Industry News
Theodore “Ted” L. Kozul died November 6th, in his home after a long illness. He was 80 years old. Ted was the founder and president of Baytron Co., one of the first companies to offer a full line of millimeter-wave components. His products looked like jewelry and were the standard for many years. Baytron was acquired by M/A-COM in the early ’80s, but was later divested and the company was re-established as Aerowave Inc. Aerowave is still in business today under the leadership of Ted’s son, Leon Kozul. Ted was a member of the IEEE and a veteran of WWII. He was an active participant at MTT-S exhibitions for many years and was well known and respected throughout the industry.
On October 12, 2007, the business known as Sage Laboratories Inc. was acquired by TRU Holdings Inc. Sage Laboratories designs and manufactures RF and microwave components and subsystems for technically demanding applications. Sage solutions are targeted to OEMs and prime contractors in the space, defense, homeland security, medical and commercial markets. TRU Holdings Inc.’s strategy is to build a diverse group of leading RF and microwave technology companies focused on the design, development and manufacture of innovative solutions across the space, defense and commercial markets.
WiMAX test leader Aeroflex and Sequans Communications, a developer of WiMAX semiconductor solutions, have entered into a test technology partnership. Under the terms of the partnership, the two companies will collaborate closely to further speed the ongoing development of their respective WiMAX solutions. Sequans will provide Aeroflex with early access to its new and upgraded WiMAX semiconductor solutions and reference designs. Aeroflex will use them for the ongoing verification of its WiMAX Protocol Conformance Tester (PCT) that is being developed under the auspices of the WiMAX Forum.
Hittite Microwave Corp. announced that it has entered into a strategic agreement with Northrop Grumman to license Northrop Grumman’s Velocium line of Monolithic Microwave Integrated Circuit (MMIC) products and related intellectual property. Under the agreement, Northrop Grumman’s Space Technology sector will license to Hittite a specified list of standard products and associated technology. Hittite will assume the related customer contracts and will become the worldwide supplier for the Velocium products.
Acceleware® Corp., a developer of high performance computing (HPC) solutions, announced a partnership agreement through which Agilent® Technologies will resell the Acceleware acceleration products throughout its worldwide sales organization to Agilent Antenna Modeling Design System (AMDS™) customers. Agilent is the leading supplier of electronic design automation (EDA™) software for high frequency system, circuit and modeling applications. Acceleware develops the fastest electromagnetic solver technology available on the market. These combined technologies will produce immense benefits for AMDS customers by increasing speeds of simulation processing by more than 35 times, thus reducing the time required to run a typical simulation from 10 hours to under 20 minutes.
Andrew Corp. and Nokia Siemens Networks have agreed to revise their long-standing relationship in custom filter production. The agreement provides more design and manufacturing control to Nokia Siemens Networks, supported by Andrew’s research and development expertise, as it readies to market its next generation radio frequency filter products. Under the agreement, Nokia Siemens Networks acquired the rights to all Andrew intellectual property related to Nokia Siemens Networks’ filter products for wireless networks.
Ideal Aerosmith Inc. has entered into a cooperative effort with Diamond-Roltran LLC to demonstrate the use of Roll-Rings® in rate tables. Roll-Rings will allow Ideal Aerosmith’s products to benefit from higher performance while experiencing lower life cycle costs.
Mini-Circuits received numerous industry awards in 2007 as well as in previous years. Most recently, Huawei Technologies, one of the world’s most respected telecommunications companies, named Mini-Circuits “The Excellent Supplier.” Rockwell Collins is also among the company’s customers that have recognized Mini-Circuits during this past year. The avionics giant named Mini-Circuits a top supplier on three separate occasions this year and four times last year. In 2006, one of the awards received from Rockwell-Collins was the coveted “President’s Award,” the highest accolade that a supplier can receive.
Auriga Measurement Systems LLC announced the opening of its European-based sales office in The Netherlands. The office will support all European sales and service for the company. Hi-Tech Electronics in The Netherlands, Auriga’s reseller for the Benelux territory, will work for Auriga as a dedicated sales management arm and technical support system for the rest of Europe. The European office is comprised of: Olaf Biezeman; Arnout Peters, sales director, Europe; Jim Creed, applications manager, Europe; and Bjorn Hendrikx, account manager, Europe. Contact information: ph: +[31] 346 550660 or e-mail: europeansales@auriga-ms.com.
Skyworks Solutions Inc., an innovator of high performance analog and mixed signal semiconductors enabling mobile connectivity, announced that given heightened demand for its products from tier-one handset OEMs and a diverse set of analog customers, it is expanding its manufacturing capacity. Skyworks has already commenced the conversion of its internal gallium arsenide heterojunction bipolar transistor (HBT) fabrication facility in Newbury Park, CA, from 4 to 6 inch wafers. The company is also complementing its internal manufacturing capabilities by expanding partnerships with several leading Taiwanese foundries.
