Industry News


Elcoteq Network Corp. and Tellabs International announced that they have signed an agreement whereby Tellabs will outsource manufacturing of its international products and transfer ownership of its Espoo, Finland manufacturing operations to Elcoteq. The deal primarily involves manufacturing of Tellabs’ digital optical cross-connection products and broadband access systems.

RNT announced a joint development agreement with Aavid Thermalloy. The companies will collaboratively develop and market cooling products with thermally conductive, metallic thermal interfaces for high performance CPU chips that will enable continued product innovations.

Richardson Electronics announced the opening of a branch office in Chengdu, China, complementing the company’s other branches in Beijing, Shanghai and Shenhzen. The Chengdu branch office is located at No. 86, Section One, Room D, 27F, Renmin Nanlu Road, Chengdu, Sichuan, 610016 China +86-28-86203488 or fax: +86-28-86203499. In related news, Fiber-Span LLC and Richardson Electronics announced that they have signed a distribution agreement. Under the terms of the agreement, Richardson will operate as the sole distributor in Europe, the Middle East and South Asia representing Fiber-Span’s complete line of modules, subsystems and systems addressing the commercial, public safety and defense/military markets.

Amphenol RF announced that its headquarters has relocated to a facility in Danbury, CT, effective immediately. The company’s new location is strategically designed to continue to offer good customer focus while showcasing its core manufacturing competencies of RF interconnect products. The headquarters is located at 4 Old Newtown Road, Danbury, CT 06810.

Computer Access Technology Corp. announced that it has moved its worldwide headquarters to 3385 Scott Boulevard, Santa Clara, CA 95054. This new location will significantly increase the total office space in order to support future growth of the company. All telephone and fax numbers have remained the same.

Mini-Systems Inc. announced that it has reached a milestone of 35 years in business. The company attributes its success to being responsive in customer service, maintaining commitment in quality and fast response. Mini-Systems Inc. is a manufacturer of precision thick and thin film chip resistors, capacitors, metal/glass sidewall packages, custom thick film hybrid circuits and multi-chip modules. In celebrating its 35th anniversary, the company has made some renovations to its corporate headquarters located in North Attleboro, MA. The changes were created to make the company’s processes more efficient in all departments and to accommodate the growth of the thin film and thick film divisions.

RF Micro Devices Inc. announced production shipments of the RF3140 PowerStar™ power amplifier module to BenQ, a handset original design manufacturer based in Taiwan. The handset is being manufactured for a handset original equipment manufacturer and is available globally. Production shipments are ramping up and are expected to reach the multi-million dollar level. In related news, the company announced that it has shipped its 350 millionth power amplifier module.

Mimix Broadband Inc. announced that it has been recommended for registration to ISO 9001:2000, the internationally-recognized quality management system standard administered by the International Organization for Standardization. Det Norske Veritas (DNV) Certification Inc. has recommended registration for Mimix to ISO 9001:2000; the company was previously registered by DNV to ISO 9001:1994.

RLC Electronics Inc. announced that it has been certified to ISO 9001:2000 for the design and manufacture of standard and custom RF and microwave devices used in military and commercial applications.

M-tron Industries Inc. announced that it has been recommended by the British Standards Institute to receive an upgrade of its ISO 9001 registration to an ISO 9001:2000 registration. This significant step takes place on the 10 year anniversary of M-tron’s original ISO 9001 certification.

Gowanda Electronics announced that it has successfully completed the transition to the requirements of ISO 9001:2000 quality management system standard. The audit was performed by NSF International Strategic Registrations Ltd.

Contracts

Applied Wave Research Inc. (AWR™) and the SoC Technology Center of Industrial Technology Research Institute (STC/ITRI) announced a partnership whereby AWR will provide radio-frequency EDA tools and services to a new system-on-chip (SoC) design center in Taiwan, the Nankang SoC Design Park. AWR is the only RF EDA vendor selected for participation in the design center in the initial stage, which will be used by new fabless design houses in Taiwan.

Reynolds Industries announced that Rockwell Collins, San Jose, CA, has awarded it a contract for helmet vehicle interface cable assemblies for the Joint Helmet Mounted Cueing System program. This award is for the LRIP-4 phase.

Agilent Technologies Inc. announced that OEwaves Inc. has chosen Agilent’s photonics manufacturing facility in Boeblingen, Germany, to package and manufacture OEwaves’ patented fixed-tuned optoelectronic oscillators. Agilent and OEwaves also announced that they will collaborate in the development of future OEOs. As part of the first agreement, Agilent’s team of photonics and packaging experts produced a specially designed manufacturing process, working in collaboration with OEwaves’ team of RF and photonic engineers.

Palomar Technologies announced that DuPont Photonics Technologies LLC has selected Palomar’s FAST 60 optical alignment system to automate the testing of manufactured planar integrated photonic devices for use in optical networks for the telecommunications industry. In related news, Palomar announced that it has been certified as meeting the requirements of ISO 9001/ANSI-ASQ Q9001:2000 and is registered by SGS. Palomar was assessed and certified as meeting the requirements of ISO 9001:2000 for design, manufacturing, sales, servicing and marketing of automated assembly equipment serving the optoelectronic, wireless, disk drive, automotive, aerospace and defense and medical industries.

