Around the Circuit
INDUSTRY NEWS
Plainview, NY-based Aeroflex Inc. has acquired 90 percent of the common stock of France-based Europtest S.A. for approximately $1.1 M. Aeroflex will purchase the remaining 10 percent of the company over a three-year period at prices to be determined based upon net sales of Europtest products, which include software-driven test equipment used in cellular, satellite and other communications applications.
Communication data link and flight instrumentation system provider Herley Industries Inc. , Lancaster, PA, has announced its plans to acquire microwave component and subsystem manufacturer General Microwave Corp. for $18 per share in cash (which totals $23 M) as well as a three-year warrant for each share. The warrants reportedly are exercisable at $14.40 per share through January 11, 1999 and $15.60 per share thereafter until expiration. Herley Industries will finance the deal with existing cash and borrowings on its current bank lines of credit. Following the merger, the company will be restructured into two approximately equal business units: Space & Communications and Microwave Products . Thirty percent of General Microwave's shareholders have signed irrevocable proxies agreeing to the merger. The deal is expected to close this month contingent upon the approval of the remaining shareholders and customary closing conditions.
Anritsu Co.'s North American Region Operation has established a new Custom Systems Group to design and develop creative and synergistic automated test equipment solutions. The custom systems will comprise Anritsu test instruments, computer systems, application-specific software and third-party hardware. Initial system development will focus on RF/microwave multiport, mixer amplifier and up-/downconverter measurements; analysis of cellular telephones and PCS components; and optical testing, including circulating loop and erbium-doped fiber amplifier systems.
Film, paper and aluminum electrolytic capacitor manufacturer Aerovox Inc. is moving its manufacturing facility and corporate offices to a 25-acre parcel of land in New Bedford, MA. The company plans to begin construction at the new facility by the end of the year and relocate by the fall of 1999.
Coaxial cable manufacturer MICRO-COAX has moved its headquarters to a new 90,000-square-foot facility to enhance the company's research, manufacturing, administrative and quality control capabilities, and provide expansion space needed for future growth. The building houses class 100 and 1000 clean room facilities for the construction of space-qualified assemblies and components and for x-ray inspection and packaging, respectively. The new facility is located at 206 Jones Blvd., Pottstown, PA 19464-3465 (610) 495-0110, fax (610) 495-6656.
Due to recent growth in its commercial business for worldwide test equipment and new wireless communications products, yttrium iron garnet device and subassembly manufacturer Micro Lambda Inc. has more than doubled the size of its manufacturing facility and moved to a 13,100-square-foot building. The company's new address is 48041 Fremont Blvd., Fremont, CA 94538 (510) 770-9221, fax (510) 770-9213.
Arlon, Materials for Electronics , Bear, DE, has named two companies to distribute its line of laminates and prepregs for high performance, low loss PCBs and frequency-dependent applications as well as high Tg, high performance thermoset laminates and prepregs based on polyimide, epoxy, cyanate ester and aromatic polyolefin resin systems and specialty reinforcements. Teknobak Ltd. , Istanbul, Turkey, and Eximtrade Trading Ltd. Co. , Budapest, Hungary, will act as the exclusive stocking distributors for Arlon in their respective territories.
Micro-Mode Products Inc. , El Cajon, CA, has named Sun Moon Electronics , Dallas, TX, a distributor of its connector and glass seal products.
Karl Suss and Unitive Electronics have entered into an agreement under which Karl Suss will provide worldwide support for Unitive Electronics as it commercializes the wafer-bumping and redistribution processes developed at MCNC . Support services will include the supply of leading-edge photolithography equipment and engineering resources to Unitive as the company forges business relationships and opens production fabs in several key markets. Unitive will serve as an end-user beta test site for development projects underway for Karl Suss' production mask aligners, including the high throughput Suss MA 200 CC series eight-inch version, which Unitive recently ordered. Under the terms of a separate affiliation agreement, Karl Suss will gain the use of Unitive's North Carolina facility for demonstration and development activities.
Millitech Corp. and Newbridge Networks have signed an agreement under which Millitech will develop and supply broadband wireless local loop (BWLL) equipment to be integrated into Newbridge Networks' broadband wireless solution. The agreement also allows Newbridge Networks to take advantage of Millitech's fast-paced radio product development for meeting the varying country-to-country requirements for LMCS/LMDS markets worldwide. Millitech has successfully demonstrated this capability in the deployment of BWLL equipment in more than 30 field trials worldwide. In addition, the agreement enables Newbridge Networks to resell Millitech's BWLL equipment on a worldwide, nonexclusive basis.
