Microwave Journal
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Around the Circuit

April 1, 1998

Around the Circuit

INDUSTRY NEWS

Telecommunication equipment supplier Eagle Wireless International Inc. , Houston, TX, has completed its acquisition of the assets of electronic wellhead controller manufacturer W&H Development Inc. , also of Houston. Eagle Wireless reports that W&H Development’s products will help expand the functionality and markets for the wellhead technology line and contribute to the company’s growth.

TRW Inc. , Redondo Beach, CA, is acquiring privately held MilliWave Technologies Corp. , a Diamond Springs, CA firm that specializes in the design and manufacture of multichip electronic modules used in high capacity wireless communications systems. The new company will be known as TRW MilliWave Inc. , a wholly owned subsidiary of TRW Inc. Financial details of the transaction were not disclosed. In related news, TRW has formed a strategic alliance with Multilink Technology Corp. (MTC) , Santa Monica, CA, to ensure the flow of advanced IC technology into the transmission and switching equipment that links consumers and businesses with high speed fiber-optic networks. The alliance calls for TRW to purchase a minority interest in privately held MTC. MTC will use TRW’s low cost GaAs IC technology to produce high rate telecommunications and data communications subsystems for transmission and switching equipment used by telecommunications service providers.

Penstock has formed Microwave Chip Solutions (MCS) , a new strategic business unit that will offer in-depth technical assistance, custom packaging, and standard and custom screening, as well as selection and test at chip (packaged part or wafer level). As the unit expands, MCS will also offer its customers one-stop shopping for value-added services on RF and microwave semiconductor devices. Products sold by MCS will be fabricated by strategic partners. The new division will be located at Penstock’s new 52,000-square-foot corporate headquarters in San Jose, CA, which houses 6000- and 10,000-square-foot clean rooms for wafer processing, and assembly and test, respectively.

Microwave radio equipment and service provider Harris Corp. , Foster City, CA, has announced plans to implement a manufacturing operation in Brazil for its latest generation of microwave transmission equipment. The São Paulo-based plant will provide Harris’ complete MicroStar product line to Brazil. The new facility will employ local engineers, sales representatives and customer support staff, and offer a variety of turnkey services to Brazilian and Latin American customers.

The Electronic Industries Association (EIA) board of governors has approved the elevation of the association’s Components and Industrial Electronics Group to sectoral status within the EIA and authorized the group’s name change to the Electronic Components, Assemblies, Equipment & Supplies Association (ECA). ECA joins the Telecommunications Industry Association and the Consumer Electronics Manufacturers Association as an industry sector within the EIA. Operationally and functionally, the ECA will remain an integral operating element within the EIA’s organizational structure.

Glasteel Industrial Laminates , a division of Alpha Corp. located in Collierville, TN, has changed its name to GIL Technologies . The company reports that the name change more accurately reflects the changing nature of GIL’s business and its focus on technological advances in copper-clad laminates used in wireless, high frequency and high speed applications.

American Microsystems Inc. (AMI) has doubled the size of its San Jose, CA-based design center and hired additional staff to better serve its customers in the communications and industrial markets. The design center has moved from its present 2600-square-foot facility to a 5400-square-foot building located at 1731 Technology Dr., Suite 500, San Jose, CA 95110. In related news, AMI has formed a strategic partnership with Oregon-based hybrid RF module designer Linx Technologies Inc. The companies are planning to work together to further the widespread use of spread spectrum RF technology. Linx will develop products that incorporate members of AMI’s SX043 direct-sequence IC family. In addition, AMI has teamed with wireless digital telecommunications consultant Smart Telecom Solutions of the Netherlands to develop commercial products for the wireless market incorporating AMI’s WavePlex™ family of wireless ICs.

Satellite service provider COMSAT RSI’s Satellite Systems and Consulting Organization recently became part of COMSAT Laboratories . The company brings several pre- and post-launch services to COMSAT Laboratories, including satellite construction monitoring, launch vehicle procurement and support for launch operations, in-orbit tests and contract negotiations.

