Microwave Journal
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Around The Circuit

November 1, 2003

Industry News

Aeroflex Inc. announced the successful completion of its acquisition of MCE Technologies Inc. As a result of the merger, each share of MCE common stock and each MCE common stock purchase warrant was converted in to the right to receive 0.2254 of a share of Aeroflex common stock. Accordingly, Aeroflex will be issuing to former MCE security holders an aggregate 5,822,255 shares of common stock, representing approximately nine percent of Aeroflex's outstanding shares.


Agilent Technologies Inc. and Setram International announced an agreement for Setram to acquire Agilent's Wizard Wireless Network Planning and Design Tool products within Agilent's test and measurement business. Setram develops and markets a suite of software solutions focused on the design and optimization of advanced cellular networks. Under terms of the agreement, Setram will also acquire technical support and training associated with the products. Financial details of the agreement were not disclosed.

Laird Technologies announced the acquisition of the commercial business of Magnes Corp ., based in Seoul, South Korea. The acquisition coincides with the establishment of Laird Technologies Korea YH, a limited liability company. Magnes Corp. has been selling Laird Technologies Form-in-Place conductive elastomer solutions into the Korean market since 1997 as an authorized distributor.

Anritsu Co. announced a partnership with TestMart whereby TestMart will provide a set of government marketplace services to Anritsu Co. The partnership is part of Anritsu's strategic business plan towards the military and government agencies, and allows TestMart to better serve authorized military personnel, and government users and contractors who purchase equipment through TestMart's government services group. The agreement authorizes TestMart to offer a catalog of Anritsu products that will be made available for sale specifically in the government and military channel.

XMA Corp. purchased the entire connectorized attenuator and termination line from M/A-COM in July and is setting up for full manufacturing operation.

Stratos Lightwave Inc. entered into a definitive agreement to acquire privately-held Sterling Holding Co. Under terms of the agreement, Sterling Holding Co. will become a wholly owned subsidiary of Stratos. The transaction is expected to close in Stratos' third fiscal quarter 2004 and is subject to approval by both Stratos' and Sterling's shareholders and other customary conditions.

RFMW Ltd. announced that it has signed a North American distribution agreement with Skyworks Solutions Inc. Skyworks is an RF/microwave semiconductor company providing subsystems, modules, building blocks and discrete components to a worldwide customer base. RFMW Ltd. is a specialized distributor that provides customers and suppliers with focused distribution of RF and microwave components as well as specialized component-engineering support.

Lamina Ceramics Inc. announced a business agreement with KEMET Corp. wherby the two companies will develop and commercialize high performance, low temperature co-fired ceramic-on-metal solutions for advanced electronic systems. Concurrent with this agreement, KEMET Corp. has made an equity investment in Lamina Ceramics.

Richardson Electronics announced it has signed a distribution agreement with Crystek Crystals Corp. Under the terms of the agreement, Richardson will operate as worldwide distributor for Crystek's complete line of quartz crystals and oscillators for the wired and wireless communications, automotive, industrial, consumer and data processing markets.

National Instruments and Ansoft Corp. announced integration between Ansoft Designer™ high frequency electronic-design software and the NI LabVIEW 7 Express virtual instrumentation software. Through a new API that integrates Ansoft Designer and NI LabVIEW, design engineers can easily incorporate real-world measurements into an RF and wireless system design flow to accelerate the model development and system validation of today's complex RF and mixed-signal systems. A set of example programs for integrating LabVIEW and Ansoft Designer is available for download at http://ni.com/design.

Litron Inc. announced the opening of its new manufacturing facility located at 207 Bowles Road in Agawam, MA. The new 23,500 square foot facility occupies 2.88 acres and was built to provide the company with the needed space to accommodate its expanding customer base. The facility has a 3,000 sq. foot, class 10,000 cleanroom, housing the two Litron Laser Hermetic Sealing Systems used exclusively for medical implant devices and microelectronic packages.

Magfusion Inc. announced the completion of a facility expansion project that will strengthen the company's ability to handle all aspects of production on an in-house basis. The project included building modifications and the installation of new production equipment at the company's headquarters in Chandler, AZ. With the completion of this project, Magfusion has expanded its wafer fabrication capacity to support not only product development but also low volume production. In addition, the company has established full back-end assembly, hermetic packaging and test capability.

I.F. Engineering Corp. , manufacturer of standard and custom-engineered passive broadband RF and microwave components covering 100 kHz to 7 GHz, has relocated into a larger facility to accommodate significantly increased engineering and manufacturing demands. IFE is now located at 40 Parker Road, Fabyan, CT 06255. New contact numbers are: (860) 935-0280, fax (860) 935-0283. In related news, I.F. Engineering has new sales representation in Florida. Gruber & Associates now represents IFE in the states of Alabama, Florida, Georgia and Tennessee.

Cascade Microtech Inc. announced the opening of a new office in Singapore. Cascade Microtech Singapore is responsible for direct sales, service and support of products for Cascade's engineering product division in Singapore and Malaysia. These products include wafer probes, test stations and related accessories. In related news, Cascade Microtech Inc. announced that Eric I. Blachno has been named vice president of finance and chief financial officer. Most recently Blachno served as vice president of finance and chief financial officer of Luminent Inc., where he was responsible for corporate strategy as well as financial accounting and investor relations.

