Industry News
Microsemi Corp. and Advanced Power Technology Inc. (APT) announced the signing of a definitive agreement for Microsemi to acquire APT. With this acquisition, Microsemi, a designer and manufacturer of high performance analog solutions and high reliability semiconductor solutions, expands its portfolio of analog mixed signal offering in the RF marketplace and also its high reliability offering in the defense/aerospace and medical marketplace. Under the terms of the agreement, each APT shareholder will receive $2.00 per share in cash and 0.435 shares of Microsemi common stock for each share of APT common stock.
EMS Technologies Inc. announced the closing of the sale of its Space & Technology/Montreal division to MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates Ltd., Vancouver, BC, Canada. EMS originally announced the signing of a definitive agreement for the sale on October 31st. The two companies have worked to obtain the necessary approvals from the Competition Bureau, Industry Canada pursuant to the Competition Act, customers and other third parties. Final terms of the sale were not disclosed.
Agilent Technologies Inc. announced an agreement with Auriga Measurement Systems to jointly develop and market integrated device-modeling systems for the semiconductor industry. The companies plan to pair Agilent’s IC-CAP parameter extraction and device modeling software and instrumentation with Auriga’s test instrumentation. The first system planned is a pulsed-bias/pulsed-RF solution for isothermal characterization and modeling. As part of this agreement, Auriga plans to develop software modules for Agilent’s IC-CAP software, providing measurement and hardware drivers to allow data acquisition, and new device model extraction routines for Auriga device models.
Cascade Microtech is expanding its capabilities in the semiconductor failure analysis market. In August 2005, the company introduced eVue digital imaging system, a new tool for sub-micron probing to ease the problems of failure analysis on rapidly shrinking geometries. Cascade Microtech announced it has entered into a business and technology partnership with Credence Systems Corp. to further expand its failure analysis market penetration. The terms of the relationship were not disclosed.
Taconic and Modelithics™ announced that they have begun a collaboration whereby Modelithics will significantly increase its use of Taconic’s high performance printed circuit board substrate materials in developing its substrate-scalable discrete and surface-mount component models for active and passive components.
TestMart announced an agreement with Ophir RF, a designer and manufacturer of high power, solid-state, broadband and band-specific amplifiers. The deal provides the US government and federal contractor marketplace with special pricing on a select catalog of RF power amplifiers. In related news, Summitek Instruments, a manufacturer of software products designed to automate spectrum management as well as S-parameter measurements, announced a new partnership agreement with TestMart Inc. TestMart will provide government marketplace services to better serve Summitek’s diverse United States federal and defense-related customers. The agreement authorizes TestMart to present a special catalog of Summitek products to be made available specifically to the government and military markets.
Xpedion Design Systems Inc., a provider of next generation RFIC simulation, and Jazz Semiconductor, an independent wafer foundry focused primarily on specialty CMOS process technologies, announced a partnership to deliver a qualified model and simulation environment for next generation RFIC design.
Andrew Corp. has signed a WCDMA infrastructure patent license agreement with QUALCOMM Inc. Under the terms of the worldwide royalty-bearing agreement, QUALCOMM has granted Andrew a license to develop, manufacture and sell WCDMA picocell and microcell base station systems.
WiQuest Communications Inc., a fabless semiconductor company focused on the design and production of complete high performance, ultrawideband (UWB) wireless solutions, announced the opening of its first international customer development and sales support center. The new WiQuest office is located at 23F, No. 105, Sec. 2, Tun Hua South Road, Da An District, Taipei City, Taiwan, ROC. The phone number is +886-2-2709-7816 and e-mail is info@wiquest.com.
Shimadzu Scientific Instruments Inc., a developer of analytical instrumentation, announced the availability of a complete range of analytical instruments to assist manufacturers in attaining Restriction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS) directive and Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) directive regulatory compliance. In addition, Shimadzu provides all the equipment that companies need to assess ongoing compliance with established end-of-life vehicle regulations.
Centro de Tecnología de las Comunicaciones S.A. (CETECOM), in Spain, has enhanced its accredited testing service range for the mobile communications industry. CETECOM Spain has been granted ISO 17025 accreditation for testing of 3G technologies, enabling it to offer conformance testing services for 2G/2.5G and 3G technologies, covering RF, protocol, SIM/USIM and audio capabilities.
The Swiss HUBER+SUHNER Group, a global supplier of components and systems for electrical and optical connectivity, has been producing radio frequency products at its subsidiary company in Tzcew/Gdansk, Poland, since 2003. In November 2005, this plant received the ISO/TS 16949 certificate and now represents the company’s third site to be awarded a certificate for this exacting automotive standard.
