Wednesday, December 22, 2010

The end of the year in pictures

With my camera-enabled Blackberry (or any phone), its much easier to record life's little snipets for posterity. Eventually though, its time to get those images off the phone's memory, to start a new collection of moments for sharing. And so this week I find myself cleaning out my camera's memory at years end.

I'm not one to take pictures frequently (with a camera or phone), but I did travel quite a bit for work towards the end of 2010 and that is when I am most likely to "snap a few shots". And so here's a quick photo essay of the end of 2010, from the perspective of a roving Microwave Journal editor. Got some industry related shots of your own? Send them to me at dvye@mwjournal.com and we'll consider posting them in a master photo album for the holidays. Enjoy !

Back in November, I travelled with our Northeast Regional Sales Manager, Mike Hallman to the Garden State, where we met a number of hard working RF/mW vendors. New Jersey has a great community of Microwave shops including Voltronics, Synergy, Wireless Telecom Group, MECA, Anatech, Pulsar, GT Microwave, Astrolab, and Anadigics just to name a few. I used to travel there frequently back in my Ansoft days (former Compact Software facility) and have a fondness for the state.















George Apsley, Chief Engineer Product Development and Amy Kulp, Marketing Director, GT Microwave with Mike Hallman, Regional Sales Manager, Microwave Journal.

It was at GT Microwave that I took these pictures. Its not every company whose founder is married to a stained glass artist. If that was the case, perhaps more lobbies would be adorned like GT Microwave. An RF power combiner in stained glass is certainly a thing of beauty. The detail in the coax connectors is amazing, right down to the flange screws. If you're in Randolph New Jersey, pay GT Microwave a visit.





APMC/MWE 2010

Here's MWJ publisher Carl Sheffres and Horizon House Event Manager Michel Zoghob together at our booth at APMC/MWE 2010 in Yokohama, Japan. They've been working so closely for years that they are starting to look related. Dont you agree? This was in early December. Great time for a long flight, a glimpse of the Japanese microwave market and some Sushi.





I loved this display. A famous radio tower in Japan constructed from semi-rigid coax cables and a variety of connectors (BNC, SMA, N-type, etc.). I was informed that last year they used similar components to reconstruct a famous Tokyo bridge. Perhaps next year they will go for a Godzilla design. Either way, very creative use of coax and connectors and a good way to get a show attendee to stop by the booth and hear some more about the company. OK MTT exhibitors, here's an opportunity to raise the bar on creativity.






I call this the Microwave Menora but actually it is a very interesting, millimeter-wave waveguide combiner for 60 GHz. Again this is from APMC/MWE. Japan has long been interested in 60 GHz applications, often tied to collision avoidance radar for automobiles. This is a fine example of the precise engineering and machining on display at APMC.


EuMW 2010

Final image for the year goes back to the roving editor in Paris at European Microwave Week this past September. Here I am after the first day at the show in the Latin Quarter, worried that I have arrived too late for the early bird, frog leg special. Our first European Defense/Security Executive Forum went off smoothly. The success of this event and the superb food (no frog legs but plenty of Fois Gras) made for a memorable trip.

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

GaAs Market Recovers Strongly in Recent Report

According to a report from Strategy Analytics last weeek, the market value for GaAs revenues, driven by smartphones and consumer adoption of data-intensive applications, has grown strongly from the lows it struggled for in early 2009. The recently published Strategy Analytics GaAs and Compound Semiconductors (GaAs) report, “GaAs Device Vendor Market Share 2009: North America,” reports that this growth brought the total market value for GaAs revenues to little more than $4 billion, a slight increase over 2008 revenue levels.

Skyworks Solutions nudged past RFMD to take the top revenue spot for North American vendors. However, less than one percent market share separates both companies. TriQuint and Avago Technologies both recorded strong revenue growth, substantially gaining on industry leaders. “Even though revenue from the GaAs market in 2009 was only slightly higher than 2008, the story that emerges is the strong industry recovery during the last three-quarters of the year,” noted Eric Higham, Director of the Strategy Analytics GaAs and Compound Semiconductor Service. “This growth is driven by consumer demand for new data-intensive applications, smartphones and the infrastructure that supports these capabilities. We expect these drivers to continue fueling growth through 2010.”

The report provides strategic comments, representative products and selected news items for a comprehensive set of North American GaAs vendors. It also identifies the top ten global vendors in terms of GaAs device market share. Strategy Analytics estimates that six of the top ten GaAs vendors—including all four top contenders--are located in North America.

RFMD and Skyworks are always a close 1 and 2 with TriQuint right behind them but I have seen Avago making big push to break into the top 3.