Where are they now?

Updated December 22, 2009

Parts obsolescence is a real issue in high-reliability electronics like aerospace and defense systems. Uncle Sam spends $10B per year managing and mitigating electronics obsolescence issues according to an April 2008 article in the IEEE Spectrum.

It's a tough job, but someone has to keep track of where all the dead nameplates of microwaves go. And that's us! Why is this little bit of history important? Picture this: you need to find replacement parts for receiver that used custom Q-bit amplifiers that you paid big bucks for back in 1990-whatever. Q-bit doesn't exist. What would you rather do, reinvent the wheel, or track down the company that inherited all of their drawings?

Speaking of "where are they now", bad actor Chuck Norris and his toupee were recently both campaigning with a man who doesn't believe in dinosaurs, perhaps hoping to become U.S. Secretary of Third World Beatdowns!

We present an alphabetized list of dead microwave nameplates below. Audience participation is important to building the database, most of the content was contributed one or two companies at a time by alert readers. Any new info or corrections that anyone has, please send it in and we'll add it to the list. Our policy is NOT to put contact info for these companies, unless they throw us some cash! We take zero responsibility for the accuracy of the info on this page (or any of the opinions for that matter), it is for your amusement only, don't reference it when you are on Who Wants to be a Millionaire!

Here is a site that shows the background of the various top tier defense contractors. We are more interested in components here at Microwaves101, so we won't be getting into which companies make up LockMart, Boeing, GD, etc.

Questions?

Here's some questions that readers have asked... if you know, clue us in!

Someone is looking for info on Electronic Surveillance Company (ESC), in regards to a Gunn Oscillator (14.4 GHz) and would like to find an equivalent one at 18.0 GHz. Any help is (as usual) most appreciated!

Remember Tachonics, of Plainville New Jersey, makers of MESFET MMICs? Seems like they just vanished into thin air.

Does anyone know what happened to Alford Manufacturing? It was started by Andrew Alford, who designed the FM antenna on top of the Empire State Building during his long career.

Now on to our growing list!

Adams-Russell was folded into M/A-COM a long time ago.

Founded in 2004, Auriga Measurement Systems (Lowell MA) united Agilent Technologies' high-profile east coast Component Test Systems group and ACCO USA's modeling and characterization teams.

AEL (American Electronic Laboratories, Inc.) of Colmar, Pennsylvania, maker of antennas, microwave components, solid state devices and microwave instruments is now part of BAE Systems- Electronics & Integrated Solutions in Landsdale, Pennsylvania. Thanks again to Steve! AEL was part of BAE but was bought by Cobham in 2008, according to Ralph.

AEP is now a Radiall Company. Ben Travelli made arrangements to sell AEP to Radiall, just before he passed away in 2005. Thanks, Greg!

AIL (Airborne Instruments Laboratories) had merged with EDO and has since sold to ITT. AIL used to be in Deer Park, NY and has relocated a few miles away to Amityville, NY. Yep, the same town as the Amityville Horror house. Thanks, Marian!

Alpha Industries is part of Skyworks. Alpha Industries sold off its commercial millimeter products group which became Advanced Frequency Products (AFP). Advanced Frequency Products was bought by ST Olektron. ST sold off the AFP group to Endwave.

What was once American Electronic Laboratories (AEL Industries) is now part of BAE we have heard.

Americon Microwave Industries, a manufacturer of microwave connectors and components, merged with Omni-Spectra in the 70's and the founder and CEO of Americon, Bevin V. Cherot became the CEO of Omni Spectra until purchased by M/A-Com. Thanks to Brian!

Amplica of Newbury Park, CA was originally bought by Comsat, then by Triax, and finally by Charter Technologies before it was dismembered and scattered to the winds. Some of the original significant technical talent and founders are now involved with CAP Wireless, Inc. also in Newbury Park, CA. Thanks for the update, Scott! According to the US Government CAGE lookup table, at some point, Amplica was doing business as Amplifier Acquisition Corp. (or vice-versa), but that's a story for another day!

Amplifonix (Philadelphia, PA) is part of Spectrum Microwave.

Anzac became part of M/A-COM, which was bought by AMP, which is now part of Tyco.

This is very old: ARCO was Applied Radiation Corporation (Walnut Creek, CA), a manufacturer of microwave linear accelerators and high power microwave waveguide elements (pulse modulators, waveguide couplers, adapters, windows, tuners, etc.) became the ARCO Division of High Voltage Engineering (c. 1965), and was later sold (c. 1970) to Siemens Medical Systems (Concord, CA). Thanks Dennis!

Arcom was bought by Dover and then closed. LNX Corporation bought the assets from Dover and they are now making products that Alpha (Skyworks) and others no longer make. Thanks, Philip!

Atlantic Microwave is part of Cobham DES.

Avantek was purchased by H-P Semiconductor, which became part of Agilent. As of December 2005, the Avantek division of HP that spun off to Agilent Technologies was sold and morphed into Avago. Got that?

