Microwave Journal
www.microwavejournal.com/articles/3358-around-the-circuit

Around the Circuit

January 1, 2002

Around the Circuit


INDUSTRY NEWS

REMEC Inc. has completed the acquisition of ADC Mersum Oy from ADC Communications Inc. The acquisition was completed in accordance with the terms previously announced on October 8, 2001. In related news, REMEC Inc. has sold the assets of its subsidiary REMEC WACOM LP to TX RX Systems Inc. , a subsidiary of Bird Technologies Group Inc.

Renaissance Electronics Corp. acquired the electro-mechanical coaxial switch product line of Micronetics Wireless Inc. The product line assets including all product technology, manufacturing equipment, design information, patent rights, business and marketing information will be relocated to REC's facilities in Harvard, MA.

Anaren Microwave Inc. has acquired the capital stock of the 5M Company Europe BV . Anaren will operate 5M through its European subsidiary, Anaren Microwave Europe BV .

Racal Instruments Group Holdings Inc. announced the management-led leveraged buyout (LBO) of all global operations of Racal Instruments Inc. and Thales Instruments Ltd. from Thales of France . The LBO includes Racal Instruments' engineering, manufacturing, sales and customer support facilities in the US, UK, France, Germany, Italy, PRC, Hong Kong, Korea and India.

Palomar Technologies has established Palomar Financial Services to provide flexible, competitive financing for the acquisition of Palomar equipment. The new entity will provide optoelectronic and high frequency wireless component manufacturers with a variety of credit options to finance the company's automated assembly equipment and obtain the benefits of increased yield and throughput.

C-MAC Engineering is consolidating several of its UK operations in Greenway, Harlow Business Park. A Mechanical Design & Engineering Group has already been established here. This undertakes design activities from system architecture through initial concept to detailed design for volume manufacture. The company's High Speed Interconnect Group and Product Integrity Group are both now located in Greenway as well.

Vitelec Electronics , a supplier of radio frequency coaxial connectors and cable assemblies under the new Vitelec Johnson brand, has made significant company investments to enhance its presence in the European market. The expansion is centered on its European headquarters in Bordon, Hampshire, UK and has been through investment in both people and equipment. Part of those expansion plans has been to increase its cable assembly facility at Bordon.

Along with the recent formation of Tempo , the Textron-acquired fiber-optic test equipment companies of RIFOCS Corp. and Opto-Electronics Inc. have changed their names to Tempo-Camarillo and Tempo-Oakville , respectively.

Gel-Pak has moved into new corporate headquarters in Hayward, CA, after spending 20 years in Sunnyvale, CA. The move more than doubles the amount of square footage under roof as the company continues to expand its manufacturing and production capabilities.

Colibrys SA and Coventor Inc. have entered into joint development and preferred manufacturing partnership agreements for the development of micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS). The partners will focus initially on MEMS for optical communications, developing device building blocks that can be applied across many optical applications.

Agilent Technologies Inc. and Gadzoox Networks Inc. announced that Agilent's 2 Gbps Fibre Channel host bus adapters have passed compatibility testing with Gadzoox Networks 2 Gbps Slingshot™ Fibre Channel switch family. In related news, test equipment from Agilent lies at the heart of a new teaching laboratory recently opened at Bath University. A total of £250,000 has been invested in 48 test stations that will be used to support a problem solving approach to learning.

Rogers Corp. has opened a manufacturing facility for its newest 50/50 joint venture, Rogers Chang Chun Technologies Co. Ltd. , located in Hsin-Chu, Taiwan. The joint venture partnership formed in July 2000 with Chang Chun Plastics Co. Ltd. will manufacture and distribute Rogers R/flex" flexible circuit laminates for the Taiwan marketplace.

Antenova and ip.access have formed a partnership to develop directional antennas for GSM picobasestations. Antenova's antennas will enhance the performance of ip.access' new-generation basestation infrastructure products being developed for in-building applications such as offices and airports.

Keithley Instruments Inc. has formed a technology partnership with Anritsu Co. that provides technical and marketing support for each other's products used in semiconductor parametric testing. The end result of the partnership is a unique parametric test system that achieves up to a ten-fold improvement in throughput and 70 percent reduction in test costs compared to rack-and-stack systems using separate DC and RF test operations.

Fujitsu Quantum Devices Ltd. formed a partnership with WJ Communications Inc. for joint development of 40 Gpbs optical products. The first device from this partnership is a 43 Gbps driver amplifier module with output voltage of 6.0 Vpp.

Systemonic and Raytheon Co.'s Commercial Electronics (RCE) business have signed a multi-faceted agreement that will give RCE a focused partner that will capitalize on Raytheon's advanced wireless LAN assets. Systemonic will leverage the acquired technologies to offer whole silicon system solutions that focus on powering wireless data, video and voice networks across standards and across the world. Under the terms of the agreement, Systemonic has acquired products and intellectual property of the RF networking group of RCE.

ALPS Electric Co. Ltd. has teamed with Atheros Communications Inc. to develop high speed wireless LAN products that are compliant with the IEEE 802.11a wireless networking standard. In related news, Atheros was the first company to receive the Microsoft Designed for Windows XP Logo Program certification for an 802.11a wireless networking solution. This endorsement indicates that Atheros has met the Microsoft Corp. standards for compatibility with the Windows XP operating system.

StratEdge has received a patent for its high frequency passband microelectronics package. This family of DC to 23 GHz ceramic packages provides an interconnect system that ensures electrical integrity, mechanical protection and thermal control in harsh environments.

Mimix Broadband has been registered to ISO 9001. Det Norske Veritas Certification Inc. awarded Mimix with its certification.