Universal Microwave Corp. announced the opening of UMC's new worldwide sales and customer support center. This new facility in Tempe, AZ will provide enhanced and expanded sales and customer service support for UMC's customers, representatives and distribution network. The facility is located at 4703 S. Lakeshore Drive, Suite 2, Tempe, AZ 85282 (480) 756-6070, fax (480) 756-6026. The company can be reached via e-mail at sales@vco1.com.

EHM Technology Inc. announced that it has moved its corporate headquarters from Illinois to Las Vegas, NV. The new address is 5186 Venita Drive, Las Vegas, NV 89120 (702) 450-3751, fax (847) 952-9023.

Circuit Check Inc. announced the establishment of its first regional support center in Southeast Asia. JJ Ong has joined Circuit Check as director of Asian sales and customer support and will be based in Penang, Malaysia. The direct office is the first strategic move by Circuit Check to build a support infrastructure for current and future customers using company products throughout Southeast Asia.

Effective immediately, the Noise Com Inc. purchasing department has a new phone and fax number: (973) 909-0250 and fax (973) 909-0254. Noise Com's main phone and fax numbers remain the same at (201) 261-8797 and fax (201) 261-8339.

Telegärtner Inc. announced the company's receipt of ISO 9001:2000 certification from Quality Assurance Systems Inc. Previously, Telegärtner Inc. has been certified to the older ISO 9002:1994 standard.

American Microwave Corp. and Planar Monolithics Industries Inc. announced that they are now ISO9001:1994 certified.

RF Micro Devices Inc. announced production shipments of the RF3140 PowerStar™ power amplifier module for the next-generation Treo 600 Smartphone by Handspring. The Handspring Treo 600 Smartphone combines the features of a wireless handheld device and a mobile phone into a small, narrow design.

California Eastern Laboratories has recently developed new device model design kits for Agilent's ADS for a number of its most popular NEC transistors. These new model design kits will simplify the importing of transistor modeling information, and speed up the design of amplifiers, oscillators and other components that employ discrete transistors.

Palomar Technologies was honored with a 2003 Advanced Packaging award at a ceremony held during SEMICON West in San Jose, CA. Palomar won in the die placement and attach category for its 6500 precision eutectic die bonder.

Elcoteq Network Corp. announced that the Elcoteq Americas, Monterrey, Mexico facility has achieved a World-class Quality Level based on the GE Quality Assessment. The GE process assessment is a tool for analyzing a company's manufacturing performance level.

CONTRACTS

Merrimac Industries Inc. announced that it was awarded a contract that is estimated to reach $4.4 M from the The Boeing Co. Integrated Defense Systems for beamforming networks and RF/microwave signal processing components that are utilized on Boeing's GPS IIF satellites. Under a contract awarded by the US Air Force, Boeing is currently building the first three GPS IIF satellites, with a potential total of up to 12 satellites.

NERA Broadband Satellite AS (Oslo, Norway) has awarded Precise Time and Frequency Inc. a contract for the design, manufacture and supply of the Timing and Reference Subsystem for gateways to be used in the iPSTAR satellite system. Through the iPSTAR system, Shin Satellite Public Co., based in Thailand, will supply low cost broadband services in the Asia-Pacific region, offering broadband communications via satellite, delivering high speed Internet services at speeds of 10 Mb/s to the end user and 4 Mb/s from the end user.

REMEC Inc. announced that it has been selected as a primary supplier to a North American OEM in two separate source selections. REMEC will supply two different multi-carrier power amplifier requirements for CDMA PCS band network solutions to be deployed in the Americas.

FINANCIAL NEWS

Mimix Broadband Inc. announced that it has secured $6.7 M in an initial close of its second round of institutional funding. This round of funding was led by 3i, an international venture capital company, and First Capital Group of San Antonio, TX. The majority of existing shareholders also participated in this round. Proceeds will be used to expand the company's product portfolio of highly integrated and high power monolithic microwave integrated circuits.

RNT , a provider of high tech products and solutions for component joining, has been awarded a $1.9 M grant from the National Institute of Standards and Technology's advanced technology program. The funds will be used to establish mass production manufacturing processes geared towards its launch of commercial product to broader markets.

AMIS Holdings Inc., parent company of AMI Semiconductor Inc. , announced the pricing of its initial public offering of common stock, which is expected to begin trading on the Nasdaq National Market under the symbol "AMIS." The company has agreed to sell 25,145,000 shares of its common stock at $20.00 per share. Certain selling stockholders have agreed to sell an additional 4,855,000 shares at the same price. The underwriters have been granted the right to purchase up to an additional 4,500,000 shares of common stock if they exercise their over-allotment option in full, of which 2,306,743 shares are being offered by the company and 2,193,257 shares are being offered by selling stockholders.

NEW MARKET ENTRY

Star Microwave has entered the global telecommunications market introducing a broad range of isolators and circulators featuring low insertion loss and low IMD products. They have over 50 years of RF experience in isolator design and integration including surface-mount, drop-in, connectorized devices and waveguides. For a complete listing of the company's models, visit www.starmwi.com.

