Microwave Journal
www.microwavejournal.com/articles/11569-around-the-circuit

Around the Circuit

August 7, 2011

INDUSTRY NEWS

Skyworks Solutions Inc. closed its acquisition of SiGe Semiconductor Inc., a global supplier of radio frequency front-end solutions. The companies entered into a definitive agreement on May 17, 2011. Skyworks paid cash for the acquisition, which was approved by Skyworks' board and SiGe's board of directors and stockholders.

RF Industries Ltd. has completed the acquisition of Long Island, NY-based Cables Unlimited Inc. (CUI), a seller of fiber-optic cabling and connector products, for a total purchase price of $5.6 M, consisting of $2.8 M in cash and 762,738 common shares. Privately owned CUI had revenue of approximately $6.2 M and non-audited non-GAAP adjusted EBITDA of approximately $645,000 in its most recent 12 months ended December 31, 2010.

API Technologies Corp., a provider of electronic systems, subsystems, RF, and secure communications products and services for defense, aerospace, and commercial applications, announced the successful completion of its acquisition of Spectrum Control Inc. API completed the acquisition through a merger of a wholly-owned subsidiary with and into Spectrum. As a result of the merger, all outstanding shares of Spectrum common stock were converted into the right to receive $20.00 per share in cash, without interest and less any required withholding taxes.

CommScope has signed an agreement to acquire Argus Technologies, a producer of antenna solutions for wireless applications. Argus Technologies, headquartered in Bella Vista, New South Wales, Australia, provides a wide array of high performance, high technology antennas for base stations, stadiums and venues, and other wireless applications.

GigOptix Inc., a supplier of semiconductor and optical components that enable high speed information streaming, announced Endwave Corp. stockholders voted to approve the acquisition of Endwave by GigOptix.

Transline Technology Inc., which has been in the printed circuit board business for more than 20 years, broadened its scope of services significantly by acquiring HI Electronics. HI Electronics, also 20-year industry veteran, was formerly located in Los Angeles, CA. All of its equipment and staff have now been relocated to the 20,000 square foot facility owned and occupied by Transline Technology in Anaheim, CA. Both companies will now operate under the flagship company's name, Transline Technology.

Renaissance Electronics Corp. of Harvard, MA, is celebrating its 20th anniversary in the RF/microwave industry. The company said its vision to be the preferred supplier of all frequency products is becoming a reality, especially with the acquisition of HXI millimeter-wave company. Renaissance now covers most components, integrated assemblies and other products in frequencies ranging from radio to microwave to millimeter.

RFMW Europe has added a new office in France. In the past few months, RFMW Europe has opened offices in the UK, Germany, Italy and France to join with RFMW Israel in covering Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA).

TriQuint Semiconductor Inc. has been honored with awards recently. TriQuint earned the R&D award at the CS Europe Conference in Germany. Also, TriQuint was named a top ten Most Popular Semiconductor Brand In China at the Conference on Green Manufacturuing.

Agilent Technologies Inc. has received this year's Frost & Sullivan award for market-share leadership in global wireless test equipment.

RF Micro Devices announced it has qualified its GaN1 power semiconductor process technology for 65 V operation. The high reliability power semiconductor process technology supports RFMD's GaN-based power semiconductor product designs and is also available to foundry customers through RFMD's Foundry Services business unit.

CONTRACTS

Harris Corp.. has been awarded several contracts recently, including a $9.4 M order from the U.S. Air Force and a $5 M order from the U.S. Marine Corps. The order from the Air Force is for additional Falcon® III AN/PRC-117G multiband manpack radio systems. The order from the Marines is for additional Harris Falcon III AN/PRC-117G wideband manpack tactical radios.

Custom MMIC Design Services Inc. (CMDS) has been awarded its second Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) Phase II contract from the U.S. Army to develop millimeter-wave, high linearity, high power amplifiers on Gallium Nitride (GaN) for satellite communication systems (SATCOM). CMDS is a fabless design company engaged in the development of high frequency monolithic microwave integrated circuits.

Crane Aerospace & Electronics Power Solutions was selected by ECE, a Zodiac Aerospace company, to supply its Transformer Rectifier Units (TRU) on the Electrical Power Distribution Systems (EPDS) for the Airbus A350XWB. There are seven TRUs within the Electrical Power Distribution System. The ECE Electrical Power Distribution Systems control and monitor the electrical DC power distribution to the loads on the aircraft. The Crane TRUs provide 230 VAC to 28 VDC conversion/fault protection and 115 VAC to 28 VDC conversion/fault protection within the EPDS.

