Conexant and Alpha Get SEC Nod to MergeMay 14, 2002...The USA Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) which has the say in mergers
of that country's publicly held companies, has declared what's called an "Effective
Registration Statement" relating to the proposed merger of Alpha Industries,
Inc. (Nasdaq: AHAA) and Connexant Systems (Nasdaq: CNXT) Wireless Communications
Business. The declaration was effective as of May 10th. For those counting how
long it takes for such mergers to go through, the original merger was proposed
by the two companies on December 17, 2001. As a result of the SEC declaration,
Alpha stockholders of record at the close of business on April 22, 2002 are
entitled to receive notice of and to vote at the special meeting, in person
or by proxy. In addition, Alpha and Conexant announced that they are mailing
to their respective stockholders a proxy statement/prospectus-information statement
with respect to the merger and the immediately preceding spin-off of Conexant's
wireless communications business. Alpha and Conexant currently anticipate that
the merger will be completed in the current quarter ending June 30, 2002. One
more key step is required, however. In addition to approval by Alpha stockholders,
the merger is subject to receipt of a ruling by the IRS that "the spin-off
of Conexant's wireless communications business immediately prior to the merger
will be tax-free to Conexant stockholders and satisfaction of all other closing
conditions." Press
release. In addition to the merger nod, Conexant separately announced that
it has begun production shipments of their InGaP-based 4mm x 4mm CDMA power
amps for use in two new handsets manufactured by Samsung Electronics. One of
these new handsets is targeted at the advanced Korean CDMA market and will feature
a color display and CDMA2000 capabilities (which means the ability to download
high quality music and streaming A/V). The other model will operate on China
United Communications Corporation's (China Unicom) recently launched nationwide
CDMA cellular network, which is expected to support approximately 50 million
subscribers by 2005.
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China's CES Plans High Tech Beefup in BeijingMay 14, 2002...According to Xinhua News Agency, the Tongzhou District in Beijing is being
earmarked as China's version of the USA's "Silicon Valley" in California,
"Gallium Gardens" in New Jersey or Scotland's "Silicon Glen."
The undertaking is spearheaded by the Beijing Municipal People's Government
and China Electronic Science (Group) Company (CES), which will l jointly build
the Beijing Information Industry High-Tech Park. The effort is part of the Olympic
and Digital Beijing Project, geared to promote the burgeoning information
industry development in Beijing. CES is a core enterprise in China's information
industry, which is comprised of 50 electronic science research institutes. The
Xinhua report also notes that the city of Beijing is undertaking the venture
in cooperation with various central government ministries, scientific institutes,
research institutes and major Chinese universities including the Ministry of
Science and Technology, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Qinghua University
and Beijing University. It noted also that Beijing reported over RMB119.3 billion
(US$14.37 billion) of high-tech production in 2001, which represented 52% of
Beijing's total industrial production value for the same year. Xinhua
story Agility Establishes Next Gen Tunable Laser Facility in San JoseMay 14, 2002...On the other side of the Pacific Rim, Agility Communications, which is headquartered
in South/Central California USA, is expanding Northward into Silicon Valley.
Agility Communications, considered specialists
in compound semi based tunable lasers, has established a new R&D facility
in San Jose. As part of its expansion, Agility has acquired additional talent
with notable experience in RF and digital electronics, firmware and optical
system design in the form of Rang-Chen Yu, former director of optical engineering
with Cinta Networks, who will run the new Northern California facility. Dr.
