Microwave Journal
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Around The Circuit

November 14, 2006

Industry News

Dr. Leo Young

Dr. Leo Young died September 14, 2006, of complications from cancer. He was 80 years old. He was a pioneer in the microwave industry and served as president of both MTT-S and IEEE.

He received his BS degree in physics and math in 1946 and his master’s degree in electrical engineering in 1949, both from Cambridge University. In 1957 he received his doctorate in electrical engineering from Johns Hopkins University.

As a young engineer, he worked at Westinghouse on microwave components and antennas. He is best known for his work on filter technology at the Stanford Research Institute in Menlo Park, CA, and later as superintendent of the Electrical Engineering Division of the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, DC.

Young held 20 patents, was the author of many papers as well as author, co-author or editor of 14 books, including the classic Microwave Filters, Impedance-Matching Networks and Coupling Structures. Originally published in 1964, it is still available and continues to sell well even after 42 years. He was a researcher, a teacher, a mentor to many young engineers and a frequent contributor to Microwave Journal. He made many significant contributions to the microwave industry and will be remembered both for his work and as a friend to many of us.

October 15th, 2006 marked the beginning of Maury Microwave Corp.’s 50th year in business. On that day in 1957 the company first opened its doors as Maury and Associates, under the leadership of founder Mario A. Maury. With the help of his sons, Mario A. Maury, Jr. and Marc A. Maury, the company earned a solid reputation in the microwave test and calibration industry, while developing a comprehensive line of precision instruments, coaxial and waveguide components, and calibration standards. For the complete story, visit www.maurymw.com/events_media/press_releases/pubrel/pr028.htm.

Freescale Semiconductor Inc., a global leader in the design and manufacture of embedded semiconductors for wireless, networking, automotive, consumer and industrial markets, announced that it has entered into a definitive merger agreement to be acquired by a private equity consortium in a transaction with a total equity value of $17.6 B. The consortium is led by The Blackstone Group, and includes The Carlyle Group, Permira Funds and Texas Pacific Group.

RF Monolithics Inc. (RFM) announced the closing of its acquisition of high performance wireless products manufacturer Cirronet Inc. With the acquisition, which was initially announced on August 28th, RFM will add Cirronet’s proprietary, Bluetooth™ and Zigbee™ embedded modules and box products to its existing portfolio of low power radio technologies. With the expansion of its product line—and its recent acquisition of Caver-Morehead’s asset management software—RFM will be strategically positioned to serve the rapidly growing and higher value-added market for comprehensive wireless solutions.

Elcoteq SE and Andrew Corp. have signed a global, long-term manufacturing supply agreement, which further strengthens Elcoteq’s position as a strategic partner to Andrew Corp. in Europe and the Americas. The agreement is expected to increase Elcoteq’s net sales by approximately 80 million euros (100 million US dollars) during 2007. As a result of this new agreement, Elcoteq will be responsible for consolidating and managing the whole supply chain of Andrew’s filter business in Europe and will start manufacturing and system assembly in Mexico on a turnkey basis. In addition, Elcoteq and Andrew have agreed that Elcoteq will acquire Andrew’s manufacturing unit in Arad, Romania, including related equipment, work in progress and inventories. The total consideration to be paid by Elcoteq will amount to some 15 million euros. Elcoteq will take over the manufacturing unit immediately.

Agilent Technologies Inc. announced a multi-year, multi-site agreement in which Peregrine Semiconductor has expanded its investment in Agilent Technologies’ RFIC design tools, designed to boost productivity and production yields.

EMS SATCOM, a division of EMS Technologies Inc., reported that, in collaboration with Thales, it will provide high speed mobile satellite communications systems to OnAir for use on Airbus aircraft. System deliveries, expected to start in late 2006, are estimated to be worth at least $30 M over the next five years. The systems will be used to provide in-flight cell phone and Internet service.

Credence Systems Corp., a provider of test solutions from design to production for the worldwide semiconductor industry, announced a partnership with Integra Technologies to offer mixed-signal and RF application development support for design houses located in North America. Integra is also expanding its RF and mixed-signal test capabilities with the purchase of an additional Credence ASL 3000RF test system.

WJ Communications Inc. announced that it has signed an OEM agreement with Hitachi America Ltd. to supply fixed readers for use with Hitachi’s RFID u-chip. This agreement involved joint development between Hitachi and WJ of an industry leading 2.45 GHz fixed reader, available exclusively through Hitachi America. Hitachi America will market the reader as part of its overall RFID solutions offerings including item authentication such as event tickets and manufacturing process automation.

