Microwaves & RF articles from December 2007

Microwaves & RF archives from December 2007

No apology necessary.(feedback)(Letter to the editor)
December 1, 2007... IN THE "FEEDBACK" column of October ("Breaking The Hatred Cycle," October 2007, p. 13), while referring to Jack Browne's article "The War Against IEDs" (improvised explosive devices) in Penton's Military Electronics, September 2007, John Evans...

Tracking a changing industry: research and development continues to be driven largely by wireless communications.(from the editor)
December 1, 2007... For many, the hustle and bustle of the holidays coincide with some enjoyable days at home as they take those last vacation days. Taking such time makes people prioritize what work needs to get done before the holidays and what new projects...

Aeroflex wins contribution to safety award at e-Legacy Awards 2007.(the front end)
December 1, 2007... BURNHAM, UNITED KINGDOM -- Aeroflex announced that it has won the Contribution to Safety Award at the inaugural e-Legacy Awards, organized by the UK's Electronic Product Design magazine and held last month at the Tate Modern in London. ...

Mini-Circuits receives several awards in 2007.(the front end)
December 1, 2007... BROOKLYN, NY -- While 2007 has not ended yet, Mini-Circuits has already received numerous awards this year, as it has in previous years. Most recently, telecommunications company Huawei Technologies, which is located in the People's Republic of...

More than 4000 products Wi-Fi certified by Wi-Fi alliance.(the front end)
December 1, 2007... AUSTIN, TX -- The Wi-Fi Alliance has announced that more than 4000 products have been Wi-Fi CERTIFIED[TM] since the testing program began in March of 2000. Growth in the diversity of Wi-Fi-enabled product types, including consumer electronics...

Kudos.(the front end)
December 1, 2007... WARREN, NJ -- The New Jersey Technology Council recently announced that it has selected ANADIGICS, Inc., a provider of semiconductor solutions in the broadband wireless and wire-line communications markets, as its recipient of their 2007 New...

MM-Wave links are making key connections: with the opening of millimeter-wave spectrum to commercial communications, a number of companies are developing practical solutions for high-speed data access.(News Report)(Company overview)
December 1, 2007... Millimeter-wave frequencies represent the next great frontier for broadband, albeit limited-range, communications. Since the United States Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and other global regulatory agencies have designated or freed...

Harris awarded Marine Corps contract.(financialnews)
December 1, 2007... Harris Corp., an international communications and information technology company, has been awarded a $7.7 million indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity contract to provide its RF-7800W Broadband Ethernet Radio system to the US Marine Corps to...

Communications & Power Industries, Inc.(CONTRACTS)
December 1, 2007... Communications & Power Industries, Inc. (CPI) -- Has received an initial award for satellite-communications (satcom) amplifiers to support the General Dynamics SATCOM Technologies specialized satcom earth terminals for Increment One of the US...

Lockheed Martin Advanced Technology Laboratories.(CONTRACTS)
December 1, 2007... Lockheed Martin Advanced Technology Laboratories -- Has been awarded a $729,999, 30-month contract form the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) to automate intelligence preparation for the battlespace. Called Multi-Perspective Fuser...

BAE Systems.(FRESH STARTS)
December 1, 2007... BAE Systems -- Has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire the Swedish high-tech company Pitch Technologies AB (Pitch) for a cash consideration of 61.3 MSEK (approximately $9.7 million US). Founded in 1991 and headquartered in...

RF Micro Devices.(FRESH STARTS)
December 1, 2007... RF Micro Devices -- Announced the completion of its acquisition of Sirenza Microdevices, Inc., a supplier of RF components (see Financial News, September 2007, p. 50).

StratEdge.(FRESH STARTS)(relocation)(Brief article)
December 1, 2007... StratEdge -- Announced that it has moved its headquarters to new, state-of-the-art facilities in San Diego, CA. The new StratEdge facility is located at 6335 Ferris Sq., Suite C, San Diego, CA 92121. It contains 12,268 sq. ft. and includes...