PERSONNEL

ZettaCore Inc. announced that Herbert Goronkin has joined its board of directors. Goronkin, recently retired from Motorola Inc., was previously vice president and director of research in charge of Motorola's physical research labs in Tempe, AZ.

Park Electrochemical Corp. announced the election of Steven P. Schaefer to the position of senior vice president, technology. In his new position, Schaefer will be responsible for the company's research and development efforts, and he will continue to lead the company's new products function. Schaefer previously served as vice president of business development and as senior director of product technology for Park.

Rogers Corp. announced that Frank Gillern has been selected as the new vice president of Rogers Advanced Circuit Materials Division, located in Chandler, AZ. He is replacing Robert Daigle, who recently was named vice president of research and development, chief technology officer at Rogers. In his new assignment, Gillern will be responsible for overseeing the operations of the division's two manufacturing facilities that produce high frequency and flexible circuit materials.

Applied Wave Research (AWR™) announced that it has appointed Chris Paris to direct the company's European sales and support operations. Paris has over 19 years of broad international experience in design engineering and sales and management. He comes to AWR from Digital Lightwave, where he was general manager of the company's Europe, Middle East and Africa sales operations.

TriPoint Global Communications announced the appointment of Yasser Mahdhaoui to the position of vice president, sales for the company's Africa and Middle East region. Mahdhaoui will establish his base of operations at TriPoint Global's sales office in the United Kingdom. In his new assignment, Mahdhaoui will be responsible for managing the day-to-day sales activities for the region, achieving established bookings quotas, and developing relationships with key accounts, regional sales representatives and distributors.

Modelithics Inc. announced the addition of Paul B. Firth as director of sales and marketing. Firth's background includes engineering of aircraft microwave navigation systems, high tech marketing and executive management. This unique combination of experience has prepared him to build Modelithics' business of providing software models for more rapid RF/microwave product engineering.

M2 Global Technology Ltd. announced that Jody Fameree has been named director of business development. Formerly the president of Commercial Microwave Components, Fameree has a proven track record of increasing market share in the highly completive amplifier component sector. He has 20 years of finance, sales and marketing experience with companies in the telecommunications industry. Fameree will manage M2 Global's new southeast sales office in Tampa, FL.

REP APPOINTMENTS

M-tron Industries announced that A4S will represent the company's entire line of frequency control products in Belgium and Luxemburg. A4S has its sales office in Antwerp.

BroadWave Technologies Inc. announced new representative appointments for the company's line of coaxial passive components and custom test systems. Southern Marketing Associates of Longwood, FL will cover Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee and North/South Carolina. Bouillon Technology Solutions of Plano, TX will provide coverage for Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Louisiana. Advanced Technology Sales of Los Altos, CA is responsible for northern California and northern Nevada.

Aplac Solutions Corp. signed a distributor agreement with Castle Microwave Ltd. of the United Kingdom, authorizing Castle Microwave to represent APLAC Solutions products and collateral services in the United Kingdom and Ireland.

RF Logic LLC announced the appointment of Rep Sales as its exclusive representative in the Colorado, Utah, Idaho, Wyoming and Montana territory. RF Logic is a supplier of high quality coaxial cable assemblies and custom test equipment and components to both the RF/microwave and high speed digital markets. RF Logic also announced the appointment of Millennium Sales as the company's exclusive representative in the Alabama, Tennessee, Mississippi, Georgia territory.

MegaPhase® has signed contracts with three new US manufacturer's sales representatives. KJS Marketing Inc. will cover Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska, Montana and Kansas. PVP Sales Inc. will handle northern New Jersey, metro New York, Long Island and northeastern Pennsylvania. G Squared Technologies will cover Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, Washington, DC, metro Philadelphia and southern New Jersey.

Applied Engineering Products has added several new rep organizations to expand the company's representation in Europe to a presence in seventeen countries: Acal Italia in Italy; Atlantese in Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands; Axel Representations in Greece; Miweko Mikrowellen in Austria, Germany and Switzerland; Pronesto AB in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden; P2M S.A. in France; Melcom Ltd. in the UK and Ireland; Giza Technologies in Spain; and Eltronik Ltd. in Turkey.

International Manufacturing Services Inc. announced the appointment of TACTRON Electronik to represent the IMS product line in Germany. TACTRON can be contacted via its Web site at www.tactron.de or directly by phone at +49 89 895 56 90.

WEB SITES

Hittite Microwave has updated the on-line S-parameter library for the company's amplifier, attenuator, mixer/converter and switch products. Designers will find it easy to include actual product performance into their simulations. Visitors to www.hittite.com can quickly scroll through and select any Hittite standard product part number of interest. A product summary table will appear that will give direct links to the S-parameter files as well as the data sheet .pdf file.

Sprague-Goodman Electronics has announced the availability of its current inventory listing on-line. The company's products, consisting of almost 1500 model numbers, are listed in alphanumeric order by model number. Visit www.spraguegoodman.com/html/inventory.html to access the site.