Microwaves & RF articles from January 2008

Microwaves & RF archives from January 2008

Article corrections.(feedback)(Correction notice)
January 1, 2008... * I WAS PLEASED to learn of the induction of my father to the Microwave Legends. I don't know who nominated him, nor who wrote the biographical sketch. It is mostly right, but one glaring error does exist. In the sentence, "This 'hobby' quickly...

Missing MM-wave parts.(feedback)(millimeter-wave components)(Brief article)
January 1, 2008... IT IS ALWAYS A PLEASURE to read your magazine, espeically when your coverage extends to that often-forgotten part of the industry at millimeter-wave frequencies. However, I was dismayed to see very little information from some of the long-time...

Where is test equipment going?(from the editor)
January 1, 2008... This first issue of 2008 is a chance to take a fresh look at one's life, job and industry. And with an issue theme of "Test & Measurement," it is only appropriate to try and size up developments in RF/microwave measurement equipment and what to...

Growing SDR market predicted to hit $10 billion by 2011.(the frontend)(software-defined radio)
January 1, 2008... NATICK, MA -- The defined market for software-defined radio (SDR) is rapidly expanding. It should be noted, however, that this expansion is based largely on how the value propositions of certain SDR components or features resonate with each...

FTTH continues growth in Asia-Pacific region.(the frontend)(fiber to the home)(Brief article)
January 1, 2008... SINGAPORE -- Fiber to the home (FTTH) is a market on the rise within the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region, according to a new study by ABI Research (www.abiresearch.com). The report finds that different markets within the region are currently in...

High-power RF semiconductor market to approach $1 billion by 2012.(the frontend)
January 1, 2008... NEW YORK, NY -- The high-power RF semiconductor market is expected to approach $1 billion USD by 2012 according to a new research study from ABI Research. At present, the market is driven by a number of well-established transistor devices, such...

Kudos.(the frontend)
January 1, 2008... WEST CALDWELL, NJ -- Merrimac Industries (www.merrimacind. com) has received a research and development (R&D) award from the Naval Surface Warfare Center, Crane Division (NSWC Crane) for Next Generation Airborne Electronic Attack (NGAEA)...

The latest news, in e-mail form.(Product Data Directory PDD)
January 1, 2008... Some of the most important high-frequency news won't be found in Microwaves & RF magazine, but in the e-mail newsletter Microwaves & RF UPDATE. Sent directly to your computer desktop twice each month, this concisely written newsletter features...

RF Blog.(Product Data Directory)
January 1, 2008... The RF Components Blog features the latest news and technology of interest to designers of high-frequency, high-speed components. Although integrated-circuit components are included in the blog, the majority of the coverage is devoted to...

Link to the industry's most trusted directory.(Product Data Directory)(Brief article)
January 1, 2008... The Microwaves & RF website offers several instant links to the industry's only complete directory of products and suppliers: The Microwaves & RF Product Data Directory. With products from more than 2000 companies, thoughtfully classified into...

Find out more about: designing and testing wireless products.(Product Data Directory)
January 1, 2008... Over the course of this year, the first five webcasts in the "Exploring Design and Test Challenges in the Wireless World" webcast series individually tackled the topics of WiMAX, Ultra Wideband (UWB), WiFi, Zig-Bee, and Bluetooth. In each...

Share your thoughts with quick polls.(Product Data Directory)(Survey)(Brief article)
January 1, 2008... Quick polls allow you to regularly share your opinion on a wide range of topics. LATEST POLL RESULTS: Is your company involved with work on the Future Combat Systems (FCS) program? YES 40% NO 60% Note: Table made from...

Technology developments predict and conquer threats: although interoperable communications remains a top priority, innovations are constantly being designed to help the US recognize, combat, and recover from a terrorist attack.(NewsReport)
January 1, 2008... Homeland security continues to be a hub of research and investment activity. Going back six years ago, most development efforts seemed focused on airline safety, passenger screening, and communications interoperability. The object was to...

Cryogenic chip enhances satcom system performance: a niobium-based chip in a COTS cryocooler that functions as a high-speed ADC holds great promise for improved microwave communications system performance.(NewsReport)
January 1, 2008... Superconducting circuits and devices offer a great deal of promise in a wide range of industries, including military, commercial, test and measurement, and medical electronic systems. While the technology has been in development for several...

CST acquires Flomerics' EM business line.(financialnews)
January 1, 2008... For software vendors, acquisitions usually offer a chance to enter new market areas and an immediate way to provide new services and products for customers. Through its acquisition of Flomerics' (www.flomerics.com) electromagnetic (EM)...

