Engineering websites are important information resources for microwave design engineers. When properly designed, an engineering website can quickly guide a visitor to a particular component or device, track down a data sheet on a spectrum analyzer, or help locate a white paper or application note with useful design information. As most manufacturers have learned, just having a website is critical as a support tool for customers. Maintaining a high-quality website not only satisfies current customers, it can contribute greatly to adding new customers.

In considering the type of websites of greatest interest to microwave engineers, content is of foremost importance. Engineers often need data sheets quickly, and a good site should make this search as simple and speedy as possible. The site should also contain supporting technical documentation for a company's products, in the form of white papers, technical articles, and application notes. The best sites are readily searchable, often by different search mechanisms, such as model numbers or key words.

While graphical design is not the most important part of a quality site, it can make navigation through the site easier. In visiting several hundred websites for this report, the clean and unassuming appearance of the Applied Thin-Film Products (www.thinfilm.com) site stands out. Although the site lacks a true technical library or application notes, it is to be commended for its ease of use and the logical approach to its graphic design. Based on the use of left-hand menu bars to clearly guide visitors to information on photomasks, substrates, metalization, processes, links, and even employment opportunities. The site's home page offers a concise message about the company's capabilities, and helps deliver information quickly and simply.

Similarly, Tensolite (www.tensolite.com) features a very clean design with well-marked links to its three main products areas (wire and cable, cable assemblies, and connectors). The home page offers main sections on the left-hand side with a multifunction search function on the top of the site. News releases are presented without fanfare, but are clearly dated in order of release. The site succeeds in presenting information efficiently and effectively.

Millitech Corp., which does list its physical address and contact information right on the home page, also follows the classic website design approach with menu items on the left-hand side and a description of the company and its capabilities on the right-hand side of the home page. The home page offers a choice of the Millimeter-Wave Products Division or the Satellite Communications Products Division. Once selecting the desired part of the site, a visitor has access to information about the firm's engineering capabilities, product data sheets and information about ordering custom products, and technical tools, which include technical references and technical notes.

American Technical Ceramics (atceramics.com) presents a somewhat unassuming home page, dominated by links to recent news releases. The lack of character in the home page conceals the fact that this is an excellent engineering website, with a wealth of technical notes in PDF form, a link to receive a copy of the "The RF Capacitor Handbook," an excellent publication on capacitor basics. The site also features Circuit Designers Note books, which are well-produced technical articles on a variety of fundamental topics, including capacitor dielectric properties, understanding the temperature coefficient of capacitance, capacitors in bypass applications, and capacitors in coupling and DC blocking applications.

As might be expected, some of the most extensive sites in terms of information are hosted by instrument and semiconductor suppliers (see table). Some of the earliest sites reviewed in this magazine, including those of Agilent Technologies (Santa Rosa, CA) and Analog Devices (Wilmington, MA), are still among the best-designed and populated sites in the industry.

Agilent Technologies (www.agilent.com), for example, presents five major industrial areas on its home page, with Test and Measurement Equipment, Semiconductor Products, Life Sciences/Chemical, Communications Solution, and Automated Test Equipment. The home page also includes a link to support for each of these groups as well as a customer center that allows visitors to request samples and/or buy a wide range of the company's equipment on-line. Each section of this website is larger than many companies' stand-alone sites, but only the test and measurement section was considered for this review. That section includes areas for basic instruments, RF/microwave instruments and systems, oscilloscopes and logic analyzers, test systems, test software, EDA software, test accessories, and repair/calibration services. The technical library for this site is extensive, including operator's manuals, product notifications, technical papers, application notes, software and firmware downloads, frequently asked questions (FAQs), and newsletters. A search function allows viewers to search for any term across the entire site or within any of the five major areas of the site.

Similarly, Analog Devices' site (www.analog.com) is rich in information on the company's integrated circuits (ICs), with product lines ranging from amplifiers and data converters to frequency synthesizers. In addition to hundreds of application notes, the site features software utilities and models of its various products, such as the link to the ADIsimADC analog-to-digital converter (ADC) virtual evaluation board (www.analog.com/adisimadc). This part of the site allows a visitor to download executable software. The software models the behavior and performance of an ADC in a user's system when coupled with the firm's product files.

One of the most impressive sites in terms of sheer information and intelligence of presentation is hosted by Texas Instruments (www.ti.com). Although presenting more information on digital signal processing (DSP) than nominal RF topics, the site clearly categorizes products by function and solution type, and includes large sections on support and applications right on the home page. Upon entering the technical documentation section of the site, visitors can search for literature by type of article and key words, and even view the top three literature downloads to date.

In the test area, Anritsu Company's (www.us.anritsu.com) site has a wealth of technical documentation, including application notes, configuration guides, operations manuals, technical notes, and white papers. In addition, the site offers a wide range of software drivers for download, including drivers for spectrum measurements, power measurements, Bluetooth testing, BER testing, and optical communications testing.