Microwaves & RF articles from April 2007

Microwaves & RF archives from April 2007

Article corrections.(feedback)(Letter to the editor)
April 1, 2007... I WAS PLEASED to see that my article (written along with Nils Nazoa), "Evaluate Accuracy Of Portable VNAs," was published in the January 2007 issue of Microwaves & RF (p. 58) as planned. However, there are three points that I would like to...

Mentoring is still needed.(feedback)(Letter to the editor)
April 1, 2007... I URGE EVERYRF/microwave engineer to read your January Editorial ("Keeping That New Year's Resolution," p. 17) and take your advice. In the "good old days" most companies maintained extensive educational programs, but these days managers are...

Services prey on location.(from the editor)(scope of ultra wideband technology in personal area social networking with multimedia systems)(Editorial)
April 1, 2007... The argument for third- and fourth-generation (3G and 4G) cellular services is simple. Consumers are increasingly relying on their handheld devices to send text and photos, surf the Internet, and even take and share video clips. It follows that...

Mobile handset upgrades to double first-time sales in 2007.(the front end)(Brief article)
April 1, 2007... EL SEGUNDO, CA -- Upgrade purchases of wireless handsets will more than double the level of first-time buys in 2007, an unprecedented event in the market, according to a report from iSuppli Corp's Tina Teng. After rising by 38.1 percent in...

Nokia is leading smartphone market with 56 percent.(Brief article)
April 1, 2007... LONDON, ENGLAND -- According to the latest research on smartphone markets from ABI Research, Nokia has maintained its leadership position with a 56.4-percent share of the 70.9 million units shipped in 2006. Nokia sold 40 million smartphones in...

Earnings by QUALCOMM's BREW publishers exceed $1B mark.(BREW mobile game applications from QUALCOMM Inc.)
April 1, 2007... SAN DIEGO, CA -- QUALCOMM, Inc. announced that the worldwide community of BREW publishers and developers has now earned more than $1 billion from the sale of BREW applications and services since the first commercial deployment of BREW services...

Kudos.(the front end)(Tyco Electronics Corp. recieves an award)(Bami Bastani, president at ANADIGICS Inc., honored)(Rockwell Collins Inc.)
April 1, 2007... HARRISBURG, PA -- Tyco Electronics was named a recipient of Intel Corp.'s Preferred Quality Supplier (PQS) award for outstanding performance in providing products and services deemed essential to Intel's success. The company was recognized for...

Cables and connectors forge critical links: specifiers of RF and microwave coaxial cables and connectors will find a wide range of products to meet their needs, with broadband coverage extending through 110 GHz.(News Report)(patented minibend(R) cable assemblies from Astrolab Inc.)(flexible microwave cable assemblies from Micro-Coax Inc.)(Sucoform-141-000 hand-formable microwave cables from Huber and Suhner AG)
April 1, 2007... Coaxial cables and connectors support and multitude of functions in modules, subsystems, systems, and test etups. In the simplest terms, they provide a transmission path for high-frequency analog and high-speed digital signals. How well they do...

Base-station and handset advances keep 3G rolling out: consumers are devouring an increasing amount of multimedia-driven services and products, made possible by advances in both wireless infrastructure and mobile devices.(News Report)(Motorola Inc. introduces Picocell M810 universal base station )(Picochip Designs Ltd. introduces High-Speed Uplink Packet Access femtocell reference design )(Alcatel-Lucent introduces intelligent-antenna solutions for CDMA subscribers)
April 1, 2007... After the downturn in the early part of this decade, it took many cellular carriers longer than expected to upgrade their mostly second-generation (2G) networks. The carriers simply lacked the funds to enhance their infrastructure. Since then,...

Content is driving wireless data revenue.(financialnews)
April 1, 2007... Faced with a falling Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) for their voice services, mobile-communications providers are offering premium multimedia content in order to compensate for their reduced voice revenue per subscriber, according to the...

