In brief: Bookham, Riber, Sirenza, Filtronic
UK-based optical components and subsystems manufacturer Bookham Technology has sold JCA Technology to Endwave Corporation for $6 million in cash.
JCA, a supplier of RF amplifiers for defense applications, is based in San Jose, CA, and was acquired by Bookham through its purchase of New Focus in March 2004. The decision by Bookham to sell JCA underlines its strategy to focus on its core optical business, and follows the closure of its GaAs manufacturing lines.
Endwave, JCA s new owner, is a military and commercial RF subsystems provider based in Sunnyvale, CA.
Riber reports sales of only €3.3 millionFrench MBE equipment manufacturer Riber sold only two research machines in the first half of 2004, leading to sales of €3.3 million ($4.0 million), down €1.6 million on the previous half-year.
The value of its sales backlog has also fallen - one MBE49 production machine and ten research machines, worth a total of €8.3 million are currently on order - to €1.2 million less than for the same time last year.
Sirenza delights in record quarterly revenueUS-based RF component designer Sirenza Microdevices has announced revenue of $15.7 million for its second fiscal quarter of 2004 ended 30 June, up $1.9 million on the previous quarter, and $6.6 million higher than the equivalent quarter last year.
Commenting on the results, Robert Van Buskirk, Sirenza s CEO, said: "Our record quarterly revenue, coupled with our improvement in gross margin, enabled us to realize a net income of $1.3 million, double that of our first quarter this year."
Filtronic appoints Roulston as CEOUK-based Filtronic, a developer of microwave technology for the telecoms market, will appoint John Roulston, who has held positions on the board of BAE Systems, as its CEO on 6 September. Tegal gains nano-layer deposition techniques
Tegal Corporation, based in Petaluma, CA, and a provider of processing and equipment solutions for semiconductor devices, has been granted two patents which enable nano-layer deposition (NLD) of conformal thin films for barrier, copper seed and high-K (dielectric constant) applications.
The two patents describe the systems and methods used for nano-layer deposition that has a precision comparable to atomic layer deposition, but a manufacturing throughput comparable to CVD.
US patent 6,689,220 discusses a pulsed plasma deposition technique for films such as titanium nitride, copper and low-K materials; 6,756,318 describes a helical ribbon electrode as a plasma source for NLD.