Industry News
Raytheon Co. announced that it has completed its acquisition of BBN Technologies, a leader in research and development, and provider of critical solutions for national defense and security missions. The purchase price is approximately $350 M, subject to post-closing adjustments. The transaction will not materially impact Raytheon's sales or earnings per share for the fourth quarter of 2009, and is expected to be accretive in 2010.
Sypris Solutions Inc. announced that it has completed the sale of its Test & Measurement business to Tektronix. Sale of Sypris Test & Measurement Inc. was completed for $39 M of cash on October 26, 2009. Proceeds will be used by Sypris Solutions to support growth of its Aerospace & Defense segment and the retirement debt, among other uses.
Channel Microwave announced that it has been acquired by Smiths Group plc, and will now operate as an independent division of Lorch Microwave Inc.
ANADIGICS Inc. and WIN Semiconductors Corp. announced a strategic agreement for the design and manufacture of GaAs microwave monolithic integrated circuits (MMIC). GaAs ICs are used in wireless handsets and data devices that allow people to connect and communicate anywhere, anytime. This relationship forms the cornerstone of ANADIGICS' hybrid manufacturing strategy that provides for a mix of internal and external manufacturing capability to ensure customer demand can be met at all times. WIN has agreed to provide ANADIGICS with GaAs foundry processing services to meet customer demand for its high-performance, radio frequency integrated circuits (IC).
NXP Semiconductors and Virage Logic Corp. announced a strategic agreement that accelerates NXP's move to high performance mixed signal leadership and further broadens Virage Logic's extensive semiconductor IP portfolio. The agreement calls for the transfer of a part of NXP's advanced CMOS intellectual property rights and certain engineering talent and equipment to Virage Logic. Virage Logic will establish an R&D center in Eindhoven providing on-going support to NXP and developing new products based on the acquired advanced CMOS I/O, analog mixed signal and System-on-Chip (SoC) infrastructure IP. These new products are expected to be commercially available in early 2011.
Cascade Microtech Inc. announced King Abdullah University of Science and Technology's selection of multiple probe stations to support measurements in the area of materials analysis, nano-technologies and semiconductor research. Proven performance capability in multiple microwave and DC applications combined with the flexibility to address diverse applications led this new university to choose Cascade Microtech as a partner in providing the most technologically advanced wafer-probing equipment.
Exalt Communications announced that Teton Communications Inc., a network operator and two-way radio systems integrator in Eastern Idaho, has standardized on Exalt microwave radio systems to support its backbone network over a 20,000 square-mile service area stretching from Pocatello to Yellowstone. The company has deployed Exalt licensed 6 GHz radio systems on several 20-mile links to date, and intends to replace the legacy gear on its remaining links over time. Teton Communications is also recommending Exalt radio systems to its customers, including public safety organizations and utilities, for their own private network upgrades and expansions.
MFG Galileo Composites, a specialist in the design and manufacturing of composite radomes and reflectors, announced that manufacturing operations for the company have been relocated from Sparks, NV to Opp, AL. The new built-to-spec facility adds manufacturing capacity and processing capabilities to accommodate increased demand, as well as improving accessibility to a significant percentage of their customer base. The company will maintain a satellite office in Reno, NV, where key engineering and administrative team members will continue to operate from.
Skyworks Solutions Inc., an innovator of high reliability analog and mixed signal semiconductors enabling a broad range of end markets, announced that it is powering several of LG Electronics' newest multimedia handsets. In particular, Skyworks' front-end solutions are at the heart of LG's GM200, GR500 and KP500, innovative platforms with enhanced touchscreen, audio, camera and messaging functionality.
WIN Semiconductors announced the availability of a new MMIC tool bar personality for ten Advanced Design System (ADS) process design kits (PDK) for its popular Enhancement/Depletion-Mode PHEMT and HBT process technologies. The new add-on WIN PDKs, developed for use with current and future releases of Agilent Technologies' ADS 2009, enable high-frequency RF and microwave designers to create compact integrated circuits comprised of power amplifiers, switches, low noise amplifiers, mixers and logic circuitry. The add-on PDKs are available now from WIN Semiconductors.