Yu also served with Bandwidth9 and SDL, both considered major players in compound
semi-based solid state lasers, and personally holds five US patents for high-speed
laser and tunable laser inventions. The expansion by Agility appears especially
timely as so many high tech workers necessarily look for new employ due to massive
layoffs in the silicon industry. This new facility and team, in conjunction
with the existing Agility team is tasked with developing the next generation
of tunable subsystem solutions. According to Ron Nelson, Agility's President
and CEO, “Many of our customers are based in this region, and it’s important
to work closely with them on new product development. We’re thrilled to have
acquired such a strong technical team, led by Rang-Chen, who is well respected
in the industry. With our corporate headquarters in Santa Barbara; manufacturing
facilities in Pennsylvania; sales and support facilities in Manchester, England;
distribution partners in Japan; and now our San Jose facility, we further solidify
our position in the market." The new San Jose lab will be housed at
2033 Gateway Place. Agility, which is backed by investors which include Alliance,
Amerindo Investment Advisors, CIENA Corp., Comdisco Ventures, Dell Ventures,
General Bank, GM Investment Management Corp., Global Strategic, Granite Global
Ventures, Meritech Capital Partners, Mitsubishi International Corp., Morgenthaler
Ventures, Mustang Ventures, Nissho Electronics Corp., Nissho Iwai American Corp.,
Tellabs, U.S. Venture Partners, and Worldview Technology Partners, can be contacted
by email or via tel at 805-690-1700. Press
release Another Victory for GaN Blue LasersMay 14, 2002...Yet another group has achieved the milestone of producing electrically pumped
blue laser activity from GaN. This one was scored by the University of Bremen
in Europe. The team at the heart of the effort was that of Professor Detlef
Hommel at Bremen's Institut fuer Festkoerperphysik (Institute for Solid State
Physics) and the achievement, according to an equipment supplier to the effort,
Thomas Swan Scientific Equipment Ltd. (TSSEL) which provided the MOCVD platform,
the achievement is one of the first university research groups to successfully
lase their GaN. Professor Hommel was quoted as saying, "we are very proud
to have succeeded in accomplishing an electrically pumped GaN based laser. This
represents a major milestone in European research into blue emitting Laser diodes
taking strong international competition into account." The University
of Bremen has a strong history of working the blue spectrum challenges in a
variety of compound semi materials types. They began their blue spectrum work
initially with ZnSe and in the summer of 2001 they succeeded in obtaining the
first CdSe quantum dot green laser. Their recent success in producing a GaN
blue laser was done in collaboration with Professor Marc Illegem's group of
the 'Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL)', in Switzerland. Press
release Blue Sky Helps Get the Blue Laser Light OutMay 14, 2002...Producing blue light from blue spectrum LEDs and lasers is evidently only part
of the challenge. What the technical community refers to as "getting the
light out" is a significant part of feat. Blue Sky Research (BSR), which
is based in Milpitas, California USA, is helping blue spectrum players optimize
their components by adapting their patented "µLens" technology to
improving the performance and reducing the complexity of blue laser systems.
BSR explains that, to date, it has been difficult to capture all the light power
of blue lasers using standard optics because the elliptical blue laser beam
must be circularized and focused into collimated beams or spots, as well as
for efficient fiber optic coupling. The company today announced that, through
special arrangements with its customers, that they will integrate its µLens
with blue laser diodes in the following manner: Mounted directly in front of
the diode's emitting edge, the µLens captures nearly 100% of the diode's power,
circularizing the beam and correcting any aberrations, all in a single step.
Blue Sky Research will be demonstrating their µLens-coupled blue lasers at Booth
562 at the 22nd annual Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics (CLEO 2002),
slated to be held next week, May 19-24, at the Long Beach Convention Center
in Long Beach, California. Press
release LG Electronics Selects Anadigics as InGaP HBT SupplierMay 14, 2002...Anadigics of Warren, New Jersey USA has gotten the nod from LG Electronics
of Korea to supply LG with high volumes of InGaP HBT power amplifiers for use
in their forthcoming 2.5G CDMA handsets. The new LG sets combine high call quality
with two-way real time multimedia service, and support high-speed data communication.
According to Jong Eun (James) Kim, President and CEO of LG Electronics who underscored,
"LG was among the first to implement the CDMA2000 1X services and to commercialize
the world's first digital handsets. We continue to grow our share of the CDMA
market through the introduction of innovative and convenient digital handsets
that offer extended talk time, expanded memory and wider LCD screens." Anadigics' InGaP
HBT CDMA power amp modules are housed in a 6mm x 6mm x 1.6mm package and are
designed to support PCS CDMA, CDMA-1X, and cellular applications. Press
release Maskless Smarts Bolster PhotolithographyMay 14, 2002...A St. Petersberg, Florida company called Intelligent Micro Patterning LLC has announced the sale
of its flagship product, the SF-100, to the University of Manchester Institute
of Science and Technology (UMIST). In so doing, Micro Patterning underscores
the adoption of a unique maskless photolithography system that utilizes what
they call Smart Filter technology, which they license from the University
of South Florida in the USA. According to Micro Patterning, Smart Filter
technology incorporates advanced micro-optical techniques to project master
images directly onto substrate materials, without the use of photomasks. Smart
Filter technology has been used for fabricating devices in areas such as
advanced packaging, optoelectronics, fiber optic communications and DWDM systems,
multichip modules, and other MEMS areas. According to Dr. Nick Goddard, of UMIST’s
Department of Instrumentation and Analytical Science (DIAS), “The maskless
photolithography techniques available with Smart Filter technology will allow
us to reduce our development costs and reduce our development time. It is an
ideal system for our Lab on a Chip and optical waveguide research programs."
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