RF Micro Devices (RFMD®) announced plans to expand its compound semiconductor manufacturing capacity to support growth expectations in the company’s cellular and multi-market product groups. RFMD anticipates increased demand for its industry-leading compound semiconductor process technologies as a result of favorable market trends in the company’s primary markets. In the cellular handset market, the increasing adoption of highly integrated, multi-chip transmit modules and the migration to 3G multimode devices are expected to drive increased demand for RFMD’s GaAs PHEMT and RFMD’s GaAs HBT (both AlGaAs HBT and InGaP HBT).
Nextreme, a manufacturer of micro-scale thermal and power management products for the electronics industry, is relocating and expanding its North American corporate headquarters and manufacturing facility within Research Triangle Park, NC. Increasing Nextreme’s production capacity, the 14,000 square-foot, state-of-the-art facility includes semiconductor grade clean rooms and an advanced application laboratory to better serve customer needs as Nextreme enters product qualification, pilot production and ultimately volume production. Nextreme’s new facility is located at 3908 Patriot Drive, Durham, NC 27703. Nextreme expects to complete the move by the end of December 2007.
Ion Beam Milling Inc. announced that it has further increased its dicing capacity with the purchase of a third Disco dicing system. Due to increasing customer orders the addition of the third Disco dicing system positions Ion Beam Milling to serve its current customers as well as prepare for future growth in the microelectronics, photonics and medical industries. Ion Beam Milling recently celebrated its 25th year in business.
Keithley Instruments Inc., a leader in solutions for emerging measurement needs, announced that the American Association for Laboratory Accreditation (A2LA) has accredited Keithley’s German service center to ISO/IEC 17025:2005, a metrology standard for test and measurement products. At the same time, the Metrology Services Department at Keithley’s Cleveland, OH headquarters, which received A2LA ISO/IEC 17025:2005 accreditation a year ago, dramatically expanded its capabilities to add even more Keithley products to its list of accredited calibration offerings.
Integrated Test Corp., a manufacturer of high performance ATE printed circuit boards and ATE test interface hardware, announced that its Dallas, TX facility has been certified to meet ISO 9001:2000 standards. WCS Quality Registrars LLC, the North American division of World Certifications Service Ltd., conducted the audit.
Alereon Inc., an ultra-wideband (UWB) technology leader for WiMedia and Certified Wireless USB applications, has successfully completed the official WiMedia Alliance Registration Program for its AL5300/4100 and AL5300/5100 WiMedia chipsets, both members of the company’s AL5000 family, which is based on the WiMedia common radio platform.
Symmetricom Inc., a leader in precise time and frequency technologies that accelerate the deployment and enable the management of next generation networks, announced its XLi SAASM Time and Frequency Receiver with a new Ground-based GPS Receiver Application Module (GB-GRAM) SAASM receiver has been granted security approval by the Global Positioning Systems Wing (GPSW), meeting the latest security requirements of the Department of Defense (DoD). The GB-GRAM GPS Receiver is integrated into Symmetricom’s XLi SAASM, an ultra precision time and frequency instrument.
AR RF/Microwave Instrumentation has announced that its family of advanced laser probes—models FL7030 (5 kHz to 30 MHz), FL7006 (0.1 MHz to 6 GHz) and FL7018 (3 MHz to 18 GHz)—will now be offered with a NIST traceable calibration with A2LA accreditation at no additional charge. The company previously sold its laser probes with a NIST traceable calibration only, with the option of having them calibrated with A2LA accreditation.
Jacket Micro Devices Inc., a supplier of integrated RF modules for high performance wireless products, has received notification of issuance of a European patent for “liquid crystalline polymer (LCP) and multilayer polymer-based passive signal processing components for multi-band applications.” The patent covers fabrication of organic passive components, including bandpass filters, baluns, diplexers, multiplexers, couplers and combinations of these devices made using LCP and other multilayer polymer substrates.
Having previously recognized State of the Art Inc. (SOTA) with its 2006 Supplier Excellence Award, Honeywell FMT (Kansas City, MO) nominated SOTA to the Department of Energy for further recognition. It has now been announced that SOTA has been honored with the United States Department of Energy Small Business Manufacturing Firm of the Year award for fiscal 2006. Consideration for this award is based on the areas of quality performance, order administration, cost control, technical support, responsiveness and delivery performance along with other factors.