The ZigBee® Alliance, a global ecosystem of companies creating wireless solutions for use in energy management, commercial and consumer applications, congratulates its members who were selected to receive funding for their Smart Grid efforts as part of the United States American Reinvestment and Recovery Act. ZigBee Alliance members received a total of $478,823,415, representing a total investment of more than $1.2 B in smart grid programs with ZigBee Smart Energy as the standard for home area networks.
Lockheed Martin has elevated preferred supplier Evans Capacitor Co. to the Platinum level of Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control's three-tiered Preferred Supplier Program. The Preferred Supplier Program supports the company's philosophy of building a world-class supply chain that demonstrates excellence as the standard and continuous improvement as the culture. Each of the program's successive categories - Silver, Gold or Platinum - exhibits a more stringent level of performance excellence, and furthers the company's philosophy of doing business with the "Best of the Best."
Mimix Broadband Inc., a fabless semiconductor company, announced that the company has successfully completed re-certification to ISO 9001:2008. This certificate recognizes all operations in the Houston (US), Belfast (Northern Ireland) and North Sydney (Australia) facilities. Mimix Broadband's subsidiary, Mimix Asia Inc. (Hsinchu, Taiwan), passed its re-certification audit by SGS for ISO 9001:2008 in March of 2009.
Renaissance Electronics Corp. announced that its Harvard, MA facility has been awarded the AS9100 Aerospace Standard Certification. The AS9100 is the aerospace industry's quality system standard developed by the International Aerospace Quality Group for quality assurance in design, new product introduction (NPI), manufacturing and servicing.
ENS Microwave LLC announced that it has achieved ISO 9001:2008 certification. ENS is a small, woman-owned manufacturer of high performance flexible and semi-flexible microwave cable assemblies that offers a wide range of cable and connector combinations from DC to 60 GHz with typical lead times of less than four weeks.ÊENS can also design special connectors to be used within any particular application and can utilize almost any cable type commercially available. All cables are built to customers' specificationsÊand are found in the telecommunication and aerospace industries, while addressing the stringent reliability, environmental, and performance requirements of the RF industry. Visit www.ensmicro.com for more information.
Microtech Inc., as part of the company's ongoing continuous quality improvement program, announced it has achieved the AS9100 Aerospace Quality Standard System Certification. Microtech's team received a rating of 92.5 and is now certified to AS9100 and ISO9001: 2000.
Elcom Technologies Inc. announced the first shipments of its Ka-band up and down SATCOM converters bringing the total number of FlxGenTM SIGINT and SATCOM receivers and converters to over 550. The FlxGen architecture provides high performance RF/MW performance up to 40 GHz in converters and receivers through proprietary RF chain topologies that produce exceptional spurious free dynamic range and signal sensitivity.
Contracts
Cobham plc announced that its Defence Systems Division has received two delivery order releases valued at $40 M from Northrop Grumman for the ongoing supply of its ROVIS (AN/VIC-3) digital vehicular intercom systems for the US Army. All deliveries of the intercom system, which provides enhanced communication and situational awareness to users of armoured and light tactical vehicles including MRAPs, will be made by the end of first quarter 2010.
Comtech Telecommunications Corp. announced that its Maryland-based subsidiary, Comtech Mobile Datacom Corp., received orders totaling $7.6 M under its Movement Tracking System, or MTS contract, with the US Army. Total orders received to date against the $605.1 M MTS contract increased to $589.8 M.
TriQuint Semiconductor, an RF products manufacturer and foundry services provider, announced that it has been awarded a $16.2 M Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) multi-year Gallium Nitride (GaN) R&D contract to create complex, high dynamic range circuits for future defense and aerospace applications. TriQuint received its DARPA contract to advance GaN research and develop new generations of compound semiconductor circuits through the Nitride Electronic NeXt-Generation Technology (NEXT) program.
Orbit Technologies, a leader in the development of advanced solutions for stabilized mobile satellite communication and tracking systems, has announced record orders for its satellite communication products. The company reports second quarter additional orders in excess of $5 M of its marine VSAT systems. According to Orbit, total worldwide VSAT systems orders are expected to exceed $100 M this year.