Kaben Wireless Silicon, Inc.(FRESH STARTS)
December 1, 2007... Kaben Wireless Silicon, Inc. -- Has joined Jazz Semiconductor IP Partners program and has been qualified as a Silicon-Proven IP provider.

FCI and Amphenol.(FRESH STARTS)
December 1, 2007... FCI and Amphenol -- Have entered into second-source agreements covering three connector product families: FCI's ZipLine[TM] connector system and Amphenol's XCede[TM] and Crossbow[TM] interconnect platforms.

Laird Technologies.(FRESH STARTS)(Laird Technologies PLC headquarters has moved to new location)(Brief article)
December 1, 2007... Laird Technologies -- Announced that effective immediately, Laird's corporate headquarters has moved to a new location within the St. Louis, MO metropolitan area. This move occurred to provide additional space and updated facilities in response...

Integrated Test Corp.(FRESH STARTS)
December 1, 2007... Integrated Test Corp. -- Established a sales and applications office in Taiwan. Contact information for the new office is: Mao-Hwa Shen, +886 (928) 149108, e-mail: mshen@integratedtest.com.

Cookson Electronics.(FRESH STARTS)
December 1, 2007... Cookson Electronics -- Opened its Research Center in Bangalore, India. The 32,000-sq.-ft. facility is one of four research and development centers run by Cookson Electronics. The other three centers are located in the United States, Japan, and...

The SDR Forum taps Pucker for CEO position.(people)
December 1, 2007... The Software Defined Radio (SDR) Forum has retained LEE PUCKER to provide CEO services in a newly created consultancy position. Pucker formerly served as CTO and vice president for corporate development at Spectrum Signal Processing.

Alion Science and Technology.(people)
December 1, 2007... Alion Science and Technology -- DR. CHARLES MASSEY to director of port and maritime security; formerly international borders and maritime security program manager at Sandia National Laboratories.

IPC.(people)
December 1, 2007... IPC -- DAVID (DAVE) TORP to vice president of standards and technology; formerly vice president of marketing and business development at Kester, ITW. Also, MARC PEO to the board of directors; continues as president of Heller Industries.

Giga-tronics, Inc.(people)
December 1, 2007... Giga-tronics, Inc. -- RODRICK CROSS to vice president of sales and marketing; formerly vice president of worldwide sales, marketing, business development, and technical support at World Energy Labs, Inc.

Actel.(people)
December 1, 2007... Actel -- JAY LEGENHAUSEN to senior vice president of worldwide sales; formerly vice president of sales focused on the Americas at Cypress Semiconductor.

Sunburst Electronics.(people)
December 1, 2007... Sunburst Electronics -- SANDY BARRETTA to sales manager; formerly regional sales manager at Clifford Metal.

Elcom Technologies.(people)
December 1, 2007... Elcom Technologies -- JIM DAVIS to CEO; formerly employed in executive management positions at Schlumberger Technologies.

ABI Research.(people)
December 1, 2007... ABI Research -- JANET WISE to director of primary research; formerly director of primary research at In-Stat.

Reactive NanoTechnologies, Inc.(people)
December 1, 2007... Reactive NanoTechnologies, Inc. (RNT) -- MIKE O'NEILL to vice president of sales; formerly US sales manager for the Circuit Materials Division at Heraeus, Inc.

Woven Electronics, LLC.(people)
December 1, 2007... Woven Electronics, LLC -- SCOTT CHESTER to vice president of business development; formerly president and CEO of Tera Media Corp.

Nextreme Thermal Solutions.(people)
December 1, 2007... Nextreme Thermal Solutions -- STEPHEN BROOKS to director of manufacturing; formerly director of operations at Amkor Technology.

Zarlink Semiconductor, Inc.(people)
December 1, 2007... Zarlink Semiconductor, Inc. -- OLEG KHAYKIN to the board of directors; continues as executive vice president and COO at Amkor Technology.

