and microelectronics industry.

Schlegel Systems Inc. and Fairpoint Industrial Ltd. have established a new company, Schlegel Far East Ltd., to extend the availability of the Schlegel product line of EMI shielding products to the Far East. The new company, which is located in Hong Kong, completes Schlegel's global support and manufacturing network and fits in with its strategy of making products easily accessible to the Asian market. The company recently opened a manufacturing facility in Dongguan City, Guangdong Province, China.

RF Micro Devices Inc. announced the opening of a new design center in Boulder, CO. The design center is staffed with a team of senior engineers with design expertise in wireless systems architectures. The Boulder office will focus on designing low cost, highly optimized integrated solutions that support the convergence of multiple standards, such as cellular, wireless LAN, Bluetooth™ and global positioning systems. RFMD anticipates the design center will leverage the company's position in the cellular and wireless LAN markets to enable highly integrated convergence solutions. RFMD established its Boulder design center by acquiring the assets, primarily intellectual property, of Channel Technology , a privately held RF and mixed signal semiconductor company providing solutions in wireless data communications. Specific terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Kyocera America Inc. announced that it plans to move its Beaverton, OR, low temperature co-fired ceramic manufacturing operations into its 288,000 sq. ft. main manufacturing facility in San Diego, CA. The move is expected to be complete by August 31, 2003. The move is not expected to affect manufacturing capabilities, capacities or planned shipments.

Alcatel North America-Ferrocom Ferrite Products has moved to a new location. The new address is 720 S. Milpitas Blvd., Milpitas, CA 95035 (408) 945-2200, fax (408) 945-1350.

Vitelec Electronics , part of Emerson Network Power, has doubled the capacity of its RF cable assembly facility at Bordon, Hampshire, UK, as a result of its growing demand from design engineers, installers and OEMs for standard and custom-built cable assemblies. This dedicated facility offers the customer help at every stage in their product life cycle - from initial design concept through to full production.

Radio Waves Inc. is celebrating the one-year anniversary of its UK facility. Radio Waves supports customers in Europe, Africa and the Middle East from its UK manufacturing facility. The company's manufacturing capability, combined with the systems and support skills of the new director of EMEA sales, Steve Blades, makes Radio Waves a source for microwave antennas in Europe, Africa, the Middle East and globally.

The Micromanipulator Co. announced that it has been awarded patents for its NANO-100™ SEM-based probing system for probing structures less than 300 nm. Patents #6,191,598B1 and #6,198,299B1 incorporate a method and system for probing with electrical test signals on an integrated circuit specimen using a scanning electron microscope.

Hittite Microwave Corp. , a designer and manufacturer of RFICs, MMICs, MCMs and MIC assemblies for RF/microwave applications, has successfully completed a transition of its Quality Management System culminating in a recertification audit to the requirements of ISO9001-2000.

OMMIC has obtained the ISO 9001 version 2000 certification for the design and manufacturing operations of its III-V MMIC foundry as well as its epitaxial wafer production facility. This certification covers the most recent version of the ISO standard that has adopted a process approach to quality management, which puts the customer and continual improvement at the front of the quality system. The company also recently gained the ISO 14001 environmental management certification in May 2002 for its manufacturing clean rooms and support facilities.

Tyco Electronics announced that its Hermosillo, Mexico plant and Mt. Joy, PA operation have received qualifications from the Defense Supply Center Columbus. The Hermosillo facility completed its Periodic Retention of Qualification for the RF products associated with military specification MIL-PRF-39012. This qualification runs through December 2005. The Periodic Retention of Qualification allows Tyco Electronics to offer these high reliability RF connectors to the military and aerospace markets. Additionally, Tyco Electronics' Mt. Joy facility recently certified to a Category 2 Plant Move Qualification for RF products associated with MIL-PRF-39012 as well as MIL-PRF-55339 and MIL-C-83517.

Nurad Technologies Inc. , part of the Chelton Microwave Group, was selected for the 2002 US Senate Productivity Award. An independent committee appointed by Senators Paul Sarbanes (D-MD) and Barbara Mikulski (D-MD), in cooperation with the Maryland Center for Quality and Productivity, selected Nurad in recognition of its strong growth and exceptional business practices. Nurad Technologies Inc. designs, develops and is a manufacturer of radio frequency, microwave and millimeter-wave airborne antennas and radomes for military and commercial communications and electronic warfare applications.