Unity Wireless Corp. announced that its wholly owned subsidiary Unity Wireless Systems Corp. has received the first stage of a Canadian government grant towards research and development of the company's linear power amplifier program.

LPKF Laser & Electronics celebrated 25 years of designing and manufacturing prototyping systems.

Sirenza Microdevices (SMDI) announced that is has shipped over 25 million products employing its high performance silicon germanium (SiGe) semiconductor process technology. Atmel Corp. has provided foundry service to SMDI for the high volume shipment of a broad range of RF products in this technology.

The EDA Consortium has chosen electronic industry pioneer, researcher and educator Alberto Sangiovanni-Vincentelli as the 2001 recipient of the Phil Kaufman Award. Sangiovanni-Vincentelli is an authority on circuit simulation, computer-aided design of integrated circuits, logic synthesis and system design.

Ansoft Corp. announced that Yong-jo Keum, country manager for Ansoft Korea, received the Korea Electromagnetic Engineering Society (KEES) gold medal for distinguished services. Keum received the medal for his contributions to the development of KEES.

Atheros Communications Inc. received the 2001 Wireless LAN Award from Andrew Seybold's Outlook4Mobility for its AR5000 chipset. The awards honor companies that demonstrate leadership and innovation in the wireless industry.

Paradise Datacom has been presented with the Queen's Award for Enterprise 2001. This award is the highest honor which can be bestowed on a UK company.

FINANCIAL NEWS

Cree Inc. reports sales of $43.1 M for the first quarter ended September 23, 2001, compared to $37.6 M for the same period last fiscal year. Net income was $8.06 M (11¢/diluted share) compared to $12.66 M (17¢/diluted share) for the first quarter of FY 2001.

Merrimac Industries Inc. reports sales of $5.31 M for the third quarter ended September 29, 2001, compared to $6.44 M for the same period in 2000. Net loss was $209 K (8¢/diluted share) compared to a net income of $219 K (9¢/diluted share) for the third quarter of 2000.

Ansoft Corp. reports sales of $12.5 M for the second quarter ended October 31, 2001, compared to $9.7 M for the same period in 2000. Net income was $1.3 M (10¢/diluted share) compared to $773 K (6¢/diluted share) for the second quarter of the prior fiscal year.

Unity Wireless Corp. reports sales of $972 K for the third quarter ended September 30, 2001, compared to $571 K for the same period in 2000. Net loss was $372 K narrowing the comprehensive loss of $612 K for the second quarter.

CONTRACTS

Giga-tronics Inc. announced that its Microsource subsidiary, located in Santa Rosa, CA, had received multi-year contract awards in excess of $7 M from The Boeing Co. and two international customers.

Merrimac Industries Inc. has been awarded a contract which is estimated to reach $1.2 M from The Boeing Co. Navigation Systems Division to design, develop and manufacture RF components and subsystems for the redesigned GPS Block IIF program.

AR/Kalmus has signed a contract with the Department of the Army for the purchase of 49 of its model M512-20 RF power amplifiers. The amplifiers are valued at $396 K.

EMS Technologies Inc. has received a contract from ASTRIUM to design and manufacture three antennas and a tower support structure for the Eutelsat W3A program.

PERSONNEL

TRAK Communications Inc. has appointed Robert A. Grimes president of TRAK Microwave.Grimes' background includes over 20 years of engineering design, marketing and sales organizational development, presidential leader- ship and board memberships. In related news, TRAK Communications has named Ralph L. Phillips president of TECOM Industries in Chatsworth, CA. Phillips joins TECOM from Northrup Grumman where his last position was as VP of business development of the Integrated Systems Division.

M-tron Industries Inc. has named Dick Thompson VP of sales and marketing. Previously, Thompson has worked in a variety of assignments at Robinson Nugent Inc., Vishay Intertechnology Inc. and Champion Technologies.

Valence Semiconductor has named Alberto Mantovani VP of broadband connectivity business development. Mantovani will be responsible for developing business opportunities for Valence's broadband connectivity segment and will help drive the company's Digital Home initiative.

The US Senate confirmed Arden L. Bement Jr. as director of the Commerce Department's National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). The position of NIST director is a presidential appointment. Bement was nominated for the position by President Bush on October 23, 2001.

Petri Tulensalo has been appointed managing director of APLAC Solutions Corp. Prior to joining the company, Tulensalo worked internationally with Nokia Networks.

Sabritec has named Mike Khavar quality assurance manager. Khavar has over 20 years of manufacturing, quality and management experience in commercial, military, aerospace, electronics and medical industries.

IFR has named Philippe Le Gall to the newly created position of European regional sales manager. The apointment follows the consolidation of the company's southern and northern European sales operations into a single division.

REP APPOINTMENTS

Hittite Microwave Corp. has named Future Electronics as its first ever stocking distributor. Future Electronics, headquartered in Canada, holds offices in 34 countries and has served the electronic components industry for 32 years.

Microwave Development Laboratories has appointed Sea Port Technical Sales , Bellevue, WA, to be its exclusive representative for the Pacific Northwest region.

Microwave Development Co. Inc. , Salem, NH, has appointed N & W Sales , Arlington, TX, to represent its full line of products in Texas, Arkansas, Oklahoma and Louisiana.

The Fiber Optic Products Group of Seiko Instruments USA Inc. , Torrance, CA, has added All-American Semiconductor Inc. , Miami, FL, to its roster of distributors. All-American will distribute the group's connectors.

WEB SITE

Applied Wave Research Inc. (AWR) announced the immediate availability over the Internet of Microwave Office™ 2002 simulation, layout and electromagnetic analysis design suite. Design engineers can download fully functioning evaluation software at www.mwoffice.com/ products/mwoffice.html for a 30-day trial period.