This Week in Brief: M2M, EMI, Expansion, Partnerships, More…

March 3, 2012. AR RF/Microwave Instrumentation has named three new companies to represent its products in Brazil, Argentina, and Chile. In Brazil, the AR sales representative is now Boreal Communications. The rep in Argentina is now Instrumental Tech. In Chile, AR is now represented by Tecel Ltd. Boreal Communications was originally founded in California in 1997; however, in 2000 the company relocated to Brazil and now has offices in Campinas and Sao Jose dos Campos, Brazil. Instrumental Tech is serves the telecommunications, space, and broadcasting industries with sales, repair, calibration, and maintenance of electronic laboratory instruments from its offices in Buenos Aires. Located in Santiago, Chile, Tecel Ltd. has more than 10 years experience providing solutions for its customers in electronic measurements, electricity, and the telecommunications industries.

Advantest announced that its South Korean subsidiary, Advantest Korea Co., Ltd. (Seoul, South Korea), has reached a consensus with the local development bureau to purchase land in Cheonan City, Chungnam Province for a new plant. South Korea has key semiconductor industry companies and it is a key marketing area for our business. In South Korea Advantest manufactures dynamic test handlers along with device interface products for semiconductor testers. The new plant will strengthen Advantest’s global supply network and further increase competitiveness. Land area to be purchased is about 40 thousand m2. Advantest expects the land purchase price to be about 20 billion won (about 1.3 billion yen), and to complete the land acquisition in April 2012. Products made at the new plant will be shipped to South Korean customers, and exported globally.

Lantronix launched of its xPico line of embedded device servers for M2M and related applications. The chip-sized xPico, designed for quick integration with minimal engineering effort, boasts a chip-sized footprint of 24 mm x 16.5 mm. With its embedded device server application, Web server, and full IP stack, xPico allows seamless remote access to device data. It offers a serial data rate of up to 921 kbps as well as 256-bit AES encryption. MSRP is $23 each for quantities of 1,000 units. The company also introduced launch the PremierWave-XN 802.11n dual-band, multi-port serial device server. Roughly the size of a standard deck of playing cards, PremierWave-XN offers Wi-Fi and Ethernet connectivity. The company demonstrated both at Embedded World 2012.

Laird Technologies announced its acquisition of Microwave Materials Group (MMG), the holding company of Emerson & Cuming Microwave Products. For the year ended 31 December 2011, Emerson & Cuming’s revenues were €16.3. Revenues in 2011 increased over the previous year by 20%. The purchase enhances Laird Technologies’ EMI solutions product offering with the addition of ECCOSORB, ECCOSTOCK, ECCOSHIELD, and ECCOPAD. “Electronic devices are always evolving into smaller, more powerful products so the shielding requirements continue to change,” said Michael Sutsko, president of Laird Technologies Performance Materials Division. “MMG broadens the range of products we can offer our existing customers as well as expands our customer base.”

Laird also announced its acquisition of Summit Data Communications. For the year ended 31 December 2011 Summit's revenues were $17.2 million. Revenues increased over the previous year by 13%. The acquisition expands Laird Technologies’ presence in the wireless M2M market. “The acquisition of Summit allows us to develop further our wireless connectivity offering, adding products to our range that allow wireless systems to function efficiently in difficult radio frequency environments like factories and hospitals,” said Nigel Keen, Laird’s executive chairman.