CONTRACTS

TriPoint Global Communications announced its VertexRSI business unit has received a contract to provide a 4.1 m optical telescope pedestal to the United Kingdom Astronomy Technology Center (UK ATC) for the VISTA program. Under the terms of the contract, valued at $8.6 M, VertexRSI will provide the pedestal, drive and control system, M1 mirror cell, supports and actuators, Cassegrain instrument rotator and ancillary equipment. The equipment will be produced at VertexRSI's controls and structures business in Richardson, TX. The customer will provide the mirrors and instruments, which will include a near infrared camera in the first instance.

MI Technologies announced it has been selected by Instituto Nacional De Tecnica Aeroespacial (INTA), Madrid, Spain to complete the development and installation of a compact range for antenna and radar cross section test and measurement work. Under the terms of the contract, which exceeds $4 M, MI Technologies will install a large MI-5730 compact range reflector and feed positioner. MI Technologies will also supply its MI-2097 automatic measurement system for data acquisition and test.

Radio Frequency Investigation Ltd. (RFI) has secured a contract with Anritsu for the validation of its 3G products. RFI will start the validation of two of Anritsu's products, the ME7873A mobile communications test system for RF and performance testing of physical layer 1 and the protocol test system based around Anritsu's MD8480 signaling unit. These test systems are designed to perform tests specified by 3GPP for UMTS terminals.

Veeco Instruments Inc. announced that it has received a US order for a GEN2000™ molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) system. This is the second multi-million dollar order Veeco has received for this system in the last two months.

Rohde & Schwarz has gained an important order from the Brazilian Army to supply tactical HF/VHF radios. This large order includes both vehicle and manpack versions of the M3TR family. The software radios feature multiband (different frequency bands), multimode (different radio modes) and multirole (different transmission modes) functionality. The order, which is scheduled for shipment in 2004, marks an important milestone for Rohde & Schwarz on the way to enhancing the success of its radio generation.

Boeing will join the Lockheed Martin General Dynamics team competing for the Mobile User Objective System, or MUOS, a multi-satellite system that will improve ground communications for US forces on the move. Selection of the final design for the MUOS system is scheduled for 2004, with initial operational capability expected in early 2008 and full capability by 2013. The US Navy Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command, located in San Diego, CA, manages the program.

XEMICS has appointed Future Electronics as pan-European distributor for its complete range of ultra low power semiconductors for wireless, sensing, GPS and Bluetooth™ systems. This agreement extends the successful co-operation between the two companies started in 2001 in North America. Future's broad market coverage coupled with a high level of local technical support will provide XEMICS customers with a high quality local service.

FINANCIAL NEWS

Linear Technology Corp. reports sales of $153.8 M for the third quarter ended March 30, 2003, compared to $130.2 M for the same period in 2002. Net income was $60.6 M (0.19¢/diluted), compared to a net income of $51.5 M (0.16¢/diluted) for the third quarter of last year.

RF Micro Devices Inc. reports sales of $138.3 M for the fourth quarter ended March 31, 2003, compared to $100.4 M for the same period in 2002. Net loss was $13.0 M (0.07¢/diluted), compared to a net income of $2.8 M (0.02¢/diluted) for the fourth quarter of last year.

Silicon Laboratories Inc. reports sales of $63.8 M for the first quarter ended March 29, 2003, compared to $28.8 M for the same period in 2002. Net loss was $1.0 M (0.02¢/per share), compared to a net income of $356,000 (0.01¢/diluted) for the first quarter of last year.

Cree Inc. reports sales of $60.2 M for the third quarter ended March 30, 2003, compared to $33.4 M for the same period in 2002. Net income was $10.6 M (0.14¢/diluted), compared to a net loss of $68.3 M (0.94¢/diluted) for the third quarter of last year.

Superconductor Technologies Inc. reports sales of $7.6 M for the first quarter ended March 29, 2003, compared to $4.6 M in the first quarter of 2002. Net loss was $8.3 M (0.14¢/per share), compared to a net loss of $6.4 M (0.33¢/per share) for the first quarter of last year.

PERSONNEL

Narda Microwave-West, an L-3 Communications company, announced that Alex Lapidus has joined the organization as the engineering manager for Passive Products. Lapidus, who will be instrumental in addressing new opportunities integrating its products into subassemblies, has over 20 years experience in designing and developing microwave and millimeter-wave components and subsystems.

