L'essentiel Dimanche 18 Juin @ VIPress.netPowerwave Technologies to acquire the wireless infrastructure business of Filtronic
Powerwave Technologies and Filtronic announced that they have signed a definitive agreement for Powerwave to acquire the majority of Filtronic's Wireless Infrastructure division business for a combination of 20.7 million newly issued shares of Powerwave common stock and $150 million in cash. The specific product lines included in this transaction comprise transmit/receive filters, integrated remote radio heads and power amplifier products, all for use in commercial wireless infrastructure base station equipment. The proposed acquisition does not include point to point radio backhaul equipment, as well as Filtronic's other divisions, of compound semiconductors and defence electronics. Immediately following the close, Filtronic will have an equity interest in Powerwave of approximately 13%. Filtronic's wireless infrastructure business had a 12-month revenue for the period ending November 30, 2005 of approximately $332.1 million. Powerwave believes that combined revenues for calendar year 2007 will easily exceed $1.4 billion.
A key part of the strategy for Filtronic is to achieve further substantial growth in value for compound semiconductors. This division is seeing strong long term market growth as the mobile handset industry continues to adopt switches based on GaAs pHEMT technology, with the expectation that they will be used in around 80% of handsets produced by 2008, says Filtronic. So, the British company plans to expand the semiconductor facility to increase the size of this business by up to three times in the coming two years, at an estimated cost of £45m over the next twelve months.
Bosch invests 550 millions euros in 200 mm wafer fab
The Bosch Group is investing some 550 million euros in the construction of a new manufacturing facility for 200 mm semiconductors at its site in Reutlingen, near Stuttgart. Construction of the facility is to begin in the autumn of 2007. Rollout of production is planned for mid-2009. The plant will have a total capacity of up to 1,000 silicon wafers per day, equivalent to a daily production volume of up to one million microchips. Bosch has been manufacturing 150-mm semiconductors in Reutlingen for ten years now. In total, some 800 jobs will be created in the new 200-mm semiconductor manufacturing facility by 2012.
Semiconductor and micromachined chips from Reutlingen are used above all in the automobile industry. As components in electronic control units, they form the "central nervous system" of many functions in the vehicle, including electronic safety systems such as ABS, ESP, or airbags, fuel-efficient and clean engines with electronic engine management, or modern driver assistance systems.
The new 200-mm wafer fab in Reutlingen will mainly be geared to the "smart power process." In this technology, integrated circuits combine on one chip highly sensitive signal processing and high-voltage circuits for the control of high-performance actuators.
In the initial stages, these structures will be 0.35 micrometers wide. At a later stage, Bosch plans to halve structure width to 0.18 micrometers.
Europe Technologies becomes Scaleo chip
Created in 1996, Europe Technologies, a French company specialized in the design and sale of ARM based systems-on-chip (SoC) for dedicated customer applications, changes its name to become Scaleo chip. Scaleo chip's methodology in ARM based system-on-chip (SoC) technology allows to create a first functional chip for its clients in less than six months. Gilles Marsigné is appointed sales and marketing manager.
Soitec acquires TraciT Technologies
Soitec, French supplier of silicon-on-insulator (SOI) wafers, announces the conclusion of an agreement to acquire all the shares of TraciT Technologies, a company based in Grenoble, France. TraciT Technologies specializes in thin-film layer transfer technologies that leverage molecular adhesion and mechanical, as well as chemical, thinning processes for the production of micro-electro mechanical (MEMS) and power circuits. A spin-off from the CEA-Leti, TraciT Technologies was formed in 2003. Following an initial development phase, TraciT Technologies, with its confirmed potential growth, has to quickly move to production to satisfy the needs of its customers in Europe, North America and Asia.
Mosaid and Infineon settle patent litigations
Mosaid Technologies announced the settlement of its patent litigations with Infineon Technologies and that both Infineon and its memory products spin-off, Qimonda, have licensed the Mosaid patent portfolio. Mosaid has also purchased 50 patents from Infineon and Qimonda.
BridgeCo raises $23 M
BridgeCo, a provider of processor and middleware platforms that connect consumer electronics to computers and the Internet over home networks, raised $23M. The financing round was led by Advent Venture Partners and Wellington Partners, who were joined by all of BridgeCo’s Series C investors: Benchmark Capital, Cipio Partners (formerly Infineon Ventures), Earlybird Venture Capital, Fidelity Ventures and Intel Capital. The company also announced the opening of their new global headquarters in Los Angeles. The company’s CEO, COO, CFO and North American sales and marketing team will be based in LA, while the bulk of BridgeCo’s engineering and development team will continue to be located in Zurich, Switzerland.
Analog Devices awards Frederic Boutaud
Analog Devices has named Frederic Boutaud to the distinguished position of ADI Fellow. The Fellows honor is awarded when an engineer has contributed significantly to ADI's business and demonstrated important qualities such as innovation, leadership, entrepreneurial ability, and consulting skills. A 25-year veteran of integrated circuit design and architecture work, Mr. Boutaud joined ADI in 1996. He holds 46 patents in programmable architectures and wireless communications circuit design. Mr. Boutaud is a graduate of the Ecole Centrale de Lyon of Ecully Cedex, France and is also a senior member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE).
Mindspeed chooses Dubai Silicon Oasis for design center
Mindspeed Technologies is establishing an engineering design center in Dubai for the development of communications ICs and software. The Mindspeed facility will be located at the DSOA Microelectronics Innovation Center. In addition to its facilities in the United States, Mindspeed operates design centers in China, India and the Ukraine.
The DSOA is a legal entity in Dubai defined by the Dubai Government. DSOA is developing an 'industrial city,' a technology center for leading international high-technology companies. The technology center comprises a Duty Free Zone, spanning over 7.2 million square meters, and is designed to include manufacturing, design, and development centers for microelectronics, photovoltaics and optoelectronics.
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