Industry News
Tensolite, of Carlisle Companies Inc., announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire privately-owned Carlyle Inc., a provider of sophisticated aerospace and network interconnection solutions. With annual sales of approximately $125 M, Carlyle is focused on manufacturing wire and cable harnesses, rack and panels, and cable assemblies for in-flight entertainment systems and specialty avionics applications. The company has facilities in Tukwila and Kent, WA. The business will operate within Carlisle’s Tensolite Company division. The acquisition will strengthen Tensolite’s core presence in specialty wire and cable and interconnect solutions for the aerospace industry. The purchase will also expand Tensolite’s global reach and add to its capabilities in other specialty interconnect segments.
Aeroflex, and Innowireless, announced that they have entered into a technology partnership designed to accelerate the development of 3GPP LTE mobile devices for subscribers. The partnership will enable the two companies to combine their extensive engineering skills and resources to collaborate on the development of a new 3G LTE mobile test tool intended to enable handset designers and manufacturers accelerate the time-to-market of their 3G LTE products for subscribers. The new 3G LTE mobile test tool is expected to be available in Q4 2008 and will be marketed through Aeroflex’s extensive worldwide sales and support channel.
Orolia, the French electronics technology group specializing in high-precision time and frequency generation, distribution and measurement, and Rapco Electronics Ltd, a high-precision frequency standards, time code and distribution provider, have formed a strategic partnership to strengthen their competitive positions and provide tangible benefits to their customers and sales channel partners. In a multi-phased approach, Orolia Group companies Spectracom and SpectraTime will join the existing alliance between Pendulum Instruments (recently acquired by Orolia) and Rapco Electronics to cooperate on several fronts to leverage global distribution channels, operations and new product development efforts.
TECOM Industries Inc. announced that it has entered into a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) with the Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division (NAWCWD) in China Lake, CA, to develop and qualify the next generation instrumentation antenna for a Navy missile. The conformal, dual-band antenna provides GPS and S-band telemetry functionality, and is part of the next generation instrumentation package being developed to support future Air Force and Navy flight test and training requirements. Under the agreement, TECOM is working with NAWCWD engineers at Pt. Mugu to design, produce and qualify the antenna subsystem, consisting of a dual-band antenna with integrated low noise amplifier, filter and limiter. At the conclusion of the project the US government will have a fully qualified product ready for full-scale production. Completion is scheduled for Q3 2008.
Technical Communities announced a government services partnership agreement with BreakingPoint Systems, a provider of high performance application testing systems to network equipment manufacturers, service providers, US government agencies, military organizations and prime federal contractors. The agreement authorizes Technical Communities to provide government organizations with BreakingPoint products, service agreements and warranties including the BreakingPoint BPS-1000 and BPS-10k. With BreakingPoint products and services, government organizations can ensure the success of high performance computing and network security initiatives.
ClearComm Technologies LLC, has announced its expansion into new facilities in Fruitland, MD. A larger, 35,000 square foot building is being utilized to produce ClearComm’s commercial, military and wireless products. ClearComm is a manufacturer of filters, duplexers, diplexers and RF assemblies covering the frequency range of 10 MHz to 18 GHz. The new address is 28410 Crown Road, Fruitland, MD 21875. Phone number: (410) 860-0500, fax: (410) 860-9005, e-mail: sales@clearcommtech.com or visit www.clearcommtech.com
Advanced Switch Technology, a designer and manufacturer of microwave switches, announced that after 16 years at its present location, the company will be moving to a newly built facility. The new plant will house its own shop with fully automated CNC machines, assembly lab and corporate offices, and it will allow a production increase of 30 to 50 percent. The new address is: 754 Fortune Crescent, Kingston, ON, Canada K7P 2T3. Phone number: (613) 384-3939, fax: (613) 384-5026 and e-mail: info@astswitch.com.
AWR®, and TriQuint Semiconductor Inc., an RF front-end product manufacturer and foundry services provider, announced Project JumpStart, a program designed to provide first-time AWR and TriQuint customers with a low cost introduction to the benefits of design and fabrication of gallium arsenide (GaAs) microwave monolithic integrated circuits (MMIC). Project JumpStart offers designers an affordable, low-risk means of bringing wireless design prototypes to market using AWR’s electronic design automation (EDA) tools and TriQuint’s pseudomorphic high electronic mobility transistor (PHEMT) foundry process.
