Microwave Journal
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Around the Circuit

December 1, 2008

Industry News

In Strategy Analytics’ annual ranking of the world’s top GaAs device manufacturers, RFMD, Skyworks and TriQuint remained at the helm of the Gallium Arsenide (GaAs) industry in 2007, driving annual growth of 17 percent year-on-year. Overall, the GaAs device market was worth $3.6 B in 2007 with the top three companies accounting for 50 percent of the market. Other North American companies, including Avago Technologies and M/A-COM, accounted for seven out of the top ten GaAs device manufacturers on a global basis. Strategy Analytics expects that North American companies will continue to dominate the landscape in 2008 and beyond.


Agilent Technologies Inc. and Aeroflex Microelectronic Solutions announced a strategic alliance to deliver industry-leading RF and microwave components and Multi-chip Module solutions for aerospace, satellite and military applications using Agilent’s monolithic microwave integrated circuits (MMIC).

Anite, a leader in testing technology for the wireless industry, and Renesas Design France (RDF), a provider of advanced wireless technologies and platforms, announced a strategic partnership in the field of Wireless Conformance testing. RDF has selected Anite’s SAT(H) software test platform, a unique host test solution for 2G/3G Protocol Stack software, for the validation of the RDF 2G/3G dual-mode Protocol Stack. The partnership will also see Anite using the RDF protocol stack as a reference design to accelerate the development of the conformance test cases required for the industry certification of wireless devices.

RF Micro Devices (RFMD), a leader in the design and manufacture of high performance semiconductor components, announced the opening of a customer support center in Bangalore, India. The new customer support center in Bangalore highlights RFMD’s large presence in Asia and underscores the company’s commitment to one of the world’s fastest growing markets for RF semiconductor components. RFMD’s Bangalore customer support center houses applications engineering, customer service, sales management and technical sales.

AWR, a leader in high frequency electronic design automation (EDA), announced that its Finnish R&D facility will conduct research within the European Integrated Circuit/Electromagnetic Simulation and Design Technologies for Advanced Radio Systems-on-chip (ICESTARS) project. ICESTARS strives to enable the development of low-cost wireless chips that can operate at frequencies up to 100 GHz. The ICESTARS project is funded by the European Commission within its Seventh Research Framework Programme (FP7) and is led by NXP Semiconductors.

Innovations for High Performance Microelectronics (IHP), Frankfurt, Germany, announced the availability of a leading-edge ADS process design kit (PDK) for IHP’s 0.25 mm SiGe process (SG25H3). The PDK for IHP’s SG25H3 process technology is the result of collaboration between IHP and Agilent Technologies’ EEsof EDA division to accelerate customers’ time-to-market by offering an accurate and productive work environment for MMIC design solutions.

Keithley Instruments Inc., a leader in solutions for emerging measurement needs, announced that ip.access, a developer of femtocell and picocell solutions, has purchased Keithley’s award-winning radio frequency (RF) test solutions. ip.access has selected Keithley’s Series 2800 RF Vector Signal Analyzers and Series 2900 RF Vector Generators as the solution for its production testing of WCDMA femtocell base stations.

Forty years ago, EMS Technologies Inc. opened its doors as a technology engineering company in Norcross, GA. The company recently culminated its month-long 40th anniversary observances in a special meeting with EMS Technologies staff. Anniversary festivities kicked off with a groundbreaking ceremony for EMS’s Defense and Space Systems’ 30,000 square-foot building expansion.

Nearfield Systems Inc. (NSI) celebrates the company’s 20th anniversary. NSI was founded in September 1988 when partners Greg Hindman and Dan Slater formed their company to address the industry’s need for turn-key near-field antenna measurement systems. Hindman and Slater demonstrated their first product, a portable planar near-field scanner system, at the 1989 AMTA Symposium in Monterey, CA, where they also presented three technical papers on antenna measurements. Since its formation, NSI has been very active in the antenna measurement community and has delivered more than 400 near-field and far-field measurement systems throughout the world.

