Wireless Design & Development articles from May 2005

Wireless Design & Development archives from May 2005

VoWi-Fi--a fit for a data-based technology?(UP FRONT with ERN)(Column)
May 1, 2005... Well, I needed something to pick on this month. Not that I want to necessarily pick on voice over Wi-Fi, but it does give me a launching point. First it was VoIP, now it's VoWi-Fi. If memory serves me correctly (and I'm told that is...

FM tuner family.(WHAT'S HOT: PRODUCT NEWS)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2005... Silicon Labs announces the Si470x FM tuner family, integrated FM broadcast radio tuners delivering the entire FM tuner from antenna input to audio output in 100% CMOS. Using a digital architecture, the tuners improve performance while reducing...

Multi-channel A/D converter.(WHAT'S HOT: PRODUCT NEWS)(Analog to Digital )(Brief Article)
May 1, 2005... Linear Technology introduces the LTC1867L, a 16-bit, 8-channel, 175 ks/s, 3 V supply analog to digital converter. The converter draws 2.7 [mW.sub.MAX] at full speed. The power automatically drops at reduced speeds, typically 0.9 mW at 50 ks/s....

Single chip solutions.(WHAT'S HOT: PRODUCT NEWS)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2005... TI introduces the WiLink[TM] mobile Wireless LAN (mWLAN) platform, which includes single-chip solutions to drive Voice over WLAN (VoWLAN) into mainstream mobile phones. With solutions based on TI's DRP[TM] technology, the platform enables...

Power amplifier module.(WHAT'S HOT: PRODUCT NEWS)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2005... TriQuint announces a GSM-EDGE power amplifier (PA) module to its handset product line. The TQM7M5001 linear PA module incorporates an internal CMOS control IC that enables simple band select and operational mode as well as closed loop power...

Amplifier chipset.(WHAT'S HOT: PRODUCT NEWS)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2005... Mimix Broadband announces a GaAs MMIC three stage balanced power amplifier and complementary three stage driver amplifier. Both the balanced PA and the driver amplifier use 0.15 micron gate length GaAs pHEMT device model technology. The PA has...

Test assemblies.(WHAT'S HOT: PRODUCT NEWS)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2005... W. L. Gore announces the GORE[TM] PHASEFLEX[R] 110 GHz test assemblies. These test assemblies, with performance through 110 GHz, offer torque and crush resistance, as well as stability with flexure and temperature, all while remaining flexible....

Single-cycle 8051 core.(WHAT'S HOT: PRODUCT NEWS)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2005... Atmel[R] announces its AT89LP family, based on a single-cycle 8051 core. An operating voltage range of 2.0 to 5.5 V is offered to accommodate power management, white goods and battery-operated applications. The CPU requires one clock cycle for...

WiMAX SoC.(WHAT'S HOT: PRODUCT NEWS)(System-on-chip)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2005... FMA introduces its integrated WiMAX system-on-chip, MB87M3400, which complies with the 802.16-2004 standard. The SoC is designed to enable deployment of BWA equipment for both basestations and subscriber stations in licensed or license-exempt...

UMC and Ansoft's ultra-wideband radio design paper wins award.(NEWS / BUSINESS / CONTRACTS)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2005... UMC's Albert Yen and Ansoft's Lawrence Williams, Daniel Wu and Eldon Staggs wrote a technical paper that won an "Outstanding Contribution" Award at DesignCon 2005. The authors listed above received recognition in DesignCon's Chip-Level Design...

Powerwave Technologies to acquire selected assets of REMEC.(NEWS / BUSINESS / CONTRACTS)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2005... Powerwave Technologies announces that it has signed a definitive agreement with REMEC, Inc. to acquire certain product lines of REMEC's Wireless Systems business. The purchase includes certain selected assets and liabilities related to REMEC's...

CST revenue increases 39% in 2004.(NEWS / BUSINESS / CONTRACTS)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2005... CST announces continued success of software products with a worldwide revenue increase of 39% in 2004 compared to calendar year 2003. The average annual growth rate has been 37.8% since 1997 and has established CST as the dominant market leader...

Azimuth signs ATS to resell wireless test solutions.(NEWS / BUSINESS / CONTRACTS)(Advanced Telecom Systems S.p.A)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2005... Azimuth Systems, Inc. announces that it has entered into an agreement with Italian distributor, Advanced Telecom Systems S.p.A., to resell Azimuth's W-Series 802.11 test platform in Italy. The partnership is one of many that Azimuth has...

