Here's a recap of the news that caught my attention last week.

Companies and Products

II-VI quietly reported the sale of the RF portion of ANADIGICS. The unnamed buyer will pay $45 million in cash and a $5 million earn out, the latter to be paid over 18 months if unspecified performance levels are achieved. The deal includes a multi-year wafer processing supply agreement. II-VI acquired ANADIGICS in March, primarily for the 6 in wafer fab, which it will use for VCSEL fabrication. II-VI paid $78.2 million for ANADIGICS, after winning a prolonged auction, first with GaAs Labs, then an unnamed Chinese company.

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Distributor Arrow Electronics is buying the venerable EE Times and UBM's other internet electronics online media (EDN, ESM, Embedded, EBN, TechONline and Datasheets.com). In a press release, Arrow stated the media acquisition "strengthens its position as a foremost thought leader and trusted advisor in IoT and technology design trends." Arrow's 2015 sales were $23.3 billion.

GlobalFoundries received a seven year DoD contract, worth some $400 million, under the DoD's trusted foundry program. Wafer processing will occur in the Essex Junction, Vt., and Hopewell Junction, N.Y., wafer fabs that were acquired with the IBM Microelectronics business in July 2015. Wall Street Journal article.

Infineon and imec are developing a 79 GHz sensor for automotive radar. The companies expect the initial 28 nm CMOS ICs to be available in Q3. A complete radar should be demonstrated at the beginning of 2017. Imec is contributing expertise in high frequency system, circuit and antenna design for radar applications, which complements Infineon’s radar sensor chip knowledge.

MACOM is sampling a quad-channel EML driver for the 28G PAM-4 standard. The driver has an integrated bias T, differential inputs and a single-ended output and provides up to 2 Vpp output with less than 500 mW power dissipation.

Qorvo released three power doubler modules designed for DOCSIS 3.1. The RFCM3327 and RFCM3328 incorporate GaN on SiC devices and have 23 dB and 25 dB gain, respectively, with +63 dBmV output. The QPB8808 has 20.5 dB gain and +58 dBmV output, with a compact footprint that saves up to 70 percent in PCB area compared to competing devices.

Teledyne Defence received a contract from satellite internet developer OneWeb. Teledyne will supply flexible channelizers, two per satellite. The OneWeb low earth orbit (LEO) constellation is projected to number some 900 satellites.

Vaunix introduced a palm-sized, USB powered and controlled signal generator that covers 6 to 18 GHz. The unit provides +10 dBm output power, with 80 dB power control (+10 to -70 dBm) from 6 to 13 GHz and 65 dB control (+10 to -55 dBm) from 13 to 18 GHz. Harmonics are -25 dBc maximum, -38 dBc typical, at +10 dBm output power.

American Airlines selected ViaSat's Ka-Band satellite internet service for American's new Boeing 737 MAX fleet, which will begin service in September 2017. Gogo had been the sole internet provider for American, but the capacity of its plane-to-ground system has been challenged to keep up with passenger demand. Mark Dankberg, ViaSat's CEO, said, "Our satellite bandwidth enables an 'at home' internet experience that can serve everyone on the plane."

Markets and Technology

Cellular — At SCWS World in London last month, Telecom TV interviewed Alan Law, chair of the Small Cell Forum, about the state of small cell deployment.

Broadband — Writing on the FCC blog, Jon Wilkins, chief of the Wireless Telecommunications Bureau, and Julius Knapp, chief of the Office of Engineering & Technology, describe the status of the 3.5 GHz Citizens Broadband Radio Service. CBRS will use 150 MHz from 3550 to 3700 MHz to enable new commercial uses where they don't interfere with federal radar operations. Federated Wireless, Google, Intel, Nokia, Qualcomm and Ruckus Wireless have said they will develop products for and promote the service.

At Alphabet's annual meeting, executive chairman Eric Schmidt responded to a question and confirmed that Google Fiber is testing wireless broadband delivery to the home. Schmidt was quoted as saying, "There appears to be wireless solutions that are point to point that are inexpensive now because of the improvements in semiconductors. These point to point solutions are now cheaper than digging up your garden."

5G — AT&T released an update on their plans for 5G trials this year, adding Nokia to help evaluate the use of millimeter wave spectrum. “We’ve seen great results in our 5G lab trials, including reaching speeds above 10 gigabits per second in early tests with Ericsson,” said Tom Keathley, AT&T's senior vice president for wireless network architecture and design. “Nokia is joining to help us test millimeter wave, which we expect to play a key role in 5G development and deployment."

A new book on 5G, with contributions by more than 50 industry experts and co-edited by researchers from Ericsson, Nokia and the University of Valencia, compiles the latest thinking, from use cases to system architectures and technology options. More info and pre-order.

We hear that 5G is all about use cases. For example, a hospital in Oulu is aiming to be the first 5G hospital.

IoT — FierceWirelessTech published an informative overview of the IoT evolution and how the various cellular flavors (LTE Cat 0, 1, M) are positioning to compete with the low power wide area networks (Ingenu, LoRa and SigFox).

In March, Ericsson's ConsumerLab surveyed 5,000 iPhone and Android smartphone users, half of whom were wearable technology owners, to distill consumer perceptions and discern trends in wearable technology. Among the findings: consumers want more than step counters, like panic buttons and location trackers. Read the full report.

Moore's Law — Caltech researchers are exploring vacuum tubes as a solution to the limitation of Moore's law.

Final Notes — We often fall victim to equating correlation with causation. This should cure you.

Sadly, we note the death of Costas Varmazis, a key contributor to MACOM's GaAs MMIC technology and a wonderful fellow traveler.

If you come across news that you think your colleagues would like covered in this weekly summary, email me at glerude@mwjournal.com.

Have a good week.