Some of the Avantek road kill was picked up by the microwave design scavengers at Avnet... Teledyne (via Teledyne Cougar) bought the assets of Avnet-MTS (MTS meaning "microwave technical solutions") late in October 2005. Believe it or not, you may actually be able to buy that Avantek amp from Cougar. If Cougar doesn't sell it or a replacement part, they actually stock a fair amount of the old Avantek die, according to insiders.

This info from JS, on Avantek spinoffs:

"Once Avantek started to vanish, there were a couple spinoffs. DBS Microwave and Milliwave Technologies.

DBS sold itself to Narda Microwave, the founders got rich, the employees got "thank you". Narda then consolidated DBS into their Narda West operation in Folsom. In doing so a lot of DBS employees were released.

Other spinoffs from DBS and Milliwave are ALC Microwave, Aldetec and Phase One Microwave. ALC is in El Dorado Hills and seem to be doing well. Aldetec is in Sacramento and they also are doing well. Phase One is in Rocklin and they are surviving but their management is too young and inexperienced.

Another Avantek spinoff is Genesis Microwave in El Dorado Hills.

This info came from Fritz:

A chunk of Avantek that survived the HP acquisition which was then sold to Powerwave Technologies just recently had it's doors closed. ~20 or so old Avantek workers now find themselves without a job.

A previous layoff off of Powerwave engineers (ex-Avantek also) formed a consulting firm called Telemakus LLC.

Milliwave sold itself to TRW Space and Electronics Group, and stayed in Diamond Springs. TRW subsequently sold them to Endgate Corporation, then the combined operation then became Endwave. Manufacturing remained in Diamond Springs, but all engineering, sales and marketing went to Sunnyvale. The founders of Milliwave are now founders of Norden Millimeter located in Placerville, CA.

And another update from Fritz, May 2009:

The saga continues for the old Avantekers. ALC Microwave was recently purchased by Endwave. Then Endwave merged their Diamond Springs facility and the ALC Microwave group from El Dorado Hills into a new facility back in Folsom near the old Avantek building. Last week, it was announced this division (Def & Security) of Endwave is now sold to Microsemi. The result is Endwave is now back to just being the old Endgate company.

In June 2007, AVX announced its intention to acquire American Technical Ceramics.

Balo: who knows where Ed Raposa is, but the "Raptek" housing company of beautiful Butler New Jersey is long gone!

This came from Ed:

BOMAC Laboratories originally in Beverly, MA, which I believe was bought by Varian Associates around 1961-62. Bomac was one of three sources of microwave diodes (1N21, 1N23, 1N58 etc) as well as some magnetrons. The other two microwave diode firms were Sylvania in Woburn, MA, and Western Electric (in NY?)

Celeritek Semicondutor was bought by Mimix Broadband in 2005, Mimix kept the product line, and later sold the Celeritek GaAs fab to Universal Semiconductor Technology, Inc. (USTI).

Celeritek Defense Group was sold to Teledyne Microwave and relocated from Santa Clara to Mountain View. Thanks to Mark!

Compact Software is part of Ansoft.

Connecting Devices Inc. (CDI) was bought by Tensolite.

Conexant is part of Skyworks. Conexant (previously Rockwell International) spun off the GaAs (Newbury Park) portion of the fab to Skyworks (previously Alpha Industries) and the other fabs became Jazz Semiconductor. Jazz merged with Tower in September 2008 and is now called TowerJazz. Tower was a National Semiconductor spinoff. TowerJazz is headquartered in Israel and publically traded on NASDAQ and the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange.

Continental Microwave and Tool was acquired by Chelton, which is now part of Cobham DES.

Corning Frequency Control is part of Vectron International as of 9/1/04

Cougar Components was bought by Teledyne in June 2005.

CTI is now part of Herley.

This info on the whereabouts of Dexcel and other companies is courtesy of George, with some edits by other contributors.

"Dexcel (an early GaAs MESFET company) was bought by Gould in 1985. Dexcel/ Gould was later bought by Litton Solid State, who bought out Harris Microwave in Milipitas and Varian Semiconductors in Santa Clara. Later, Litton Solid State became Filtronic Solid State in the 1990’s. In 2004, Teledyne Microwave bought the military operations of both Filtronic Solid State and Celeritek. Filtronic S.S. kept the semiconductor / fab technology while Mimix Broadband bought Celeritek’s semiconductor operations (which have since been sold!) Teledyne Microwave can help with legacy products of Dexcel/ Gould as well as Filtronic Solid State and Celeritek.

By the way, not only is the old Hyletronics part of Teledyne, and Ferretec is as well. Teledyne also bought KW Microwave (April 2006) and Cougar Corp of Sunnyvale in June 2005."