Extended Systems licenses suite of wireless software development kits to QUALCOMM.(NEWS / BUSINESS / CONTRACTS)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2005... Extended Systems announces that QUALCOMM Incorporated has licensed embedded wireless software development kits (SDKs) from the company. Extended Systems' data synchronization, device management and infrared SDKs have been licensed tinder the...

Provigent ups third round of financing to $10 million.(NEWS / BUSINESS / CONTRACTS)(Provigent, Inc)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2005... Provigent, Inc. announces that it has increased the third round funding to $10 million and the total amount raised thus far to $21 million. The company's added funding results from a large number of new customers, mainly for the company's...

OMNIKEY opens office in Asia Pacific.(NEWS / BUSINESS / CONTRACTS)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2005... OMNIKEY announces the inauguration of its regional operations in Asia. The opening of the new office, located in Hong Kong, is a strategic move to strengthen the company's position in the fast developing local market for smart card- and...

KT selects Atheros Communications as supplier.(NEWS / BUSINESS / CONTRACTS)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2005... Atheros Communications, Inc. announces that KT (formerly Korea Telecom) has selected Atheros 802.11a/g technology for its 5 GHz/2.4 GHz dual-band WLAN products. Atheros is the exclusive supplier of 802.11a/g technology to KT's advanced line of...

Mimix enters agreement to acquire assets of Celeritek.(NEWS / BUSINESS / CONTRACTS)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2005... Mimix Broadband, Inc. and Celeritek, Inc. jointly announce that they have entered into an asset purchase agreement pursuant to which Mimix will acquire substantially all of Celeritek's assets relating to its GaAs semiconductor components...

Micron Technology reports results for the second quarter.(NEWS / BUSINESS / CONTRACTS)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2005... Micron Technology announces results of operations for its second quarter of fiscal 2005, ending March 3, 2005. For the second quarter, the company earned operating income of $126 million and net income of $118 million, or $0.17 per diluted...

eASIC expands its global presence to Korea.(NEWS / BUSINESS / CONTRACTS)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2005... eASIC[R] Corporation announces the expansion of its award-winning Configurable Logic products to Korea through partnership with ADT (Advanced Design Technology, Korea), Co Ltd. ADT has joined eASIC's DSR (Design Service Representative) program...

Arrow Asia Pac signs agreement with Linear Technology.(NEWS / BUSINESS / CONTRACTS)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2005... Arrow Asia Pac Ltd. announces that it has signed a franchise agreement with Linear Technology. Under the terms of the agreement, Arrow Asia Pac will be a premier distributor of Linear Technology's full range of products through its 18 sales...

Willtek Communications announces partnership with Instrumentation Engineering.(NEWS / BUSINESS / CONTRACTS)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2005... Willtek Communications announces that it has entered into an agreement with Instrumentation Engineering (IE). This joint effort helps both companies in their efforts to develop complete turnkey systems for mobile phone testing in the...

Siliconix and STMicroelectronics announce license agreement.(NEWS / BUSINESS / CONTRACTS)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2005... STMicroelectronics and Siliconix incorporated announce that the two companies have concluded an agreement whereby ST will license from Siliconix a new power MOSFET packaging technology that provides thermal performance via top and bottom heat...

EM Microelectronic signs Jaco as national distributor.(NEWS / BUSINESS / CONTRACTS)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2005... EM Microelectronic announces that it has signed Hauppauge, NY-based Jaco Electronics as its national distributor in order to distribute EM Microelectronic's standard products to the US, Canadian and Mexican markets. EM Microelectronic's...

CSR acquires Clarity Technologies.(NEWS / BUSINESS / CONTRACTS)(CSR plc)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2005... CSR plc announces the acquisition of Clarity Technologies, Inc. for a consideration of $17.1 million payable in cash. Clarity is a leading provider of software and services for improving the audio quality and performance of voice-based...

Agilent announces technology breakthroughs.(NEWS / BUSINESS / CONTRACTS)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2005... Agilent announces breakthroughs its core electronic design automation (EDA) frequency-domain simulation technologies for RFIC, MMIC and RF system-in-package (SIP) design. Simulation speed improvements of up to 50 times have been achieved for...

X-FAB collaborates with Cadence to accelerate analog and mixed-signal designs.(NEWS / BUSINESS / CONTRACTS)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2005... X-FAB Semiconductor Foundries AG announces a collaborative agreement with Cadence Design Systems, Inc. X-FAB will work closely with Cadence to build and deliver comprehensive design kits for analog and mixed-signal ICs targeting mainstream and...