Civitium, LLC.(people)
December 1, 2007... Civitium, LLC -- JASON SHANNON to CTO; formerly lead wireless architect at EarthLink Municipal Networks.

Performance Metal Fabricators, Inc.(people)
December 1, 2007... Performance Metal Fabricators, Inc. (PMF) -- MARK HAGEN to engineering manager; formerly general manager at Hagen Metal Products.

Rohde & Schwarz Canada.(people)
December 1, 2007... Rohde & Schwarz Canada -- CHRISTOPHER A. FRENCH to vice president and general manager; formerly executive vice president and partner at Mondial Technology.

Rogers Corp.(people)
December 1, 2007... Rogers Corp. -- JEFFREY M. GRUDZIEN to vice president of sales; formerly director of Asia sales.

FCI.(people)
December 1, 2007... FCI -- PIERRE VAREILLE to COO; formerly CEO of Wagon Automotive Ltd.

Applied Wave Research.(people)
December 1, 2007... Applied Wave Research (AWR) -- RICK BOTTOMLEY to CFO; formerly CFO at Silicon Design Systems, Inc. and Gilo Ventures.

Rohde & Schwarz.(people)
December 1, 2007... Rohde & Schwarz -- RHONDA PIECREBROOKS to director of human resources; formerly director of human resources at the National Aquarium in Baltimore, MD.

Short Courses.(education)(Calendar)
December 1, 2007... Besser Associates Short Courses RF CMOS Design February 25-26, 2008 (San Diego, CA) Applied RF Techniques I February 25-29, 2008 (San Diego, CA) May 12-16, 2008 (Burlington, MA) RF and High Speed PC Board Design...

Meetings.(education)(Calendar)
December 1, 2007... The Software Defined Radio (SDR) Forum January 15, 2008 (Tampa, FL) Doubletree Westshore Held in comjunction with the Forum's general meeting, January 14-17, 2008 Internet: www.sdrforum.org 2008 IEEE Radio and Wireless...

Luneberg lens offers wide scan with multiple pencil beams.(R & D roundup)(Brief article)
December 1, 2007... RECENTLY, THERE HAS BEEN a resurgence in research interest in spherical Luneberg and homogeneous lens antennas for launching multiple pencil beams. With these approaches, all of the generated beams are almost identical because of the inherent...

BiCMOS VCO competes for W-band applications.(R & D roundup)
December 1, 2007... TYPICALLY, MILLIMETER-WAVE applications in the 75-to-100-GHz W-band requiring active devices have been considered the territory of III-V compound semiconductor technology. With [f.sub.T]/[f.sub.MAX] frequencies above 150 GHz, however, newer...

Reflector system could satisfy antennas on spinning platforms.(R & D roundup)
December 1, 2007... CURRENT SPACECRAFT ANTENNA design must confront the problem of how to mount and deploy large reflector antennas on spinning platforms. The reflector spins at approximately 10 to 40 rpm to cover the desired scanned area on Earth. One solution--a...

Optimizing MMICs For encapsulated packages: careful modeling and comparison with measurements can show the effects of a low-cost package on MMIC performance, and help guide the MMIC design for best performance.(Design Feature)
December 1, 2007... Traditionally, monolithic microwave integrated circuits (MMICs) have been designed for function and performance, but without much forethought for package options. Packages were often developed after the circuit, and this "second-thought"...

Simulating WiMAX system performance: using a commercial CAE software tool, a wide range of system-level simulations were performed on a modeled WiMAX system based on the IEEE 802.16 standard.(Design Feature)
December 1, 2007... Rapid growth of Wireless Interoperability Microwave Access (WiMAX) as a broadband wireless technology is expected due to increasing demand for convenient Internet access and high-speed data access. In order to construct wideband wireless...

Estimating Microstrip substrate relative dielectric constant: these equations can be applied to a number of different substrate materials to estimate the relative dielectric constant of circuit boards with microstrip transmission lines.(Design Feature)
December 1, 2007... Microstrip lines are commonly used in microwave circuits, although their performance is subject to the type of substrate material selected for a printed-circuit board (PCB). One of the more important material parameters for the substrate is...