What happened to Demornay-Bonardi? The answer comes from Ken: The rights to the Demornay-Bonardi product line were bought by Systron-Donner. In 1991 when I needed D-B parts, Systron-Donner was the vendor. I do not know for sure if there was/were (an) intermediary owner(s) between the original dB and Systron-Donner. When Systron-Donner had the line, all the standard gain horn model numbers were the old dB numbers.

Systron Donner sold the rights to dB to STC Microwave Systems, which is a division of Crane Aerospace and Electronics. I don't know if STC Microwave was part of Crane when the dB acquisition occurred. STC Microwave in turn sold the rights to the Demornay-Bonardi product line to Penn Engineering, which substituted all new model numbers for the horns, but they are the same old dB parts. Thanks Ken!

Digital Microwave is now Stratex (thanks to JC!)

Eagleware: as of August 2005, this employee-owned company is now part of Agilent, which claims it won't meddle with the Eagleware-Elanix software products. Yeah, sure they won't, ask the EEsof employees that once worked for Hewlett Packard...

EEsof: bought by Hewlett Packard, became part of Agilent. Octavius Pitzallis, one of the EEsof team and a hell of a nice guy, was killed years ago driving his sports car.

EEV: "English Electric Valve" was part of Marconi for a while, and is now an independent company called E2V, since 2002. Thanks, Brian!

Electro-Films was acquired by Vishay in 2000.

EIP Microwave used to make the frequency counters that you'd need because "sweepers" drifted all over the place (before "synthesizers" were available). Since 1999 they have been folded in to Phase Matrix.

This entry came in from Patrick... Thanks!

EMI Varian (1969 Microwave Tube joint venture between EMI and Varian) became Thorn EMI Varian in 1979 when Thorn merged with EMI. The JV with Varian was allowed to lapse in 1989 and the remaining UK company became Thorn Microwave Devices Ltd a subsidiary of Thorn EMI Electronics. As part of Sir Colin Southgate's grand plan to incease shareholder value by making the company smaller, the Defence Electronics businesses were disposing of and eventually the Microwave Tube business (which by then was also making complete amplifiers and high voltage power supplies) was bought by its management becoming TMD Technologies Ltd in 1995. Unsuprisingly freed from corporate interference the company has grown and prospered since then and is still manufacturing magnetrons, klystrons travelling wave tubes and high voltage power supplies.

Endwave sold off their defense and seucrity business to Microsemi in April 2009.

Engelmann Microwave is now part of KDI/Aeroflex. Thanks, JJ!

Enon Microwave Inc. of Topsfield MA has been folded into Micronetics since 2002.

Part of FEI Microwave was bought by STC Microwave Systems, a part of Crane Corporation. This was the old TWR Microwave and much of the microwave/hybrid group was moved to FEI (Frequency Electronics Inc.) in Mitchell Field, NY.

Ferretec was originally sold to Litton Solid State, then Litton Solid State was sold to Teledyne Microwave and relocated from Santa Clara to Mountain View. Thanks to Mark!

Film Microelectronics Inc. (FMI) is now SatCon Electronics.

Filtronic Compound Semiconductors is now part of RFMD.

Frequency Sources (FSI) became part of Loral. Their Chelmsford facility is a Superfund site!

This FSI info came from Paul (thanks!)

When owned by Loral, the source division of Frequency Sources was called: “Loral Microwave-FSI,” and after Lockheed-Martin bought Loral, it merged with Lockheed-Sanders, or tried to at least. When Lockheed-Martin sold off Sanders, they kept the FSI operation and merged it with Missiles and Fire Control Division whom they support to this day.

The diode operation (GHz Devices) is now part of Microsemi in Lowell, MA.

For a time in the 70’s, the Chelmsford Water Commissioner was also the QA manager at FSI.

FSY Microwave (Columbia, MD) is part of Spectrum Microwave.

Fujitsu Compound Semiconductor is now part of Eudyna.

General Microwave (Long Island) has been part of Herley since 1999.

General Microcircuits Corporation (GMC) is also part of Herley, but the Billerica Massachusetts facility was sold to Solid State Testing (SST).

Gilbert, the original inventors of those tiny push-on connectors known as GPO, is part of Corning.

Grayzel was bought by Adams-Russell (M/A-COM).

Harris Microwave Semiconductor (a GaAs fab) was bought by Samsung around 1993, for a paltry $5M. Samsung kept it until about 1998 when they sold it to Watkins Johnson and it folded into their semiconductor business unit. Thanks to JC! Harris sold its silicon fab to Intersil, in 1999. Thanks to Tony for pointing this out!

Hazeltine is now BAE Systems in Greenlawn, NY (thanks Marian!)

Hewlett Packard: the "good part" spun off as Agilent to make test equipment and lose money, while the HP name survives as a purveyor of crappy computers and printers.