WWiSE consortium for IEEE 802.11n welcomes new members; updates proposal.(NEWS / BUSINESS / CONTRACTS)(World Wide Spectrum Efficiency )(Brief Article)
May 1, 2005... The World Wide Spectrum Efficiency (WWiSE) consortium, a group of companies which has developed a complete proposal for the IEEE 802.11 Task Group N (TGn), announces that several new members have recently joined its ranks. France Telecom, ITRI...

Aeroflex announces purchase of JcAIR Test Systems business.(NEWS / BUSINESS / CONTRACTS)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2005... Aeroflex Incorporated announces the acquisition of the business of JcAIR Test Systems from aerospace and defense supplier, Goodrich Corporation, for $35 million in cash.

Direct Digital Synthesis: DDSs built on FPGAs are ideal building blocks for digital communications systems.(TECHNOLOGY FOCUS / SIGNAL SOURCES)(Field programmable gate array)
May 1, 2005... Modern digital signal processors (DSPs) require waveforms that do not significantly load these processors in the system. Direct Digital Synthesizers (DDS) are an efficient and cost-effective method to accomplish this. DDS 101 DDSs are...

System--based RF amplifier design: proper transceiver sign depends upon a solid understanding of the performance parameters and trade-offs of RF amplifiers.(Cover Story)
May 1, 2005... A multitude of system requirements must be considered when choosing an optimal amplifier from the many devices available in the marketplace. Since early days when only GaAsFET and silicon bipolar technologies were available, amplifier choices...

WiMAX silicon and systems: ready for deployment: the arrival of the first silicon-powered systems based on the new WiMAX standard offers a compelling argument to extend broadband wireless access.(FEATURED TECHNOLOGY)
May 1, 2005... Access to broadband wireless connectivity has been range-bound, limited by bandwidth constraints and expensive network installation costs that have kept access out of reach for many businesses, communities and travellers outside of metropolitan...

Characterizing CDMA mobile devices: the key to maximizing system capacity while keeping system interference under control.(SPECIAL SECTION / TEST & MEASUREMENT)
May 1, 2005... CDMA has proven to be an efficient and effective technology for wireless operators both in terms of subscriber capacity and revenue generation. The technology is a true 3G system, offering high-speed data transfer rates and traditional voice...

Creating Wi-Fi test metrics: the constant mobility of the WLAN user coupled with the inherent instability of the unwired medium--air--make the 802.11 protocol an order of magnitude more complex than equivalent wired protocols.(SPECIAL SECTION: TEST & MEASUREMENT)
May 1, 2005... Testing techniques developed for wired devices and networks fall short when applied to the WLAN market. The inherent instability of the unwired medium--air--in which the wireless world operates and the constant mobility of the WLAN user make...

Generator interface.(EMBEDDED SYSTEMS)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2005... Xilinx and AccelChip Inc. announce an interface between AccelChip[R] DSP Synthesis and Xilinx System Generator for DSP tools, which enables development of high performance digital signal processing (DSP) and communications systems. This...

Bypass switch.(TRANSMISSION TECHNOLOGIES)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2005... Dow-Key Microwave announces a 3 GHz bypass switch. DC characteristics of this switch (P/N 411FL-2308-2) include 24 to 32 VDC operation (28 VDC nominal operating current is 300 mA typical at 20[degrees]C). Equipped with a failsafe actuator, this...

Splitter series.(TRANSMISSION TECHNOLOGIES)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2005... Rugged construction and good performance across all wireless bands from 0.8 to 2.7 GHz make these splitters from MECA suitable for in-building wireless systems. The series features easy installation with unobstructed access to connector ports...

VSAT antenna products.(MILITARY/AEROSPACE)(Very Small Aperture Terminals)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2005... Andrew announces two small aperture terminal antenna designs. The 75-centimeter elliptical Ku-band receive-transmit antenna system is designed with a narrow beamwidth for improved adjacent satellite discrimination using a fiberglass composite...

Voltage divider.(MILITARY/AEROSPACE)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2005... TT Electronics IRC Advanced Film Division announces a military voltage divider that provides two matched resistors with absolute and ratio tolerances on a single chip. The D1206 series is composed of two TaNFilm[R] tantalum nitride resistors on...