StratEdge, a leader in the design and production of semiconductor packages for microwave, millimeter-wave and high speed digital devices, announced that it has been certified for ISO 9001:2000 at its new facility, which opened in November 2007. Since being ISO certified originally in 1998, StratEdge has consistently passed such audits and maintained its certification. Achieving certification indicates that StratEdge meets specific requirements for a quality management system.
Smiths Interconnect, part of the global technology company Smiths Group, announced that one of its businesses, Sabritec, has successfully passed qualification testing of its Size 16 ARINC 801 terminus for single- and multi-mode applications. Qualification test results show that Sabritec’s ARINC 801 terminus maintains its low loss while being intermateable/interoperable with qualified termini and connectors.
Jacket Micro Devices Inc. (JMD) announced that laminate-based radio frequency system-in-package (RF SiP) products made with its patented Multi-Layer Organic (MLO) process have passed JEDEC reliability qualification testing. The MLO substrates, and modules assembled using them, are lead (Pb) free and RoHS-compliant.
Times Microwave Systems announced the availability of Mining, Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) approved RF cables. The LMR®-FR series of cables will now be marked with an additional MSHA qualification reference number, and can now be used in mining applications where MSHA approvals are required.
Skyworks Solutions Inc., an innovator of high performance analog and mixed signal semiconductors enabling mobile connectivity, congratulates Samsung on recently winning two prominent FEMTO cell awards. Jang Young Shil, presented by the Maeil Business Newspaper and the Korea Industrial Technology Association (KOITA), operated by the Korean government, is granted based on technological importance, originality and economic value.
Contracts
e2v technologies, the UK specialist developer and manufacturer of high technology components and subsystems, has been awarded a contract from the United States Department of Defense worth a total of $12 M. This win is a follow-on contract to that announced in February 2008, for the supply of defense electronic subsystems, which utilize the company’s electronic tube technology.
Elcom Technologies Inc. announced a three-year extension to an existing agreement for the company’s PLL controlled oscillator design that provides extremely low phase noise and excellent MTBF. The total value of the agreement exceeds $6 M and reflects Elcom’s leadership in providing solutions for commercial test equipment companies.
Endwave Corp., a provider of high frequency RF modules for telecommunications networks, defense electronics and homeland security systems, announced the receipt of a production contract from Brijot Imaging Systems Inc. Brijot, an industry leader in passive millimeter-wave imaging, has selected Endwave as the sole-source supplier of radiometer assemblies for use in its GEN 2 full body imaging system that employs passive millimeter-wave technology for concealed object detection and people screening. Under the terms of the contract, Endwave will produce complete radiometer assemblies operating over a millimeter-wave spectrum known as “W-band,” which ranges from 75 to 100 GHz. Initial deliveries are projected to commence in the second quarter of 2008, while additional orders are expected to be released upon Brijot’s acceptance of the first production units.
Auriga Measurement Systems LLC announced that over the past several months it has been awarded research and development contracts by the Army’s CECOM and the Navy’s SPAWAR and NAVAIR departments; this is the company’s second win with NAVAIR. The ARMY Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) award is for a high-powered multi-component switch for the Joint Tactical Radio System (JTRS), while the NAVAIR and SPAWAR projects focus on high efficiency and low noise power amplifiers, respectfully.
Agilent Technologies Inc. announced that Universal Scientific Industrial Co. Ltd. (USI) will use Agilent’s WiMAX™ manufacturing networking test set for its Mobile WiMAX test needs. The company chose Agilent because of its ability to deliver fast measurement time for USI’s Mobile WiMAX module test plan requirements. USI is a leader in the design and manufacturing services (DMS) industry that focuses on product development and capability enhancement.
RF Industries Ltd. announced that its RadioMobile division has received new orders from Dial-a-Cab for software and hardware valued at approximately $500,000 and scheduled for delivery over the next 10 months.
Financial News
Aperto® Networks, a builder of advanced carrier-grade and cost-effective WiMAX base stations and subscriber units, announced that it has secured $20 M of new equity funding. The financing round was led by Quicksilver Ventures and included participation from several of the existing investors, including Gunn Allen Venture Partners, JK&B Capital, Canaan Partners, Alliance Ventures, Innovacom, JAFCO Ventures and Labrador Ventures.
Merrimac Industries Inc. reports sales of $5.4 M for the fourth quarter of 2007 ended December 29, 2007, compared to $5.2 M for the same period in 2006. Net income for the quarter was $1.1 M ($0.38 per share), compared to a net loss of $1.7 M ($0.55 per share) for the fourth quarter of last year.
