News in brief: Spire, Sirenza and UMS
Spire faces possible Nasdaq expulsion
Photovoltaic equipment and systems manufacturer Spire Corporation of Bedford, MA, could be de-listed from the Nasdaq National Market. Nasdaq is insisting that the company files two amended Form 10-QSBs for the financial quarters ending June 30 and September 30 this year to the SEC by today and next Friday, respectively.
If Spire does not produce the forms, it faces being removed from Nasdaq and its stock would likely be traded on the over-the-counter bulletin board.
Spire may apply for an extension to the deadlines set by Nasdaq, but there is no guarantee of an extension being granted.
Sirenza granted patent and ISO 9001:2000 certificate
RF component manufacturer Sirenza Microdevices of Broomfield, CO, has been awarded a US patent describing an approach to improve the distortion of a common-base pre-amplifier for wireless and fiber-optic applications.
Patent 6 639 473, entitled “Method and/or apparatus for controlling a common-base amplifier”, is the company’s sixth US patent in the broadband amplifier IC field.
“This invention provides a way to improve the linearity and gain response of a common-base pre-amplifier used to generate low distortion, complementary signals from a large optically-induced input signal,” said Kevin Kobayashi, Sirenza’s director of advanced design.
“This invention could provide improved signal integrity for balanced-detection, advanced optical receiver architectures currently under investigation for future fiber network systems.”
United Monolithic Semiconductors teams up with TNO-FEL
GaAs foundry services and MMIC specialist United Monolithic Semiconductors (UMS), which has company headquarters in Paris, France and Ulm, Germany, has set up a strategic alliance with the Netherlands-based TNO Physics and Electronics Laboratory (TNO-FEL).
The alliance is to focus on improving the performance and functionality of MMICs.
“With this co-operation we are able to act as a one-stop supplier of MMICs, without the customer having to manage multiple companies to get its device,” said a TNO-FEL spokesman.
