What will become of Agilent semi biz?

No idea. But Agilent are now rebadging scopes from Rigol in China. Shock horror.

Dave :)

Hello Folks,

Any hunches about what will become of Agilent's semiconductor business? We know where the LED sector will go but about the rest it just says this:

"An agreement to divest the Semiconductor Products segment to Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. (KKR) and Silver Lake Partners ..."

I like their PIN diodes a lot but this is going to be the 2nd time that product line changes hand.

Regards, Joerg

I doubt there'll be any disruption, for loyal customers anyway. The Kohlberg Kravis Roberts gang will merely act as short-term caretakers for the operation until they package and sell it to another semiconductor company (for a healthy profit), where it will no doubt be integrated into an on-going operation.

Smoothly, one hopes. Some people will lose their jobs. :>(

--
 Thanks,
    - Win

Hello David,

Really? Did they let their R&D folks go? I remember when they first outsourced some engineering efforts in the HP days and let Yokogawa do it for them. It wasn't the same performance and feel anymore so I pretty much quit buying HP gear in those days.

Regards, Joerg

Hello Winfield,

Yes, that would be the usual scenario. Unfortunately that often leads to a "streamlining", "focusing on the core values" or whatever MBA speak is going to be used. Meaning some of the good stuff might go to lala-land because it made less than $10M or so per year in sales.

I know one who already did. But he went to an Asian company that now picks up the jobs that didn't get done anymore. And bills Agilent, so I guess they now pay $1.50 on the Dollar to keep their customers happy. Great progress.

Regards, Joerg

Hello John,

HP -> Agilent has been good to me so far. A very respectable company. This time though it looks like the semi biz might be sold to a major other semiconductor company as Winfield had hinted. When TI bought Unitrode they kept the mainstream stuff but you never know. I'd probably jot down a contingency plan just in case the last order bell clangeth. Especially if these isolators are more of a niche part with low sales volumes.

Custom magnetics are cheaper than we often think as long as it's a decent volume. When I had to spec a custom toroid for a little switcher and a few for data and signal transmission I was surprised they all came in under a Dollar (Asia mostly).

Regards, Joerg

Yep. The new Agilent 3000 series scope is a re-badged Rigol, designed and manufactured in China. It probably has slightly different firmware, but that would be the only difference. Pretty good scope actually, for the money. The Rigol guys were smart, it looks like they deliberately designed their gear to work like and have a similar interface to the Agilent gear. It must have been a no-brainer decision for Agilent to re-badge it. It would have been unlikely that Agilent could have met the aggresive price point needed for this low end part of the market. Apparently Rigol actually roll their own ADC/memory front end whcih is why they are able to meet this price point. The other new scopes in the Agilent range (6000 series etc) are still Agilent through and through I believe.

Dave :)

Agilent Technologies Inc. (Palo Alto, CA) announced that it is shedding its chip unit and spinning off other assets as it concentrates on its test-and-measurement business. About

1,300 jobs will be cut in the reorganization. Agilent also agreed to sell its 47-percent stake in Lumileds to Royal Philips Electronics for $950 million and the repayment of $50 million in debt. Agilent also plans to spin off its system-on-a-chip and memory test businesses in 2006. Agilent is selling its semiconductor business to the buyout firms Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. and Silver Lake Partners for $2.66 billion.

RL

What instruments are you referring to? Yokogawa designed (and manufactured?) most of the line of vector impedance and high- resolution LCR instruments that HP sold, and they are superior instruments, thoroughly integrated into the HP mold. It's hard for me to see how one would draw a negative inference from using those instruments. Yokogawa was also tightly bound to HP in the design manufacture and documentation of those instruments, which appear to be home-grown HP in every way. Now that Yokogawa has gone its own way, the intruments thay make bear little resemblance to any of the Agilent instruments.

--
 Thanks,
    - Win

Hello Winfield,

I don't recall the types but found problems with things such as true dynamic range. One was the new edition baseband analyzer and I couldn't work with it. It would always beep and do an input overload shutdown. That's why I usually try to find an old HP3585 analyzer when at a client's site. The new ones often just don't measure up. Dynamic range and a good dose of graceful overdrive capability are really crucial in ultrasound where you have to run a range gate in front of the analyzer and then crank it up to the hilt.

Same with network analyzers where I cherish the HP3577. Haven't seen a match yet. Or the HP4191.

I am not dissing here and maybe Yokogawa even designed parts of these instruments. But the front ends were truly the good old HP quality and that is what counts for me.

A big disappointment lately was one of their spectrum analyzers. It was ok for EMC work but when I was puzzled by mysterious spectra that the DUT just couldn't produce and I found out it came from the analyzer's LCD I almsot became angry. Had to eat a whole big bar of chocolate to get the foil wrapper and put that over the screen during acquisition. So maybe I could blame them for gaining weight.

Regards, Joerg

a. Was that a Yokogawa product? b. Was the offending LCD dictated from hp marketing, usa?

BTW, the SRS spectrum analyzers show huge lines corresponding to their "ancient" CRT display's horizontal-retrace frequency. This shows up a full meter away.

--
 Thanks,
    - Win

Hello Winfield,

I don't know whether this one was. I just mentioned it as a not so nice experience with Agilent, an analyzer that I certainly would not buy. Hopefully not a trend. Other than that it's a good company. Let's hope it stays that way.

No idea, I wasn't involved in the design process ;-)

However, I have never had marketing "dictate" anything to me because that can have unpleasant consequences for the company. Whether that was while employed or while at clients. As engineers we must stand our ground when we see usefulness to the customer being compromised. If it is, then we have to politely explain why and what could be done. Or maybe even that there is something that just can't be done.

Regards, Joerg