Thursday - From the show floor

Last day of the exhibition and the frantic days of back-to-back meetings, everyone's growing list of action items and late nights of "networking" may be taking their toll on the exhibitors as the morning seems noticeably quieter than previous days. This will be my day for fewer scheduled meetings so that I can address some marketing issues such as following up on product announcements and press releases, while also stopping by more exhibitors for a quick hello and to check up on what's new. Time to cover as much ground as possible.

For me, the morning starts with the exhibitor’s breakfast meeting. This is the event where the exhibitors hear from the new show management (MP Associates) about the details of the next year’s venue, any changes to the show format and rules and can sign-up to exhibit. Microwave Journal is announced as a premier Media Partner for the IMS2009 show (along with Penton Media). After this breakfast meeting, I hustle over to the exhbition hall for the final morning.

Life is good at the Nitronex booth where so much customer activity means a postponement of our scheduled meeting (I am able to get a quick summary of their GaN on Silicon activity, a GaN essentials application note and a press kit on their latest technology). Given the pending release of certain key new products (likely sometime this fall) which target both commercial telecom and military applications, look for a product feature in Microwave Journal's Government electronic issue or our Emerging Technology supplement in the October/November timeframe.

My last scheduled meeting of the morning is with Peregrine Semiconductor, leading developers of RF-CMOS and mixed-signal ICs. The lion's share of our discussion was about some very exciting technology that is just over the horizon and which I won't divulge here, but I encourage our readers to stayed tuned for a feature article on this hush-hush technology in the fall.

Meanwhile Peregrine can share their IMS news addressing their new SPDT switch that delivers ultra-linear, ultra-fast settling times which is quickly being adapted by all RF/microwave test equipment and ATE manufacturers due to its superior performance. Other news includes more products in the MultiSwitch RFIC portfolio with a Dual-SP4T switch that contains 8 symmetric high-power high-linearity RF ports as well as an expansion of the UltraCMOS digital step attenuator line. Peregrine continues to utilize their unique harmonic reduction (HARP) circuit architecture to improve the linearity (intermodulation distortion - 116dBm IMD3) of the device to achieve a performance level that exceeds the specifications set by the 3GPP standards body for GSM/WCDMA designs.

The remainder of my day is spent walking the show floor for brief product demos and conversation with some of the smaller exhibitors. By 3 o’clock its time to start packing up the literature, turn-off the test equipment and computers and start breaking down the booths. Thank you Atlanta for some truly fine, southern hospitality. I will see y'all in Boston!