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ISSUE DATE: OCTOBER 2008 | |
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October 2008 - In This Issue [Cover Story] Novel Approach Yields Fast, Clean Synthesizers Frequency synthesizers are invaluable components in many systems, from commercial communications networks to test and measurement instruments.1 Because of their wide application, the RF/microwave industry constantly feels the pressure to deliver higher-performance, higher-functionality, smaller-size, and lower-cost synthesizer designs. In addition, as dictated by the ever-increasing data rates of modern communications systems, a major challenge in synthesizer ... — Alexander Chenakin [News] Communications Technologies Strive For Improved Connections Communications systems operators face at least one continuing reality: their customers want ever-improving services even as networks become overloaded with subscribers. Additional subscribers on a wired or wireless communications network benefit the business side of the operation. But as more subscribers are added to a network, its capacity is pushed to its limits, requiring the assistance of advanced technologies, in the form of hardware and software,... — Jack Browne [News] Interview: Christos Tsironis When did you start Focus Microwaves and what came before that? After studying EE in Karlsruhe, I received a Dr. Ing. degree from the University of Aachen, both in Germany. I spent three years working on noise theory and measurements of GaAs FETs. During that time, in the mid-1970s, I developed the first manual impedance tuner, which uses principally the same slugs as today’s tuners. After that, I worked for five years at Philips Research Laboratory in... — Jack Browne [News] Microwave Legends In 2006, this magazine proudly celebrated its 45th birthday. To commemorate that event, the editorial staff put together a list of 45 “Microwave Legends.” This was a hall of fame that combined ground-breaking products like the HP 8510 with legendary figures like Edwin Armstrong and more modern characters like Barrie Gilbert. We vowed that we would continue this tradition by inducting five more entrants into the Microwave Legends every year. This year’s... — Nancy Friedrich [News] Tunable Oscillators Aim At Reduced Phase Noise Tunable oscillators are instrumental in the operation of many systems, from commercial communications to military radars. And, while many characteristics define the performance of a tunable RF/microwave oscillator, one of the more difficult parameters to optimize is phase noise, which is critical to the performance of so many systems. For that reason, the design team at Synergy Microwave (... — Jack Browne [Design Features] Measure The Range Of Sensor Networks Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) provide invaluable services with their short-range communications capabilities. But their limited operating power can impose restrictions on the maximum allowable distance between the sensors and the base station.1,2 Due to this limitation, direct communications between a sensor and its base station is not always possible, especially in a difficult radio environment with strong attenuation. To overcome this... — R.A. Abd-Alhameed , et al. [Design Features] Analyze Interference In Compact Wireless Designs Portable wireless transceivers have proliferated rapidly in recent years, for a wide range of applications including transmission and reception of voice, data, and video. One of the key requirements for wireless equipment is that the electronic circuits operate in the vicinity of other high-frequency radio transmitters, such as Bluetooth devices. Previous studies on interference have considered any source as a far-field effect and focused on... — Don LaFontaine [Design Features] Setting Strategies For Transmission Lines Last month, the first part of this article made recommendations for choosing the physical dimensions of stripline. A large height, H, ensures high power-handling capability. Smaller H requires a smaller strip for the same impedance, leading to higher losses. The thickness, h, of the suspended stripline dielectric substrate should be as small to minimize losses and parasitic inductance of vias, as well as to reduce cost. For slotline, the... — Leo G. Maloratsky [Design Features] Two-Stage LDMOS RFIC Drives WiMAX Power amplifiers (PAs) for modern communications systems are generally designed by cascading and paralleling multiple RF transistors to achieve the required solid-state gain and power. With their wide range of impedancematching, optimization, and architectural options, single-stage discrete RF transistors offer a great deal of flexibility for power-amplifier designers, although with some loss of printedcircuit- board (PCB) space compared to RF... — Cedric Cassan , et al. [Product Technology] High-Speed ADCs and DACs Arm Broadband Communications Data converters, while not directly involved in RF/ microwave communications, play critical roles in those and other high-frequency systems. Whether it is the digital-to-analog converter (DAC) used to create the complex modulation needed to compress voice, video, and