Elcoteq SE.(CONTRACTS)(Elcoteq Network Corp. contract with Redline Communications Inc.)(Brief article)
April 1, 2007... Elcoteq SE -- Announced that it has been awarded a multiyear contract by Redline Communications. The agreement with Elcoteq will enable Redline to accelerate production to meet the demand for its RedMAX[TM] family of WiMAX products and...

LitePoint Corp.(CONTRACTS)(private equity fund)(Brief article)
April 1, 2007... LitePoint Corp. -- Has completed a round of private equity funding from Sequoia Capital.

Barry Industries.(FRESH STARTS)(Barry Industries participation with Modelithics Inc.)(Brief article)
April 1, 2007... Barry Industries -- Announced their participation within the Modelithics CLR Library. The Modelithics is the industry's first and only substrate--and part value--scalable surface-mount model library, that now allows designers to de-embed pad...

Hittite Microwave Corp.(FRESH STARTS)
April 1, 2007... Hittite Microwave Corp. -- Has released its first Microwave Modules & Subsystems Catalog, featuring full specifications on 42 microwave components and synthesizers for use in test and measurement, telecom, military, and space applications. ...

MITEQ, Inc.(FRESH STARTS)(appointment of PhaseCom, Inc.)(Brief article)
April 1, 2007... MITEQ, Inc. -- Announced the appointment of PhaseCom, Inc. as the company's exclusive sales representative in Texas. PhaseCom, Inc. will represent MITEQ's Component division of products, which includes amplifiers, mixers, frequency multipliers,...

Tampa Microwave.(four new sales representative firms of Tampa Microwave)(Brief article)(List)
April 1, 2007... Tampa Microwave -- Added four new rep firms to its US sales network. Each of the new firms will handle all Tampa Microwave products, and their representation is effective immediately. The new members of the Tampa Microwave US...

Lenthor Engineering.(FRESH STARTS)(opening of European sales organization)(Brief article)
April 1, 2007... Lenthor Engineering -- Announced the opening of a European sales organization under the name of Lenthor Europe. The main office is located in The Netherlands at Ninaberlaan 83, 7447 AC Hellendoorn. The phone number is 31-548-659019. A secondary...

Agere Systems.(FRESH STARTS)(Brief article)
April 1, 2007... Agere Systems -- Has updated its outlook for the second quarter of fiscal 2007, primarily as a result of inventory corrections at several leading customers in its networking and storage businesses. Based upon recent developments, the company...

Conexant Systems, Inc.(FRESH STARTS)(retirement of Dwight W. Decker )(Brief article)
April 1, 2007... Conexant Systems, Inc. -- Announced that Dwight W. Decker plans to retire as the company's CEO in the fall of this year. The company's board of directors has established a search committee and initiated the process for selecting Conexant's next...

Silicon Laboratories, Inc.(FRESH STARTS)(sale of Aero product lines to Next eXPerience)(Brief article)
April 1, 2007... Silicon Laboratories, Inc. -- Has finalized the sale of the Aero product lines to NXP, formerly Philips Semiconductor. Announced in February 2007, NXP purchased the Aero product lines, including the Aero transceiver, AeroFONE[TM]...

Laurenson is appointed as picoChip's VP of engineering.(people)(Steve Laurenson appointed at Picochip Designs Ltd.)(Brief article)
April 1, 2007... picoChip has named STEVE LAURENSON as its vice president of engineering. Laurenson joins picoChip from Agere Systems, where he served as Agere's Mobile Terminal Division's Technical Services director. He established Agere's European GSM...

Telegenix, Inc.(people)(appointment of Joe Miller)(Brief article)
April 1, 2007... Telegenix, Inc. -- JOE MILLER to the position of general manager; formerly director of marketing.