Evaluation kit.(DEVELOPMENT KITS)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2005... CML's range of PMR and leisure radio baseband ICs, the CMX881, CMX882 and CMX883, can now be designed-in with the availability of a custom evaluation, demonstration and investigation kit, the EV8810. Supplied as a printed circuit board running...

Variable gain amplifiers.(AMPLIFIERS)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2005... Maxim introduces the MAX2056/MAX2057, RF VGAs in monolithic form. The amplifiers deliver over 40 dB of linearly controlled dynamic range while maintaining up to 39 dBm of OIP3 and 64 dBm of OIP2 over all attenuation settings. The VGAs are...

Low noise amplifiers.(AMPLIFIERS)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2005... Mini-Circuits' Blue Cell technology allows the use of its 90-degree splitters to enhance the performance of a family of medium power amplifiers. Balanced amplifier configurations offer the improvement of both input and output return loss due to...

LNA/mixer.(AMPLIFIERS)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2005... CEL announces an HJ-FET from NEC. The NE3503M04 is designed to serve a variety of C- to Kuband applications, including use as an LNA, mixer and high gain amplifier for LNBs in direct broadcast satellite systems. The device features low noise...

Power amplifier modules.(AMPLIFIERS)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2005... Agilent announces its family of 4 x 4 mm power amplifier (PA) modules featuring CoolPAM technology. This technology uses advanced InGaP HBT MMIC technology to provide reliability, temperature stability, cool operation and ruggedness. The...

RF connector.(AMPLIFIERS)(Radio Frequency)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2005... Corning Gilbert announces a push-on, high-performance, microwave interconnect system. The G3PO connectors support increased package density with center-to-center spacing of 0.085" minimum and PCB to PCB stack height of 0.120" minimum. The...

28-lead QLFP Package.(SEMICONDUCTORS/ICs)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2005... Kyocera announces an open tooled, high performance 28-lead QLFP (Quad-Lead-Flat-Package) for millimeter-wave frequencies. This surface-mountable package features a Cu/Mo heat sink, kovar seal ring, gull wing leads and both differential and...

Serializer/deserializer chipset.(SEMICONDUCTORS/ICs)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2005... Maxim introduces the MAX9217 and MAX9218, which serialize 27 lines into a single DC-balanced twisted pair or differential line for improved EMI. The LVDS inputs and outputs meet the requirements of the ANSI TIA/EIA 644 LVDS standard. The...

Pre-driver power amplifiers.(SEMICONDUCTORS/ICs)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2005... RF Micro Devices[R] announces two GaAs HBT pre-driver power amplifiers (PAs) for cellular basestation applications. The half-watt RF3807 and two-watt RF3809 single-stage devices operate across CDMA, GSM, DCS, PCS and UMTS frequencies. Operating...

EV-DO services.(TEST & MEASUREMENT)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2005... Spirent Communications[TM] announces its APEX C2K: SC platform for automated testing of EV-DO applications. This product provides a platform to perform signaling conformance testing on EV-DO-capable mobile devices and to verify the robustness...

Broadband cable and antenna analyzers.(TEST & MEASUREMENT)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2005... Anritsu introduces the Broadband Site Master S810D/ S820D, cable and antenna analyzers that provide wide frequency bandwidth, allowing for the detection of faults in cables and antennas used in wireless backhaul and defense applications. The...

Microwave antenna.(TEST & MEASUREMENT)(AR Worldwide)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2005... AR Worldwide introduces a lightweight microwave horn antenna that is capable of supplying the high intensity fields necessary for RFI/EMI immunity or susceptibility testing. The model AT4010 is a wide band, high gain, high power antenna that is...

Signal generators.(TEST & MEASUREMENT)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2005... Aeroflex has added List Mode as an option to the IFR 3410 series signal generators, offering a 6X increase in speed for high-volume production testing. The option allows the user to create and use lists to automate testing sequences and...

Chip inductors.(PASSIVES)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2005... Vishay announces the release of two thin film chip inductors in compact 0402 and 0603 case sizes that provide high Q values up to 49 at specified frequencies from 100 to 1700 MHz. The Vishay Dale IFCB-0402 and IFCB-0603 are designed to provide...

Video camera & sensor network.(EDITOR'S CHOICE MAY 2005: TECHNOLOGY AWARD)(Avaak, Inc.)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2005... The Avaak AV-18 ultra-miniature, wireless full color imager is a wireless color digital camera designed to operate as a node in a wireless sensor network. The unit is a self-contained, autonomous, wireless video sensor platform, comprised of a...