Display monitor and component distributor Richardson Electronics Ltd. , LaFox, IL, has signed an agreement with NEC Technologies to distribute NEC's high resolution, flat-panel MultiSync" series liquid crystal display monitors and cathode-ray tube display products into specialty markets. Under the terms of the agreement, hardware and customer service support will be provided to systems integrators and end users in the medical and financial industries. In related news, cable and connector manufacturer Times Microwave Systems has named Richardson Electronics a distributor of its products, including the LMR series cable and connectors.
San Diego, CA-based Space Electronics Inc. has formed a strategic alliance with Japan-based Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) under which the companies will utilize each other's complementary capabilities as equal partners and, in turn, more effectively serve the electronic component needs of the international commercial satellite community. In particular, the relationship will allow Space Electronics to secure MHI as a second-source manufacturer of its patented RAD-PAK" product line, which is projected to have large-quantity demands for telecommunication programs such as Teledesic, Celestri and Skybridge.
Hewlett-Packard Co. 's new wideband CDMA signal-generation capabilities were demonstrated successfully at NTT DoCoMo in Japan during the indoor testing phase of the experimental system. The technology is designed to deliver higher transport capacity for high speed data and low cost voice services than is offered by today's networks and is available as an option (option H98) for use on the company's HP ESG-D series RF signal generators.
As a result of an agreement with the MCM-D Consortium, a Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency-funded collaboration, Palomar Technologies Inc. has introduced its CBT 6000 series large-area multichip gold wire bonder. The thermosonic ball bonder project originated from the MCM-D Consortium's request for a technology that would boost its productivity, lower product cost and enable new products to be produced. The new Continuous Bonding Technology focuses on net throughput instead of wires per second as the true benchmark for wire bonding. Designed to wire bond components for hybrid/multichip module and IC applications and to perform interconnects, the unit emphasizes productivity and cost of ownership with flexibility and high net throughput.
The US Information Agency has selected COMSAT Laboratories ' proprietary Communications Planning System (COMPLAN) software to assist with planning transmissions on the Agency's worldwide satellite communications system. The software allows users to effectively manage the power and transmission capacity available on a satellite transponder. In turn, COMPLAN customers are able to achieve increased operating efficiencies and cost savings.
Micro Substrates Corp. , Tempe, AZ, has reduced the cost of its model 1MSC625B ball-grid array package (part of the company's VIA/PAK series) from $5.50 to $4.75 (in quantities of 100,000). The price reduction is attributed to improvements in manufacturing yields and the move to a larger-format array. The price is expected to drop well below $4 in the near future as more experience is gained and techniques are developed to use an even larger-format array.
Honeywell Space Systems' Satellite Systems Operation , Phoenix, AZ, has been certified to the ISO 9001 quality system standard.
The RF Design Center of ST Microelectronics has been certified to the ISO 9001 quality system standard. The facility designs and produces RF and microwave power transistors, MMICs and power hybrid amplifiers.
Standex Electronics , Cincinnati, OH, has received ISO 9001 and QS-9000 registration.
Mitec Wireless , a division of Mitec Telecom located in Tinton Falls, NJ, recently celebrated the manufacture and shipment of more than 20,000 cellular and PCS power amplifiers since its establishment.
FINANCIAL NEWS
Stanford Telecommunications Inc. reports sales of $44.4 M for the first quarter of FY 1999, ended June 30, compared to $35.3 M for the first quarter of FY 1998. Net income was $1 M (8¢/share), compared to $1.4 M (11¢/share) for the first quarter of FY 1998. In related news, the company's board of directors has approved a share repurchase program that authorizes Stanford Telecom to repurchase up to one million of its common shares from time to time in open-market transactions or through block purchases. No time limit was set for completing the program. As of August 14, Stanford Telecom had 13,006,749 outstanding shares of common stock.
REMEC Inc. reports sales of $39.6 M for the second quarter, ended July 31, compared to $39.4 for the same period last year. Net income was $2.5 M (11¢/diluted share), compared to $3.4 M (16¢/diluted share) for the second quarter last year.
Microwave Power Devices Inc. has learned from a major customer that the initial production ramp up of a particular wireless program that was anticipated to occur in the third quarter of the year has been delayed for at least one quarter. Accordingly, the company expects that revenues and earnings per share for the third quarter will be lower both sequentially and on a comparative quarter-over-quarter basis.
