LONDON — Paratek Microwave Inc (Nashua, N.H) has bought, for an undisclosed sum, the barium strontium titanate (BST) technology group of chip and IP company Gennum Corp. (Burlington, Canada).
Earlier this week, Gennum said it would acquire all outstanding shares of Tundra Semiconductor Corp., a supplier of system interconnect products and IP, in a deal valued at $86 million.
Paratek focuses on a proprietary form of BST, so called ParaScan technology, which has become a leading RF tuning component technology for mobile handsets.
The company has raised over $118 million in VC funding since 1999, from firms like STMicroelectronics, Polaris Venture Partners, Novak Biddle Venture Partners, Morgenthaler, Investor AB and ABS Ventures.
The transaction augments a deal with one of these backers, STMicroelectronics announced in January, 2009. That established a program to jointly develop tunable products that improve Total Radiated Power (TRP) for mobile phones, leading to longer battery life and fewer dropped calls for mobile handsets.
Initial production of the RF-tuning components will take place at STMicroelectronics fab in Tours, France , by the end of 2009.
The deal between Gennum and Paratek includes all of Gennums assets related to BST technology including equipment and intellectual property.
"With Gennum deciding to focus its investments on its core portfolio, we were provided the opportunity to acquire the BST technology group and assets and augment our own ParaScan efforts to continue the commercialization of ParaScan technology," said James DiLorenzo, CEO of Paratek Microwave.
Paratek already has applications, materials and systems expertise in the sector.
Manufactured on silicon or ceramic wafers, thin-film ParaScan capacitors are said to offer high capacitance density, high frequency performance, and exceptional tunability, all enabling a tight level of miniaturization and flexibility, as well as low power consumption in mobile handsets.
