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The Gennum/Tundra merger will have only positive effects on the Gennum design centre in Bishop's Stortford.
"Bishop's Stortford is going to expand", Gennum's vice president and general manager Dr Martin Rofheart, told Electronics Weekly, "the pure optical ICs come from there. The TIAs (Trans-Impedance Amplifiers) which come out of that group are industry-leading."
Gennum acquired the Bishop's Stortford site from SiGe Semiconductor after the 2001 crash. "We like to buy product lines and divisions ahead of their true value being realized", said Rofheart, "Bishop's Stortford has a long history of analogue and mixed signal, a long history of TIAs. They seem like sort of ordinary - but trying to do it at 10GHz is problematic."
TIAs receive an electrical signal and transmit an optical signal. "Bishop's Stortford does both TIAs and laser drivers", said Rofheart. The laser drivers excite the laser which generates the photons for the transmission.
The deal whereby Gennum takes over Tundra will be finalized in early May. It will transform Gennum into Canada's leading semiconductor company.
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