Jacket Micro Devices Inc., an integrator of RF components used in wireless communication products, announced that it has joined the WiMAX Forum, an industry consortia dedicated to promoting and certifying compatibility and interoperability of broadband wireless products.
RF Micro Devices Inc. (RFMD) announced it has commenced shipments of highly integrated transmit modules to multiple handset manufacturers. Transmit modules are comprised of RFMD’s power amplifiers with integrated PHEMT switch technology.
ANADIGICS Inc. announced that the company is shipping production volumes of InGaP HBT power amplifiers to LG Electronics for the VX9800 CDMA phone.
Contracts
Sensors Unlimited Inc. announced it has been awarded a contract by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Microsystems Technology Office to develop a 1280 × 1024 pixel, dual-wavelength, visible and shortwave infrared focal plane array. The contract will be awarded in three, 12-month phases and if fully executed, will total $4,576,176.
AR Worldwide Modular RF announced that it has received an order from Amron International for 71 tactical communications amplifiers. The order, for model KMW1030 (20 W, CW 30 to 512 MHz), is the latest in a series of orders from Amron, and is unique in that the amplifiers ordered are specifically for use in “HumVee” fighting vehicles rather than as Man-Pack units. AR Worldwide was awarded the order mainly because of its ability to customize the units and deliver them in a short time period.
Boeing Co., Kent, WA, has placed a follow-on order for a space qualified hermetically sealed multi-throw switch in support of its Sea Launch Program. Renaissance Electronics has developed mechanical processes to achieve the severe requirements for space flight applications. Renaissance participation in this space flight program further expands the company’s ability to support high level defense and space programs.
RF Industries’ RF Neulink Telemetry Division announced it has been awarded an initial contract, valued at approximately $300,000, for its flagship NL6000 wireless modem for the program manager for training systems, training products and services provider to the US Marine Corps. (USMC). The contract includes $71,000 of non-recurring engineering expenses procured by SRI International, the USMC’s lead systems integrator for range modernization and transformation.
Financial News
Ansoft Corp. reports sales of $18 M for the second quarter of fiscal 2006 ended October 31, 2005, compared to $15.9 M for the same period in fiscal 2005. Net income for the quarter was $4.1 M ($0.32/per diluted share), compared to a net income of $1.9 M ($0.14/per diluted share) for the second quarter of last year.
New Market Entry
Silicon Laboratories Inc., a designer of high performance, analog-intensive, mixed-signal ICs, announced its entry into the frequency control market with the Si530 and Si550 families of oscillators (XO) and voltage-controlled oscillators (VCXO) for applications up to 1.4 GHz. These product families include the quad frequency XO and VCXO devices. Leveraging the company’s DSPLL“ technology, both the Si530 and Si550 families provide short lead times, high reliability and good performance that make them ideal for applications such as networking equipment, base stations, test and measurement equipment, and storage area networks.
Personnel
Peter W. Staecker has been elected to serve as vice president-elect of IEEE Technical Activities. He will assume the office as vice president on January 1, 2007.
Erik Tobiason
Erik Tobiason has accepted the position of president of Vitronics Soltec. Tobiason takes the helm of Vitronics Soltec after five years of serving as president of Graphics Microsystems Inc. (GMI), a Dover Diversified company. Tobiason began his career with Dover as vice president engineering and R&D of GMI.
WJ Communications announced that it has appointed Haresh P. Patel as senior vice president, sales and marketing. Patel brings over 22 years of semiconductor industry experience managing sales, marketing and divisional P&L organizations. Patel replaces Javed S. Patel, who has resigned from his position at the company. Most recently, Patel was vice president, worldwide sales and marketing at Agilent Technologies, where he managed a 350 person sales and marketing organization.
Jerry Brown
Jerry Brown has been named vice president of sales for LBA Technology Inc. Brown will manage sales and distribution of LBA antenna system and related radio frequency products.
Steve Lu
picoChip an-nounced it has appointed Steve Lu to be the company’s vice president sales Asia Pacific. Most recently, Lu was vice president of marketing and strategy for Sipod Communications in Shanghai, China.
Aperto Networks, a WiMAX sys-tems provider, announced that it has appointed Glenn Tamaru as vice president of operations. Tamaru, who has 25 years of operations experience, was most recently vice president of operations at GoDigital Networks in Fremont, CA.