Stealth Microwave™ announced the appointment of Carolyn Dettrey as sales manager. Joining the company from California Eastern Laboratories, Dettrey brings over 15 years experience in RF and microwave sales to her new position. She will be responsible for all domestic and international sales and marketing, and strategic business development for the company's single and multi-channel solid-state power amplifiers.

Steven Iskra has joined WPI Cable Systems/Mutron, located in Chelsea, MA, as regional sales manager. Iskra will be responsible for serving customers in the New England region and for new account development through creative sales strategies. Iskra brings with him over 20 years experience in the cable assembly market, as both a manufacturing engineer and a sales specialist. He has worked with AMETEK Aerospace, North American Industries, and Tensolite in Massachusetts, where he increased sales and implemented strategic customer management programs.

Eagleware Corp. announced the appointment of Bill Clausen as product manager. Before joining Eagleware, Clausen was a RF and microwave/optics applications engineer with HP/Agilent for 23 years. Prior to his career with HP/Agilent, Clausen held staff engineer positions at Trak Microwave and Sperry Microwave in Clearwater, FL. As product manager, he is responsible for the continuous development of the Eagleware product line as well as application and support.

Wind River Systems Inc. has appointed Matthias Stumpf as marketing manager for Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Stumpf's main role at Wind River is to generate broader awareness of the company. He will also work to target Wind River's vertical markets for aerospace/defense, industrial, automotive and networking and consumer, creating new synergies to provide innovative marketing solutions and services for a wide range of customers.

REP APPOINTMENTS

Chelton Microwave Corp. and its four operating divisions, Atlantic Microwave, Continental Microwave, Kevlin and Nurad Technologies Inc., have appointed new representatives to assist in marketing their antenna, radome, microwave components, integrated circuits, waveguide and rotary joint products. Giza Technologies will market products in Spain, and Sematron UK Ltd. in the United Kingdom and Ireland.

Lorch Microwave announced the appointments of three new sales representatives. ATM Mid-Atlantic will cover Maryland, Virginia and Washington, DC. RF Associates Inc. , headquartered in Topsfield, MA, will handle Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont, Maine, Rhode Island and Connecticut. Cain-Pollock will be responsible for sales in Colorado, Utah, Montana and Wyoming.

Palomar Technologies announced it has entered into agreements with several companies to sell Palomar's assembly automation products and process development services in Asia. Autron , a system integrator in the Asian market, will offer Palomar's equipment and process solutions to its expanding optoelectronics customer base in Malaysia, Thailand, Taiwan and China. Palomar's representatives in China also include Dymek Asia and ETSC Tech. Globaltech Corp. will represent Palomar in the Philippines, with Qualmax Inc. in South Korea, and Marubun Corp. in Japan.

StratEdge announced that it has selected Advanced Technology Marketing Inc. , Chelmsford, MA, to sell its products in the northeast United States. Advanced Technology Marketing provides application engineering and technical sales support in New England. They will be representing the StratEdge hermetic glass-to-metal seal packages, plastic equivalent packages and metal packages for telecommunications that are manufactured in StratEdge's Taunton, MA plant.

WEB SITES

Agilent Technologies Inc. announced the availability of the Agilent EEsof Knowledge Center, a new Web-based "one-stop shop" for engineers who need electronic design automation technical information and support tools. The EEsof Knowledge Center helps engineers take full advantage of EDA design tools and improves productivity by providing easy access to technical documents, support examples, software downloads and discussion forums. For more information, visit www.agilent.com/find/eesof-support.

Tecan.co.uk is designed to be interactive, providing data in the form of quick and easy to download .pdf files on the company's activity in the provision of RFI screening, solder paste stencils, photo-etching and electroforming to produce high accuracy and micro-specification and micro-size metal parts.

Empower RF Systems' revised Web site provides an expanded product line of rack mount systems and modules for broadband, narrow band, general and PCS communication amplifiers. It allows the visitor to select a standard model or build an amplifier to meet specific requirements and provides data, specifications and drawings on each amplifier. Since the company's recent move to Inglewood, CA, it has added additional engineering and production resources to support its expanding customer base in military, commercial and industrial markets. For more information, visit www.EmpowerRF.com.