Raytheon Microwave System to Prevent Frost in Vineyards

Although this news item is a few weeks old, I thought it was interesting enough to cover here since I have never seen microwave technology used in the type of application. Raytheon is planning to install a prototype microwave frost protection system at the Vineland Research and Innovation Centre, a Canadian horticulture research center located in Ontario, Canada. Raytheon will install a prototype Tempwave system in the center’s vineyard, prepare it for operation and support initial testing over a four-month period. Raytheon’s Tempwave radiant heating system offers a more efficient way to warm crops and avoid the adverse effects of frost on the growing season.

Tempwave’s Microwave Approach
Tempwave is Raytheon’s patent-pending system that uses low-level microwave radiant heat to prevent frost damage to crops. The system directly transmits microwave energy from towers located in an orchard or vineyard to crops without heating the intervening air. Among the system’s many advantages, Tempwave uses no water; emits no smoke, unlike fuel heaters; and operates silently, unlike noisy wind machines used for frost protection.

Mission Innovation is charged with exploring and applying Raytheon technical expertise to address global challenges outside Raytheon’s traditional core business interests in defense, homeland security and other government markets.

Do you see any other potential uses for this technology?

Big M&A Activity as MTTS 2010 IMS Nears

The past week has included several big announcements in the microwave industry for Mergers & Acquisitions which I will extend to also include some significant partnerships that were formed. On the mergers front, Aeroflex officially acquired Willtek from Wireless Telecom Group which was previously announced but is now complete. They paid $2.75 M plus assumed some liabilities.

Next Comtech Telecommunications acquired CPI International for about $475 M. Fred Kornberg, President and CEO of Comtech said the acquisition is a significant step in their strategy of developing a one-stop shopping approach for RF microwave products. The transition is expected to be seamless as they will keep all of CPI's agreements and executive staff in place.

Finally on the merger front, M/A-COM and Mimix agreed to merge last week which was not unexpected as they were both owned by John Ocampo/GaAs labs. I blogged about this previously so I wont' go into any details here.

With 3 big mergers there were also 3 big partnerships/market entries announced recently in the microwave world. The first partnership was IBM teamed up with Peregrine to run their UltraCMOS SOS process on their 8 inch, 180 nm line giving Peregrine a large capacity, low cost chip fab. They plan to utilize future processes using 130 and 90 nm processes for higher performance.

Next Freescale surprised me by announcing they are entering the GaAs MMIC market with 4 new devices. They have always been such a force in the high power LDMOS market that I never envisioned them entering into the GaAs market but I think it is a good move. These products include both PHEMT and HBT products and seem to mostly target the base station market so it expands their portfolio of products in that area.

And finally, EADS and Alcatel announced they are teaming up develop a mobile solution designed specifically to address the public safety market in the United States. The solution, based on LTE and on the public safety Project 25 (P25) standards and will provide mission-critical communications to state and local public safety organizations (fire, police and ambulance departments). The solution is an IP based system that will be interoperable with other communication systems.

This is the busiest pre-MTTS/IMS show news year I have ever seen with a lot of business activity and products announcements. Visit our show news page for up to date information prior to, during and after the show and here is a sneak peak at a May online article on Microwave M&A from a business stand point.

ABI Handset Market Estimates for 1Q-2010

According to ABI Research, handset shipments globally for 1Q-2010 powered ahead to 303 million, up 19% Year-on-Year. This bodes well for 2010 as a whole as shipments could reach 1.3 billion. It is also notable that 3G handset shipments eclipsed 2G handset shipments. The strongest handset shipment growth was seen in the Middle East and Africa (20% YoY) followed by the Americas, particularly the US (11%). Europe, on the other hand, is languishing with single-digit growth.

Nokia’s market-share stood at 34%. New smartphones such as the N8 are helping the manufacturer to shore up its handset portfolio, as its loss of traction in the smartphone sector hit sales hard. In response, revamped efforts with Symbian ^3 and ^4, are intended to help Nokia regain momentum. Samsung had a strong quarter, securing 21%, and has been cultivating deeper relationships with US and European carriers which helped the firm grow its shipments 40.2% YoY.

LG’s market-share, 8.9%, has suffered from a weak smartphone portfolio in the North American market. Shipments grew 20% YoY. Motorola is benefiting from its initial success (2.8%) with the Droid and it keen to back it up with new products such as the Quench but the market is overtaking it. 1Q-2010 proved to a strong quarter for Apple (8.75m, 2.9%) devices shipped, which is up 130% YoY: a remarkable feat, but Apple should diversify its lineup.

I think the HTC is a real up and coming leader in the market. They make many phones for other manufacturers but I like their HD2 which is out of stock every where in my area due to high demand (I tried to get one the other day but there was even a waiting list, so I settled for a Blackberry Bold). With 1 GHz processors and many GBs of flash memory standard on most new phones, smartphones are really just mini-computers now.

M/A-COM Merges with Mimix

M/A-COM Technology Solutions and Mimix announced yesterday that they had agreed to merge and all products in the Mimix portfolio would reside within the M/A-COM family of products. This is not too surprising as they are both owned by the GaAs Labs/John Ocampo group after they purchased M/A-COM from Cobham in March of 2009.