Comtech Telecommunications Corp. announced that its Santa Clara, CA-based subsidiary, Comtech Xicom Technology Inc., received orders totaling $1.8 M for ruggedized, high-power, solid-state power amplifiers (SSPA) that will be incorporated into transportable fly-away satellite terminals used by US soldiers stationed overseas in remote areas.
RF Micro Devices Inc. (RFMD) announced ZTE has selected two of RFMD's dual-band transmit modules to support ZTE's S305 GSM handset. The ZTE S305 is a stylish dual-band (GSM 900/1800 MHz or 850/1900 MHz) mobile handset designed for emerging markets.
Orbit Technologies, a supplier of tracking systems for Israel's defense industry and a leader in satellite communications technology, announced a $3 M order to supply two Israeli defense companies with a range of tracking solutions over the coming year. The deal includes tactical systems for tracking UAVs, systems designed for radar installation integration, and large systems for tracking airborne manned platforms.
AWR announced that its Simulation Technology and Applied Research (STAAR) division, which develops AnalystTM 3D finite element method (FEM) software, has been awarded three grants for US government-sponsored research projects through the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program. Two of the grants for FEM EM software development are from the US Department of Energy. One is focused on RF cavity design and the other on current modeling to enable more rapid evaluation and design iteration of next-generation light sources and particle colliders. The third, awarded by the US Navy, focuses on improving emission/ionization algorithms of 3D FEM technology in the 80 to 300 GHz range.
Ducommun Inc. announced that its Ducommun AeroStructures Inc. (DAS) subsidiary has definitized a follow-on contract with The Boeing Co. to provide fuselage skins for the C-17 Globemaster III military transport aircraft through the fourth quarter of 2010.
RFaxis announced that Jorjin Technologies has selected RFaxis' RF Front-end Integrated Circuits (RFeIC) and embedded antennas for integration into its family of wireless module system-in-package (SiP) soloutions. In related news, RFaxis announced that it has selected IBM Microelectronics to manufacture its fully integrated, single-chip, single-die RFeICs. The RFeICs will be manufactured using IBM Microelectronics' BiCMOS process technology at its semiconductor facility in Burlington, VT.
AMC recently contracted with ARA to provide the newly-developed Remote Automated Portable Intrusion Detection (RAPID) system, providing a wide area surveillance and perimeter security capability for AMC bases. Three RAPID systems will be deployed to Grand Forks Air Force Base in North Dakota, home of the 319th Air Refueling Wing, and one system will be located to Scott Air Force Base in Illinois, home of the 375th Air Mobility Wing. The systems will be used for wide area intrusion and assessment around the bases' flight lines.
AR Modular RF recently announced the completion of a new 50 W auto-tuning, multi-band tactical booster amplifier, designed to make it easy for troops to maintain constant, reliable communications in even the worst environments. The new AR-50 booster amplifier boosts tactical radio signals from handheld and back-pack transceivers operating in the 30 to 512 MHz band.
Personnel
Endwave Corp. announced that Ed Keible will step down as Vice Chairman, Chief Executive Officer and Director effective November 30, 2009. The Board of Directors named John Mikulsky as President and Chief Executive Officer succeeding Keible. The board also elected Mikulsky to the Board of Directors effective December 1, 2009. Mikulsky is currently Endwave's President and Chief Operating Officer. Mikulsky began his Endwave career in 1996 holding key positions in marketing, business development and product development. In July of this year, Mikulsky was appointed President and Chief Operating Officer responsible for the company's operations and technology.
M/A-COM Technology Solutions Inc. (M/A-COM Tech) announced that Michael (Mike) Murphy has joined the company as Vice President of Engineering reporting to Chief Executive Officer Joseph G. Thomas. He will lead new technology and product development efforts for the company. Murphy will have the lead in setting policy in many areas as well as R&D project tracking and reporting. Working with M/A-COM's global technical community, he will play a key role in developing and executing on the company's new product growth strategy. Most recently he served as Vice President of Engineering of TriQuint Semiconductor's Networks and Standard Products Business Unit. Prior to that Murphy led TriQuint's New England Design Center, which he initially launched for Infineon Technologies in 1999.
