Around the Circuit
INDUSTRY NEWS
Hewlett-Packard Co. (HP) has acquired computer-aided engineering software developer Optimization Systems Associates Inc. (OSA) , Toronto, Ontario, Canada. OSA will become part of HP's EEsof Division , which markets a range of simulation and analysis tools that provide design solutions for communications-signal-path design. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed. In related news, HP has announced strong opposition to proposed revisions to the IEEE-488 standard for data transfer. According to the company, the changes have not been tested adequately on site, especially for noise immunity and interoperability, and could lead to disruptive errors for the installed customer base.
Semiconductor Packaging Materials Co. Inc. (SPM) , Armonk, NY, has signed a letter of intent to acquire privately owned International Silicon Solutions Inc. , Dallas, TX, which specializes in polishing small-diameter virgin silicon test/primary wafers and is synergistic with American Silicon Products Inc. , SPM's wholly owned subsidiary. The terms of the transaction, which is expected to be complete early this year, were not disclosed. In related news, Polese Company Inc. , a wholly owned subsidiary of SPM, has developed NITRAL,™ a new lightweight, metal matrix composite material composed of aluminum nitride and aluminum.
Orbital Sciences Corp. has signed a definitive agreement to merge global positioning technology developer/manufacturer Ashtech Inc. into its San Dimas, CA-based Magellan Corp. subsidiary. Once the transaction is completed, the newly formed company operating under the Magellan banner will be headquartered in Sunnyvale, CA and is expected to employ approximately 500 people.
S.T. Research Corp. (STR) , Newington, VA and Daedalus Enterprises Inc. , Ann Arbor, MI, have entered into a definitive agreement to merge. Under the terms of the agreement, STR will become a wholly owned subsidiary of Daedalus Enterprises, which will change its name to Sensys Technologies Inc. and increase the number of shares of common stock authorized in its charter. Shareholders will receive 2.58 shares of Daedalus stock in exchange for each share of STR stock. The merger is expected to close in April.
Raytheon Co. , Lexington, MA, has signed an agreement to sell the Monolithic Microwave Integrated Circuit operations of the former Texas Instruments' Defense Systems & Electronics Group to TriQuint Semiconductor Inc. for approximately $39 M. The sale is subject to approval by the Department of Justice and the Department of Defense and was expected to be completed by mid-January. In addition, Raytheon has signed an agreement to sell its Raytheon Semiconductor business to Fairchild Semiconductor Corp. , South Portland, ME, for approximately $120 M in cash subject to government approval. In related news, Raytheon has entered into an agreement to sell its Switchcraft unit to a company organized by Cortec Group Inc. and Switchcraft management for approximately $69 M. Both sales were expected to be complete by December 1997.
CTS Corp. , Elkhart, IN, has completed the acquisition of Dynamics Corp. of America , which included quartz crystal and precision oscillator manufacturer Reeves-Hoffman of Carlisle, PA. In related news, Reeves-Hoffman has received ISO 9001 certification.
Watkins-Johnson Co. has completed the divestiture of its Palo Alto, CA-based defense electronics, microwave component and subsystem business to Stellex Industries Inc. , a corporation managed by Mentmore Holdings Corp. The divested business will operate as Stellex Microwave , a wholly owned subsidiary of Stellex Industries. In addition, Watkins-Johnson has been named Outstanding Supplier – 1997 by Lucent Technologies PRC . In related news, the company announced that it is purchasing the assets of Samsung Microwave Semiconductor Inc. (SMS) , a subsidiary of Samsung Semiconductor Inc. located in Milpitas, CA. Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed. The SMS operation will become part of Watkins-Johnson's Wireless Products Group .
REMEC Inc. has formed a technology board to focus the broad technical capabilities of the its subsidiaries with a charter to provide strategic guidance to the company's technological implementation and investment. Justin Miller, president of REMEC Canada's Nanowave Technologies subsidiary, and Tao Chow, president of REMEC's C&S Hybrid subsidiary, will serve as the board's chairman and vice chairman, respectively.