Hewlett-Packard Co. (HP) has sold 10 model HP 84000 RFIC test systems to Korea-based CTI Semiconductor (CTIS) , a division the CTI Group . The systems will help CTIS test wireless communications RFIC components and code-division multiple access (CDMA)-based devices. HP will provide CTIS with a complete test solution, including device fixturing, handler integration and test program development. The systems are expected to be delivered by the summer. In related news, HP has delivered the first high frequency contact assembly for testing dual inline memory modules to memory supplier and module manufacturer Viking Components . The contactor transforms the model HP 83000 digital test system into a fully automated production test solution for 100 MHz SDRAM modules.

Micron Communications Inc. , a division of Micron Technology Inc. , has signed an authorized systems integrator agreement with Syncus Tech Co. Ltd . authorizing the company to use Micron Communications’ MicroStamp remote intelligent communications (RIC) products to develop integrated systems solutions for its customers. Syncus plans to offer RIC systems solutions to end users by providing site-specific designs, customized software interface design and development, systems installation and post-installation service.

Motorola Semiconductor Products Sector and Karl Suss have signed an agreement to jointly develop an advanced aligned bonding wafer process technology. Under the terms of the agreement, Karl Suss will adapt its advanced processing equipment to handle Motorola wafers, including micro-electromechanical systems such as accelerometers. In related news, Motorola has signed an agreement with TekNow Inc. to implement the industry’s first two-way input protocol as part of the companies’ ongoing strategic alliance to provide technologies that enhance Motorola’s messaging infrastructure products. The TekNow Telocator Message Entry server will operate with Motorola’s Wireless Messaging Gateway!™ paging terminal and encourage increased adoption of advanced paging information services and messaging applications.

Superconducting Core Technologies Inc. , Golden, CO, and Ball Wireless Communications , Westminster, CO, have formed a strategic partnership to develop an integrated antenna and tower-top amplifier that will provide additional coverage and improved signal quality.

Magellan Systems ’ parent company Orbital Sciences Corp. has announced that eight ORBCOMM communications satellites have been deployed successfully into low earth orbit. On-orbit tests are proceeding on schedule and the satellites are expected to be placed into commercial service in the near future. The new satellites greatly expand the messaging capability of Magellan’s portable GSC 100 hand-held global satellite communicator, which offers worldwide two-way text messaging via the ORBCOMM satellite network. When fully operational, the new satellites will increase the ORBCOMM system’s coverage from approximately eight percent of the day that a satellite is immediately available to transmit data messages to approximately 40 percent. Orbital has now launched 10 of the 36 satellites that will make up the ORBCOMM satellite constellation.

Raytheon Microelectronics , an operation of Raytheon Co. , has announced plans to double the capacity of its semiconductor fabrication production line in Andover, MA to meet increasing market demand from the high growth wireless communications market for GaAs MMICs. The company reports that the added capacity will significantly reduce production lead times and time to market of many new wireless products under development currently. The twofold increase in production capacity will allow die production capacity to grow to one million die per week.

Several companies in the CDMA development industry have selected Telecom Analysis Systems Inc. ’s CDMA automatic test system (CDMA-ATS™) to evaluate their development efforts. Bell Atlantic Mobile, Ameritech, Lucent, Telechoice, QUALCOMM, Nokia, Samsung, Siemens, Motorola, NEC, LSI and Ericsson are among the companies that have selected the system for their wireless testing needs.

Actel Corp. , Sunnyvale, CA, has been awarded transitional certification to MIL-I-38535 Qualified Manufacturer Listing (QML) status. The QML designation covers Actel’s antifuse-based HiRel product line, including all ACT1, ACT2 and ACT3 lines, which support gate densities of between 1200 and 10,000 gates. The QML status will also cover new military-grade devices in the 1200XL and 3200DX families, which will be introduced in the near future.

FINANCIAL NEWS

Raytheon Co. reports sales of $13.7 B for 1997, compared to $12.3 B in 1996. Net income was $848.5 M ($3.55/share) (not including a fourth-quarter restructuring and a special charge), compared to $783.3 M ($3.31/share) (not including a special charge) in 1996.