Raytheon Missile Systems Tucson recently presented supplier awards to companies that routinely demonstrated excellence in product quality and on-time delivery over the last 12 months with a 95 percent rating. SV Microwave is proud to be one of the 18 companies that received the Raytheon Missile System’s Excellence Award out of over 500 suppliers.

W.L. Gore & Associates Inc., a developer and manufacturer of high performance cable assemblies, has joined the Ethernet Alliance, an industry group dedicated to the promotion of Ethernet technologies. Gore will specifically play a key role in the advancement of developing Ethernet copper cable interconnect technologies. Currently this includes GORE™ SFP+ and QSFP Copper Cable Assemblies.

Contract

Agilent Technologies Inc. announced that its wholly owned subsidiary, NetworkFab, has been awarded a five-year, $45 M Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) Phase III Contract with the US Army Communications-Electronics Research, Development and Engineering Center’s Intelligence and Information Warfare Directorate at Fort Monmouth, NJ. This contract is for Wideband Sensor Systems with hyperfast Direction Finding (DF) and integrated Signals Intelligence (SIGINT) search, identification and collection of tactical targets.

New Market Entry

ANADIGICS Inc. announced its AWB7220 power amplifier (PA), the first in the company’s new line of products targeted at the 3G and 4G femtocell markets. ANADIGICS’ new AWB7220 PA is a highly isolated, fully matched, multi-chip module (MCM) designed and engineered specifically for use in femtocell and customer premises equipment (CPE) worldwide.

Personnel

Ralph L. PhillipsSMITHS Group plc has appointed Ralph L. Phillips president of Smiths Interconnect. Phillips, who had been acting president since May, has been appointed following a search process that included external and internal candidates. Smiths Interconnect designs and manufactures specialized electronic and RF products primarily for the global wireless telecommunications, aerospace and defense markets. It is headquartered in the US with approximately 3,100 employees in the United States, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, China, Costa Rica and Mexico. Smiths Interconnect is expanding geographically and broadening its technology offering. As part of this strategy, it recently acquired Shanghai-based Allrizon and Brisbane-based Triasx Pty Ltd. that design and manufacture radio frequency filters and related products.

Remcom Inc. recently announced a change in corporate leadership as Raymond Luebbers retires from the position of CEO and president and Stephen Fast, former executive vice president, assumes the role as his successor. After serving as Remcom’s founding president for nearly 15 years, Luebbers will remain in service to the company as a senior executive consultant, continuing to provide his widely recognized electromagnetic research expertise to Remcom and its customers. Fast has been an integral part of Remcom’s growth since 2002, leading the Government Service Division for the company.

Park Electrochemical Corp. announced the appointment of Thomas A. Pursch as president of Nelco Products Inc., Park’s printed circuit materials business unit located in Fullerton, CA. Pursch had been vice president and general manager of Amphenol Printed Circuits in Nashua, NH since 2005 and vice president and general manager of Teradyne Inc. in Nashua since 2002.

Monteith G. Heaton has recently joined Asylum Research as executive vice president of marketing and business development for Asylum’s line of atomic force and scanning probe microscopes (AFM/SPM). Heaton joins Asylum with over 25 years of marketing, sales, business and technical management experience, most recently as VP sales and marketing for Innovative Micro Technology (IMT), where he was instrumental in building IMT into one of the world’s leading MEMS foundries.

Giga-tronics announced two new appointments to strengthen and enhance its international business. John Regazzi, president and CEO of Giga-tronics, announced that John Dixon has joined the company as director of sales for European, Middle Eastern and African (EMEA) markets, and Zhao Peng has joined the company as director of sales for China and Hong Kong. Dixon previously held senior positions at Racal Instruments, Ubinetics Ltd. and more recently Comarco Wireless Test Solutions. Zhao will be responsible for building strong customer relations, creating new opportunities, and facilitating overall business with agents in Hong Kong and Macau, as well as mainland China. Previously, Zhao held the positions of sales manager at Beijing Stone Instruments Co. Ltd., ROOTS Communication Equipment and Electronic Scientific Engineering Ltd.