Andrew Corp. , Orland Park, IL, has opened a new assembly and manufacturing factory in Pilerne, Goa to provide its products to customers in India and southern Asia. The Andrew Telecommunications India PVT Ltd. factory in Goa will supply cut, fitted and tested coaxial cables and cable assemblies, as well as assemble terrestrial microwave antennas.
DuPont Photomasks Inc. has broken ground for its new production facility in Gresham, OR. The 71,000-square-foot facility is expected to begin operation by the end of the year and employ 200 people at full production. It will focus on servicing the 15 existing or planned semiconductor wafer fabs in the area.
American Microsystems Inc. (AMI) , Pocatello, ID, and General Electric's Corporate Research and Development Division have begun co-development of a mixed-signal application-specific IC cell. The analog-to-digital converter, which both companies will utilize in future developments, provides reduced time to market for customers with sensor interface requirements. In related news, AMI has signed an agreement with Motorola , effective immediately, to officially serve Motorola's gate array customers. In an October 1997 announcement, Motorola revealed plans to transition out of gate array products.
Ansoft Corp. and VLSI Technology Inc. have formed a strategic partnership for signal integrity analysis of advanced packages such as high performance ball grid arrays. Under the terms of the agreement, VLSI Technology will purchase Ansoft's Maxwell Eminence signal integrity suite. The partnership also will include a development effort for future signal integrity analysis tools to address the needs of next-generation advanced packages.
Wireless Inc. , Santa Clara, CA, has entered into a strategic partnership with Innova Corp. , Seattle, WA, to private label and distribute its digital microwave radio products worldwide. This move is intended to broaden Wireless Inc.'s product portfolio from its current spread spectrum microwave line at 2.4 and 5.8 GHz to include licensed digital microwave radios operating from 13 to 38 GHz.
QUALCOMM Inc. has signed a royalty-bearing license agreement for test equipment with Marconi Instruments Ltd. Under the terms of the agreement, Marconi Instruments will be granted a license to design and develop test equipment based on QUALCOMM's code-division multiple access (CDMA) IS-95 standard.
ACCEL Technologies Inc. has renewed and expanded its original equipment manufacturer agreement with Cadence Design Systems Inc. for reselling ACCEL's SPECCTRA AutoRoute and EditPlace software tools. Cadence has also added value-priced, layer-restricted versions of both tools to the agreement with ACCEL.
Ecliptek Corp. , Costa Mesa, CA has appointed Projections Unlimited Inc. , Tustin, CA, a North American distributor of its crystal and oscillator product lines.
Palomar Products Inc.'s Assembly and Test Products Group , Carlsbad, CA, has been appointed the US distributor of FACTUM Italia's line of precision hot plates. The agreement will make the hot plates available to US customers for the first time.
M/A-COM, a division of AMP Inc. , and Richardson Electronics Ltd. have expanded an existing distribution agreement to include Japan. Under the terms of the revised agreement, Richardson will act as the sole distributor of M/A-COM's products in Japan and will offer local inventory, stocking programs and technical support through its offices in Tokyo and Osaka. In related news, M/A-COM has implemented a new distribution channel for eight models from its series of surface-mount VCOs, which are designed for use in cost-sensitive wireless and telemetry applications. Customers are now able to receive the products within 24 hours of placing an order.
Tracor Aerospace Inc. , a subsidiary of Tracor Inc. , has begun the production phase of a three-year, $17.6 M contract to produce 19 AN/MSN-7 tower restoral vehicles (TRV) for the US Air Force. The production value of the contract, awarded by the Electronic Systems Center at Hanscom Air Force Base, MA, is $12.7 M. The TRV systems will provide mobile air traffic control tower services at temporary and bare bases, alternative off-base landing areas or fixed air bases when permanent facilities have been disabled.
Advance Reproductions Corp. , North Andover, MA, has completed the installation of an LRS-600 model 20 large-area mask writer purchased from Micronic Laser Systems AB of Taby, Sweden. The device is intended to satisfy the requirements of the company's existing and future large-area photomask customer base.
