Microwave Journal
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Around the Circuit

August 6, 2010

Industry News
Henry J. Riblet, inventor and microwave pioneer, passed away on June 25, 2010, less than a month short of his 97th birthday. He was one of the last surviving staff members of the MIT Radiation Laboratory of WWII. Born in Calgary, Canada, on July 21, 1913, he grew up in Erie, PA. He matriculated at Yale University in the early '30s where he concluded his studies with a PhD in mathematics in 1939. He credited microwave pioneer William W. Hansen with obtaining a staff position for him at the Rad Labs, which had recently opened in 1941. When the Rad Labs closed at the end of 1945, he was hired by Harold Hart, the manager of the microwave department of the Submarine Signal Co. in Boston. When Sub Signal was acquired by Raytheon in 1948, he and several other employees (including Theodore Saad and Nathanial Tucker) decided to form a new company, Microwave Development Labs (MDL). A large order from Hughes Aircraft and several of his patents helped sustain MDL through the 1950s. The most important of these were the sidewall and topwall waveguide hybrid. In the 1960s, he played a major role in the founding of Ferrotec and Americon. Later these companies became part of M/A-COM. In 1976 he was awarded the Microwave Career Prize by the MTT-S section of the IEEE. Dr. Riblet held a total of 67 patents. The first of these was applied for in 1938 while he was still a student. The last of these was issued in May 2010, just a month before his passing. He briefly held academic appointments at Adelphi College, Harvard University and Hofstra University. He is survived by his wife, Virginia, of 69 years, two sons and four grandchildren.


Aeroflex Inc. announced the execution of a definitive agreement to acquire Advanced Control Components Inc. (ACC) from EMRISE Corp. for $20 M in cash. The closing of the acquisition is subject to the approval of EMRISE's stockholders, as well as certain customary closing conditions. The purchase price is subject to a working capital adjustment if the adjusted net working capital at the date of closing is less than the target set forth in the purchase agreement.

Teledyne Technologies Inc. and Intelek plc jointly announced that they have reached agreement on the terms of a recommended cash offer to be made by Teledyne for the entire issued and to be issued ordinary share capital of Intelek (the "Offer"). Under the terms of the Offer, Intelek's ordinary shareholders will receive 32 pence in cash for each Intelek share valuing the entire existing issued ordinary share capital of Intelek at approximately £28 M.

Spectrum Control Inc., a designer and manufacturer of custom electronic products and systems, announced that Spectrum Microwave Inc., its wholly-owned subsidiary, has acquired substantially all of the assets and assumed certain liabilities of Sage Laboratories Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Ceralta Technologies Inc. The total purchase price of the acquisition was approximately $6.5 M. Current annualized revenues of Sage Labs' products are approximately $12 M.

Platronics Seals announced the purchase of the ceramic packaging group formally called Tech-Ceram Corp. from M/A-COM Technology Solutions located in Lowell, MA. Platronics Seals is a 44 year-old electronic packaging company located in Spartanburg, SC. Under the purchase agreement Platronics has acquired all ceramic manufacturing equipment, processes and raw material inventory. The ceramic operation has been consolidated into a state-of-the-art 36,000 square feet Spartanburg facility leveraging the existing in-house plating capabilities. With the acquisition, Platronics Seals will broaden the product offering to include glass to metal and ceramic microwave, optical and RF packages.

QuinStar Technology Inc. has acquired Passive Microwave Technology (Pamtech). Pamtech is operating as a wholly owned subsidiary of QuinStar Technology Inc. George Grund, founder of Pamtech and a recognized leader in the field of cryogenic isolators and circulators, passed away in May of this year. The company has been relocated from Camarillo, CA to QuinStar. Pamtech employees have made the change in location, and are currently working in a 44,000 S.F. with complete fabrication and plating facilities. For more information, contact: sales@quinstar.com or call (310) 320-1111.

