Bend-based semiconductor maker Advanced Power Technology Inc. will officially merge into Irvine, Calif.-based Microsemi Corp. today, completing the $139 million deal that was announced in November.

The deal is expected to create more high-tech jobs in Bend in coming years.

APT shareholders were ”overwhelmingly in favor” of the acquisition at a stockholders meeting Thursday, said Russell Crecraft, the company’s executive vice president and chief operating officer.

”For everyone who voted, it was virtually unanimous,” Crecraft said of the results.

APT will switch its name to Power Products Group, or PPG, after the acquisition is completed. PPG will remain an individual division within Microsemi, retaining management of APT’s current operations, including those in Bend and three other states.

Officials from Microsemi and APT said the combined company will continue to operate in Bend, where it employs 146 people. The company, founded in 1984, employs 273 people worldwide.

One of the keys to the success of PPG in Bend will be the division’s manufacturing deal with national defense contractor Northrop Grumman Corp.

Under the agreement announced in February, PPG will manufacture silicon carbide products, a new semiconductor technology that is smaller and more heat-resistant, for Northrop Gumman. PPG also can sell commercial applications of the technology on the open market.

Microsemi officials have said that process will take place exclusively in Bend and should bring more jobs to the local plant.

A PPG expansion would feed a local high-tech industry that economic development officials hope to continue growing, in part for the sector’s higher-paying jobs.

Officials from Northrop Grumman declined to comment on the prospects of PPG’s potential windfall from the deal, but said the silicon carbide technology should prove popular in a number of non-military fields because of its size, weight and energy capacity advantages over conventional semiconductors.

”The silicon carbide technology has produced devices that have over four times the power capability of today’s commercial technologies,” said Jack Hawkins, Northrop Grumman’s director of Advanced Materials and Semiconductor Device Technology Center in Baltimore. ”And (those silicon carbide devices) do not require exotic cooling techniques to produce this performance.”

Potential commercial applications of the technology include hybrid vehicles, computers and portable medical systems.

The best part about silicon carbide technology is its potential in yet-unknown uses, Hawkins said.

”Additional advantages can be developed in this technology beyond what has been demonstrated to date by optimizing products for specific applications,” he said.

James Peterson, Microsemi’s president and CEO, said that potential is one of the key reasons his company purchased APT. During Microsemi’s second quarter conference call Thursday, Peterson said the deal diversifies his company’s product portfolio greatly.

”We see enormous potential in silicon carbide technology, especially in defense and future commercial applications,” he said. ”We’re confident that, as a combined team, (Microsemi and PPG) can continue to improve profitability.”

APT’s Crecraft said the company is currently in the process of getting its Bend facility ready for silicon carbide manufacturing. Actual production is still a few years away.

”We’re in the process of hiring some key people in the (silicon carbide) program, and we’re also buying some of the equipment right now and learning the technology from Northrop Grumman,” he said.

Crecraft added, however, that the only thing that will change significantly at his company today will be the name in front of the office.

Actually, Microsemi signs went up a few weeks ago outside one of APT’s buildings.

”Our focus won’t really be changed from when we were APT,” he said, pointing to PPG’s continued involvement in high-speed semiconductor manufacturing, a process on which Microsemi wants the new PPG to focus. ”Those markets are very strong right now. With Microsemi’s markets also doing well … we’re really excited about the prospects of the combined company.”

what’s next

APT will switch its name to Power Products Group, or PPG, after the acquisition is completed. Officials from Microsemi and APT said the combined company will continue to operate in Bend, where it employs 146 people. PPG will manufacture silicon carbide products, a new semiconductor technology for Northrop Gumman.