Arlon, Silicone Technologies Division , Bear, DE, has received ISO 9002 certification.
The Des Plaines, IL facility of COMSAT RSI Wireless Antennas has received ISO 9001 certification.
RF Power Components Inc. , Bohemia, NY, has received ISO 9002 certification.
Space Electronics Inc. has been ranked in the top quarter of the fastest-growing private companies in the US by Inc. magazine.
W.L. Gore & Associates Inc. has been ranked number seven on a list of the 100 best companies to work for in America, which was published in the January 12 issue of Fortune magazine. Gore was also listed in the two previous 100 best compilations in 1984 and 1993, making it one of only 27 companies to be included on all three lists.
ANADIGICS Inc. , Warren, NJ, has been awarded patent number 5,659,894 entitled "Dual-channel Low Current Low Noise Block Downconverter" for a chip used in direct broadcast satellite systems. The company has also received patent number 5,646,573 entitled "Automatic Gain Control Transimpedance Amplifier Having a Variable Impedance Feedback" for an IC that enables wide dynamic range for high linearity automatic gain.
QualMark Corp. , Denver, CO, has been awarded US patent number 5,675,098 entitled "Apparatus and Method for Thermal and Vibrational Stress Screening." The patent covers an improvement to the company's OVS™ physical stress system, which reduces the time, manual intervention and cost required to evaluate product tolerance to various environmental and functional conditions.
Noise Com's integrated CDMA test equipment and software has been selected by the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association for its certification program, which is conducted in conjunction with the CDMA Development Group. The program, established in 1991, provides independent verification that CDMA subscriber products conform to industry standards, including IS-95 and J-STD-008.
FINANCIAL NEWS
Semiconductor Packaging Materials Co. Inc. reports sales of $13.5 M for the third quarter, ended September 30, 1997, compared to $8.7 M for the third quarter of 1996. Net income was $1.2 M (19¢/share), compared to $1.3 M (21¢/share) for the same period in 1996.
Robinson Nugent Inc. reports sales of $18.5 M for the first quarter, ended September 30, 1997, compared to $21.1 M for the same period in 1996. Net loss was $132 K (3¢/share), compared to a net income of $402 K (8¢/share) for the first quarter of 1996.
Ansoft Corp. reports sales of $6.3 M for the second quarter, ended October 31, 1997, compared to $3.3 M for the second quarter of 1996. Net income was $896 K (9¢/share), compared to $333 K (4¢/share) for the same period in 1996. In related news, the company has filed a registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission relating to a proposed public offering of 3,500,000 shares of common stock, plus an additional 525,000 shares of common stock to be sold if the underwriters fully exercise their overallotment option. Of the total, 950,000 shares will be offered by selling stockholders.
Spire Corp. has filed a registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission for a proposed underwritten offering of 1,500,000 shares of common stock. Of these shares, 1,000,000 would be offered by the company and 500,000 by certain selling stockholders.
CONTRACTS
Stanford Telecommunications Inc.'s Communications and Navigation Systems Group , Reston, VA, has received a five-year contract from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to provide engineering support to the FAA's Architecture and System Engineering Directorate in the areas of communications, navigation, surveillance, automation and weather. If funded fully, the contract would have a value of approximately $10 M.
REMEC Inc. has been awarded more than $8 M in follow-on production orders for cellular infrastructure equipment product devices and integrated multifunction modules for use in cellular base station applications. The orders are for the continuation of current production and are expected to ship this year.
Boonton Electronics Corp. has been awarded a contract from ManTech Systems Engineering Corp. to supply VXI RF modulation meters as part of ManTech's third-echelon test sets, which are being manufactured for the US Marine Corps System Command and analyze a variety of weapons/communications systems on the forward edge of the battlefield area. The five-year contract is worth an estimated $4 M and called for Boonton Electronics to begin shipping during the last quarter of 1997.