TREK Inc., a designer and manufacturer of high performance electrostatic instrumentation and high voltage power amplifiers, recently received the 2007 EuroAsia IC Industry Award. TREK’s Infinitron™ (an innovative electrostatic voltmeter) won in the category of “Yield Management – Best Process” during special award ceremonies held in San Francisco, CA.
Contracts
MI Technologies announced it has received a $9.9 M contract from Lockheed Martin MS2’s Radar Systems business to design and build a radar test and measurement system in support of the Medium Extended Air Defense System (MEADS). Under terms of the contract, MI Technologies will provide a large, spherical, near-field measurement system at Lockheed Martin’s Liverpool, NY facility, which will be used to analyze and characterize a 16’ x 16’ (4.9 m x 4.9 m) ground-based phased-array antenna.
Elcom Technologies Inc. announced the receipt of a new contract in excess of $4 M from a major United States military contractor, for a high performance VME-based synthesized RF source and synthesized broadband downconverter. These integrated microwave subsystems are used in support of critical military ATE applications, where consistent quality, reliability and performance at a competitive price are key components for success. This recurring contract will require support through 2009.
Microsemi Corp., a manufacturer of high performance analog/mixed signal integrated circuits and high reliability semiconductors, has announced that the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) has awarded $1.6 M to allow Microsemi’s Power Products Group (formerly Bend, Oregon-based Advanced Power Technology) to develop technology related to the use of silicon carbide RF power semiconductor components in military avionics applications.
COM DEV International Ltd., a manufacturer of space hardware subsystems, announced that it has been selected as prime contractor in an open bid process to provide a communication payload test system for Orbital Sciences Corp. The system will perform automated RF testing on communication satellite payloads, a function that is critical to the success of every mission.
KOR Electronics announced that a specialized version of its Miniature Airborne three-bit DRFM system is deployed on the recently declared Initial Operational Capability (IOC) of the AN/ALQ-188(V)4 Electronic Attack Training Pod for the US Air Force F-15 jet fighter. The AN/ALQ-188(V)4 pod provides generic capability to simulate enemy threat electronic countermeasures (ECM) for aircrew training and weapons evaluation. KOR Electronics supplied model 1275 DRFM to prime contractor Northrop Grumman’s Quick Reaction Capability (QRC) Team in support of this IOC effort.
Financial News
TriQuint Semiconductor reports sales of $122.9 M for the third quarter ended September 30, 2007, compared to $103.3 M for the same period in 2006. Net income for the quarter was $1.9 M ($0.01/per diluted share), compared to a net income of $8.1 M ($0.06/per diluted share) for the third quarter of last year.
Tower Semiconductor Ltd. reports sales of $57.1 M for the second quarter ended June 30, 2007, compared to $44.6 M for the same period in 2006. Net loss for the quarter was $34.4 M ($0.28/per share), compared to a net loss of $43.6 M ($0.55/per share) for the second quarter of last year.
Ceragon Networks Ltd. reports sales of $44.5 M for the third quarter ended September 30, 2007, compared to $30.5 M for the same period in 2006. Net income for the quarter was $4.1 M ($0.13/per diluted share), compared to a net income of $1.9 M ($0.07/per diluted share) for the third quarter of last year.
RF Monolithics Inc. reports sales of $14.8 M for the fourth quarter ended August 31, 2007, compared to $14.5 M for the same period in 2006. Net loss for the quarter was $1.3 M ($0.14/per diluted share), compared to a net income of $77,000 ($0.01/per diluted share) for the fourth quarter of last year.
RF Industries Ltd. reports sales of $4.3 M for the third quarter ended July 31, 2007, compared to $3.9 M for the same period in 2006. Net income for the quarter was $434,000 ($0.12/per diluted share), compared to $407,000 ($0.11/per diluted share) for the third quarter of last year.
New Market Entries
White Mountain Labs, a leader in test and characterization of advanced technologies, now offers complete electrical characterization of semiconductor products through its Automated Test Equipment (ATE) division, ClearTest ATE Services. The new business offering, called CZ Express, is a standardized methodology, which analyzes a sample of customer devices over temperature, voltage and process variation, and then generates a comprehensive characterization report back to the customer. The report becomes a valuable tool for the customer product engineer, as it identifies possible sensitivities that could develop into yield issues when the device is released to volume production.
New Era Electronics Ltd. (NEE), a world leader in volume production of microwave printed circuit boards, together with EastBridge Partners LLC, a global business consultancy specializing in Asia business development, have established NEE International LLC, to act as the sales, marketing and technical service company for NEE outside of Asia. Located in Phoenix, AZ, NEE International is chartered with creating a microwave knowledgeable sales force and expanding sales, primarily in the US and Europe.
