Contracts
ViaSat—Announced that it has secured a delivery order valued at $2.4 million for Multifunctional Information Distribution System (MIDS) terminals in support of the Republic of Korea (South Korea). The 24-month contract, beginning in May 2008, includes four LVT(11) ground-based Low Volume Terminals and associated support equipment. Agilent Technologies, Inc.—Announced that the US Navy has selected the company’s test equipment for the General Purpose Electronic Test Equipment program. The five-year contract, awarded by the Naval Inventory Control Point, is valued at approximately $3.3 million.
The Agilent test solution includes the Agilent E4418B power meter and Agilent 8481A/8481D power sensors, a combined unit that provides accurate, true-RMS RF power measurements for electronic-systems support. As part of the contract, Agilent remains the incumbent contractor for continuouswave power meters until 2012, which supports the company’s Aerospace/Defense growth initiative.
Fresh Starts
Aeroflex/Inmet and RFMW Ltd.—Announced a worldwide distribution agreement effective October 1, 2007.
Sierra Midwest—Has acquired Nutronics Manufacturing of Springfield, IL.
Park Electrochemical Corp.—Reported sales of $60,541,000 for its 2008 fiscal year second quarter ended August 26, 2007 compared to sales of $66,518,000 for the second quarter of last year. Park’s sales for the first six months were $117,618,000 compared to sales of $129,356,000 for last year’s first six months.
Tower Semiconductor Ltd.—Announced that it has won a multimillion- dollar-per-month manufacturing deal for its Fab2 at the 0.13-micron technology generation from a first-tier, US integrated-device manufacturer (IDM). Under this deal, technology will be transferred during the coming several quarters after which Tower expects to manufacture between 5000 and 8000 wafers per month, using the new tools it is purchasing from companies such as AMD and Intel, as was previously announced.
The high-volume production shipments are expected to commence toward the end of 2008. Following such production, Tower expects that the US IDM could become one of Tower’s top three customers.
Parker Hannifin Corp., Chomerics Asia Pacific Division— Opened a new facility in Sriperumbudur near Chennai, India. Located adjacent to the 260-acre Special Economic Zone and featuring nearly 1700 sq. meters of manufacturing and office space, the plant will produce electromagnetic- interference (EMI)-shielded products to support local customers.
ANADIGICS, Inc.—Announced that the company is shipping production volumes of its AWL6951 Wireless LAN (WLAN) power-amplifier (PA) module in support of the upcoming 802.11 multiple-input, multiple-output (MIMO) standard to NXP Semiconductor for their WLAN module solution, MRX2000.
ANADIGICS’ AWL6951 dual-band power amplifier is an InGaP HBT power-amplifier module designed for transmit applications in the 2.4-to-2.5-GHz and 4.9-to-5.9-GHz band. Matched to 50Ωat all RF inputs and outputs, the part requires no additional RF matching components off chip.
In addition, ANADIGICS announced that it has acquired from Fairchild Semiconductor, for $2.3 million, the RF team, fixed assets, certain leases, software, and licenses to intellectual property in connection with Fairchild’s exiting of its RF Group business in Tyngsboro, MA.
The acquisition included the hiring of 23 highly experienced RF design and engineering professionals. Ansoft Corp.—Announced that its board of directors voted to amend its existing common stock repurchase program to permit the company to acquire an additional 1,000,000 shares of its common stock. Under the original program approved in 1998 and amended in 2002, 2004, and 2006, the company has purchased approximately 7,300,000 of the 8,000,000 shares authorized for repurchase.
The repurchases may be made, from time to time, in the open market or in privately negotiated transactions and are subject to price and market considerations and applicable securities laws. The extent and timing of repurchases will be at the discretion of management and will depend upon general business and market conditions, stock prices, and the company’s cash position and requirements going forward.
Saudi Basic Industries Corp. (SABIC)—Announced the completion of its purchase of GE plastics from General Electric for a purchase price of $11.6 billion US.
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Page Title
The former GE unit is now SABIC Innovative Plastics, a new business addition to SABIC that will focus on the global growth of thermoplastics and engineering plastics to serve the automotive, electronics, healthcare, and construction sectors. Brian Gladden has been appointed CEO of SABIC Innovative Plastics.
Laird Technologies—Introduced its new WiMAX Antenna Catalog.
The catalog describes the company’s offering of WiMAX antennas, including base-station antennas, backhaul antennas, fixed and mobile client antennas, and vehicular and inbuilding antennas.
A product description, some specifications, product drawings, and performance graphs are included for each product listed. The book also includes an Accessories section showing those products that are the perfect complement to the antenna systems. The last section is Application Notes, which contains examples of ETSI radiation pattern envelopes.
To request a copy of the catalog, go to the Laird Technologies website at www.lairdtech.com.
Pendulum Instruments—Announced that Krzysztof Mazur has assumed the responsibility of area sales manager for Eastern Europe from Pendulum’s newest sales office in Poland.