Innova Corp. has signed a memorandum of agreement (MoA) in excess of $2 M with Ericsson Telecom SA de CV of Mexico. The MoA calls for the supply of Innova's XP4 series digital microwave radios in various frequency bands, the simple-network-management-compatible XPSurf network management system and a variety of peripheral hardware and software products. Ericsson will use the products in a variety of network applications, including long distance network access, with its customers in Mexico and other countries.
Karl Suss America Inc. has received an order from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory for a model RC 33 large-area spin coater, which can process substrates up to 24" ¥ 24". The contract's value was not disclosed.
Spire Corp. has received a contract from the National Institutes of Health, National Cancer Institute for continued development of advanced detector arrays for x-ray computed tomography by monolithically integrating cadmium telluride photodiodes on scintillators. The value of the contract was not disclosed.
Trimble Navigation Ltd. , Sunnyvale, CA, has been selected the exclusive global positioning system (GPS) provider for VDO , a division of the Mannesmann Group . As the exclusive supplier, Trimble will integrate its Lassen™-SK8 GPS module into VDO's MobiMax™ telematics terminals, which offer drivers real-time traffic information and emergency communications. Terms of the contract were not disclosed.
National Technical Systems Inc. (NTS) has entered into a contract with the US Air Force to privatize the world-class chemical, materials and electronics laboratories at McClellan Air Force Base, Sacramento, CA. Instead of shutting down the base by 2001 as originally planned, the Air Force will turn the facilities over to Sacramento County, which in turn plans to find private industries to continue operations. NTS negotiated with the Air Force and Sacramento County to take over the science and engineering laboratories to broaden its testing and evaluation capabilities.
PERSONNEL
John M. Belcher has been appointed president and COO of ARINC Inc. by the company's board of directors. Belcher has held several senior executive positions in the aviation and defense industries.
Steven H. Goldberg has been named president and CEO of VertiCom Inc. Prior to joining the company, Goldberg was VP and GM of Cylink Corp.'s Wireless Communications Division.
Trompeter Electronics has made several new personnel appointments, including Joe Norwood as president, Anthony "Bud" Lulich as regional manager for the midwest/northeast US and Canada, and Edwin Vega as design engineer. Previously, Norwood was a sales and marketing executive for the Broadband Coaxial Cable Division of Amphenol. Lulich offers years of related work experience gained from time spent at Phoenix Company of Chicago, Cherry Electrical and Switchcraft. Vega offers related work experience as a design engineer for the past seven years.
Electromagnetic Technologies Inc. has named Robert P. Damiano COO. Most recently, Damiano was VP, engineering and business centers at Narda Microwave, now a subsidiary of L-3 Communications.
Michael D. McDonald has been elected CFO and corporate secretary by the board of directors of REMEC Inc. McDonald has been the company's acting CFO and secretary since September 1997, as well as CFO of REMEC's northern California operations. For the past 13 years, he has also been CFO at Magnum Microwave, REMEC's subsidiary.
Charles Huang , co-founder and executive VP of ANADIGICS Inc., has been elected chairman of the board of the Monte Jade Science and Technology Association. The Association promotes the networking of Chinese-American professionals to establish a common forum for businesses based on advanced science and technology.
Timothy Conley has joined LogicVision Inc. as VP, finance and CFO. Most recently, Conley was VP, finance at Verilink Corp.
The Advanced Technology Division of Sanders, a Lockheed Martin company, has named Aaron J. Penkacik VP. Penkacik joins Sanders from the Lockheed Martin Electronics and Missiles Co., where he was director of research technology.
TRAK Microwave Corp. has made three personnel appointments, including Ken Allstaff as executive VP, Serge Taylor as VP, Integrated Microwave Products and Mark McWhorter as VP, Microwave Components Group.
Y.C. John Peng has been named VP, sales at Suss Advanced Lithography Inc. Formerly, Peng was general manager for Far East business at Rofin-Sinar Laser Co.
O'Gara Satellite Systems has named Mario Cid Fernandez director of sales for the company's mobile satellite communication products. Prior to joining the company, Fernandez was North American sales manager for the MAGNAPhone business unit of Hughes Technical Services Co.