data onto limited-bandwidth signals, or the fast analog-to-digital converters that translate received signals into highresolution digital code, data converters are as important to modern... — Jack Browne [Product Technology] Dual-Channel YIGs Filter Signals To 18 GHz Filters based on yttriumiron-garnet (YIG) technology provide passbands or rejection bands that can be tuned across wide microwave frequency ranges. One of the companies that has succeeded in shrinking the size of the technology in recent years, Micro Lambda Wireless (www.microlambdawireless.com), in the form of its compact cubeshaped filters, has now packed two filter channels into these... — Jack Browne [Product Technology] Surface-Mount Filters Meet RoHS Requirements Hazardous waste from disposal of electronic products should be a concern to all involved with electronic design. The Restriction of Hazardous Substances (RoHS) Directive adopted by the European Union (EU) in 2003, of course, set limits on certain hazardous materials in the manufacture of electronic equipment. Although adoption of the RoHS guidelines has not been universal, those seeking components that comply with the RoHS Directive will usually find... — Jack Browne [Editorial] Bluetooth Re-Invents Itself Again Bluetooth has turned out to be the “little engine that could” of wireless technology. Most folks in the wireless industry considered it an example of what happens to a technology that is overhyped. It was credited with too many capabilities too early and almost died off before it could find any winning applications. Defying expectations, though, Bluetooth did manage to find some successful niches. More than five years later, the technology continues to evolve to... — Nancy Friedrich [Feedback] Feedback To the Editor I read with interest your article in the August issue of Microwaves & RF, “Crystal Oscillators Continue to Shrink,” p. 33. As a designer of RF/microwave function modules for commercial and military applications, I think it is fair to say that I am not much different from your readers who are involved in higherlevel microwave designs (beyond the component level) and, as such, need to develop and produce... — Various Readers [The Front End] 200 Million UMDs To Ship In 2013 NEW YORK—From a virtual “standing start” of just 10 million units this year, shipments of ultra-mobile devices (UMDs) are expected to exceed 200 million in 2013. UMD is the umbrella term for ultra-mobile PCs, netbooks, and Mobile Internet Devices. According to Philip Solis, ABI Research Principal Analyst, “The UMD market will still be small compared to the wireless handset market. But with a forecast revenue of nearly US $27 billion in 2013, it will certainly be... — Dawn Hightower [The Front End] First Wideband Networking Radio Certified As Fully Compliant ROCHESTER, NY—Harris Corp. has announced that its Falcon III AN/PRC-117G(V)1(C) multiband manpack has become the first wideband networking radio to be certified as Software Communications Architecture (SCA) compliant. The certification, from the Joint Program Executive Office (JPEO) for the Joint Tactical Radio System (JTRS) program, ensures that the radio is easily upgradable to JTRS wideband and narrowband waveforms. Harris is the only company to receive JTRS SCA... — Dawn Hightower [The Front End] Skyworks/Ember To Develop Portfolio Of Front-End Modules For ZigBee Applications ATLANTA, GA—Skyworks Solutions, Inc. and Ember are partnering to develop the industry’s first portfolio of ZigBee front-end modules (FEMs) targeting applications like smart meters in energy management, home-area networks (HANs), and industrial automation. ZigBee is a wireless-networking standard that solves the unique needs of remote monitoring, control, and sensor-network applications. The modules’ receive paths integrate baluns in order to provide... — Dawn Hightower [The Front End] Kudos N. BILLERICA, MA—Radio Waves, Inc. is celebrating its 25th anniversary. Radio Waves has been designing and manufacturing high-quality microwave antennas for 25 years in Billerica, MA. When asked about his company’s 25th anniversary, Andy Singer, the company’s President, stated, “It is the quality and talent of our work force that allows us to stay competitive and provide the highest quality, best-performing microwave antennas available over these past 25 years... — Dawn Hightower [Financial News] Financial News GHL ACQUISITION CORP. and Iridium Holdings LLC, a provider of voice and data mobile satellite services (MSSs), have jointly announced the signing of a definitive agreement under which the two companies plan to combine. The proceeds of the transaction will enable Iridium to be debt free and well positioned to develop its next-generation satellite constellation, “Iridium NEXT.” GHL Acquisition is the special-purpose acquisition company sponsored by Greenhill ... — Dawn Hightower [Company News] Company News CONTRACTS Alcatel-Lucent—Has signed a turnkey equipment and services contract with 3 Italia, a 3G mobile operator in Italy and the first DVB-H Mobile TV operator, to expand and optimize its broadcast Mobile TV network throughout Italy. Alcatel-Lucent’s solution for 3 Italia, based