INDUSTRY NEWS
Richard (Dick) J. Sheloff, a management leader in the RF power amplifier industry, passed away on August 8, 2002. He was 75 years old. Dick was born in Brooklyn, New York. In 1950, he began his career at Polarad Corp., which manufactured one of the first microwave spectrum analyzers and LORAN receivers. At that time, he also served on several US government standards committees for signal generators and spectrum analyzers. In 1965, he was the marketing manager at LEL Inc. prior to joining the then-fledgling Microwave Power Devices (MPD) Inc. in 1970. With his help and guidance MPD became the largest manufacturer of advanced solid-state power amplifiers for military applications. In 1987, he continued on with a spin-off of MPD, Power Systems Technology (PST) Inc. In the same fashion, he helped bring the emerging company to an enviable industry standing and reputation. We all remember him as a hard-driving, extremely motivated manager, but we also remember him as a man of honesty, complete integrity and fairness. He made a significant, positive mark on our industry and touched many lives for the better.
Centurion Wireless Technologies Inc.announced it has signed an agreement to acquire Allgon Mobile Communications (AMC), a division of Swedish-based Allgon AB. AMC is a global designer and manufacturer of antennas for mobile phones and communication devices. The acquisition has enabled Centurion to nearly double its global production capabilities.
Oldcastle Precast Inc. acquired the assets of Andrews Corp.'s Shelter Division, a producer of above ground equipment shelters for telecommunications and utility customers. The combined Communications Division product line includes buildings and shelters and related service capabilities to the communications and utility industry.
M-tron Industries Inc. has signed the final agreements to acquire the assets of Champion Technologies Inc. from US Bank. The companies did not disclose financial details of the agreement.
Palomar Technologies announced that is has acquired the Fiber Automation Division of Axsys Technologies. The new organization will continue engineering and manufacturing operations in its Pittsburgh facility as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Palomar Technologies. Patents and intellectual property relating to nano-positioning and fiber alignment were included in the purchase. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.
TriPoint Global Communications has acquired the assets of Gabriel Electronics Inc., a broadband antenna solutions company. The combination of the company's antenna solutions, applications, support and service provides an offering for customers in the wireless access and transport industry, worldwide. TriPoint Global will market and support these antenna solutions through TriPoint Global, under the Gabriel brand fully supporting current and new customers.
REMEC Inc. and Spectrian Corp. jointly announced that they have entered into an agreement revising the terms relating to the acquisition that was previously announced. Pursuant to the terms of the revised merger agreement, each share of Spectrian common stock will be exchanged for one share of REMEC common stock, valuing the proposed acquisition at approximately $39.5 M.
NEC Electronics Inc. announced that it has changed its name to NEC Electronics America Inc. as part of the launch of its parent company. NEC separated its semiconductor business into a new, wholly-owned global company, NEC Electronics Corp. The new company will specialize in semiconductor products encompassing advanced technology solutions for the broadband and communications markets.
Rohde & Schwarz has established a subsidiary in the German Centre in Santa Fe, Mexico. The enterprise is responding to the requirements of local customers. Another sales office has been established in Guadalajara to ensure individual support of key and regional target accounts.
RF Micro Devices announced that production shipments have begun from its new test and tape and reel facility in Beijing, China. The facility will provide direct, local support to Chinese handset manufacturers, original design manufacturers and international handset manufacturers with operations in China. The company anticipates its local presence will help accelerate time-to-market of key components, reduce manufacturing and shipping costs, and contribute to improved inventory management.
Richardson Electronics announced the opening of a branch office in Beijing, China, continuing its effort to address the needs of its customers and the expanding Chinese market. This branch office opening represents its third sales office in China.
Superconductor Technologies Inc. has formed a strategic alliance with Heinz Corp. The companies will jointly provide design and installation solutions to improve the quality of wireless networks, expecially in high volume urban areas. The alliance was announced at the Tower Summit & Trade Show in New Orleans, LA.