Gary Andersen has been named western region account manager at NEC America Inc. Previously, Andersen was responsible for developing new markets and increasing sales of microwave products at California Microwave's MNS Division.
K&L Microwave Inc. has made several new personnel appointments, including Steve Lynch as product marketing manager for ceramic filters, Vince Wright as sales engineer in the Wireless Products Division and Jeff Burkett as international product specialist responsible for high volume cavity and ceram-ic products. Previously, Lynch was sales engineer for dielectric resonator products at SMI-ED, Wright was technical sales engineer at Sencore Inc. and Burkett was a manufacturer's representative for the Wayne Division of Dresser Industries.
The Resistive Components Division of RF Power Components Inc. has announced that James Everett has joined its sales department and will participate in the company's efforts to meet the growing demand for high power resistors, terminations, attenuators and surface-mount devices. For the past six years, Everett has been assistant product manager at Richardson Electronics.
Merix Corp. has appointed Anaya Vardya director of operations at the company's Forest Grove, OR manufacturing site. Previously, Vardya was corporate development manager at Continental Circuits Corp.
Peregrine Semiconductor Corp. has made two new personnel appointments: Rom Asaravala as manufacturing manager and Tom Ramsthaler as RF product line manager. Formerly, Asaravala was managing director for Brooktree's Singapore operations; Ramsthaler was senior product manager at Rockwell Semiconductor and product marketing manager at Brooktree Corp.
Rick Wilson has joined Space Electronics Inc. as microelectronics packaging engineer. Most recently, Wilson was involved in semiconductor sensor technology at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
Walter A. Poggi , president of Retlif Testing Laboratories, Ronkonkoma, NY, has been declared a certified trade specialist by the board of directors of the International Trade Association. In addition, Poggi was federally appointed as a US testing expert to the US/European Unions Mutual Recognition Agreement negotiating team.
REP APPOINTMENTS
Lark Engineering Co. has made several new rep appointments, including Communication Resources , McKinney, TX, to cover Texas; Gruber & Associates , Atlanta, GA, to cover Georgia, Tennessee and northern Alabama; ICON Group to cover Florida and southern Alabama; R-TEK , Palatine, IL, to cover Illinois, Wisconsin, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio and Kentucky; DBM Microwave to cover the UK; Alfa Microonde to cover Italy; and Equipments Scientifiques to cover France.
Power Technologies Inc. has appointed Spectrum Elektrotechnik GmbH , Munich, Germany, to represent its products in Europe.
Die distributor Semi Dice , Los Alamitos, CA, has appointed Pier Franco Benedetti of Elexind Spa , Milan, Italy, to represent its products in Italy.
NEW MARKET ENTRY
Intarsia Corp ., San Jose, CA, is a new company formed by Dow Chemical Co. and Flextronics International Ltd. to produce thin-film integrated passive components. The venture is intended to combine Flextronics' design and processing expertise with Dow's materials and manufacturing knowledge to drive cost efficiency, making integrated passives a more practical alternative in both high volume and high function applications.
WEB SITES
The Centurian International Inc. home page (http://www.centurion.com) has been updated to include files to download for portable antenna and battery pack projects for wireless communications product design engineers. Visitors to the site can also compare battery types, explore job opportunities and send e-mail to members of the sales, human resources and engineering staff.
Microwave Distributors Co. , Islandia, NY, has updated its Web site to feature simplified navigation, a search engine, the company's inventory and a catalog request area. The site can be accessed at http://www.microwavedistributors.com.
Quarterwave Corp. , Rohnert Park, CA, has announced a new Web site that highlights the company's line of pulsed and CW traveling-wave-tube amplifiers. Technical information is provided for each amplifier product series in addition to information about the company and a listing of sales representatives. The site address is http://www.quarterwave.com.
Semiconductor Equipment Corp. (SEC) , Moorpark, CA, has launched a Web site at http://www.semicorp.com that provides information on the company and its products, including technical specifications and typical product applications. A list of SEC representatives and distributors and their territories is offered, along with hot links to their home pages.