Gary Tilley has joined ZTEC Instruments as Vice President of Sales and Marketing. Tilley will help establish a larger market presence for ZTEC Instruments globally and grow into adjacent markets. Previously, Tilley was responsible for managing one of the largest global accounts at Teradyne Inc. Prior to joining Teradyne, he was a Senior Director at Novellus Systems and a Vice President at LTX Corp. (now LTX-Credence).
Lime Microsystems has appointed Dan Rabinovitsj as Non-executive Director. He brings 20 years of experience in general management and marketing of mixed-signal and analog communications ICs, having held management positions at companies such as ST-Ericsson, NXP, AMD and Silicon Laboratories, where he was a founding member of the wireless products business unit in 1998 and went on to lead the development of the AeroFone single-chip product.
M/A-COM Technology Solutions recently announced the addition of Phillip (Phil) Stathas to its leadership team as Director of Information Technology (IT). Stathas is responsible for directing all IT activities throughout the company's global organization. He has more than 27 years of experience in the semiconductor, components and high volume manufacturing industry. Nine of those years were spent with M/A-COM, where he directed the company's management information systems activities.
Microtech announced that Matthew Underhay has joined Microtech Inc.'s team as Sales and Marketing Manager. Underhay has over 12 years in the telecommunications industry with leaders such as Andrew Corp., Alcatel-Lucent and Com Dev International. Underhay is tasked with strengthening Microtech's product catalog, market position and establishing a long-term sales strategy. Additionally, he will focus on strengthening day-to-day operations within the Sales Department team, streamlining current contact management tools to minimize redundancies and enrich customer service.
Rep Appointments
Richardson Electronics Ltd., an electronics components distributor with strong local support and a key presence in all major markets worldwide, announced that it is stocking and delivering Vincotech's newest complete GPS receiver system solutions, the A1084-A and A1084-B receiver modules and the A1035-H receiver/antenna module.
International Manufacturing Services Inc. (IMS), a manufacturer and supplier of high quality thick and thin film resistors, terminations, attenuators, planar dividers, planar filters and thermal management devices to the electronics industry, announced the appointment of TX Sales as its Midwestern representative. TX Sales, located in Fort Wayne, IN, has nearly 40 years of sales and marketing experience in the electronics industry. TX Sales will be representing IMS products in the states of Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, Kentucky and Western Pennsylvania. More information about TX Sales may be found at www.txsales.com.
Duplex CSA Ltd., a supplier of industry standard and custom-made RF connector solutions, shielding products and cable assemblies for the telecommunications, cable/satellite and related industries, announced the appointment of Connector Specialists Inc. as the company's authorized sales representative for the southwestern US region, including the states of Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico and Mexico territory. Connector Specialists has over 20 years of direct sales and engineering experience specializing in connectors, cable, antennas, switches, relays and related electromechanical/packaging products. Contact Rick Prindle at (972) 396-0066 or via e-mail at RPrin81855@aol.com.
ZeroG Wireless Inc., an innovator in low-power embedded Wi-Fi design, announced that it has signed a distribution agreement with Avnet Express, part of Avnet Electronics Marketing, an operating group of Avnet Inc. Under the terms of the agreement, Avnet will distribute ZeroG Wireless' embedded Wi-Fi products through the Avnet Express Web-based distribution service. The ZeroG Wireless products are available for order and shipment today.
Reactel Inc., a manufacturer of RF and microwave filters, multiplexers, switched filter banks, and multi-function assemblies to the commercial, military, industrial and medical industries, announced the appointment of REL as the company's exclusive representative in the Czech Republic. For more information about REL, please contact Frantisek Remta at remta@volny.cz.
Linx Technologies Inc. recently announced the appointment of World Micro Inc. as a stocking distributor.
Web Site
RF Micro Devices Inc. (RFMD) announced the launch of a new online store offering new features and functionality that significantly enhance the e-commerce experience and streamline the selection and ordering of samples and volume shipments. The new online store is directly accessible via RFMD's home page at www.rfmd.com and is available immediately for ordering samples, evaluation boards, prototypes and volume production.