Microwave Products Group® (MPG), composed of Dow-Key Microwave and K&L Microwave, announced the opening of a new office in Stockholm, Sweden. This new location significantly enhances MPG’s ability to serve new and existing customers in Scandinavia. It also supports company initiatives to improve customer relations and corporate growth globally. To head the new MPG sales office, Fredrik Knutsen has been named Scandinavian regional sales manager.

Radio Waves Inc. has announced that it will be offering high quality Radio Waves HP6 antennas manufactured at the company’s UK facility. Until now the largest antennas Radio Waves manufactured in its UK facility was HP4 and SP6 style antennas. Radio Waves also offers Flex Twist and can provide LMR® jumpers and cables.

Lytron Inc. recently announced the completion and opening of its new factory and corporate office space in Woburn, MA. With this new space north of Boston, Lytron has doubled its square footage and increased its manufacturing capabilities, positioning itself for continued growth. It has also made room for equipment and the addition of staff from its recent acquisition of Lockhart Industries Inc., a designer and manufacturer of advanced aluminum-brazed cooling components for the military and electronics markets.

Microwave Filter Co. Inc. was recently honored by the Defense Supply Center Columbus as one of the government’s best suppliers at an award ceremony held during the 2006 Land and Maritime Supply Chains Business Conference and Exhibition, August 28–30, 2006, in Columbus, OH. The firm supplies passive electronic filters to the Department of Defense and other government agencies.

Xirrus Inc., a provider of high capacity, long range Wi-Fi products that can effectively extend wired network capabilities to wireless, announced the issuance of United States Patent Number US D526,973 S by the US Patent and Trademark Office.

ANADIGICS Inc. announced that the company is shipping production volumes of power amplifiers for new handset models from a large handset OEM. ANADIGICS’ ultra-compact AWT6314 dual-band CDMA power amplifier enables a new handset from this tier-one OEM.

Contracts

Micronetics Inc. announced that it has received an order for integrated microwave subsystems from a leading direct broadcast satellite (DBS) antenna manufacturer valued at over $1 M. These microwave subsystems will be installed onboard a fast growing regional commercial airline. This order is expected to ship over the next nine months, starting in the third quarter of the current fiscal year.

picoChip announced that its WiMAX solution is part of M/A-COM’s recently announced 4.9 GHz VIDA broadband solution for Public Safety Grade Applications. This solution by M/A-COM, a business unit of Tyco Electronics, utilizes the standard WiMAX 802.16 protocol to deliver integrated, public safety-grade wireless broadband video and data services for mission-critical applications.

The US Department of Defense’s (DoD) Naval Inventory and Control Point (NAVICP) has awarded Technical Communities Inc., a leading marketplace operator and service provider for the IT, network maintenance and test and measurement industry, a contract to operate and enhance the strategic sourcing on-line marketplace for the General Purpose Electronic Test Equipment (GPETE) division. The terms of the agreement extend the original five-year contract signed in 2001, through August 1, 2007. Technical Communities originally developed and now operates the existing on-line marketplace located at www.navicpmart.org.

CPI International Inc., the parent company of Communications and Power Industries Inc., a provider of microwave, radio frequency, power and control solutions for critical defense, communications, medical, scientific and other applications, has recently enjoyed excellent success providing a solid-state power amplifier to SWE-DISH Satellite Systems for use in the SWE-DISH® IPT Suitcase. CPI International (CPI) currently delivers large quantities of power amplifiers to SWE-DISH for use in its small, satellite terminals.

Inphi® Corp.’s recently launched GigaTrack™ family of high frequency Track-and-Hold Amplifiers (THA) has been selected by Wavecrest as a fundamental building block for its sophisticated family of signal integrity analysis (SIA) solutions, beginning with its SIA-4000. Wavecrest’s test equipment is used to analyze serial data communication and clock signals for a wide variety of applications. The SIA-4000 tests serial data applications with speeds up to 12.5 Gbps including applications such as PCI Express™ Gen 2, FB DIMM, 8X Fibre Channel and OC-192 SONET.

Unity Wireless Corp. has received an order for two of the company’s point-to-point microwave radio products, the UNI 50 and UNI 100, from a new customer in North Africa.