Aperto Networks.(CONTRACTS)(Brief article)
January 1, 2008... Has been selected by Egypt's Ministry of Interior to provide equipment for that nation's first WiMAX network. The equipment will be used to connect Egyptian police stations and offices nationwide. The deployment of the PacketMAX solution...

SkyCross.(CONTRACTS)
January 1, 2008... SkyCross -- Announced that its antennas have been embedded in mobile handsets developed by Shanghai Simcom. Shanghai Simcom, a subsidiary of SIM Technology Group, is using internal SkyCross antennas for several mobile-handset models.

Mobily.(CONTRACTS)
January 1, 2008... Mobily -- Has awarded Motorola a $150 million GSM expansion contract in Saudi Arabia. The contract, which is specifically with Mobily's Etihad Etisalat, will further expand the operator's GSM coverage in the Northwest and Southwest regions of...

Elbit Systems Ltd.(CONTRACTS)
January 1, 2008... Elbit Systems Ltd. -- Announced that Tallahassee Communications Industries, Inc. (Talla-Com), its wholly owned US subsidiary, was recently awarded multiple contracts from US Department of Defense Agencies to supply ultra-high-frequency (UHF)...

RF Micro Devices, Inc. (RFMD).(FRESH STARTS)
January 1, 2008... RF Micro Devices, Inc. (RFMD) -- Announced that it will acquire Filtronic Compound Semiconductors Ltd., a wholly owned subsidiary of Filtronic PLC, for an acquisition price of approximately 12.5 million pounds Sterling in cash. That price...

WiMAX Forum.(FRESH STARTS)
January 1, 2008... WiMAX Forum -- Announced that its lead certification lab is now open for formal mobile WiMAX certification testing as well as the evaluation of mobile WiMAX products. WiMAX Forum vendors may begin immediately submitting their 2.3-and 2.5-GHz...

Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp.(FRESH STARTS)
January 1, 2008... Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. -- Entered a Department of Defense (DoD) Mentor-Protege Agreement with Princeton Microwave Technology, Inc. (PmT) of Princeton, NJ. It will assist that company as it becomes a supplier of transmit/receive...

TUVRheinland.(FRESH STARTS)
January 1, 2008... TUVRheinland -- Received accreditation under the National Voluntary Laboratory Accreditation Program (NVLAP) for its electromagnetic-compatibility (EMC) and telecommunications testing laboratory in Rochester, NY. The accreditation conforms to...

Software Defined Radio (SDR) Forum.(FRESH STARTS)
January 1, 2008... Software Defined Radio (SDR) Forum -- Announced the launch of a worldwide task group on transceiver subsystem interfaces (TSIs), which has been created under the umbrella of the SDR Forum Technical Committee. The TSI task group will be...

ITT Corp.(FRESH STARTS)
January 1, 2008... ITT Corp. -- Completed the acquisition of EDO Corp. for $56.00 per share plus the assumption of debt. This transaction is valued at approximately $1.7 billion. EDO, which employs approximately 4000 people, focuses on the design and development...

GSA picks Tong for board of directors.(people)
January 1, 2008... The Global Semiconductor Alliance (GSA) has elected VINCENT TONG, vice president of worldwide quality and reliability engineering for Xilinx, to its board of directors. Tong has more than 20 years of experience in semiconductor development,...

MFG Galileo composites.(people)
January 1, 2008... MFG Galileo Composites -- LANCE GRIFFITHS to radome design engineer; previously senior engineer, RF design, at L-3 Communications, Salt Lake City, UT.

Iridium Satellite LLC.(people)
January 1, 2008... Iridium Satellite LLC -- JOHN RODDY, executive vice president for ground operations and product development; previously president of Telcordia Global Services in NJ. LEE DEMITRY as executive vice president for Iridium NEXT; previously vice...

Fujitsu Microelectronics America, Inc. (FMA).(people)
January 1, 2008... Fujitsu Microelectronics America, Inc. (FMA) -- STEVE DELLA ROCCHETTA to vice president of the CLSI Business Unit; formerly executive vice president of worldwide sales and marketing at Silterra.

Motorola.(people)
January 1, 2008... Motorola -- GREG BROWN to chief executive officer; formerly president and chief operating officer. Brown succeeds EDWARD J. ZANDER, who continues to serve as chairman of the board until May.