Personnel
After 37 years of service to HP and Agilent, John Barr has retired. Barr joined HP in 1971 after graduating from the Georgia Institute of Technology. He has held numerous roles in R&D including RF component designer, software engineer and then advanced through R&D management positions to R&D lab manager. Barr’s career includes a long list of achievements, such as the development of the HP84000 RFIC tester and several network analyzers, such as the HP8510. He published 12 papers on RF measurement techniques, received five patents, and maintained active membership in the IEEE before becoming an IEEE Fellow in 2002. He served as president of MTTS in 2002 as well as the general chair of IMS 2006. Barr joined Agilent EEsof in 2004 as the foundry program manager and most recently the RFIC product manager for RFDE and GoldenGate.
Enrique Barrientos has been appointed CEO of the EADS Defence & Security Division in Spain. He takes responsibility for the activities of the division, reporting to the CEO of Military Air Systems, and for overarching Spanish activities, reporting to the CEO of EADS Defence & Security. Previously Barrientos was the chief of staff of the EADS Defence & Security Office 0 in Munich, Germany, having been Head of Political Affairs EADS CASA. He was also vice president corporate development and held several other executive positions in different areas of the company. He is an aeronautical engineer and has a master’s degree in business management and administration from the IESE Business School.
RF Micro Devices Inc. (RFMD®) announced that William J. Pratt, chief technical officer, and Powell T. Seymour, corporate vice president of strategic operations, have retired from RFMD after distinguished careers in the communications technology industry, including the co-founding of RFMD 17 years ago and active roles in the subsequent growth of RFMD. In 1991, Bill Pratt, Powell Seymour and Jerry D. Neal founded RFMD in Greensboro, NC. Pratt served as RFMD’s chairman of the board from 1991 until August 2002 and continues to serve on RFMD’s board of directors.
Renaissance Electronics (REC) announced a new addition to its team. Michael Donaghey joins the company as vice president of sales and marketing. Donaghey comes from Enterprise Rent-A-Car, where he held the position of vice president/general manager. He brings 17 years of sales management experience to REC. In his new position, Donaghey is responsible for directing overall business strategy for all of REC’s product lines. The entire REC sales and marketing team now reports to Donaghey. He can be reached at (978) 772-7774 x14 or e-mail: mdonaghey@rec-usa.com.
Steve Dudkiewicz has joined the Maury Microwave team as director of sales and marketing for Europe, Canada, Israel, India and Africa. Dudkiewicz comes to Maury from Focus Microwaves Inc., where he held the position of senior application and sales engineer. All inquiries can be sent to sdudkiewicz@maurymw.com
Park Electrochemical Corp. announced the appointment of David R. Dahlquist as director of marketing for the company. Dahlquist previously held the position of product director at Park Electrochemical Corp. He has previous experience with Photocircuits Corp. in the positions of director of technology-corporate and director of Quality and Engineering-PC-Asia.
Communication Infrastructure Corp.® announced that Lee Goldstein has joined the company as director of network engineering, a new division that will house the company’s growing engineering services business. Based in Chicago, IL, Goldstein will help manage the design and implementation of wireless carrier infrastructure with the added focus of integrating cell sites and switching centers with the public telephone network. Goldstein most recently served as T-Mobile’s director of network engineering and operations for the Central Region, where he managed a team of engineers in systems and transport design and implementation.
Radio Frequency Systems (RFS) announced the appointment of Modeste Addra to the position of product line manager Radio Link Networks. Most recently, Addra worked as chief technology officer for RFS. He will now turn his focus to the global growth of RFS radio link network solutions.
Phase Matrix has appointed Suresh P. Ojha to RF and microwave engineer, frequency synthesis group. Ojha is responsible for the microwave engineering activities for a new generation of fast switching frequency synthesizers. Ojha received his BS and MS degrees in electrical engineering with a specialization in RF and microwaves from UC Davis in 1993 and 1995, respectively. He has previously designed cellular base station power amplifiers and signal sources for Agilent Technologies and Gigatronics.
Rep Appointment
Kenet Inc., a fabless semiconductor company based in Woburn, MA, has appointed Link Microtek of Basingstoke as its UK representative. In addition to providing Kenet with sales and marketing coverage in the UK, Link Microtek will be working in partnership with Globes Elektronik in Germany and Elexo in France to establish a European inventory-sharing arrangement for the company’s range of products.