Vishay Intertechnology purchases RFWaves

Vishay Intertechnology Inc . reports that it recently acquired RFWaves Ltd., an Israel-based, fabless IC design firm, for an undisclosed amount of cash and other considerations. The purchase reportedly wasn’t material to Vishay’s financial position or cash flows. Founded in 1999, RFWaves had sales of $1.75 million in 2003.

The acquisition adds RFWaves product lines to Vishay’s portfolio. RFWaves products include several wireless transceivers, ranging from 1 to 3 Mbps. All products operate in the worldwide-unlicensed band of 2.4 GHz, and reportedly offer excellent power consumption and low-cost performance due to RFWaves’ patented architecture. This architecture is based on combining surface acoustic wave (SAW) and silicon technologies to achieving performance with a very small die size.

“RFWaves’ technical team brings expertise in the fields of RFIC design, SAW design, antenna design, board design, protocol design, and wireless systems architecture,” says Dr. Felix Zandman, Vishay’s chairman and CEO. “Furthermore, Vishay foresees a synergistic relationship between RFWaves and other Vishay divisions in the fields of ICs and wireless design, such as Siliconix, Telefunken, Vishay’s inductors division, and infrared transceivers, where Vishay already is a worldwide leader.”

Increasing its product offerings in the wireless market follows Vishay’s strategy of offering more complete solutions and giving users a one-stop shopping service. Vishay manufactures of discrete semiconductors (diodes, rectifiers, transistors, and optoelectronics) and selected ICs, and passive electronic components (resistors, capacitors, inductors, and transducers).

—Jim Montague, news editor, Control Engineering, jmontague@reedbusiness.com

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