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Viewpoint | ||
Adding Talent Through Acquisition By Jack Browne, MWRF Technical Director Engineering talent is hard to come by. Ask the management at any expanding RF/microwave company where they will find their next design engineer, and the chances are that they were about to ask you the same question. For that reason, the recent announcement by wireless and wireline semiconductor supplier ANADIGICS (www.anadigics.com) of their acquisition of the RF Design Team from Fairchild Semiconductor for $2.3 million makes perfect sense. In fact, with the hiring of 23 experienced and talented RF design and engineering professionals, it might even be considered a steal for ANADIGICS. By Fairchild exiting its RF business in Tyngsboro, MA, ANADIGICS has established its own design center in the same spot. As part of the transaction, ANADIGICS will provide business and technical transitional support services to Fairchild and its customers as Fairchild exits its RF business. Although the acquisition adds unexpected research and development expenses to ANADIGICS spreadsheets for 2007, the company's management feels that infusion of talent can't hurt the firm's opportunities for growth in 2008. Dr. Bami Bastani, President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of ANADIGICS notes, "Highly specialized RF talent is rare in the semiconductor industry and is a differentiating factor in our fast growing markets." Dr. Bastani adds, "The establishment of the Massachusetts design center not only fulfills our planned 2008 resource requirements, but further consolidates the industry and provides ANADIGICS with a knowledgeable and exceptionally experienced RF team, which will accelerate our new revenue growth opportunities for 3G wireless, WiFi, and WiMAX product lines By adding this kind of engineering talent to a company already bestowed with experienced designers, ANADIGICS has made a bold move which should add long-term benefits. Rather than acquiring a product line or two, the firm has acquired the talent to develop many new product lines for years to come. | ||
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News | ||
Antenova Shrinks GPS Antenna Module Antenova announced what it claims to be the world's smallest single-package GPS system solution, combining an integrated-circuit (IC) receiver with a patented GPS antenna. The GPS RADIOVA M10214-A RF antenna module features the model GSC3LTf GPS receiver IC from SiRF Technology and Antenova's own high-efficiency single-feed GPS antenna technology. The module includes all necessary front-end components, such as the low-noise amplifier (LNA), surface-acoustic-wave (SAW) filters, and temperature-compensated crystal oscillator (TCXO) in a package measuring 43 x 9 x 4 mm. It operates on a single +3.6-VDC supply. | ||
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Agilent Adds Source-Corrected NF Measurements Agilent Technologies has announced the availability of source-corrected noise-figure (NF) measurement capability for its PNA-X vector network analyzer (VNA). By using the company's ECal electronic calibration module as an impedance tuner, the VNA can make vector-error- corrected noise-figure measurements based on the highly accurate cold-source technique. The ECal module helps the analyzer find the optimum source impedance for noise measurements on a device under test, such as a low-noise amplifier (LNA), at frequencies from 10 MHz to 26.5 GHz. It also enables measurements with a single connection, saving measuring time and wear on test connectors. The error-corrected approach features fast measurement time of 42 ms/point and surpasses the accuracy provided by Y-factor-based NF analyzers or spectrum analyzers used for NF measurements. The PNA-X can also be specified with an integrated second source, signal combining network, and internal pulse generators for a variety of measurements on amplifiers and frequency-translation devices. | ||
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More News VME Tuner Performs SIGINT Operations LXI Consortium Gathers For Munich PlugFest Rockwell Collins Aims GPS Receiver At Commercial Market MITEQ Releases Control Products Catalog | ||
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Happenings - Conferences | ||
First-Pass System Success Application Workshops (Sponsored by Ansoft) 70th ARFTG Microwave Measurement Symposium 2007 Asia-Pacific Microwave Conference 2008 IEEE Radio and Wireless Symposium (with WAMICON) 2008 IEEE International Solid-State Circuits Conference (ISSCC) |