Newport Media.(people)(appointment of Dwight Decker)(Brief article)
April 1, 2007... Newport Media -- DWIGHT DECKER, PH.D. to the board of directors as an independent member; continues as chairman and CEO of Conexant Systems, Inc.

FSA.(people)(Danny Biran appointed at Fabless Semiconductor Association)(Brief article)
April 1, 2007... FSA -- DANNY BIRAN to the board of directors; continues as vice president of product and corporate marketing at Altera Corp.

California Eastern Laboratories.(people)(appointment of Jaime Tenedorio)(Brief article)
April 1, 2007... California Eastern Laboratories -- DR. JAIME TENEDORIO to vice president of engineering and chief technology officer; formerly vice president of engineering for Flextronics' Components Group.

Prototron Circuits.(people)(promotion of Kim S. O'Neil)(Brief article)
April 1, 2007... Prototron Circuits -- KIM S. O'NEIL to general manager of the Tuscon, AZ facility; formerly engineering manager.

Endicott Interconnect Technologies, Inc.(people)(appointment of Rajinder Rai)(Brief article)
April 1, 2007... Endicott Interconnect Technologies, Inc. -- RAJINDER RAI to vice president of research and development; formerly employed at BAE Platform Solutions, IBM Microelectronics, and IBM TJ Watson Research.

Bliley Technologies, Inc.(people)(John A. Kusters appointed)(Brief article)
April 1, 2007... Bliley Technologies, Inc. -- JOHN (JACK) A. KUSTERS to consultant for Bliley's spin-off company, EQUATE Space-Time Technologies, LLC; formerly employed by Hewlett-Packard.

Schaffner EMC.(people)(appointment of Frank Garafalo)(Brief article)
April 1, 2007... Schaffner EMC -- FRANK GARAFALO to vice president and CFO; formerly controller of Micro Stampings Corp.

Xceive Corp.(people)(appointment of Neil Mitchell)(Brief article)
April 1, 2007... Xceive Corp. -- NEIL MITCHELL to vice president of marketing; formerly vice president of TV marketing at Genesis Microchip.

Imago Scientific Instruments.(people)(appointment of Bill Flecky)(Brief article)
April 1, 2007... Imago Scientific Instruments -- BILL FLECKY to vice president of sales; formerly employed in senior sales and service management positions at Optical Metrology Innovations Ltd. and Bede X-ray Metrology.

Theta Microelectronics.(people)(appointment of Robin Miller)(Brief article)
April 1, 2007... Theta Microelectronics -- DR. ROBIN MILLER to vice president of engineering, based in Athens, Greece with the Theta R & D team; formerly employed at Toumaz Technology.

Harris Corp.(people)(appointment of Lewis A. Schwartz)(Brief article)
April 1, 2007... Harris Corp. -- LEWIS A. "LEW" SCHWARTZ to vice president and principal accounting officer; formerly assistant controller and director of Corporate Accounting.

Raytheon Technical Services Co. LLC.(people)(appointment of Tom Arnsmeyer)(Brief article)
April 1, 2007... Raytheon Technical Services Co. LLC -- TOM ARNSMEYER to vice president of the Homeland Security Solutions product line under the Integrated Support Solutions business unit; formerly vice president and lead executive for major pursuits in the...

International Manufacturing Services, Inc. (IMS).(people)(appointment of Daniel Ziroli)(Brief article)
April 1, 2007... International Manufacturing Services, Inc. (IMS) -- DANIEL ZIROLI to director of sales and marketing; formerly employed in senior sales and management capacities at SRC Devices, Inc., Crydom Corp., Douglas Randall, Inc., and Elmwood Sensors,...

Appli-tec.(people)(appointment of Charles A. Clark Jr.)(Brief article)
April 1, 2007... appli-tec -- CHARLES A. CLARK, JR. to director of quality and continuous improvement; formerly employed as corporate quality lead auditor for Brooks-PRI Automation.