Financial News

RF Micro Devices Inc. (RFMD), a global leader in the design and manufacture of high performance radio systems and solutions for applications that drive mobile communications, announced that, as a result of the pending merger of Jazz Semiconductor with a wholly owned subsidiary of Acquicor Technology Inc., RFMD expects to sell its equity interest in Jazz Semiconductor for an aggregate cash consideration of approximately $24 to $27 M. Upon completion of the merger, which is expected in the first quarter of calendar year 2007, Jazz Semiconductor will become a wholly owned subsidiary of Acquicor.

SiGe Semiconductor, a supplier of RF front-end solutions for wireless systems, announced it has raised US $19.5 M in an expansion round of financing. The investment will fund new product development from conception to launch, as well as the growth of operations in support of the company’s expanding global customer base. TD Capital, Prism Venture Partners, VenGrowth Private Equity Partners and 3i Technology Partners led the round, joined by previous investors, including Hunt Ventures, RWI Group, GrowthWorks and Vista Ventures.

Ansoft Corp. reports sales of $17.3 M for the first quarter of fiscal 2007 ended July 31, 2006, compared to $14.8 M for the same period in 2006. Net income for the quarter was $2.3 M ($0.09/per diluted share), compared to $1.2 M ($0.05/per diluted share) for the first quarter of last year.

Merrimac Industries Inc. reports sales of $8.3 M for the second quarter ended July 1, 2006, compared to $7.6 M for the same period in 2005. Net income for the quarter was $529,000 ($0.17/per diluted share), compared to $332,000 ($0.10/per diluted share) for the second quarter of last year.

RF Industries Ltd. reports sales of $3.9 M for the third quarter of fiscal 2006 ended July 31, 2006, compared to $3.3 M for the same period in 2005. Net income for the quarter was $407,000 ($0.11/per diluted share), compared to $194,000 ($0.05/per diluted share) for the third quarter of last year.

Personnel

Hans Petter Hauge

Frank Padula has been appointed president/chief operating officer at Wide Band Systems Inc., Franklin, NJ. Padula succeeds William B. Sullivan, the company’s founder and former president who passed away earlier this year. Prior to this new position, Padula served as vice president/operations at Wide Band responsible for administrative duties involving materials control, purchasing, accounts payable, program management, contracts administration and associated functions.

Quantum Leap Packaging Inc. announced the appointment of David Grooms to chief executive officer. Grooms has held the top post at several large public and small emerging technology companies to include president of Kyocera America Inc. and Kyocera Mexicana S.A.de C.V., both based out of San Diego, CA, where he served a 20-year tenure.

Nordic Semiconductor ASA announced that it has appointed Hans Petter Hauge as its new chief financial officer (CFO). Hauge joins the company from a long and distinguished background including three years as financial director of the Nordic’s largest consumer food supplier, Orkla Foods ASA, and more recently, five years as CFO for OSE-listed wireless software company Birdstep Technology ASA.

Fujitsu Microelectronics America Inc. (FMA) named Keith Horn to be its chief operating officer (COO). Horn will manage the day-to-day operations of FMA. He has already been responsible for FMA’s four business groups, as well as marketing communications and engineering. In his new role, the four vice presidents heading operations, IT, human resources, accounting, finance and legal will also report to him.

Keith Horn

D2 Technologies announced that it has appointed Doug Makishima to the post of vice president of marketing. Makishima reports to Dr. David Wong, president of D2. Makishima has over 19 years of marketing and engineering experience in the networking and communications industries. He served as vice president of marketing for Intoto, a network security vendor. Prior to joining Intoto, Makishima served as vice president of marketing for Hifn, a leading provider of security and network processors, and vice president of marketing and sales for Parkervision, a wireless communications solutions company.

TRU Corp. announced that Robert St. Pierre has joined the company as director of sales, a new position, reporting to Tony Martiniello, vice president of business development and engineering. St. Pierre will have direct responsibility for all TRU sales functions both internally and externally, and the regional managers will report directly to him. St. Pierre has a long and distinguished career in the RF and microwave industry, beginning at M/A-COM in applications engineering and sales, then at Sage Laboratories, Richardson Electronics and most recently at UltraSource Inc.

MicroMetrics Inc., a manufacturer of semiconductor devices, announced the appointment of Michael Hebert as director of marketing and new product development. Hebert was formally the general manager and director of semiconductor operations for M/A-COM, a Tyco Electronics company. Hebert brings over 20 years of experience to the MicroMetrics team and will help enhance the company’s high voltage surface-mount PIN and limiter diodes as well as assist the company in new product development projects.