Delta Microwave, a supplier of filters, filter/amplifiers, multiplexers and integrated microwave assemblies, announces its selection by NASA, Goddard Space Flight Center, to design and fabricate the Front-End Electronics (FEE) Assemblies for the Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) Project. The FEEs are part of the GPS Navigation System that will be used to fly four identical instrumented observatories in a tetrahedral formation to unambiguously determine the orientation of the Earth's magnetic reconnection layer.

Pulse Electronics Corp., a provider of electronic components, announced that its laser direct structuring (LDS) process was selected by Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. for producing three-dimensional antennas to be incorporated into future Samsung products that use an antenna. Pulse's LDS process creates an antenna pattern in three dimensions on a plastic part, giving Samsung's mobile device product designers an almost unlimited ability to put the antenna anywhere and use almost zero volume.

NEW MARKET ENTRY

SW Tech Equipment sells and services advanced parallel gap welding machines. The SMAPRO series gap welders are based upon resistance or ohmic spot welding principles. The most salient feature of its products is that, in addition to welding gold and silver ribbons, SW Tech can also weld enameled wire directly to welding pads of PC boards without the stripping process.

PERSONNEL

The Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA), representing US leadership in semiconductor manufacturing and design, announced that Steven Laub, President and CEO of Atmel Corp., and Tunc Doluca, President and CEO of Maxim Integrated Products Inc., have joined the SIA Board of Directors. Laub and Doluca join a distinguished group of industry executives from Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), Altera Corp., Analog Devices, Fairchild Semiconductor, Freescale Semiconductor, GLOBALFOUNDRIES, IBM Corp., Intel Corp., Intersil Corp, Linear Technology Corp., LSI Corp., Micron Technology, ON Semiconductor, PMC-Sierra, Qualcomm CDMA Technologies and Texas Instruments Inc.

M/A-COM Technology Solutions announced the appointment of Glen Fields as Director, Aerospace and Defense. A 10-year veteran at M/A-COM Tech, Fields received a B.S. in Systems Engineering from the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy, and also an MBA from University of San Diego. He is also a Commander in the U.S. Naval Reserve, with 17 years of distinguished service.

Centerline Technologies LLC appointed Susan Munyon to the position of Senior Sales Engineer. Having a bachelor's degree in Ceramic Engineering from Alfred University gave her the materials background. And her extensive experience, including 11 years at Kyocera America and five years at CoorsTek, has expanded her knowledge in the microelectronics area. She has been awarded a Fellow of IMAPS where she remains active as well as with the American Ceramic Society.

ORBIT Communication Systems Ltd.has appointed Carlo Rizzo as Director of Sales and Business Development to head the company's Telemetry and Earth Observation business operations in Europe. Most recently, he served as Director of European Operations for a major U.S.-based antenna measurement system supplier.

REP APPOINTMENTS

Richardson RFPD announced three global distribution agreements. It has been selected by Amercian Technical Ceramics as the global exclusive distributor for the new 506WLC series of ultra-broadband inductors. Also, Richardson has been selected by W. L. Gore & Associates as the global distributor for its new 18 GHz GORE® PHASEFLEX® RF/microwave test assemblies. In addition, Richardson RFPD has entered into a global distribution agreement with Kendeil S.r.l, a manufacturer of screw terminal and snap-in type aluminum electrolytic capacitors headquartered in Gallarate (VA), Italy.

Microwave Components and Systems of Northborough, MA, announced the appointments of representatives for the company's waveguide products. Disman-Bakner for northern CA; RT Associates for southern CA; SunTech Marketing for AZ, New Mexico and NV, and Trionic Associates for NY, NJ and PA.

Reactel Inc.., a manufacturer of RF and microwave filters, multiplexers and multifunction assemblies to the commercial, military, industrial and medical industries, appointed El Technology as the company's exclusive representative in southern NJ, eastern PA and Delaware.

PEI-Genesis Inc. announced an agreement with Emerson Network Power, in which PEI-Genesis will distribute and add value to power supply products from the Embedded Power business of Emerson Network Power for customers in North and South America. PEI-Genesis now has the ability to help design engineers solve their power challenges using power supplies from Emerson Network Power.