WildBlue Communications Inc. and Raven Manufacturing Ltd. jointly announced an agreement whereby Raven will be designing, qualifying and producing the outdoor satellite receiver equipment for WildBlue’s high speed Internet service. Expected to launch the satellite broadband service in the latter half of 2004, WildBlue established a relationship with Raven to produce, test and ship all components to the US, where they will be responsible for final assembly, packaging, storage and delivery to WildBlue. Specific financial and product quantity information has not been made public.

New Market Entries

AXTAL recently launched its company 18 months ago, the business of AXTAL — Advanced XTAL Products. As a result of its growth, a new legal entity, AXTAL GmbH & Co. KG, has been established in Lobbach, Germany. This company is involved in the design, manufacturing and sales of piezoelectric and dielectric components and electronic subassemblies. The main focus of the company is on special solutions for customer-specific applications.

The Summation Research family of companies announced the formation of SRI Hermetics Inc. This undertaking will enable the family of companies to expand the hermetic connector business of SRI Connector Gage Co. as well as offer new product capabilities to Summation Research Inc. and SRI PMD Inc. SRI Hermetics Inc. offers full design and manufacturing of hermetic connectors, enclosures and other forms of hermetic packaging. The advanced design concepts being offered by the comny enable customers to achieve improved performance. In related news, the Summation Research family announced that Ed Taylor is the chief engineer of SRI Hermetics. Taylor brings many years of hermetic designing to his new position.

Personnel

Phillip J. Zulueta recently took office as the 2004 president of IMAPS North America. For the past year, Zulueta has served as president-elect and chair of the member benefits task force that is responsible for the new and greatly enhanced IMAPS member benefits. He became a member of IMAPS in 1979 and has held many positions both locally and nationally for the society. He served two terms as southern California regional director prior to being elected 2004 IMAPS president.

Konstantine N. Karavakis

Park Electrochemical Corp. announced the appointment of Konstantine N. (“Gus”) Karavakis as director of research and development. Karavakis will be responsible for the company’s global research and development activities and will have central leadership responsibilities relating to the company’s technology roadmap. Karavakis has 20 years of experience in flex and rigid printed circuit board fabrication, integrated circuit packaging and wafer level testing. Park Electrochemical also announced that Vito A. Tanzi has joined the company as product director. Tanzi will be responsible for management of a portion of the company’s current FR-4 epoxy and advanced technology products. Tanzi will coordinate product development activities from research and development project criteria identification through product commercialization. Tanzi has over 10 years of process engineering and operations management experience in thin film interconnect technology for high frequency RF/microwave applications.

TRL Technology Ltd. announced the appointment of Dave Bucknell as business development manager, focusing on the maritime defense area. This step complements the company’s recent decision to join the MRCM Alliance as the sixth strategic partner, opening up TRL Technology’s EW systems and expertise base to a wider global market. Established in 2000, the MRCM Alliance is comprised of Ewation GmbH, Grintek Ewation, Herley Industries, Indra, Sysdel and TRL Technology, providing a global signal intelligence system and product resource. Bucknell joins the company from NNC Ltd., where he headed up the business development department of the Defense Business Unit.

Rosenberger LEONI Site Solutions announced the addition of Bill Corondan and Rick Harris to champion the North American sales initiative. Corondan and Harris will be responsible for developing and implementing the sales strategy of the Rosenberger LEONI site solutions FlexLine“ products throughout North America. Corondan has over 23 years’ experience in the telecommunications market with Andrew Corp. having served in various sales and management positions in satellite, cable, microwave and broadband communications. Harris has over 25 years of experience in the telecommunications industry, most recently as vice president of sales for Sky Cross.

Rep Appointments

Maury Microwave Corp. announced that the company has added a new international rep to its sales team. ITGlobe Inc. will handle the country of India. For additional details about this rep, contact Maury’s international sales manager, Surinder Bali, sbali@maurymw.com, +44-771-440-1924, president and COO of ITGlobe Inc.’s corporate office located in Houston, TX, Ravnish Luthra, rluthra@itglobe.com, (832) 816-1534, or the president of ITGlobe India, Colonel J.S. Raju, jsraju@itglobe.com, 91-11-26440720.

I.F. Engineering Corp. (IFE) announced its sales representation in Texas and Arkansas. Southwest Engineering Associates now represents IFE in the states of Arkansas and Texas (excluding El Paso county). Southwest Engineering can be contacted by telephone at (972) 378-9160.

RFMW Ltd. announced that it has signed a North American distribution agreement with M/A-COM, a business unit of Tyco Electronics and a provider of radio frequency, microwave and millimeter-wave components.

Microwave Development Company Inc., a manufacturer of passive waveguide components and high power coaxial devices, announced the appointment of a new sales representation organization, Tekmar Sales Inc. Tekmar Sales will cover the metropolitan New York and northern New Jersey areas.

Integrated Engineering Software announced a partnership with Hi-Key Technology for software distribution in China. Hi-Key is an ideal partner for IES’s electromagnetic simulation software. Based in Beijing, China, Hi-Key offers knowledge and experience in distributing software in the Chinese market.

Tampa Microwave announced the appointment of two new sales rep organizations, MEL Sivan and TDSI. MEL Sivan will represent the company in Israel. TDSI will be responsible for sales in the states of Arizona, New Mexico and southern Nevada.

Semflex Inc. announced the appointment of a new sales rep organization, Tech Marketing Associates. Tech Marketing Associates will serve the southern California region. The company is headquartered in Costa Mesa, CA, and can be reached at (714) 979-0412 or by e-mail: jonesfc@aol.com.