Hughes Aircraft is now partly owned by Raytheon, partly by Boeing, partly by General Motors, with some other pieces scattered to smaller companies like Millitech. This story came from "Twickey Wabbit" who has entered the witness protection plan. Way back around 1997, when Raytheon took over the Hughes missile factory in Tucson after years of rivalry, the president of the company came for a visit, stepping out of his bulletproof bunker in Lexington for final victory lap. One thing he was adamant about was that the name "Hughes" be painted over everywhere as quickly as possible, starting with the water tower, so the welcoming committee had to step lively. But outside the missile factory sits the Hughes Federal Credit Union, which had nothing to do with the merger. The president of Raytheon was rumored to have blown a gasket when he found out that he couldn't get them to change their name to "Raytheon Federal Credit Union" or some such. Not long after, the company petitioned the city of Tucson to change the name of the road that the missile factory is on, from "Hughes Access Road" to "anything but that hated name". Didn't happen. The Hughes Federal Credit Union still bears Howard's name proudly. And the IEEE gives out a medal bearing the name of the megalomaniac that wanted to stamp out the good name of Hughes. Where the heck is the Howard Hughes medal for engineers? Didn't Hughes' employees invent the laser? What did Dennis invent?

This good news came in from Steve B: Hughes Aircraft in Carlsbad, CA , purveyor of Automated Wire Bonding and Die Attach systems became Palomar Technologies in 1995 and moved to Vista, CA “down the road a few miles”. The three legged stool (Y2K, Opto, Internet) led the company on a wild VC-induced goose-chase during the bubble of 99-01, but the company is back in Carlsbad again, and in 2006 Bruce Hueners became President and the company is powering on its own steam. The vast majority of hybrid and millimeter-wave folks have worked with this company in the past, even if they don't know it!

The only pieces left of Howard Robard Hughes' empire that bear his name are HRL Laboratories, the Hughes Medical Foundation, and the Hughes Federal Credit Union. HRH's 100 birthday was December 24, 2005.

Hyletronics Corp was first merged into Filtronic Solid State. They are now part of Teledyne Microwave. In their own words, "The acquisition of Hyletronics, through Filtronics Solid State, introduced a family of microwave switches into our product line. Teledyne Microwave uses these switches as key building blocks in many multifunction assemblies. "

Inmet is part of Aeroflex.

Innowave was bought by STC Microwave Systems, a part of Crane Corporation since 2003.

IntraDyne Systems spun out of Melabs in 1968, that died in 1970. Thanks to Ed!

iTerra is now Gigoptix.

The ITT GaAsTek foundry in Roanoke VA was bought by M/A-COM, a part of Tyco. Oops, make that Cobham! This foundry is scheduled to close in 2010.

Jazz Semiconductor merged with Tower in September 2008 and is now called TowerJazz. Tower was a National Semiconductor spinoff. TowerJazz is headquartered in Israel and publically traded on NASDAQ and the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange.

JCA Technology (Jim Chao Associates) was originally sold to New Focus which eventually was acquired by Bookham. It was most recently sold to Endwave. Thanks for the corrections, Dave K! Wait, what's this? Ciao Wireless, a new company in Camarillo CA? Chao, Ciao? Yes, we get it now! Good luck, guys!

Johnson Components, formerly E.F. Johnson Components, a manufacturer of microwave connectors and cable assemblies based in Waseca, MN was purchased by Emerson Connectivity Solutions, a division of Emerson Electric, in 2000. Thanks, Brian!

KDI/Triangle is now part of Aeroflex.

K&L Microwave is now owned by Dover Corporation. Speaking of Dover, some microwave-oriented companies that they now own include Dielectric Laboratories, Dow Key Microwave, Novacap, and Vectron International.

kW Microwave was bought by Teledyne in April 2006.

Litton Airtron is part of Cobham DES.

Litton Solid State is part of Filtronic. Litton Industries was eaten be Northrop Grumman. They spit out the pieces they didn't like and digested the rest into um... Northrop Grumman. Thanks, JJ! The first operating division of Litton Industries was its Tube Division. This was one of the pieces of Litton that Northrop Grumman found indigestible. They sold the entire Division to L-3 Communications (in 2003), and it is now known as the Electron Devices Division. But NG retained the rights to the Litton brand themselves. Thanks Neil!

LNR Communications is now part of L3-Narda in Hauppauge, NY. Thanks, Marian!

Logimetrics (a supplier of traveling wave tube amplifiers for lab work, of yore) was absorbed into IFI (Instruments For Industry). This thanks to Steve K. from WSMR! Steve spoke with a guy at IFI that confirmed several of the Logimetrics guys are there including him. He says they can evaluate and/or repair the Logimetrics amps. They also have direct replacements. This thanks to one of our best microwave detectives, Steve!

M/A-COM was sold by Tyco Electronics to Cobham in 2008. Good luck guys!

The M/A-COM microwave window group was bought by CPII, Beverly Microwave group (Beverly, Mass). Thanks Dennis!