Nujira.(people)
January 1, 2008... Nujira -- JIM BREWINGTON, advisor to board of directors; formerly president of developing markets at Lucent Technologies.

Science Applications International Corp. (SAIC).(people)
January 1, 2008... Science Applications International Corp. (SAIC) -- AMY E. ALVING to chief technology officer; previously senior vice president. J. Robert Beyster, SAIC founder, former chairman and chief executive officer, selected for induction as a lifetime...

Micromanipulator Company.(people)(Brief article)
January 1, 2008... Micromanipulator Company -- MIKE SLESSOR as chief xecutive officer; formerly managing director of technology transfer at California Institute of Technology; FRANK GAZZANO as president and general manager of the probing systems division;...

Brazonics, Inc.(people)
January 1, 2008... Brazonics, Inc. -- DAVID REYNOLDS to sourcing director; previously materials manager at Thermo Fisher Scientific.

Inphi Corp.(people)
January 1, 2008... Inphi Corp. -- RON TORTEN to vice president of worldwide sales; formerly chief executive officer at NemeriX.

FKI Logistex.(people)
January 1, 2008... FKI Logistex -- MATT WICKS to vice president of systems engineering for the Manufacturing Systems group; previously director of systems engineering.

Boeing.(people)
January 1, 2008... Boeing -- BOB WATT, vice president of State & Local Government Relations and Global Corporate Citizenship in the Northwest Region has retired.

Ansoft Corp.(people)
January 1, 2008... Ansoft Corp. -- SHAN EMSWILER to CFO; formerly vice president of finance, replaces THOMAS A.N. MILLER, who retired Dec. 31, 2007.

Interconnect Devices, Inc.(people)
January 1, 2008... Interconnect Devices, Inc. (IDI) -- MIKE KIRKMAN to chief executive officer; previously vice president of business development at CooperBussman. MARK DEUEL to chief financial officer; formerly chief financial officer at Positive Networks, Inc.

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

Meetings.(education)(Brief article)(Calendar)
January 1, 2008... 2008 IEEE International Solid-State Circuits Conference (ISSCC) February 3-7 (San Francisco, CA) San Francisco Marriot Hotel Internet: www.isscc.org 5th North American Users Forum February 4 (Santa Clara, CA) Network...

Call for papers.(education)
January 1, 2008... ARFTG 71st Microwave Measurement Conference June 20 (Atlanta, GA) Omni Hotel at CNN Center Deadlines: January 14: electronic abstracts/summaries to: papersubmission@arftg.org January 28: Paper acceptance will be...

Radio-astronomy LNA boasts noise figure under 0.2 dB.(R & Droundup)
January 1, 2008... THE SQUARE KILOMETER ARRAY (SKA) radio synthesis telescope is estimated to require millions of receivers. To keep receiver cost down, CMOS technology is being looked at as an option. With recent improvements in CMOS transistors, this technology...

Imaging systems overcome atmosphere and materials.(R & Droundup)
January 1, 2008... BOTH HOMELAND SECURITY and military agencies have been seeking technologies that detect guns, knives and improvised explosive devices (IEDs). Using the millimeter and sub-millimeter wavebands, techniques to image people when they are close to a...

Dielectric waveguides feed millimeter-wave antennas.(R & Droundup)
January 1, 2008... FOR RECEIVER AND TRANSMITTER front ends in the millimeter-wave range to be widely used, certain problems must be resolved. An example is the connection of a miniature millimeter-wave, monolithic integrated-circuit chip to an external antenna....

Configure an RF ATE system: these basic guidelines help in the selection of the test instruments and software needed to assemble an effective RF and microwave automated test equipment (ATE) system.(DesignFeature)
January 1, 2008... Automated test equipment (ATE) systems with RF measurement capabilities are used throughout commercial and military facilities when there is a need to perform a large number of repetitive tasks. In commercial applications, for example, RF ATE...

Determine twisted-line characteristic impedance: this approach shows how to calculate and measure the characteristic impedance of balanced twisted bifilar transmission lines using a commercial vector network analyzer.(DesignFeature)
January 1, 2008... Balanced twisted bifilar transmission lines are often used in high-frequency signal-processing applications, in impedance transformers, signal combiners, and power dividers. To apply these transmission lines and structures based on them in...

Phase-Lock Basics.
January 1, 2008... Phase-lock loops (PLLs) have become invaluable circuits in electronic circuits, in everything from frequency-modulated (FM) radio tuners to high-performance microwave frequency synthesizers. In the second edition of Phase-Lock Basics, author...