Tracor Inc. reports sales of $1.3 B for the year, ended December 31, 1997, compared to $1.1 B in 1996. Net income was $36.6 M ($1.47/share) in 1996. Sales were $334.8 M for the fourth quarter, compared to $330.1 M for the same period in 1996.

Andrew Corp. reports sales of $231.1 M for the first quarter, ended December 31, 1997, compared to $225.7 M for the same period in 1996. Net income was $28.3 M (32¢/share), compared to $24.3 (27¢/share) for the same period in 1996.

Watkins-Johnson Co. reports sales of $291.3 M for the year, ended December 31, 1997, compared to $349.1 M in 1996. Net income was $3 M (37¢/share) in 1996. Sales were $72.2 M for the fourth quarter, compared to $66.3 M for the same period in 1996.

Stanford Telecommunications Inc. (Stanford Telecom) reports sales of $40.7 M for the third quarter, ended December 31, 1997, compared to $42 M for the same period in 1996. Net income was $1.6 M (12¢/share), compared to $2 M (15¢/share) for the same period in 1996.

Aetrium Inc. reports sales of $67.6 M for the year, ended December 31, 1997, compared to $58.4 M in 1996. Net income was $9.2 M ($1.10/share) in 1996. Sales were $22 M for the fourth quarter, compared to $11 M for the same period in 1996.

Semiconductor Packaging Materials Co. Inc. reports sales of $48 M for the year, ended December 31, 1997, compared to $33.1 M in 1996. Net income was $3.8 M (64¢/share) in 1996. Sales were $14.4 M for the fourth quarter, compared to $8.3 M for the same period in 1996.

Ansoft Corp. reports sales of $6.8 M for the third quarter, ended January 31, compared to $3.6 M for the same period last year. Net income was $1.1 M (11¢/share), compared to $467 K (6¢/share) for the same period last year.

General Microwave Corp. reports sales of $4.6 M for the third quarter, ended November 29, 1997, compared to $4.9 M for the same period in 1996. Net income was $218 K (17¢/share), compared to a net loss of $387 K (16¢/share) for the same period in 1996.

Microlab/FXR has formed an employee stock ownership plan. When the transaction is completed, employees will own approximately 50 percent of the company.

REMEC Inc. has filed a registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission for a public offering of 2.3 million shares of common stock. Of these shares, 1.3 million are being sold by the company and one million are being sold by certain selling shareholders.

CONTRACTS

REMEC Inc. , San Diego, CA, has been awarded a $38 M contract from Digital Microwave to supply microwave products for the company’s advanced high capacity 7/8 GHz point-to-point radios. In addition, the company has received a follow-on order from General Instrument to provide high performance gain blocks for the company’s advanced RF platforms used in data transmission, telecommunication and cable television applications. The contract is valued at $19.1 M.

Stanford Telecom , Sunnyvale, CA, has received $2.9 M against an $8.4 M subcontract to provide satellite terminals in support of the government’s global broadcast service (GBS) phase II system. The GBS phase II contract was awarded to Hughes Informations Systems by the GBS Joint Program Office and US Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center. As the provider of the GBS uplink ground stations, Stanford Telecom will deliver three primary injection point terminals under the terms of the base subcontract. Up to seven dual-band transportable theater injection terminals, spares and upgrades to the existing joint in-theater injection terminal also will be delivered under contract options. The base contract work will be performed by the company’s Colorado Springs, CO-based SATCOM Ground Systems division over the next two years.

Microwave Power Devices Inc. , Hauppauge, NY, has been awarded a $900 K contract to supply highly linear, single-channel, cellular CDMA amplifiers to QUALCOMM Inc. Microwave Power Devices will supply the amplifiers for use in QUALCOMM’s CDMA cellular communications systems base stations, which eventually will be utilized to upgrade existing cellular infrastructure from analog to digital while also supporting wireless local loop applications worldwide.