CONTRACTS
ARINC Inc. , Annapolis, MD, has received an indefinite delivery/quantity, time and materials contract from the US Army Communications Electronics Command in Ft. Monmouth, NJ in partnership with the Oklahoma City Air Logistics Center. The $1.4 B Rapid Response to Critical Systems Requirements (R2CSR) contract calls for ARINC and its team of 24 subcontractors to supply engineering services, studies, analyses, replacement parts, manufacturing, repair, and installation and integration capabilities to develop a flexible vehicle to obtain the timely delivery of products and services that are difficult to procure. All items will be fully compatible with and integrated into existing systems. Work will be performed at various locations inside and outside the continental US and is expected to be completed by July 28, 2003. As a result of the significant value of the R2CSR contract, ARINC may double the size of its Oklahoma City, OK office to 200 personnel by the end of 1999.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has awarded Raytheon Systems Co. a contract to manufacture and install up to 152 new monopulse secondary surveillance radar systems for its Air Traffic Control Beacon Interrogator (ATCBI-6) replacement program. The contract has a potential value of $180 M. The ATCBI-6 program will replace aging civil air traffic control beacon systems used by the FAA to obtain information from an enroute aircraft, including its identification, altitude, airspeed and direction. The new radar systems will be integrated with existing primary surveillance radar systems operated by the FAA and Department of Defense (DoD). Raytheon will supply its latest-generation monopulse secondary surveillance radar that currently is being supplied to both the DoD and FAA as part of the ASR-11/Digital Airport Surveillance Radar program, which incorporates a Mode S selective addressing capability.
The Omincon Group , Hauppauge, NY, has been awarded a contract from Northrop Grumman's Military Aircraft Systems Division for the supply of software and systems engineering support for various trainers in the company's Simulation Trainer Products Group. The Omnicon Group has also received a contract from the Electronic Systems Division of Parker Hannifin Corp.'s Aerospace Group. This contract calls for Omnicon to perform reliability and safety analyses of the fuel control and monitoring system aboard the Airbus A340-500/600 series long-range jetliner. The combined value of the two contracts is more than $2 M.
AYDIN Communications , a division of AYDIN Corp. , has been selected to engineer and construct a wireless private network for the Egyptian National Railways. The terms of this turnkey project call for the replacement of an existing analog system with a more robust wireless digital solution without disrupting vital communications and signal control circuits. In addition to the actual links that have been designed to meet the current and projected communications needs of the Egyptian National Railways, the project also entails the upgrade of related power plants, network monitoring/control systems and physical equipment space as well as construction of an antenna tower. The contract is valued at approximately $2 M and is scheduled for completion by the fourth quarter of this year.
Berkeley Varitronics Systems Inc. , Metuchen, NJ, has received a contract from Brazil-based NORTEL calling for the delivery of its Gator series 850 to 900 MHz transmitters. Transmitter production has been expedited to accommodate rapid cellular buildout in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
COMSAT Laboratories has been awarded a contract by Lockheed Martin Corp. to provide an in-orbit testing (IOT) system for the new Garuda-1 regional mobile satellite. The satellite will provide mobile telephone communications in Asia, covering a population of approximately three billion people. The IOT system will provide quick, accurate and detailed testing of the satellite before the overall telecommunications system is tested and placed into commercial service. The IOT system also can be used for anomaly investigation once the satellite is operational, contributing to system performance over the lifespan of the spacecraft.
PERSONNEL
AMP Inc. has named Robert Ripp chairman and CEO to replace William J. Hudson who is assuming the position of vice chairman of the board. Previously, Ripp was executive VP of the company's global businesses.
Andrew Lozyniak has been elected director of SEMX Corp. Formerly, Lozyniak was chairman, president and CEO of Dynamics Corporation of America.
RF Industries Ltd. has named Tony Gutierrez director of sales at its RF Neulink Telemetry Division. Most recently, Gutierrez was international sales manager at BK Radio/RELM Communications.
Abpac Inc. has announced several key personnel appointments, including Howard Kosick as VP, finance and chief financial officer, Lillian Thompson as flip-chip engineer, Howard Holyoak as wire bonding process engineer, Vincent Shaw as automation engineer and Hollis Morris as senior sales engineer. Most recently, Kosick was US group president at Bell Sports, Thompson was employed at Motorola, Holyoak was employed at Intel, Shaw was employed at Microchip Technology and Morris was technical program director at IPAC.
CTS Corp. has appointed Timothy J. Cunningham VP, finance and CFO. Most recently, Cunningham was VP, finance at Moore Document Solutions.
Ecliptek Corp. has promoted Barry Waterfield to director of sales. Prior to this appointment, Waterfield was subcontractor relations manager.
Tony Saia has joined Florida RF Labs as VP, sales. Previously, Saia was international sales and marketing manager at Alpha Industries/Trans-Tech.