Rep Appointments

Electro Rent Corp. announced that it has entered into North American distribution agreements with Agilent Technologies, Hioki and RAE Systems for a range of basic test and measurement (T&M) products from these leading manufacturers, and created a Distribution Products Group to manage this new sales channel.

Fox Electronics, a supplier of frequency control products, and Digi-Key Corp., an electronic component distributor that ships to more than 140 countries around the globe, announced the signing of a global distribution agreement. Digi-Key will stock Fox’s broad range of crystals, oscillators, VCXOs, TCXOs and OXCOs.

Lorch Microwave announced the appointment of dBm Technical Sales as the exclusive sales representative in the New England area. They may be contacted at One Olde North Road, Chelmsford, MA (978) 256-7100, fax: (978) 256-9705 or e-mail: jhoffman@dbmsales.com. Lorch Microwave has also appointed J-Squared Marketing as the exclusive sales representative for FL, GA, AL, NC and SC. They may be contacted at 2280 N. Ronald Reagan Blvd., Longwood, FL 32750 (407) 831-4901, fax: (407) 884-0252 or e-mail: j2m1958@aol.com.

Mica Microwave announced the appointment of mmwave Technologies Inc. as its exclusive sales representative in Canada. mmwave Technologies can be contacted at the main office located at 6200 Tomken Road, Unit A, Mississauga, Ontario L5T 1X7 (905) 696-2820, fax: (905) 696-2821 or visit www.mmwave.com. Additional offices are located in Ottawa, Montreal and Calgary.

TRAK Microwave Corp. announced the appointment of Eastern Optx LLC (EOX) as its exclusive sales representative for Southeast United States. EOX will cover the states of GA, AL, TN, MS, AL and FL. To contact EOX, visit: www.eoxsales.com.

Modelithics Inc. and Netwell Corp. announced that Netwell will be representing Modelithics’ unique model library products and measurement and modeling services in Japan. Modelithics will be joining Netwell in Tokyo this year as an exhibitor for the December 12-15, Asia Pacific Microwave Conference.

EMC Technology/Florida RF Labs, manufacturers of high reliability microwave passive components and cable assemblies, announced the appointment of JS Commtech as exclusive representative for the country of South Korea. JS Commtech can be contacted at RM #301, Taeyang Bldg., 194-7 Poi-Dong Gangnam-Gu, Seoul, Korea 135-962 +82-2-574-6100, fax: +82-2-579-0085 or visit www.jscommtech.com.

Triton Electron Technology Division (ETD) of Triton Services Inc. has appointed several new rep appointments for the company. Eastern Instrumentation, Philadelphia, PA, will be responsible for the territory of south NJ, PA and DE. EOX Sales will handle the territory of MD, DC, VA, NC, SC, GA, FL and AL. CDB Enterprises Inc. will represent northern New Jersey, metropolitan New York and western Connecticut, and Northern Technical Sales will cover the upstate New York territory.

Web sites

Reactel Inc. has enhanced its web site, www.reactel.com, with an on-line Filter RFQ tool. Filter quotes have never been easier, and are now just a click away. The site also features Reactel’s full-line of RF/microwave filters, diplexers and sub-assemblies. Additionally, in support of customers worldwide, Reactel’s product catalog and data sheets are available by download.

Applied Computational Sciences (ACS) has revamped its web site (www.appliedmicrowave.com) to include new features of the LINC2 RF and microwave circuit design software suite. LINC2 from ACS combines high performance RF and microwave circuit design, synthesis, simulation and optimization into a single integrated program at an affordable cost. The software includes a comprehensive suite of design tools for the exact synthesis of a wide variety of active and passive circuits.

Aeroflex/Inmet has recently updated its site at www.aeroflex-inmet.com to include new features such as “Click to Quote” and “Click to Buy.” The site allows a user to obtain a quote for any one of the listed products simply by clicking on the quote button pictured next to the particular model number. In addition, a “Buy Now” button has been added next to each item that is available for immediate purchase.

Chip Estimate Corp. announced that it has launched an integrated chip planning portal including an extensive database of digital, mixed signal and analog intellectual property components. Visitors to www.chipestimate.com can use a “rank-by-relevance” search engine to find IP components, and view comprehensive data sheets with details on IP status in silicon and overall quality. Over 4000 components are in the on-line catalog, representing over 150 IP suppliers.