Applied Wave Research Inc. (AWR™) announced a technology licensing agreement with Synopsys that enables AWR to integrate Synopsys' HSPICE® analog and mixed-signal circuit simulation solution into AWR's high frequency design environment. This agreement will provide radio frequency integrated circuit (RFIC) designers with the ability to improve simulation performance and reduce development time in designing large-scale RFICs used in wireless and wireline appliances.
Unity Wireless Corp. signed an agreement with Israeli-based Dekolink Wireless Ltd. to jointly develop a fully-integrated digital repeater system. Unity Wireless will supply power amplifiers for that product for three years.
Atmel® Corp. and Astek Corp. have entered into a strategic partnership committed to helping customers get to market with a first pass success. Astek's Application Testing and Total Emulation of system technology accelerates time-to-market for system-on-chip (SOC) devices. ATTEST is a hardware emulation and verification process methodology that can perform up to three levels of verification prior to a hard silicon commitment. ATTEST emulates and verifies the proper functionality of the SOC device and insures that the device works correctly with any embedded firmware or high level application software.
QinetiQ and TriQuint announced an agreement to use QinetiQ's microwave and millimetre-wave IC (MMIC) design services in conjunction with TriQuint's GaAs IC foundry services. This will provide customers with a UK-based turnkey MMIC services and design presence. Customers, while contracting with TriQuint, will have access to, and be supported by QinetiQ's MMIC design team. TriQuint will then move the design into production, providing wafer manufacturing and IC testing services.
Thales and Temex finalized an agreement relating to the design and production of radio frequency components for mobile telephones and telecoms infrastructure networks. Under the agreement, Temex acquires Thales Microsonics, manufacturer of surface acoustic wave components and high frequency voltage controlled oscillators/ phase-locked loop modules. The value of this transaction has not been disclosed.
Richardson Electronics has signed an expanded agreement with Anaren Microwave Inc. that includes distribution of Anaren's full line of RF products. Under the terms of the agreement, Richardson will have distribution rights in Europe and Asia.
StratEdge has signed an agreement with Rockwell Scientific Co. LLC (RSC) to design, manufacture and assemble the package for RSC's new RDA012 12-bit digital-to-analog converter that has a guaranteed minimum word rate of 1GS/s.
BSC Filters announced that it has added suspended substrate stripline technology to its design capability, as a strategic move into the broadband filter and multiplexer market.
Silicon Wave Inc. announced that its Bluetooth radio modem, baseband processor and protocol software have been authorized for use in testing the Bluetooth wireless capabilities of products using the Windows XP operating system. The components provide developers with an approved standard for confirming the interoperability of their products with Windows XP.
Barry Industries has received the ISO9001:2000 certification as a result of an audit by T†V America organization. n Filtel Microwave has been certified to ISO9001, 2000 Version. Filtel worked with Business Development Bank of Canada and Intertek Testing Services for this achievement.
CAP Wireless Inc. has completed its annual outside audit for certification to ISO9001:2000. The company was originally certified in August 2001.
The Center for Wireless and Microwave Information Systems at the University of South Florida announced MS and PhD graduate fellowship awards for the 2002/2003 academic year. These fellowships are made possible by funding provided over the past several years by Mini-Circuits, TDK Electronics Ireland, Motorola, Raytheon, Harris, RF Micro Devices, Northrop Grumman, Xetron and other companies.
Nebojsa Doncov, a software development engineer for the Electromagnetic Division of Flomerics, was awarded a Young Scientist Award at the International Union of Radio Science General Assembly, Maastricht, Netherlands. The General Assembly recognizes outstanding contributions to the study and application of radio science.
During a recent ARMMS RF & Microwave Society meeting, held near Bristol, UK, Ralph Yell was given a special honor. The award was given in recognition of his work as one of the founding members of the society in the mid-1980s. Originally formed as a discussion group with a focus on network analyzer measurements, ARMMS now meets twice a year with papers being presented on a wide range of topics associated with RF design and measurement.
The National Microelectronics Institute (NMI), in conjunction with Continuing Education in Electronics Systems Integration and Engineering & Physical Sciences Research Council, announced the introduction of a Masters level training program designed in collaboration with the microelectronics industry to provide the level and type of postgraduate training that is essential to the industry.