Education.
April 1, 2007... SHORT COURSES Flomerics and AWR European Seminar Series May 3 (Stuttgart, Germany) May 9 (Gothenburg, Sweden) May 10 (Helsinki, Finland) May 15 (Milan, Italy) e-mail: info@flomerics.co.uk Internet:...

Monopole antenna satisfies 5.8-GHz RFID applications.(R & D roundup)
April 1, 2007... RADIO-FREQUENCY-IDENTIFICATION (RFID) systems comprise a read/write device, such as a tag, and a transponder. Because it is attached to the object to be identified, the tag must maintain a very low profile while satisfying demands for low cost...

Phased-array-antenna transceiver system spans 10 to 35 GHz.(R & D roundup)(Brief article)
April 1, 2007... BOTH COMMERCIAL AND MILITARY wireless-communication applications require systems that can operate over multi-frequency bands. Although a wideband phased-array antenna transceiver system has been looked at as a potential solution, its bandwidth...

Wide passband filter offers good in- and out-of-band characteristics.(R & D roundup)(Brief article)
April 1, 2007... WIDEBAND-, MULTIBAND-, AND wireless-communications systems demand compact, low-insertion-loss microwave bandpass filters. But wideband couple-line bandpass filters with 3-dB fractional bandwidths greater than 20 percent tend to be difficult to...

Spiral SIRs form dual-band filter: this effective design approach provides the means for achieving bandpass filters with multiple passbands in a fraction of the size of traditional multiple-band-filter design techniques.(Design Feature )(stepped-impedance resonators )
April 1, 2007... Bandpass filters are essential components in wireless systems design. While the filtering function is critical in removing interference, spurious, and other unwanted signals, the physical size required by many filter designs is often a limiting...

Developing designs for RFID transponder using DTMOS: the use of DTMOS as part of a standard CMOS process shows great promise for fabricating low-power, low-cost analog and digital circuitry for UHF RFID transponders.(Design Feature)(Report)
April 1, 2007... Transponder design for radio-frequency-identification (RFID) circuits must overcome many of the challenges faced by other low-power electronic applications. RFID transponder circuitry must be low in cost, and must operate over long periods of...

Monitor and control base-station power amps: low-cost components are readily available for creating the monitoring and control circuitry for optimum cellular base-station amplifier linearity with high efficiency.(Design Feature)
April 1, 2007... Cellular-communications evolution has involved increasingly advanced modulation schemes. In the latest-generation (2.5G and 3G) base stations, design strategies include methods for achieving high linearity while also minimizing power...

Controlling LO leakage in passive FET modulators: the LO leakage-inducing effects of reactive terminations can be minimized in passive FET modulators by the use of a simple diplexer circuit.(Design Feature)(field effect transistor modulator)
April 1, 2007... Passive FET modulators are commonly used in wireless base-transceiver-station (BTS) equipment. These zero-intermediate-frequency (zero-IF) modulators can provide excellent linearity with low carrier leakage, although the effects of reactive...

Electronic line stretchers simplify VCO measurements.(application notes)(voltage-controlled oscillators)(Report)
April 1, 2007... VOLTAGE-CONTROLLED OSCILLATORS (VCOs) are usually designed to operate in an ideal 50-[OMEGA] environment. These oscillators often have to drive a much different load, however. When the VCO output encounters a load with 12-dB return loss for all...

FPGAs welcome latest wireless applications.(application notes)(field programmable gate arrays )
April 1, 2007... WIRELESS ENGINEERS ARE increasingly relying on field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) for their advantages in terms of power, functionality, and cost. FPGAs are particularly suitable for emerging wireless applications, which must satisfy...

Broadband YIGs yield fundamental tones to 20 GHz: to switch or not to switch? These lines of YIG-tuned sources offer low-phase-noise coverage of 2 to 20 GHz continuously and by switching between two frequency bands.
April 1, 2007... Microwave frequency generation relies on many exotic structures, including Gunn diodes, dielectric resonators, and carefully cut pieces of quartz crystal. But perhaps no oscillator approach is quite as detailed as sources based on...