Richardson Electronics Ltd. has announced several personnel appointments at its Solid State & Components Division, including Denise Cowett as regional sales manager of the north-central US, John Padgett as regional sales manager of the south-central US, Jay Parker as regional sales manager of the southeastern US, Chuck York as field sales engineer of the south-central US, Mario Klas as field sales engineer of the New York metropolitan area, Lisa Love as field sales engineer of the northeastern US and western Canada, and Mark Vitellaro as field sales engineer for Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota and the Dakotas.
AMI has appointed John Smith director of the company's newly consolidated Field Technology Support Group to oversee US technical field support operations. Most recently, Smith was AMI's northwest area sales manager.
Gerald F. Troy has been named corporate controller at Precision Tube Co. Prior to joining the company, Troy was a controller at several manufacturing and distribution organizations.
Los Alamos National Laboratory has named four directors to head programs for stewardship and management of US nuclear weapons, including Don McCoy as head of simulation and computations, Phil Goldstone as head of experimental programs, Luis Salazar as head of stockpile systems and Scott Gibbs as head of materials and manufacturing.
James T. Cook has been elected president of the International Microelectronics and Packaging Society (IMAPS) for 1999. Currently, Cook is VP, sales and marketing at Promex Industries Inc., Santa Clara, CA.
The IEEE has named Robert D. Nevels , professor of electrical engineering at Texas A&M University, the 1998 Outstanding Educator of Region 5 (comprising Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Arkansas, Missouri, Kansas, Wyoming and Colorado as well as parts of New Mexico, South Dakota, Nebraska and Illinois). The award is presented to an IEEE member who has performed in an outstanding manner in the engineering education field.
NEW MARKET ENTRY
SunriseTek is a new company formed to manufacture custom crystal oscillators and thick-film hybrids. The premier oscillator in the company's product line is a high frequency, emitter-coupled logic, temperature-compensated crystal oscillator that is provided in a 14-pin dual in-line package. The new company is located at 1308 Adams, Kansas City, KS 66103 (913) 371-7755, fax (913) 371-2994 or www.sunrisetek.com.
REP APPOINTMENTS
Amplifonix West has appointed several companies to represent its entire product line, including Allis Associates , Cupertino, CA, for coverage in northern California and northern Nevada; Allis Northwest Sales Group , Kirkland, WA, for coverage in Alaska, Washington, Oregon and Idaho; HyTech Associates , Westlake Village, CA, for coverage in southern California; and Odyssey1 , Salt Lake City, UT and Englewood, CO, for coverage in Utah, Wyoming, Montana and Colorado.
Micro-Mode Products Inc. has appointed four new sales representatives to market its products. Cain Technology Inc. will provide representation in southern California, Cain Southwest Inc. will provide representation in Arizona and New Mexico, Coastal Marketing Inc. will provide representation in New York and southern Connecticut and Gamma Opt will provide representation in Texas and Oklahoma.
Chesapeake Microwave Technologies Inc. , Glen Rock, PA, has named Blackhart Associates LLC , Clinton, UT, as its sales representative in Colorado, Utah, Idaho, Montana and Wyoming. The company will market Chesapeake Microwave Technologies' line of custom power amplifiers for use in the commercial and defense RF markets.
Fox Electronics , Ft. Myers, FL, has appointed Symmetry Electronics Corp. , Hawthorne, CA and Guadalajara, Mexico, as its exclusive sales representative in Mexico. The company will be responsible for the sale and marketing of Fox Electronics' complete line of crystals, oscillators and other frequency control products for use in telecommunications and medical applications.
Nearfield Systems Inc. , Carson, CA, has appointed Hi-Peak Technical Sales to represent its antenna measurement products and services in Connecticut, Vermont, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Maine, New York and Rhode Island.
WEB SITES
Alan Industries Inc. , Columbus, IN, has established a Web site that provides wireless/microwave product and service and custom design information, catalog request and price quotation forms, and a company overview. The site can be accessed at http://www.alanindustries.com.
Panduit Corp. , Tinley Park, IL, has designed a new Web site that offers users the ability to order parts drawings for all of its electrical and data communication products. The site also provides access to information on the company's products, literature and technical support.
KR Electronics Inc. , Avenel, NJ, has introduced a new Web site located at http://www.krfilters.com that provides details on its filter products, including lowpass, anti-aliasing, video and bandpass filters. Product data sheets, company information and sample test data also can be accessed.
SYNCOM Specialties Inc. , Churchville, PA, has launched a Web site that describes capabilities and services available to the microwave industry in the areas of precision machining and manufacturing of microwave and RF packaging hardware and related components. The site can be reached at http://www.syncomspecialties.com.
Schaffner has redesigned and upgraded its Web site (http://www.schaffner.com) to include up-to-date listings of the latest electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) standards, links to standards-setting bodies worldwide, and news and comment on EMC issues.