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uropelectronics learned today that Jean-Michel Lamure, executive VP and general manager of Soitec passed away Thursday after battling a long illness. He was 58.
Lamure co-founded Soitec in 1992 with André Auberton-Hervé and had been serving as executive VP and general manager for the company.
He was also the president of Picogiga International, a new division of the Soitec Group concentrated on the development and manufacture of compound-semiconductor products.
Lamure had 15 years of experience in SOI wafer production and development.
From 1977 to 1987, he was in charge of a succession of mask shops in the semiconductor industry, including both Thomson-CSF for device production, and CEA-LETI for device research and development.
Prior to that, Lamure worked at Thomson-CSF where he developed equipment for microelectronics device production.
Lamure graduated with a master’s degree in engineering from the Ecole Catholique des Arts et Métiers in Lyon, France.

SANTA ANA, Calif. & LONDON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 5, 2006--Filtronic plc ("Filtronic") (LSE:FTC), a leading global designer and manufacturer of customized microwave electronic subsystems for the wireless telecommunications and defense industries, and Powerwave Technologies, Inc. (Nasdaq:PWAV), a global supplier of end-to-end wireless solutions for wireless networks, today announced that the companies have entered into a period of exclusive negotiations for the disposal of Filtronic's filter-based transmit receive module and power amplifier businesses of its Wireless Infrastructure Division. For the avoidance of doubt, there can be no certainty that these negotiations will result in any transaction being completed. We will have no further comment until an agreement is reached or the discussions are terminated.
LONDON — After posting annual gains of 18.7 percent in 2004 and 9.7 percent in 2005, the semiconductor photomask market will grow 4.3 percent in 2006, reaching sales of $3.2 billion, according to The Information Network, a market research company.
“While the semiconductor market is anticipated to grow strongly in 2006, demand for photomasks is directly a function of design activity rather than sales volume from products using photomasks. Therefore, an increase in the semiconductor market does not necessarily translate to an increase in photomask sales,” said Robert Castellano, president of The Information Network (New Tripoli, Pa.).

Scientists from Philips Research and the University of Groningen in the Netherlands say they have for the first time fabricated arrays of molecular diodes on standard substrates with high yields that could be a promising next step in plastic electronics.
The molecular diodes are as thin as one molecule, 1.5nm, and suitable for integration into standard plastic electronics circuits, according to the researchers. Based on construction principles known as molecular self-organization, molecular electronics is a promising new approach for manufacturing electronics circuits in addition to conventional semiconductor processing, they claim.
Although still a relatively new field, molecular electronics can be regarded as the next evolutionary stage for plastic electronics. Molecular electronics holds the potential to fabricate elements for electronics circuits with a functionality that is embedded in just a single layer of molecules, according to the technology‘s proponents.
Instead of using lithography or printing techniques to etch or print nanoscale circuit features, molecular electronics can be engineered to use organic molecules that spontaneously form the correct structures via self-organization.

Analog Devices acquires UK based TTPCom's GSM/GPRS mobile phone modem software business for 23 million US Dollars.
May 03, 2006 13:08 (ElectronicsWeekly)
This deal gives Analog Devices the right to sub-license TTPCom software, allowing Analog Devices to sell a complete software and silicon package. 45 employees based in Cambridge, England will transfer from TTPCom to Analog Devices. The deal leaves around 600 staff at TTPCom.

MANHASSET, N.Y. — ATI Technologies Inc. has acquired Bitboys Oy, a privately held Finland-based graphics company, for $44 million.
Bitboys will be integrated into the Handheld Business Unit of ATI (Markham, Ontario), and form the nucleus for a key design centre for ATI in Europe.
The acquisition enhances ATI's product portfolio with a number of technologies, including OpenGL ES 2.0 3D graphics and OpenVG 1.0 2D vector graphics technologies optimized for high-volume mainstream mobile phones. These graphics cores will be supported by ATI's common software stack which covers its complete range of multimedia co-processors.
This unified software environment allows developers to easily create content for a range of devices and offers mobile phone manufacturers faster time to market.
"Bitboys dovetails into ATI perfectly," said Paul Dal Santo, GM of ATI's Handheld Business Unit, in a statement. "Handsets are transitioning to hardware acceleration for graphics and multimedia, and the Bitboys team will play a critical role as we drive this key inflection point to make ATI the platform of choice for content providers."

IDT has appointed Pietro Polidori as new Vice President for EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa).
May 02, 2006 10:25 (channel-e)
by: Jesper Olsson
Pietro Polidori, who has been working at IDT for 11 years, will be responsible for all operations within EMEA including direct sales and marketing. Polidori most recently worked as European Sales Director at IDT