Personnel
Park Electrochemical Corp. announced the appointment of Matthew Farabaugh as vice president and controller. Farabaugh was corporate controller of American Technical Ceramics, a publicly traded international company located in Huntington Station, NY, from 2004 to September 2007 and assistant controller from 2000 to 2004.
ET Industries, a pioneer in providing innovative wireless solutions and RF components, recently announced the appointment of Joseph G. Streko II as vice president and director of operations. Prior to joining ET Industries, Streko was the vice president of sales and marketing with Diamond Technology. Previously, Streko held the position of vice president of sales with Integrated Solutions. With nearly 20 years of experience in the telecommunications industry, Streko’s responsibilities with ET Industries will include the company’s overall strategy, operations and business growth.
Kaben Wireless Silicon Inc., a wireless semiconductor design company, announced the appointment of James S. Wight as chief scientist. In his new role, Wight will be responsible for spearheading Kaben’s development activities in innovative RF technologies. He will also be instrumental in marketing projects aimed at enhancing the company’s industry standing as the world’s authority in frequency synthesis and advanced filtering which are at the core of most wireless integrated circuits. Wight is an RF industry veteran with over 30 years of experience in antennas, microwave circuits, and synchronizer circuits for wireless communications, radar and radio navigation.
King Aerospace Commercial Corp. (KACC) announced that Monnie Weems has joined the company as avionics manager. Weems has two decades of corporate and military experience as an avionics manager, technician and installer. He has demonstrated expertise with installation, troubleshooting and modifying avionics and electrical systems on a wide range of corporate aircraft. Prior to joining King Aerospace, Weems worked for Tyler Jet, Gulfstream, Galaxy Aerospace, McKinney Aerospace, PHAZAR Aerocorp and MAV Aircraft Services.
Rep Appointments
Richardson Electronics Ltd. announced it has signed a global partnership agreement with Valpey Fisher, to distribute its entire product line of high performance crystal oscillators and timing modules. Valpey Fisher’s products provide the essential timing signals needed in advanced applications including cellular base stations, broadband datacom infrastructure, avionics instrumentation, homeland security equipment and military defense systems.
Digi-Key Corp. and Crystek Corp. announced that the companies have entered into a global distribution agreement. Crystek products stocked by Digi-Key are featured in its print and online catalogs and are available for purchase directly from Digi-Key. This new distribution agreement will enable Digi-Key to fulfill both the prototype/design and production quantity needs of its diverse customer base.
LeCroy Corp., a provider of oscilloscopes, announced a new exclusive government services partnership agreement with Technical Communities Inc., the premier one-stop service solution for technical organizations that sell to US government agencies, military organizations and prime federal contractors. Technical Communities is the owner and operator of GSAMart, TestMart, NAVICPMart and EurekaSpot. The agreement authorizes Technical Communities to present a catalog of LeCroy oscilloscopes ranging from 100 MHz to 100 GHz.
Eastern Wireless TeleComm Inc., a custom designer and manufacturer of RF and microwave filters and filter-based products for military, commercial, wireless and space applications, announced the appointment of two new representatives for the company’s products. Brennan Associates will be responsible for the company’s products in the territories of Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee and Florida. Val Jackson & Associates will cover the territories of northern California, northern Nevada, Oregon and Washington.
Diamond Antenna & Microwave Corp., a manufacturer of microwave rotary couplers, located at 59 Porter Road, Littleton, MA 01460, announced the appointment of KJS Marketing Inc. (www.kjsmarketing.com) to represent Diamond in Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wisconsin.
Crystek Corp. has signed an agreement with Allied Electronics, a subsidiary of Electrocomponents plc, naming Allied as a distributor of Crystek’s portfolio of frequency control technology. Allied will carry a broad range of products from Crystek, including quartz crystals, clock oscillators, TCXOs, OCXOs, VCXOs and VCOs.
Coaxial Dynamics has appointed Y C International as its representative in South Korea. Based in Seoul, the company’s main objective is to continue its business as an importer and distributor of professional electronic equipment such as RF/microwave, wireless communication and broadcast engineering products. Contact information: Y C International, Samsun Building #610, 891-46 Daechi-Dong, Kangnam-Gu, Seoul, 135-810, Korea, Yungchul Kim, president, ph: +82 2 538 2707, fax: +82 2 538 2709, e-mail: ycintl@kornet.net or visit: www.ycinternational.co.kr.
Weinschel Associates, a designer and manufacturer of high quality broadband RF and microwave products for commercial and military markets, announced the appointment of Bradford RF Sales. Bradford RF Sales will cover the New England territory, including Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode Island. Contact information: Mike Crittenden, 86 South Cross Road, Bradford, MA 01835 ph: (978) 521-1701, fax: (978) 521-7001 or e-mail: mike_bradfordrfsales@comcast.net.