Anritsu Co. has been awarded a contract from QUALCOMM to develop, manufacture and market a custom test instrument to perform radio communication analysis worldwide on telephones for use on the Globalstar communications systems. The MT8803G series tester unit is designed for use by Globalstar user-terminal manufacturers and service providers. Development of the instrument will be performed at Anritsu’s engineering facilities in Richardson, TX and Atsugi, Japan. Manufacturing will be performed at Anritsu’s Morgan Hill, CA facility. Delivery of the first instrument is expected in August.

Under the terms of a contract with Boeing to provide displays for four National Aeronautics and Space Administration space shuttle orbiters, Honeywell Space Systems/Satellite Systems Operation , Phoenix, AZ, has completed its delivery of 11 flight flat-panel displays for the space shuttle Atlantis. Honeywell’s multifunction electronic display subsystem (MEDS), patterned after its liquid crystal flat-panel displays technology on the Boeing 777, will replace the shuttle orbiter’s current electromechanical and cathode ray tube displays, which were designed in the 1970s. MEDS will be installed in Atlantis as part of the vehicle’s orbiter major modification period currently underway at the Boeing Orbiter Major Modification Facility in Palmdale, CA.

RF Micro Devices Inc. , Greensboro, NC, has been awarded production contracts to supply advanced 3 V power amplifiers for Nokia’s new series of Global System for Mobile communications-based handsets, including the 6110, 6130, 6190 and 6138 models. The handsets are expected to set new global standards for standby time (up to 450 hours) and talk time (up to eight hours).

Scientific-Atlanta has received a contract from Cable Television Laboratories Inc. to provide support in key areas of its OpenCable™ project, including system integration of new devices and services. Scientific-Atlanta will focus on the end-to-end system integration of new digital services on the cable industry’s networks. Under the terms of the agreement, the company will produce and document a network architecture reference model and identify scenarios for customer use, billing and third-party applications that will involve OpenCable events and data flows. In addition, Scientific-Atlanta will help define key system/network interfaces with an emphasis on the physical and communication layer interfaces.

PERSONNEL

FTS Systems Inc. has named Taylor N. Thompson, Jr. president of the company. Thompson brings more than 15 years of experience to the position, including work in general operations management, strategic and financial planning, sales, engineering and project management.

Mike Nusbaum has been appointed president and COO of SaRonix. Nusbaum joined the company in 1992 and has more than 25 years of senior-level experience in management, marketing and engineering in the frequency control product industry.

VertiCom Inc. has named Steven H. Goldberg president and CEO. Prior to this appointment, Goldberg was VP and GM of the Wireless Communications Division of Cylink Corp.

James A. Bly has been appointed CFO of Gel-Pak Corp. Most recently, Bly was VP, finance at Park Scientific Instruments.

Robert A. Profusek has been elected to the CTS Corp. board of directors. Currently, Profusek is a senior partner at Jones, Day, Reavis & Pogue.

General Microwave Corp. has appointed Arnold H. Levine and Rozalie Schachter directors of the corporation. Currently, Levine is VP and CFO, and Schachter is VP, business development at the company.

Narda Microwave-East has announced several new personnel appointments, in-cluding Melissa Damiano as VP, human resources; Joseph D. Langille as VP, finance; Robert A. Koelzer as director of engineering; and Michael J. Sanator as director of operations. Prior to these positions, Da-miano was personnel manager at the company; Langille was VP, finance at Narda Microwave-West; Koelzer was product line manager for passive products at the company; and Sanator was director of manufacturing and material operations at Lockheed Martin Tactical Defense Systems.

Eupen Cable USA has announced that Robert Perelman has joined the company as VP, sales and marketing. Most recently, Perelman was VP, marketing at Times Microwave Systems.

Northrop Grumman Corp. has announced several new personnel appointments, including John B. Thompson as VP, business management at the Electronic Systems unit of the company’s Electronics and Systems Integration Division (ESID); John F. Breitfeller as VP, business management at ESID; Jon D. Glassman as director, international business development at the company’s Electronic Sensors and Systems Division (ESSD); and John C. Stuelpnagel as director and deputy for science and technology at ESSD’s Science and Technology Center. Previously, Thompson was interim VP, business management at ESID’s headquarters; Breitfeller was deputy program and site manager at the company’s Lake Charles, LA facility; Glassman served as deputy for military stabilization in the US Foreign Service; and Stuelpnagel was director of research and development at ESSD.