TowerJazz, a specialty foundry leader, announced it was selected by Toppan Technical Design Center Co. Ltd. (TDC) as its preferred specialty foundry supplier. TowerJazz has successfully engaged in multiple specialty design projects in Japan with TDC in the area of Silicon Germanium (SiGe) BiCMOS technologies used for high speed RF applications. This partnership enables TowerJazz to strengthen its penetration in the Japanese market, particularly TDC's customers targeting RF, high speed analog, power management, high voltage, CMOS image sensors and MEMS.

Agilent Technologies Inc. and picoChip announced a high volume manufacturing test solution for 3G femtocell products. The jointly developed solution is based on picoChip's picoXcell semiconductors and software, and Agilent's N7310A chipset software. The new integrated manufacturing test solution delivers rapid calibration and verification testing capabilities for original design manufacturers (ODM) and contract manufacturers (CM).

Polaris Wireless, a leader in high accuracy, software-based wireless location solutions, and Globecomm Systems Inc., a provider of satellite and terrestrial communications infrastructure solutions and services, announced a partnership designed to enable US wireless operators to more quickly, easily and cost effectively meet Federal Communications Commission (FCC) E911 Phase II requirements. As part of its menu of offerings, Globecomm is introducing a managed E911 Phase II service that leverages Polaris's proven E911 Phase II software solution for rapidly locating mobile-device users.

NXP Semiconductors announced the opening of a high performance radio frequency (RF) product creation center (PCC) in Billerica, MA (US). This new NXP facility, located near Boston, will focus on the design of RF and microwave integrated circuits (IC) used in demanding applications such as defense & aerospace, Industrial, Scientific and Medical (ISM) satellite receivers and broadband communications.

Empower RF Systems announced the opening of its second Regional Design Center located in Lake Forest, CA. The investment in the Orange County Regional Design Center is part of the company's strategic growth plans and focuses in three primary areas—attracting and retaining additional engineering resources residing in Southern California, providing sales and technical support to targeted communications customers, and supporting advanced technology development activities. Further, the Orange County Regional Design Center is coming online within a year of the opening of the company's first Regional Design Center located in Holbrook, NY.

Aviat Networks Inc., a wireless expert in advanced IP migration solutions, announced that it has opened a new 128,000-square-foot facility at 5200 Great America Parkway in Santa Clara, CA, and will now be the location of its corporate headquarters. The relocation follows the company's global re-branding effort as Aviat Networks Inc., formerly known as Harris Stratex Networks Inc. The name change took effect on January 28, 2010.

Tektronix Inc. and Fluke Corp. announced that they have donated $100,000 to DeVry University for a five-year scholarship program. In the program, $20,000 will be awarded each year in $1,000 scholarships to 20 students each in the name of Tektronix and Fluke.

RF Micro Devices Inc. (RFMD), a leader in the design and manufacture of high performance RF components and compound semiconductor technologies, announced the successful qualification of RFMD's second high power Gallium Nitride (GaN) process technology, expanding the company's industry-leading portfolio of compound semiconductor technologies.

Rogers Corp. recently received two award honors from the Chinese government. The first award, "Level A Credit Company for Labor Security," was given to Rogers for its labor compliance and positive management of its employees. The award is based on Rogers having met or exceeded labor compliance requirements during the last two years, including cooperation with the local Chinese labor union and the high audit scores Rogers received related to labor compliance audits. The second award, "Jiangsu Provincial May 1, 2010 Honorary Labor Medal," was given to Rogers' Vice President of Asia, Michael Sehnert, by the Jiangsu Labor Union Bureau for outstanding performance, achievement and contribution to society in Jiangsu Province.

Skyworks Solutions Inc., an innovator of high reliability analog and mixed signal semiconductors enabling a broad range of end markets, announced that it has received the Technology Support Award from Huawei, a telecom solutions provider, in recognition of its excellence in base transceiver station (BTS) radio frequency (RF) customized devices.

Contracts

Harris Corp., an international communications and information technology company, has been awarded a five-year, $140 M contract by General Dynamics to modernize the ground segment of the satellite communications network used by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

Comtech Telecommunications Corp. announced that its Orlando, FL-based subsidiary, Comtech Systems Inc., received an order for $11 M from an international prime contractor for transportable troposcatter systems to be used by a middle eastern government. This is the first material troposcatter equipment contract with this foreign government.