Todd FinneyMFG Galileo Composites, a specialist in the design and manufacturing of custom composite radomes and reflectors, is expanding its management team with the appointment of Todd Finney as director of new business development. Finney will be responsible for pursuing new business wins for the company as well as supporting existing customers worldwide. Finney brings 16 years of experience in advanced composites, most notably in his prior role as director of military programs for Applied Aerodynamics based in Dallas, TX. Most recently (2004-2008) he served as the regional sales manager for McNally Industries focused on business development within the Department of Defense and tier two defense communities.

Tim JorsCrane Aerospace & Electronics, a segment of Crane Co., has named Tim Jors as business unit leader – Standard Power. In this capacity, Jors will be responsible for product management, new business development, strategic planning, management of business relationships with key customers as well as Standard Power Solutions profit and loss. Jors brings to the group over 25 years of progressive experience in supply chain, materials management and operations. Jors joined Crane Aerospace & Electronics in 2005 as vice president of supply chain for the Electronics Group.

Rep Appointments

Mouser Electronics Inc. announced it has inked a distribution agreement with Tektronix, a worldwide provider of test, measurement and monitoring instrumentation. Mouser’s Tektronix portfolio includes high quality oscilloscopes, arbitrary/function generators and other essentials for engineers’ design benches.

KOR Electronics, a systems leader in exploiting the digital RF domain, announced it has signed a marketing partnership agreement with Val Jackson & Associates Inc., Port Angeles, WA, to enhance its coverage to customers in the Pacific Northwest region. For further information, contact: Val Jackson & Associates Inc., 818 N. Barr Road, Port Angeles, WA 98362, ph: (360) 452-7308, or visit: www.valjacksonassoc.com.

Richardson Electronics Ltd. announced the addition of an innovative product line from W.L. Gore & Associates. Richardson will now sell Gore’s high-tech line of surface mountable EMI shielding materials including GORE-SHIELD® Supersoft SMT EMI Gaskets and Grounding Pads, and the new GORE™ snapSHOT® Board-Level EMI Shield. To view W.L. Gore products on Richardson’s web site, visit: www.rell.com/gore.

Sprague-Goodman Electronics Inc., Westbury, NY, a manufacturer of trimmer capacitors, transformers, fixed and variable inductors and tuning tools, has added C&D Electronics, Holyoke, MA, to its list of franchised distributors. In addition to its Holyoke, MA headquarters, C&D has branch offices on Long Island, NY, and in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area of Texas. For more information, contact: C&D Electronics, 28 Appleton Street, Holyoke, MA 01040, ph: (413) 493-1200, fax: (413) 493-1212, e-mail: info@cdindustries.com or visit: www.cdindustries.com.

Pletronics Inc. has appointed Migvan Technologies & Engineering Ltd. (MTE), Petach Tikva, Israel, as its representative/stocking distributor for Israel. MTE will assume sales and customer service support for Pletronics current business in Israel and promote the company’s broad line of high-end oscillators and crystals to the Israeli electronics industry. MTE represents a select line of top electronic component manufacturers to industrial, military and high tech companies as well as educational institutions in Israel.

Renaissance Electronics Corp. is pleased to announce the appointment of a new representative company to serve and further develop its customer base in France, Germany and Spain. The primary territory that BFI serves is France, Germany and Spain. The customer base for ferrite, base station, switches, components and subsystems in these regions is well balanced. For more information, please contact sales at (978) 772-7774.

Digi-Key Corp. announced that it has expanded its line of Tyco Electronics Raychem Circuit Protection Products to include the PolyZen family of polymer-protected Zener diodes. The PolyZen devices are featured in Digi-Key’s print and on-line catalogs and are available for purchase directly from Digi-Key.