FINANCIAL NEWS
Ansoft Corp. reports sales of $10.6 M for the second quarter ended October 31, 2002, compared to $12.5 M for the same period in 2001. Net loss was $2.2 M ($.19/diluted), compared to a net loss of $65,000 ($.01/diluted) for the second quarter of last year.
Superconductor Technologies Inc. reports sales of $4.7 M for the third quarter ended September 28, 2002, compared to $2.1 M for the same period in 2001. Net loss was $5.4 M ($.23/diluted), compared to a net loss of $5.5 M ($.30/diluted) for the third quarter of last year.
e-tenna Corp. has secured a $3 M Series D round from Ecentury Capital Partners of McLean, VA, and New York-based Archery Capital. This brings the company's total funding to $21 M, with earlier capital rounds sponsored principally by The Titan Corp. and Archery Capital.
CONTRACTS
Unity Wireless Corp. has been awarded a contract to supply 3.5 GHz power amplifiers to Netro Corp., a leading provider of fixed broadband wireless solutions worldwide. Units have begun to ship and power amplifier production has been ramping-up to support deliveries under the supply agreement.
Park Electrochemical Corp. received Notice of Authorization from Underwriters' Laboratories for the manufacture of mixed packages using PTFE and FR-4 materials. UL certification provides the high frequency RF design community proof of UL compliance when designing hybrid multilayers combining Park/Nelco FR-4 and N9000 series PTFE laminates.
MAXRAD's Antennas has been FCC certified with SmartBridges' Products. MAXRAD's XtremeWave™ MSO24014NF all terrain sectorized omnidirectional antennas, their 13 dBi and 18 dBi XF directional panels and the WISPperformance™ 13 and 18 dBi directional panel antennas are now FCC approved with SmartBridges' airBridge Outdoor and airPointPro Outdoor range of high performance 2.4 GHz, 802.11b compatible radio products.
PERSONNEL
Unity Wireless announced that Casey J. O'Byrne has been appointed to the company's board of directors and to the position of vice chairman. O'Byrne is an attorney and has been practicing law since 1984. He has been a partner at Tarrabain O'Byrne & Co. since 1990. In related news, Unity Wireless has appointed Andrew J. Chamberlain to the position of corporate secretary. Mr. Chamberlain is an attorney and has been with the law firm of Chamberlain-Hutchison in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, since 1997.
RF Micro Devices announced that Bob Bruggeworth will succeed David Norbury as CEO. Norbury, who is retiring, plans to continue as a member on the board of directors. In June 2002, Bruggeworth was appointed president of RF Micro Devices. He was formerly president of RF Micro Devices' wireless products group.
AMI Semiconductor has appointed five executives through the acquisition of Alcatel Microelectronics:
Walter Mattheus as chief operating officer,
Tony Denayer as vice president of product development,
Yolande De Busschop as general counsel,
Terri Timberman as senior vice president of human resources and
Tim Forhan as senior vice president of quality.
Rockwell Collins named Bruce M. King vice president and general manager, communication systems, for the company's government systems business. King is an 18-year employee who served mostly as director, air mobility, bombers and special mission programs.
Nurad Technologies has promoted Randy Engle to director of engineering. Engle has more than 20 years of antenna design and manufacturing experience and will provide technical leadership for Nurad antenna and radome programs. In related news, Andy Humen has been appointed to director of advanced technology. Humen, most recently VP and general manager of e-tenna Corp., brings more than 20 years of experience in antenna and electromagnetic technology to Nurad.
REP APPOINTMENTS
Flann Microwave has made a series of rep appointments. In the US, Chas Group will cover Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, Kentucky and western Pennsylvania. May Technology Inc. will be responsible for Vermont, Rhode Island, Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts and Connecticut. R F Electronics Sales Co. will cover New York state and New Jersey, and Airep will be responsible for Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Louisiana. Netscope Solutions SA will cover the market in Greece.
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