Broadband access will mix wireless with wire-line technologies.(application notes)
December 1, 2007... BY 2015, five billion people will be "connected"--with the majority of them always on and enjoying broadband access. This estimate comes from Nokia Siemens Networks (Espoo, Finland). The company expects those broadband customers to be served by...

Digital phosphor oscilloscopes tackle video measurements.(application notes)
December 1, 2007... VIDEO MEASUREMENTS pose a tough challenge because of the complexity of video waveforms. Such waveforms often combine the signals that represent the video picture with the timing information that is needed to display the picture. Although some...

Software tool brings EM technology to forefront: this innovative simulator speeds and simplifies EM analysis to the extent that it can now be used as an integral early part of the RF/microwave design process.(Cover Story)
December 1, 2007... Electromagnetic (EM) simulation software has evolved from a laboratory curiosity to a valuable modeling tool during the last decade. But many users still consider the technology as a "back-end" design tool, often applied as a way to check the...

Top Products of 2007: these products offer a glimpse into the industry's most impressive innovations in software, components, and measurement solutions over the past year.(Product Technology)
December 1, 2007... Every holiday season, it seems that "top product" lists are everywhere. They cover everything from the most popular toys to the most in-demand gadgets. Here at Microwaves & RF, we come out with our own list of "Top Products" every December. It...

LDMOS devices push 1 kW pulsed power: these wideband power transistors are designed for use with 50-V power supplies and are suited for high-power pulsed applications through 450 MHz.(Product Technology)
December 1, 2007... Power amplification is critical to a wide range of applications in industrial, medical, military, and scientific applications at frequencies through 450 MHz. For peak power levels to 1 kW, usually multiple transistors and a power combiner are...

Fast synthesizer switches to 20 GHz in 100 [mu]s: the MG37022A signal generator is based on microwave VCO technology for fast frequency switching speed with excellent spectral purity through 20 GHz.(Product Technology)
December 1, 2007... Many test applications require fast-switching signal-generation capability. For example, measurements calling for a large number of data points, such as in antenna testing, automatic-test-equipment (ATE) systems, and radar-cross-section (RCS)...

2007 editorial index.
December 1, 2007... COMMERCIAL * RFID innovations deepen market penetration (January, p. 33) * Crosstalk: An interview with iTerra's Peter Walters (February, p. 40) * Reviewing RoHS compliance for harsh environments (February, p. 66) * LNA line...

2.4- and 5-GHz PAs form IEEE 802.11n building blocks.(editor's choice)
December 1, 2007... WITH THE GROWING POPULARITY of Wi-Fi, IEEE 802.11n wireless-local-area-networking (WLAN) capability is being designed into many next-generation products. To simplify this process, two new power amplifiers (PAs) promise to simplify design while...

Squat OCXOs deliver 1-ppb stability.(editor's choice)
December 1, 2007... COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS that are based on precise synchronization, such as Global Positioning System (GPS) infrastructure, demand ultra-stable frequency in small sizes. In hopes of satisfying such applications, an oven-controlled crystal...

MMIC receiver covers 4.5 to 10.5 GHz.(editor's choice)
December 1, 2007... A FULLY INTEGRATED gallium-arsenide (GaAs), monolithic-microwave-integrated-circuit (MMIC) receiver has been spawned for wireless-communications applications like millimeter-wave point-to-point radio, local multipoint distribution services...

PA delivers 50 W over 1500 to 2500 MHz.(editor's choice)
December 1, 2007... AT JUST 6.4 x 2.5 x 1.5 in., a Class AB linear amplifier vows to deliver 50 W of output power over the full 1500-to-2500-MHz frequency range. The Model BME158258-50 offers gain of 40 dB [+ or -] 1.5 dB. RF input overdrive is +10 dB. The...