Information on Magnum Microwave, which is now part of Spectrum Microwave, from an insider:

"They were a spin-off of some guys from WJ and did mixers and converters etc. They were also bought by Remec and then merged into the C&S Hybrid that Remec also bought up and was the San Jose business unit. C&S Hybrid more or less disappeared as business dried up. Magnum product line was sold as part of the Wireless Access sales with QBit. One note the product drawings etc. that you mention regarding QBit. It was my understanding that most of the documentation, glass plates for masks etc. all got dumped. I know the two guys who helped with the accounting and move of the material from Magnum-C&S Hybrid after the sale. Almost nothing of the technology remained as it was being divested. All the old Magnum guys split up and blew to the winds." There was more but our legal council advised us not to print it!

MDC (Microwave Development Corp) was bought by Chelton in 2005 as was Continental Microwave and Tool, and their two product lines will be merged somewhere in New Hampshire.

MDI is now part of Herley.

MDT (a GaAs house) was acquired by MicroSemi. GunnBloke wishes "good luck to them and even more to their customers."

Melabs: this info came from ex-employee Norm. One of the original isolator companies from the 50's, Melabs was sold in 1969 to Smith Corona Marchant, SCM, the typewriter company. They sold the isolator division to M/A-COM several years later.

This further Melabs info came from Ed:

MELABS that was in Palo Alto between Varian Associates and HP. IntraDyne Systems, the guys spun out of Melabs in 1968, that died in 1970.

MicroMetrics (a silicon house) was acquired by Aeroflex. Thanks to GunnBloke!

Microwave Associates was original name of M/A-COM, the microwave supplier known for the best parties at symposiums. This info on the founding fathers came from Brian and Chuck (thanks guys!) The company was started in August 1950 by four engineers, Vessarios Chiga, Louis Roberts, Hugh Wainwright, and Richard M. Walker. Their work grew out of development work that some of them carried out at MIT Radiation Laboratory during the Second World War. Richard M. Walker was a Kansas native who graduated in 1943 from the University of Kansas. The GaAs semiconductor building in Lowell Massachusetts is named "The Walker Building" after Richard Walker.

Microwave Design & Manufacturing Inc. of Calabasas California has been part of Rantec Microwave since 2000. Microwave Specialty Corporation was merged into Rantec Microwave Systems in 2002.

Microwave Semiconductor Corporation (MSC) made state-of-the-art discrete GaAs FETs in New Jersey in the 70's and 80's. Founded by Ron Rosenzweig, MSC was eventually bought out by Siemens. MSC had a large facility in Billerica Massachusetts on Executive Park Drive that they acquired from Crown Microwave, which was sold to SDI after Siemens took over all of MSC. See Scientific Devices Incorporated below.

The MSC guys mostly stayed on through Siemens and SDI. It sounds like they all jumped ship after the M/A COM acquisition. Some of them went to Frequency Sources. The MSC/SDI facilities in Billerica made diodes, microwave switches and limiters. As far as I know there aren’t any remains of MSC/SDI Billerica. I don’t know of any ties to Cobham. Thanks to Tom!

MIC Technologies was part of Aeroflex, now whatever is left of it is part of Vishay.

Midwest Microwave in Saline, MI was purchased by Bevin V. Cherot in the early 90's designed and developed the full range of microwave connectors and microwave components to match Americon/Omni-Spectra/M/A-com designs along with custom designs primarily for military applications. Emerson Connectivity Solutions, a division of Emerson Electric, purchased Midwest Microwave in 2004. Operations were relocated to Waseca, MN in 2008. Also thanks to Brian!

Motorola: Motorola Semiconductors was sold off in two separate parts. The first portion to go was the group that did the small discrete transistors, diodes and standard logic gate ICs. This was spun off as On Semiconductors in 1999. The remaining portion of Motorola Semiconductors was spun off as Freescale Semiconductors in 2004. Freescale built the higher markup silicon; the DSPs, CPUs and the RF Power Transistors (they basically own the LDMOS world). Thanks Doug! Freescale was recently bought by an investment group led by Blackstone. Freescale announced in May 2008 that the RF semiconductor fab in Tempe will soon be closed.

Motorola Oscillators (TCXO) and Filters went to CTS Wireless in about 1999 (thanks, Cam!)

Remember Microwave Power Devices (MPD) on Long Island, N.Y? Bought by Ericsson for $110 million in 2000. Ericsson sold off the military part to Comtech, got rid of most of most of the talent, then sold the remains to Powerwave for $10 million three years later. Thanks for the info from an ex-MPD guy! Update from another Powerwave alumnus: Powerwave sold off all the big machinery and closed the NY office in June, 2004, which killed off any vestige of MPD/Ericsson.

MRC, Materials Research Corporation, merged a long time ago with MIC technologies in Texas, which then got bought by Aeroflex. In 2004, Aeroflex exited the thin film business, selling the Pearl River plant that was originally MRC to Vishay, a global conglomerate. At one time the Pearl River plant was the biggest supplier of polished 99% alumina substrates in the world.