Micronetics Inc. announced that its New Jersey based subsidiary, Microwave Concepts (Micro-Con), has received orders valued at over $4 M from a major defense OEM for highly integrated microwave subassemblies. These subassemblies are used as part of a high performance airborne jamming system. The anticipated period of performance on this program is approximately 24 months.

Giga-tronics Inc. announced that it received a $1.1 M order from the Naval Air Warfare Center in Lakehurst, NJ, for its Model 8003 Precision Scalar Analyzer. The Giga-tronics Model 8003 Precision Scalar Analyzer combines a 90 dB dynamic range with the accuracy and linearity of a power meter in a single instrument.

Personnel

Harold Aikins

Channel Microwave, a Smiths company, announced that Harold Aikins has joined the company as Vice President of Sales and Marketing. Aikins brings with him over 20 years of experience with component sales. Prior to joining Channel, Aikins worked as a manufacturing representative with Thorson Desert States Inc. and Regional Sales Manager with K&L Microwave. He is also a former Signal Corps officer with the US Army Reserve.

Microsemi Corp. has announced the appointment of Russell Garcia as Executive Vice President of Marketing and Sales. Garcia, who will be responsible for corporate marketing, worldwide sales and the development of product, market and technology roadmaps, comes to Microsemi with more than 25 years of semiconductor industry experience, most recently as Chief Executive Officer of WiSpry Inc. and u-Nav Microelectronics. He also has held senior marketing management positions with Texas Instruments and Silicon Systems.

Kevin Strackx

Anatech Electronics announced that Kevin Strack has been promoted to Director of National Sales, responsible for managing all sales activities, developing new business opportunities, and maintaining customer relationships throughout the US. He was previously Technical Sales Manager for the Southeastern US. Strack has more than three decades of experience in marketing and sales of RF and microwave products. He joined Anatech from Meggitt Safety Systems Inc., where he held a similar position. He can be reached at (407) 234-6359 or by e-mail at kevin.strack@anatechelectronics.com.

Paul Leo

Micro Lambda LLC, a mid-Atlantic- based manufacturer's rep firm, has announced the addition of Paul Leo to the company's sales team. Leo recently served as the Director of Business Development for Microwave Business Units and Business Development Manager for Antenna Products with Cobham.



Rep Appointments

Maury Microwave Corp. and AMCAD Engineering have signed an exclusive development and distribution agreement with regards to AMCAD's advanced measurement suite, IVCAD and its PIV/PLP family of pulsed IV systems. Development of IVCAD, which is currently available for sale, will continue over the upcoming year as a complement to Maury's long-standing ATS device characterization software. IVCAD will support multiple load pull techniques including traditional load pull using external instrumentation, VNA-based load pull, active load pull and hybrid load pull.

MITEQ Inc. announced the appointment of Micro Sales as the company's exclusive sales representative in Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Kentucky, West Virginia and western Pennsylvania. Micro Sales will represent MITEQ's Component division of products, which includes amplifiers, mixers, frequency multipliers, passive power components, switches, attenuators, limiters, phase shifters, IF signal processing components, oscillators, synthesizers, integrated multifunction assemblies and fiber optic products. Micro Sales can be contacted at sales@micro-sales.com.

Paciwave Inc., a supplier of microwave solid-state switches, attenuators, DLVAs and custom integrated microwave assemblies, announced the expansion of the company's network of regional sales representatives with the following new representative appointments: Biggs and Associates of Plano, TX (972) 679-5871 will be representing the company in Texas (except El Paso), Louisiana and Arkansas; Coastal Marketing Inc. of Ocean Beach, NY (631) 583-8604 will be representing the company in Long Island, Metro NYC and northern New Jersey; and Microwave Component Sources of Sorrento, FL will be representing the company in Florida, Alabama, Georgia and the Carolinas.