George L. Ward has been named VP, switch products/division manager at Dow-Key Microwave Corp. Most recently, Ward was VP and manager of offshore operations at Hughes Network Systems.

Cascade Micro-tech Inc. has named John Pence VP, wafer probing sys-tem business activities. Most recently, Pence was manager of the High Frequency Probes Business Unit.

David Sirvio has joined Advanced TechCom Inc. as senior VP, sales. Sirvio brings to the company more than 27 years of experience in the RF and telecommunications industry, including senior sales and business development experience at Harris, Motorola and AT&T. Most recently, he was director, worldwide business development and strategic accounts at Ortel Corp.

Michael Messmer has been appointed European sales manager at Alpha Industries. Previously, Messmer was field sales engineer at Richardson Electronics Inc.

Sanders, a Lockheed Martin company, has appointed Thomas E. Fitzpatrick VP, engineering. Most recently, Fitzpatrick was director of engineering at the company’s Avionics Division. In addition, Sanders has named Michael Heffron director of program operations at the company’s Mission and Space Electronics Division. Formerly, Heffron was program director of the Sniper program in the company’s Avionics Division.

Alcatel Network Systems Inc. has named three executives to positions serving the company’s Radio Products group, including Jerry Lambert as senior director, network engineering and customer support; Allyson Sharp as director, marketing and business development; and Jerry Webster as director, broadband radio access products. Lambert brings more than 30 years of telecommunications experience to the position; Sharp has held sales, marketing and product management positions at Rockwell and Alcatel; and Webster has more than 20 years of research and development experience.

M-tron Industries Inc. has hired Gerald "Jay" Buono as northeast regional sales manager. Buono brings 14 years of sales experience to the position, including work as an outside representative for three large distributors.

Telecom Analysis Systems (TAS) has announced several sales appointments, including Patrick Petillo as US sales director, Robert Van Brunt as product manager for wireless test systems, William Luthy as account manager and Steven Sudoko as southwest region sales manager. Formerly, Petillo was product manager for wireless test systems at TAS, Van Brunt was development group leader for wireless test products at the company, and Luthy and Sudoko were account managers at Tektronix.

Bill Brewster has been named director, RFT products at CPI Satcom Division. Most recently, Brewster was regional VP of sales at SSE Telecom.

Harris Corp. has appointed J. Michael Slattery managing director, European operations at its Farinon Division. Most recently, Slattery was a controller at the division.

Dean Dawson has been named product marketing manager at Veeco Process Metrology. Prior to joining the company, Dawson held technical support and marketing positions at Rank Taylor Hobson.

EMC Technology Inc. has appointed Richard E. Bussemer eastern regional applications engineer. For the past four years, Bussemer has been a regional sales manager at Amplifonix.

REP APPOINTMENTS

Johnstech International Corp. , Minneapolis, MN, has appointed Beacon Technical Sales Inc. , Nashua, NH, to represent its line of test solutions.

Sage Laboratories Inc. has appointed several sales representatives to market its line of standard and custom microwave components. RF Associates Inc. , Topsfield, MA, will cover New England; ACAL GMBH – Transtech , Flein, Germany, will cover Austria, Germany and Switzerland; Boreal Communications , San Jose, CA, will cover South America; Oakdale Industrial Electronics , Ronkokoma, NY, will cover Turkey; Precision Technologies , Singapore, will cover Malaysia and Singapore; and SEMATRON ITALIA , Rome, Italy, will cover Italy.

WEB SITE

Hewlett-Packard Co. has introduced a Web-browser-interface version of its electronic product selection guide and information database. The guide can be accessed on RF Globalnet, an RF and microwave industry Web site developed and owned by Microwave Online Services Co. , at http://www.rfglobalnet.com/hp-rfsemi.