Bruce Valentine
IDI/Synergetix announced that Bruce Valentine has joined the team by accepting the position of business development manager for connector products in Europe. Valentine will help to guide business growth of the OEM product sales in the European sales region.
Jarlath Lally
4RF Communications has appointed Jarlath Lally to the role of global director of marketing. He will operate from 4RF Europe, based in the UK, where he will be responsible for helping the company to expand its global customer reach, and develop new markets for its wireless networking solutions. Lally has worked for 4RF Communications since January 2005 as a strategic account manager. From 2002 to 2004, he worked as an independent consultant with a client list that included network operators, regulators and ICT equipment vendors. Prior to that he held management roles at Cisco, Stratex Networks and NEC.
Comarco Wireless Test Solutions announced that Carlos Oliu and Charles Blount have joined the company as managers of South American sales and North American sales, respectively. They will also oversee the rapidly expanding distribution networks in their territories. Oliu served as a major accounts executive with Willtech International, marketing wireless testing equipment to carriers. Blount supervised and directed technical sales support and all engineering services sales for wireless test systems at Ericsson.
Rep Appointments
Aeroflex has signed a distribution agreement with Maxtronix Inc. to distribute its product portfolio in the Philippines. Under the terms of the agreement, Maxtronix will operate as exclusive distributor for Aeroflex ATE products and services including flying probe test systems, power manufacturing defects analyzers, and in-circuit and combinational testers. The distributor has offices in Paranaque City and Cebu City, dedicated to selling sophisticated equipment for semiconductor, SMT and thru hole assembly technology.
Nordic Semiconductor and Nu Horizons Asia Ptd. Ltd. announced the signing of a Pan-Asian partnership agreement. This agreement involves the distribution for all of Nordic’s products throughout the territories of China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, India, Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Australia and New Zealand.
MI Technologies announced it has selected Adler Instrumentos S.L., Madrid and Barcelona, to represent the company’s line of RF and microwave test and measurement products to customers in Spain. MI Technologies’ automated test and measurement systems are used to evaluate wireless, satellite and telematics antennas, radomes, radar cross section and microwave component characteristics.
Microtech announced the appointment of Hytech Associates Inc. as its exclusive sales representative for southern California. Hytech can be reached at 717 Lakefield Road, Suite B, Westlake Village, CA 91361 (818) 991-7491, fax: (805) 379-2128 or e-mail: hytech@hyth.com.
International Manufacturing Services Inc. (IMS), a manufacturer of high quality thick film resistors and substrates to the electronics industry, announced the appointment of W. Howard Associates Inc. to represent its products in the states of Colorado, Utah, Montana, Wyoming and Idaho. The company can be contacted at 6770 S. Dawson Circle, Suite 100, Centennial, CO 80112-4224 (303) 766-5755, fax: (303) 766-2488 or e-mail: service@whoward.com. In related news, IMS announced the appointment of NextWave Technologies to represent its products in Israel. NextWave can be reached at PO Box 25180, Tel-Aviv 61253 Israel 972-3-9619000, fax: 972-3-9619005 or visit www.nextwave.co.il.
Wenzel Associates Inc., a manufacturer of precision low noise crystal oscillators and related RF devices, subassemblies and synthesizers for the communications, navigation, military and test equipment markets, announced the appointment of C-Wave Inc. as the company’s representative for southern California. C-Wave can be reached at (310) 937-3521 or visit www.cwaveinc.com.
RelComm Technologies Inc., a designer and manufacturer of RF coaxial relay products, has appointed Associate Technical Sales LLC to represent the company in southern California. For more information, visit www.ats1rep.com.
Praxsym Inc. announced the addition of Winncom Technologies as a registered distributor for resale of the PM-2458 broadband wireless power meter. Winncom Technologies is a provider of wireless networking solutions, offering a complete selection of unlicensed and licensed wireless data and voice products. For more information on the PM-2458, visit www.vswrmeter.com.
Web site
American Technical Ceramics (ATC) introduced expanded product offerings for ATC QUIKBuy™, where customers may place on-line orders for small product quantities. ATC QUIKBuy offers the EIA-size ultra-low ESR capacitors, the 600F (0805) and 600S (0603). ATC has now expanded its on-line product offerings to include the 600L (0402), as well as RF capacitors: the 100A (0505) and 100B (1111). The ATC QUIKBuy Product Selector enables customers to easily select specific capacitance values and case sizes. ATC QUIKBuy also creates an on-line customer profile to expedite repeat orders. Visit www.atceramics.com and select: ATC QUIKBuy.