Murata Erie has shortened their name to Murata. The Murata Manufacturing Company had purchased a company in Trenton Ontario named Erie and part of the purchase agreement was that they kept the Erie name. But Murata Erie in Trenton has been closed for years, and now their name is gone too.

Narda was bought by L3Com, but the name has been preserved.

The microwave portion of Nurad was sold off to NSI. This tip thanks to Sonny!

Omega Microwave was bought by STC Microwave Systems, a part of Crane Corporation since 2003.

Olektron was sold to Signal Technology Corp, which became STC Microwave Systems when it was bought by Crane Co. Thanks to Ralph!

Omni Spectra, once one of the world's best microwave connector companies, was gradually phased out of the M/A-COM product line when AMP bought them. Now when you ask a M/A-COM (or Tyco) rep for a connector catalog, you get a book about multi-pin headers and other stuff, that heads straight for the recycle bin. However, the original team from Omni Spectra (including Vince McHenry, James Cheal and Jim Kubota) left M/A-COM and started anew .... incorporating 1981 as Southwest Microwave (Tempe, AZ) and are still working on high-end microwave and millimeter wave connectors (thanks, David!)

P&H Laboratories, the Simi Valley circulator and ferrite company named after Phyllis and Harold Saltzman (thanks for the correct spelling, KS!) is long gone but you can still view their catalog on the Renaissance web site. Renaissance Electronics purchased the assets of P & H Laboratories and MCCI Wireless in June 2003. They still manufacture most old P & H hardware to the P & H part number/drawings.

Pacific Monolithics was a "buzz" company of the 1990s, founded by some ex-Hughes guys. They sold out when the selling was good, to Richardson, in 1998. Richardson still carries the PacMono torch, selling 10 year-old MESFET products for which they contract out the wafer fab, in case you need a one-watt cell-phone amplifier that needs 20 external lumped-element components...

Pamtech is still around, but they don't have a web site, in case you were looking for them. Quite a few people have pointed this out to us, thanks everybody. Pamtech is located in Camarillo, California. The "boss" at Pamtech, George F. Grund III {grandfather of George F. Grund V}, had this to say: "I started PAMTECH in March 1976. It was a spin off of E&M Labs of Westlake, Ca. after TRAK of Tampa, Fla. bought them. PAMTECH is still alive and well in Camarillo, Ca. We still do isolators and circulators 30 years later."

Here's some notes on Penstock, contributed by Steve at RFMW who obviously knows his stuff about distributors!

"Penstock, Inc. (a.k.a.: Pen-Stock; Peninsula Stocking Distributor-named for the San Francisco Peninsula-where they were located), was founded in the mid 1970’s by Bruce White, as a stocking distributor for the low cost leader, Mini-Circuits and the high cost leader Avantek.

Penstock morphed into one of the largest RF and Microwave component distributors, acquiring Waltronic Sales and Sertek Sales. Waltronic Sales was one of the first stocking distributors for Omni-Spectra connectors in the early 1960’s.

Avnet acquired Penstock in 1994 along with Penstock Engineering (a.k.a.: PSElect; which became Avnet MTS “Microwave Technical Solutions”- Sold to Teledyne Cougar in 2005).

In 2003 Avnet jettisoned the RF & Microwave Group of former Penstock employees located in (South) San Jose, California.

RFMW Ltd. was founded shortly thereafter, by former Penstock employees. RFMW Ltd. headquarters are located around the corner from the empty Avnet MTS “Microwave Technical Solutions” building.

Sertek Sales; distributor for Avantek, Mini-Circuits and other RF/Microwave lines in Southern California was acquired by Penstock/Avnet in 1995

Waltronic Sales; founded in 1962 was one of the first reps and distributor for Omni-Spectra connectors was Acquired by Penstock in 1988."

Phoenix Microwave of Telford, PA was bought by Stellex Microwave who was bought by Tyco and at last report was spun off to M/A-COM. Thanks, Daniel!

Plano Microwave, spin off of UTL was bought by Sierra Nevada Corp in October 2002.

Premier Microwave is part of Cobham DES.

Q-bit: this one is so complicated, that two people so far have tried to explain it to us! Q-bit was bought by Remec in 1997. Spectrum Controls bought the Remec Components Business Unit in October 2004. In February 2005, Spectrum Control bought Amplifonix. Spectrum Microwave is a wholly owned business of Spectrum Controls and consists of:

FSY Microwave located in Columbia Maryland
Salisbury Engineering located in Delmar, DE
Remec Q-bit located in Palm Bay, Florida
Amplifonix located in Philadelphia

All locations remain physically where they were located before acquisitions. Q-bit parts are (for the most part) still available, as are the parts from the other divisions. Thanks to Mary who has worked at Q-Bit, Remec Q-bit, and now Spectrum Microwave!

Radian Technologies is part of Spectrum Microwave.