Power meters make connections via USB: for many applications, USB-enabled RF/microwave power meters can provide all the measurement capability and increased flexibility compared to conventional instruments.(DesignFeature)
January 1, 2008... Microwave and RF measurement equipment features simplified remote control by means of universal serial bus (USB) connections with an external personal computer (PC) or network. For testing RF power, this remote measurement capability can...

Tracking advances in probing mixed-mode RF circuitry: refinements in both the measurement probes and the calibration standard structures used with them makes it possible to perform more accurate microwave VNA S-parameter measurements on differential devices.(DesignFeature)
January 1, 2008... Balanced or differential circuitry is becoming more commonplace in high-frequency designs as a means of reducing susceptibility to radio-frequency interference (RFI) and electromagnetic interference (EMI). Of course, testing and...

Simulation and measurements prove RF-relay performance.(applicationnotes)
January 1, 2008... TODAY'S MANUFACTURERS ARE being pressured to put their parts through more rigorous high-speed/high-frequency testing. Teledyne Relays (www.teledynerelays.com), for example, recently collaborated with two customers to evaluate the performance of...

OFDM will soon be dominant form of digital modulation.(applicationnotes)
January 1, 2008... ORTHOGONAL FREQUENCY division multiplexing (OFDM) is at the root of WiMAX and many next-generation technologies. This form of digital modulation is spectrally efficient, as it carries more data per unit of bandwidth than modulation formats used...

High-speed synthesizer switches 0.01 to 20 GHz: an innovative VCO architecture arms this low-noise frequency synthesizer with the switching speed needed for high-volume device and component testing.(COVERStory)(Cover story)
January 1, 2008... In an automatic-test-equipment (ATE) application, speed is money. Faster measurement times translate into higher throughput and more devices or components approved for shipping at the end of the day. Measurements, of course, require fast...

Synthesizer/converter brings DDS benefits to 40 GHz: this synthesizer module delivers DDS speed, accuracy, and modulation capability in bandwidths as wide as 25 percent of frequencies from 1 to 40 GHz.(ProductTechnology)
January 1, 2008... Frequency synthesizers operating at microwave and millimeter-wave frequencies that combine excellent noise performance with extremely fast tuning speed and accuracy typically require two things of their owners: deep pockets and a lot of space....

RMS detector reads peak power to 2.7 GHz: this broadband RMS power detector features a wide linear dynamic range and the rapid response time needed for precise measurements in modern wireless communications systems.(ProductTechnology)
January 1, 2008... Modern wireless communications systems often rely on signals with large differences between their peak and average power levels. For optimum performance, such high-crest-factor signals must be precisely measured and controlled. Unfortunately,...

Designer's Kit collects frequency mixers to 4 GHz: circuit designers in need of frequency translation through 4 GHz will probably find the mixer solution they need as part of this diversified collection of low-cost, low-profile models.(ProductTechnology)
January 1, 2008... Frequency translation is an essential function for receivers, transmitters and test equipment. Finding the right frequency mixer for a particular design, however, can be an exercise in futility if not a lot of trial-and-error attempts. To save...

Oscillators cut current to 8 mA through 80 MHz.(editor'schoice)(Brief article)
January 1, 2008... OSCILLATORS THAT TARGET portable applications must meet a unique set of demands in terms of size, power consumption, and more. For instance, the MXH series of ceramic SMD oscillators measure just 2 x 2.5 mm. They are available in a wide...

250-W terminator and 10-W attenuator target high frequencies.(editor'schoice)(Brief article)
January 1, 2008... TOGETHER, A HIGH-POWER ATTENUATOR and surface-mount transmission-line power termination are promising to deliver high power dissipation and performance at RF and microwave bands. Designated the PAT3060P Series attenuator and RFTF Series...

Millimeter-wave power divider spans 10 to 45 GHz.(editor'schoice)(Brief article)
January 1, 2008... THE MILLIMETER-WAVE ARENA continues to experience growth in applications like radar, microwave communications, and broadband test equipment. Finding a niche in such applications is the 4428C-2 two-way RF power divider, which boasts a bandwidth...

GPS and Galileo RF IC offers 1.4 dB cascaded noise.(editor'schoice)
January 1, 2008... BECAUSE THE BASEBAND FUNCTIONALITY is already available, all that is needed for a complete Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver is often an additional GPS radio-frequency integrated circuit (RF IC). The MAX2769E/W, for example, is a...