on its DVB-H terrestrial transmitters, remote monitoring system, and including network integration services, will enable 3 Italia to increase the indoor... — Dawn Hightower [People] People Intel Foundation—PAUL GRAY, executive vice chancellor and Provost Emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley, received the 2008 IEEE Robert N. Noyce Medal for his work in analog integrated-circuit theory. Alcatel-Lucent—GERARD J. FOSCHINI, a scientist and innovator at Bell Labs, has been awarded the 2008 IEEE Alexander Graham Bell Medal. He was recognized for seminal contributions to the science and technology of... — Dawn Hightower [Educational Meetings] Educational Meetings SHORT COURSES Besser Associates Short Courses RF Transceiver Architecture, Design and Evaluation Nov.17-21, 2008 (Dallas, TX) Applied RF Techniques for Modern Radio Design Nov. 17-21, 2008 (Dallas, TX ) Wireless System Design and Simulation Dec. 8-12, 2008 (San Jose, CA) Short Range Coexistence RF Transceiver Design Techniques Dec. 9-12, 2008 (San Jose,... — Dawn Hightower [R&D Roundup] Measurement Procedure Compares Gilbert Micromixers CMOS Technology has emerged as a solid option for low-cost wireless HDMI integrated circuits (ICs) in the 60-GHz band. Recently, two W-Band receivers have been reported by Mehdi Khanpour, Keith W. Tang — Nancy Friedrich [R&D Roundup] Antenna Solution Ends Hearing-Aid Buzzing When Cellular phones and hearing aids interact, many hearing-aid users experience a severe buzzing noise. By reducing the near-field electromagnetic energy around a cellular phone — Nancy Friedrich [R&D Roundup] 65-nm CMOS Houses 75-to-91-GHz Receiver Front End To determine a Gilbert mixer’s frequency response for each local oscillator (LO), RF, and intermediatefrequency (IF) stage, a measurement approach has been proposed by Jin-Siang Syu — Nancy Friedrich [Application Notes] Tune In Clearly On Antenna Fundamentals Radio-fRequency (Rf) engineeRs often cite designing RF emitters, such as RF/microwave antennas, as major technical challenges. This issue seems to stem from a lack of clear understanding of RF transmitting antennas. To alleviate this problem, Instruments For Industry (IFI) has released “Application Note 105: RF Antennas and Related Formulas.” This note explains some of the more standard antenna terms. It also delves into the basic math that is required to calculate... — Nancy Friedrich [Application Notes] AWG Handles WiMedia Signal Generation ULTRAWIDEBAND (UWB) communications techniques serve as examples of how RF signals and systems are becoming increasingly complex. Clearly, RF engineers need better ways of understanding RF signal behavior and multiplesignal interactions. In “UWB-WiMedia Signal Generation Using Advanced Waveform Editing Tools,” Tektronix, Inc. delves into the challenges involved in generating frequency-hopping UWB signals. The 15-page application note also details the options that... — Nancy Friedrich [Bookmark] Book Report: CMOS RFIC Design Principles by Robert Caverly At one time, high-frequency engineers might have associated silicon CMOS processes with digital circuits or, at most, low-frequency RF devices. But with nanoscale fabrication processes improving, a variety of semiconductor companies and silicon foundries are pushing CMOS processes well into the millimeter-wave frequency range, to 60 GHz and beyond, in the hopes of finally commercializing millimeter-wave devices. To take advantage of this surging interest ... — Jack Browne [Defense Electronics Special Section] PMC Format Holds Agile ADCs And SDRs Modular signal-processing solutions provide a great deal of exibility in both military and industrial applications. By swapping modules or cards in a mainframe, the character of a system can be quickly changed, and performance capabilities rapidly modi fied to suit an application. A number of standards have been established to improve the compatibility of signal-processing modules, including the Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) standard and the PCI... — Jack Browne [Defense Electronics Special Section] Military Electronics Firms Set To Weather Economic Storms Business in the military electronics sector is generally steady and stable, in spite of an ever-changing landscape of suppliers. The reason for the stability could be arguable, of course, that the ultimate customers do not change, i.e., the military establishments of the world’s various governments tend to stay in business with constant requirements in the area of electronics and technology for military applications. The business landscape for... — Jack Browne [Defense Electronics Special Section] Teamwork Provides Secure Surveillance Software Solution Military surveillance systems are designed to make records of events of interest. But finding a particular event among one month’s worth of surveillance recordings can be challenging and time-consuming. For that reason, EchoStorm Worldwide (www.echostorm.net), a leading supplier of innovative video and sensor management solutions for military, government, and commercial applications, developed... — Jessica Isquith |
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