Remec the company no longer exists, they delisted themselves from NASDAQ and liquidated everything to "maximize shareholder value" (read that, "screw everyone"). Remec the nameplate lives on, as part of Chelton. In July 2005 Chelton sold the Outdoor Unit and Transceiver business in Poway CA to Wireless Holdings International, for $15M. Also in July 2005 they sold their Electronic Manufacturing Services (EMS) in Escondido CA to Veritek and Samjor. In May 2005 they sold their Space and Defense group in San Diego CA and Richardson TX to Chelton, a part of Cobham plc, (for some pretty good money, $260M!). In March 2005 they sold part of their Wireless group to Powerwave Technologies, for $118M. In May 2004, Remec sold its Fixed Wireless Access Systems (FWA) to Axxcelera Broadband Wireless, Inc. and sold its Antenna and Artificial Intelligence (AI) related assets to the owner of Optimal RF, a startup. There's more transactions involving Remec in the past three years, but we are already bored with this topic, you might find out more on the Remec web site, if it is still up and running (don't count on it!)

RF Nitro is part of RF Micro Devices.

RHG is now part of M/A-COM. Some of this info came from Dick, other info came from Susan, daughter of one of the founders... RHG was a manufacturer of log
amps and mixers along with associated products. It started in Farmingdale New York in 1960, relocated to Deer Park New York some time after 1970 when they needed larger facilities. The "R" was for Arnold Rubin, the "H" was for Ron Hirsch, and Robert E. Gruber was the "G" in RGH. Don Neuf was one of their senior engineers (now with Miteq along with Dave Krauthheimer and Bob Yurokso).

Robinson Labs' name was grabbed by Herley and retired in 2000. But the founders of Robinson Labs started a new company, RH labs, essentially in the same Nashua New Hampshire building, and they are making the same hardware, it is called RH Laboratories Inc. We just wish that one of these guys was named Will Robinson, so we could say "danger Will Robinson" whenever we see them out in the lobby...

Rockwell International became Conexant, which spun off the GaAs (Newbury Park) portion of the fab to Skyworks (previously Alpha Industries) and the other fabs became Jazz Semiconductor.

Rockwell Scientific is now part of Teledyne.

Sage, the company that has roots way back to the RadLab and WWII, was finally retired as a nameplate by Filtronic, around December 2005. More recently (2007) Sage has been rumored to have been sold again, this time to TRU corporation.

Salisbury Engineering (Delmar, Delaware) is part of Spectrum Microwave.

Sanders Associates was bought by Lockheed, at the time the were closing their Electronics division in New Jersey (now a Wal Mart?), then sold to BAE.

Scientific Devices Incorporated (SDI) is now part of M/A-COM (soon to be Cobham). This info came from Dick:

SDI was a manufacturer of silicon diodes and solid state switches and was owned by John Caruso....most of the people ended up at Frequency Sources semiconductor division which is now called Microsemi Microwave Products...John Caruso is now the president of this division.

This SDI info came from Tom:

SDI started out as Crown Microwave. They got hooked up with Microwave Semiconductor Corporation, later MSC was acquired by Siemens. After a while John and a couple of other management guys bought the Billerica group and named it Scientific Devices Inc. SDI got bought by Adams Russell who got bought by M/A-COM.

Scrantom was acquired by Natel in 2003. Scrantom, located in Costa Mesa Cali, was (is) a player in LTCC technology, and we're glad they are still around!

Semflex, a manufacturer of flexible microwave coaxial cable and custom cable assemblies based in Mesa, AZ, was purchased in 1994 by Sterling Holdings, owner of Trompeter Electronics. Sterling Holdings merged with Stratos Optical in 2003, and the consolidated business was purchased by Emerson Connectivity Solutions, a division of Emerson Electric, in 2007. Semflex is still co-located in Mesa, AZ with Trompeter Electronics. Thanks, Brian!

Sierra Microwave started out in Sacramento in 1984 making circulators, isolators, filters, pin diode components and amplifiers, they are now owned by HEICO, located in Georgetown, Texas and still trading but they ditched the amplifier line before moving. Thanks to Brian! That amplifiers that were ditched were key to the formation of Milliwave as previously mentioned under Avantek. Thanks to Fritz!

Spectrum Microwave's catalog brags that they are made up of all these: Spectrum Microwave. Combining the people, products and technologies from FSY Microwave, Salisbury Engineering, Q-Bit, Magnum Microwave, Radian Technologies and Amplifonix into a single operation .... Thanks to Jake!

This info came from Bob... Sperry Microwave in Gainesville, Florida shut down in the late 60s or early 70s. In the late 70s and early 80s I worked with one of the engineers that had moved from Gainesville to worked at the "new" Sperry Microwave facility in Clearwater, Florida. Sperry Microwave in Clearwater did shipboard radar systems in association with Sperry Gyroscope out of Great Neck, NY. In the mid 80s Sperry Clearwater was bought out by an electronics company whose name escapes me.

