Gary Lerude, MWJ Technical Editor
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Gary Lerude is the Technical Editor of Microwave Journal. Previously, he spent his career as a “midwife” aiding the growth of the compound semiconductor industry, from device to application, from defense to commercial. He spent 19 years at Texas Instruments, 11 years at MACOM and six years with TriQuint. Gary holds a bachelor’s in EE, a master’s in systems engineering and an engineers degree (ABD) in EE.

Weekly Report

For the week ending November 27

November 30, 2015

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Despite the Thanksgiving holiday in the U.S., the pace of interesting industry news didn't seem to slow:

Companies and Products

Analog Devices (ADI) reported fiscal Q4 and 2015 financial results. 2015 revenue was $3.4 billion, up 20 percent from fiscal 2014. The communications segment generated $160 million in revenue, up 12 percent from the prior quarter, yet 23 percent below the prior year's quarter.

ADI believes they are beyond the base station trough in China. Listen to their view of the wireless infrastructure market, from comments during the earnings call.

Another interesting tidbit from ADI's earnings call: CEO Vincent Roche says they will "change the game in radar technologies" for automotive.

Anokiwave released a second X-Band silicon core chip for active arrays. It integrates an 8 to 12 GHz LNA, PA and 4-channel beam former.

Cobham received $51 million in orders from BAE Systems for F-35 microelectronics components and modules.

Microsemi prevailed over Skyworks in the pursuit to acquire PMC-Sierra. Microsemi will pay $2.5 billion in cash and stock. Skyworks had increased their offer once — from $10.50 to $11.60 a share, totaling $2.24 billion — but declined to raise it a second time. PMC-Sierra terminated the Skyworks deal, paying an $88.5 million termination fee, and signed with Microsemi. WSJ article.

NXP will complete the acquisition of Freescale on December 7, after the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and China's Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) approved the acquisition, and the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) approved JAC Capital's acquisition of NXP's RF power business. Sale of the RF power business was a precondition of the Freescale acquisition, to prevent the combined company from holding a monopoly position in RF power devices for wireless infrastructure. Background on the RF power sale.

Qorvo announced a couple of design wins at their investor conference:

5 GHz PA in NETGEAR's Nighthawk 802.11ac router and
Wi-Fi module in LG's Nexus 5X smartphone; the module combines a 5 GHz PA, LNA, diplexer, switch and coupler.

Teledyne Microwave released five GaN PAs covering octave and larger bands from 100 MHz to 6 GHz. The PAs provide 15 to 40 W saturated output power.

For IoT applications, Texas Instruments announced a wireless microcontroller (MCU) that can transmit over 20 km and has a 20 year battery life.

Zentech added 3D X-ray inspection for bottom terminated components (BGAs, uBGAs, QFNs, LGAs). These components cannot be adequately inspected after assembly without 3D X-ray.

Markets and Technology

Solid-State Cooking — One of these years, a solid-state microwave oven may cook the Thanksgiving turkey.

Space — Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin launched the first rocket that made a controlled landing back on earth. He told CBS News that this is a "game changer." Watch interview.

Satellite Internet — ViaSat released a Wi-Fi modem for their Exede satellite Internet service. In "select areas," subscribers can receive "up to" 25 Mbps download.

Raspberry Pi announced their latest version of the Pi computer, the Pi Zero for an amazing $5.

Freescale used semiconductor lithography to produce a record album on a silicon wafer. Reader Lori Larson wonders whether this is the most expensive record ever produced.