Sunday, October 3, 2010

EuMW Exhibition 2010: from A to Z

A is for agnostic nonlinear model support, the leading news from AWR in support of the Cardiff models, the latest S-functions from NMDG and X-parameters from Agilent

B is for broadband time delays product line from Hittite, a DC to 24 GHz analog time delay that supports data transmission to 32 Gbps or clock signal delay up to 24 GHz.

C is for cross correlation Phase Noise analyzers from Holzworth for either fixed or tunable DUT test frequencies.

D is for distortion, an increasing concern highlighted by the importance of IM levels and a driving factor behind Creowave’s announcement that they have developed low PIM filtering solutions to measure the performance of base stations.

E is for EADS Defence & Security making the name change to Cassidian, just in time for their presentation at the Defence/Security Executive Forum

F is for FE-BI (finite element boundary integral) hybrid solver from Ansoft, details to follow in the months to come.

G is for GaN which made an appearance with numerous vendors from RFHIC (1 KW PA) to ACCEL-RF (GaN life test systems)

H is for High purity alumina ceramics with excellent electrical insulation, chemical resistance and low dielectric constant introduced by Brush Ceramic Products, Inc.

I is for ICEbreaker, the newest nonlinear device modeling software tool, free from NMDG

J is for jitter analysis, made easier by the new “C” series of Tektronix AWG instruments which reduce waveform creation times by 45 percent compared to prior AWG instruments, targeting high-speed serial and wideband RF/microwave designs.

K is for K-band MMIC design, getting a boost with the new optical .15 um PHEMT process from TriQuint’s foundry.

L is for Liquid Crystal Polymer (LCP) QFN, air cavity packages that support finer lead pitches, thinner lead frames and shorter wire bond lengths in a near hermetic, ROHS-compliant solution from RJR Polymers

M is for mixed-signal active load-pull from Anteverta, featured in our September issue and on display at their stand within the Agilent partners’ pavilion

N is for NEL Frequency Controls Inc.’s latest ultra low phase noise OCXO at 100 MHz with close-in phase noise of -105 dBc/Hz at 10 Hz and -178 dBc/Hz phase noise on the floor.

O is for output powers of 600 W UHF RF power from NXP’s BLF888A LDMOS device targeting broadcast transmitters and industrial applications, reported to be the most powerful LDMOS broadcast transistor in the market to date.

P is for Precision Devices which announced an ultra low noise and ultra stable crystal oscillator with a phase noise floor of -168 dBc at 10 kHz and excellent stability at a precision of only 0.0002 ppm (or 0.2 ppb – parts per billion) over a temperature range of 0 to +70°C or 0.0005 ppm at -20° to +70°C.

Q is for quality factor, a critical measure of passive device electrical performance and a differentiator for Dielectric Labs’ High-Q capacitor series.

R is for the Russian microwave market, represented by Pluton, manufacturers of frequency-agile magnetrons.

S is for small, as in the industry’s first PXI VNA from National Instruments

T is for the TWT based on a mini-helix technology being launched by e2v

U is for universal oscilloscopes from Rohde & Schwarz with 500 MHz bandwidth, 5 Gsample per second and a memory depth of up to 8 Msample make them ideal for testing and debugging analog and digital circuits with low clock rates.

V is for Vector signal analysis software from Agilent to assist R&D engineers performing signal and modulation analysis

W is for Wall, as in A.T. Wall, manufacturer of seamless tubing and high-speed stamping and proud sponsor of the Defense/Security Executive Forum at EuMW

X is for X-band core chips from M/A-Com Tech Asia, highly-integrated core chips that provide high-levels of functionality to greatly simplify the design of T/R modules.

Y is for yield analysis in Microwave Studio from CST is based on evaluating the s-parameter dependencies on various model parameters on the basis of one simulation without restarting the full-wave simulation, thus offering users a considerable speed-up.

Z is for Z-Communications, manufacturers of VCOs and PLLs announced a new line of waveguide solutions including full-band waveguide-to-coax-adapters along with precision, low powered waveguide terminations covering 5 GHz to 40 GHz.