STC Microwave Systems, formally Signal Technology Corporation Arizona and California Operations, has been designing and manufacturing custom Microwave Components, Oscillators and Subsystem products for the more than 30 years and has grown to become the premier designer and manufacturer with its Microwave Integrated Multi-Function Assembly (MFA) products. We are recognized as a market leader in Custom Microwave Products and Services. Hey, how did that marketing jive end up on THIS page?

STS (Satellite Transmission Systems) is also part of L3-Narda in Hauppauge, NY. Thanks again, Marian!

Silicon Wave (San Diego Sorrento Valley area) was sold to RF Microwave Devices (RFMD). Many of the engineering team spread out to Staccato Communication, RF Magic, Quorum Systems, MaxLinear and Sequoia Communications. Lots of cross breading in RFIC world. Thanks to JC!

Sirenza is now RFMD (thanks for pointing this out, Nick!) Sirenza was originally called Stanford (the name change was due to a lawsuit with the "real" Stanford.)

Stellex is now part of M/A-COM, which is part of Tyco. Like any happy corporate family, the M/A-COM east coast and west coast microwave hybrid houses enjoy some sibling rivalry, even though there is no reason to close either one of them because they both stay very busy.

Sumitomo Electric is now part of Eudyna.

Switchline went to K&L Microwave. Thanks to Jake!

Systron Donner was bought by STC Microwave Systems, a part of Crane Corporation since 2003.

Texas Instruments: the Defense Systems Equipment Group was sold to Raytheon, the GaAs chip house became part of TriQuint, but the cowboy silicon importers of Dallas still call themselves TI. Let's relay this message that they need to hear: Hey TI, your stock sucks!

Transco Products, Inc (Camarillo, CA) merged with Daytron. Also thanks to Jake!

Triangle Microwave, (East Hanover, NJ), was bought by KDI which later became partners with Aeroflex. Thanks to Barry the Limo Guy!

TQC – Test Quality Company was founded around 1986 by former members of HP Instrument Division’s Neely Sales Office in Palo Alto, CA. They changed the name to Symmetrix Software around 1989-1990. They later opened a Austin, TX sales office. In 1991-1992 they disbanded the Santa Clara office and kept the TX office and later changed the name to Symtx (thanks to insider JC!)

TRW Microwave was sold to Frequency Electronics in Mitchell Field NY in the late ’80’s or early ’90’s. FEI changed their name to FEI Microwave. Thanks to Nick! TRW's GaAs foundry became Velocium, which was bought by Northrop Grumman.

TRW RF Semiconductors in Lawndale: TRW Semiconductors was sold to Motorola when Methusela was a baby. Site is now a hotel and Western Federal Credit Union. Thanks, Melissa!

TRW Microwave is long gone, but not the superfund site they left behind in Sunnyvale California. The name TRW comes from the 1958 merger of Thompson Products and Ramo-Wooldridge. TRW followed the "ITT model" of rapid expansion, getting caught cheating on military contracts, polluting ground water and putting employees at danger, then finally retrenchment into obscurity. In addition to credit reporting, TRW produces automotive air bags, another dual opportunity for OSHA violations and site pollution due to highly toxic sodium azide that is used to inflate the bag.

PIN diode manufacturer Unitrode (Watertown MA) was bought by MicroSemi years ago. Thanks to Ralph!

Varian is now Communication and Power Industries Inc. (CPI). The M/A-Com radar products group that was bought by Varian is now also part of CPI. Varian Microwave ( Beverly, MA ) was bought by STMicroelectronics.

Vari-L is part of Sirenza.

Vectronics Microwave Corporation was acquired by Micronetics.

Velocium is now Hittite.

Watkins Johnson microwave components was sold to Stellex, another piece of WJ became part of Endwave. Stellex declared bankruptcy around year 2000, and was sold to Tyco (M/A-Com). WJ Communications carries on the name, and owns all of those great app notes you wished you'd saved! Update March 2008: WJ has sold out to TriQuint!

WaveBand was acquired by Sierra Nevada Corporation in May 2005.

WaveCom of Saskatchewan changed names to VCom, awhile back. This just in from Karl: WaveCom (FSCM28979, thanks to Lee for the correction!) became part of Loral, now L-3 Communications, Narda West CAGE 60583.

Weinschel is part of Aeroflex.

Western Microwave was bought by STC Microwave Systems, a part of Crane Corporation since 2003.

Westinghouse Microwave (Baltimore area) is now part of Northrop Grumman. Say "Westinghouse" slowly and you will notice the words "we sting", which was an indication of their propensity to end joint contracts in the courtroom...

Wheeler Labs Antenna Group is also part of BAE Systems in Greenlawn, NY (thanks, Marian!)

Wiltron is now Anritsu.

WiseWave was acquired by Ducommun. Thanks to GunnBloke!

YIG-TEK was bought by Signal Technology.

Zeta Laboratories Inc. of Santa Clara, California is now DRS Technologies (DRS Signal Solutions - West) in Morgan Hill, Ca. Thanks, Steve from White Sands!