LDMOS RF IC amplifiers boost 100 W at 900 MHz: these two-stage integrated-circuit amplifiers achieve discrete-device-like output power for GSM and EDGE base stations at 869 to 960 MHz and 1805 to 1880 MHz.(LDMOS radio frequency IC amplifiers from Freescale Semiconductor Israel Ltd.)
April 1, 2007... High output-power levels are generally considered the demesne of discrete transistors, and certainly beyond the reach of integrated circuits (ICs). But the latest LDMOS-based radio-frequency IC (RF IC) amplifiers from Freescale Semiconductor...

Couplers channel high power to 6 GHz: these compact couplers, combiners, resistors, and terminations are designed to minimize signal losses and handle generous amounts of power at frequencies to 6 GHz.(Product Technology)(Model IPP-2055 from Innovative Power Products Inc.)
April 1, 2007... High-power capability in a passive component requires an understanding of the thermal conductivity of high-frequency circuit materials as well as insight into board layouts that will minimize heat buildup. These guidelines have served the...

Test solutions take aim at high-speed physical layer: these test sources, analyzers, and modules arm high-speed digital designers to evaluate components and networks operating at electrical and optical rates to 40 Gb/s.(Product Technology)(J-BERT N4903A signal converters from Agilent Technologies Inc.)
April 1, 2007... High-speed serial-communications networks are delivering data and video at unprecedented (microwave) speeds. As the transmission rates increase, characterization of the networks and their component parts becomes more difficult, requiring...

Two-chip IF receiver prepares for 3G standards: this solution combines a dual-channel, variable-gain amplifier with 1-dB resolution at high IFs and a diversity receiver with a 150-MSamples/s, 14-b ADC.(Product Technology)(intermediate-frequency recievers from Analog Devices Inc.)
April 1, 2007... As mobile handsets evolve to offer more multimedia content, the wireless infrastructure must be equipped to support higher-data-bandwidth devices. A two-chip intermediate-frequency (IF) receiver solution from Analog Devices (Norwood, MA)...

Linear amplifier boasts 80 W output power.(editor's choice)(Comtech PST Corp. introduces Class AB linear power amplifier )(Brief article)
April 1, 2007... BY PROVIDING WIDEBAND OPERATION in a compact and lightweight form, a solid-state Class AB linear power amplifier (PA) satisfies a variety of military needs. The model BM2719-80-3, which spans 20 to 1000 MHz, boasts RF output power of 80 W. Its...

Interconnect techniques reside on one substrate.(editor's choice)(new PCTF technology from Remtec, Inc.)(Editorial)(Brief article)
April 1, 2007... A NEW ETCHABLE MATERIALS CAPABILITY is promising to allow circuit designers to integrate more functions and improve performance while reducing package size. Specifically, the advanced PCTF technology enables designers to combine a number of...

Tiny chip baluns cut insertion loss to 0.6 dB.(editor's choice)(FDK Corp. introduces AMB1608Cn range of multilayer chip baluns)(Editorial)(Brief article)
April 1, 2007... MULTILAYER CHIP BALUNS have emerged to tackle the impedance matching between equilibrium/non-equilibrium circuits in RF circuits for WiMAX communications equipment. At 1.6 x 0.8 x 0.6 mm, these multilayer baluns boast an insertion loss of 0.6...

PXI RF switches beat 2.1 dB insertion loss.(editor's choice)(National Instruments Corp. introduces 11 PXI RF switches)(Brief article)
April 1, 2007... TO HELP ENGINEERS OPTIMIZE their RF switch networks, 11 PXI RF switches have been spawned. The modules, which target 50- and 75-[OMEGA] RF applications, include 4 x 1, terminated 4 x 1, dual 4 x 1, and 8 x 1 multiplexers as well as quad...