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Design News

Details: Written by Staff; Category: Design News; Published: 20 January 2009

EL SEGUNDO, CA – AWR has acquired Simulation Technology and Applied Research Inc. (STAAR). STAAR develops 3D parallelized FEM tools for EM simulation of components and subsystems that operate at RF and microwave frequencies.

STAAR founder, Dr. John DeFord, will continue to oversee the company’s operations at its Wisconsin facility. “The unique 3D FEM EM analysis technologies developed by Dr. DeFord and his colleagues are a perfect complement to our current EM solutions,” said Sherry Hess, vice president of marketing at AWR

Details: Written by Staff; Category: Design News; Published: 15 January 2009

SANTA CLARA, CA – EDesign and EMS firm NBS will acquire CompServ, whose president will head the companies, the company said today. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Fremont, CA-based EMS company CompServ president Michael Maslana will become as CEO and president of NBS. He replaces NBS founder, president and CEO Craig Arcuri, who is leaving to spend more time with family and to pursue his passion for aviation.

Privately held NBS has estimated annual sales of about $40 million. For its part, in 2005 CompServ acquired electronics test company Datest Corp.

In a press release, Maslana said, “By combining CompServ’s organizational infrastructure, sales and marketing,and supply chain expertise with NBS's stellar reputation, the more diversified stronger company is positioned not only to meet the market’s demands, but also to expand our services and footprint."

The company will seek additional business from existing customers, make strategic acquisitions and selectively enter global markets, he added.

Details: Written by Staff; Category: Design News; Published: 14 January 2009

BANNOCKBURN, IL – IPC has named Kevin Schuld director of assembly technology. He will be responsible for working with technical committees on standards development in the assembly technology area.

Schuld has over 20 years of experience within the electronics industry, having held various quality, evaluation and component engineering positions for companies such as Hitachi, Texas Instruments and Honeywell. Most recently, he was the senior customer quality engineer at Qualcomm CDMA Technologies.

“Kevin has well-rounded experience in customer quality management, statistical process controls, component and materials engineering and technical writing, not to mention that he’s well-versed in IPC’s assembly standards,” said Dave Top, IPC vice president of standards and technology.

Details: Written by Staff; Category: Design News; Published: 14 January 2009

AUSTIN, TX – National Instruments (NI) has named three trends that it believes will improve the efficiency of test and measurement systems in 2009.

PITTSBURGH, PA -- DesignAdvance Systems, Inc. has introduced a concept level planning tool for the hardware engineer. According to the company, CircuitPlan provides planning, feasibility and design collaboration capabilities from concept level planning through physical design and test.

"Our customers have been actively deploying our solutions [CircuitSpace and CircuitProbe] throughout their PCB design process," stated Mr. Edward Pupa, DesignAdvance CEO. "Now with CircuitPlan, we provide PCB designers, hardware engineers, test engineers and manufacturing engineers with solutions and an advanced methodology for planning, physical design, review / verification," continued Mr. Pupa.

CircuitPlan v1.0 will be available in February 2009.

WILSONVILLE, OR – Dr. Walden Rhines, chairman and CEO of Mentor Graphics Corp., will be the keynote speaker at DesignCon 2009, held February 2-5 in Santa Clara, CA.

In his address, Dr. Rhines will discuss issues confronting the EDA industry during these uncertain economic times. He will also offer provocative conclusions based on historical data and trends within the industry. The keynote will take place February 3, 11:50 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.