I think this will strengthen both companies as Mimix brings some very good pt. to pt. radio and other MMIC products into the M/A-COM family that complement M/A-COM's existing portfolio. After Tyco Electronics divided M/A-COM up and sold them off several years ago, this gives the remaining entity that will carry on the name and heritage some more size and broadens the portfolio as the regain their market presence.

The original M/A-COM now resides in 5 different companies:

• M/A-COM Technology Solutions has the commercial product lines
• Cobham has the aerospace/defense product lines
• Harris has the wireless systems (LMR) product lines
• Autoliv (Sweden) has the automotive radar product lines
• Micronetics has the RFID product lines

I believe M/A-COM Technology Solutions will be the company that carries on the name and the others will transition away from the brand. It looks like the company will leverage a hybrid fab model as they continue to operate the M/A-COM wafer fabs but also use external foundries for chip production. Mimix is a fabless company and M/A-COM was already transitioning to the hybird model to improve flexibility and reduce capital investments from what I could tell.

For a short history of M/A-COM, read our April special report "M/A-COM is Reborn on Its 60th Birthday". What do you think of the merger and implications on the industry?

HP re-enters Wireless Domain

Yesterday, HP returned to the wireless world with the announcement that they have entered into a definitive agreement under which the company will purchase Palm, a provider of smartphones powered by the Palm webOS mobile operating system, at a price of $5.70 per share of Palm common stock in cash or an enterprise value of approximately $1.2 billion. The transaction has been approved by the HP and Palm boards of directors.

HP’s global scale and financial strength combined with Palm’s unparalleled webOS platform will enhance HP’s ability to participate more aggressively in the fast-growing, highly profitable smartphone and connected mobile device markets. Palm’s unique webOS will allow HP to take advantage of features such as true multitasking and always up-to-date information sharing across applications. While Palm gains the financial muscle to compete more aggressively with smartphone giants, Apple and Blackberry.

“Palm’s innovative operating system provides an ideal platform to expand HP’s mobility strategy and create a unique HP experience spanning multiple mobile connected devices,” said Todd Bradley, executive vice president, Personal Systems Group, HP. “And, Palm possesses significant IP assets and has a highly skilled team. The smartphone market is large, profitable and rapidly growing, and companies that can provide an integrated device and experience command a higher share. Advances in mobility are offering significant opportunities, and HP intends to be a leader in this market.”

“We’re thrilled by HP’s vote of confidence in Palm’s technological leadership, which delivered Palm webOS and iconic products such as the Palm Pre. HP’s longstanding culture of innovation, scale and global operating resources make it the perfect partner to rapidly accelerate the growth of webOS,” said Jon Rubinstein, chairman and chief executive officer, Palm. ”We look forward to working with HP to continue to deliver industry-leading mobile experiences to our customers and business partners.”

Under the terms of the merger agreement, Palm stockholders will receive $5.70 in cash for each share of Palm common stock that they hold at the closing of the merger. The merger consideration takes into account the updated guidance and other financial information being released by Palm this afternoon. The acquisition is subject to customary closing conditions, including the receipt of domestic and foreign regulatory approvals and the approval of Palm’s stockholders. The transaction is expected to close during HP’s third fiscal quarter ending July 31, 2010.

Stranded Microwaver in Europe

Brian Battaglia is the Sales and Marketing Manager for Integra Technologies, a leading manufacturer of high power rf/microwave transistors (i.e. LDMOS). He e-mailed his friends and acquaintances today to say that the volcano in Iceland that has shut down air travel in Europe has stranded him in Rome during a business trip. I asked Brian if he would like to share his story on this blog for our readers. Break out your violins fellow microwavers, here's his tale of "Whoa in Rome".

[from Brian's e-mail]

David,

I don’t know much about blogging but I always have stories to tell.

One week in Europe including Sweden, Rome and Italy. After a few days in Stockholm at the S.E.E. (Scandinavian electronics event) my flight arrived in Rome on Thursday last week. Upon landing I checked my blackberry and saw several messages – from my mom, girlfriend and boss – concerning the volcano eruption which I had not heard about yet. I may have been one of the last flights out of Sweden since this was big news by the time I landed. Somewhere between baggage claim and customs I found the VP of Amplifier Design of Integra who had just arrived from Los Angeles and we made our way to Rome. We had meetings on Friday and were not planning on leaving until Sunday so the volcano seemed like a temporary disruption that would clear up soon surely by the weekend.

On Friday we visited Selex Systemi Integrati a big customer for high power RF transistors globally. The cancellations started expanding across Europe but we weren’t leaving until Sunday and that seemed far away. Saturday was site-seeing (St. Peters/Vatican City/Pantheon/Trevi Fountain) in Rome with plans to leave the next day if the skies opened up. Sunday morning the news seemed hopeful as the no-fly zones were intended to be removed that night. However it soon became apparent that the European agencies were being extremely cautious and the delays kept coming. The stress of the situation mounted quickly – another hotel night accommodation – same hotel, same room, a little over double the price! New tickets purchased through US travel agency that showed flights leaving EARLY Monday morning i.e. 6:30AM. This meant ordering taxi for 3:30AM and 2:30AM wake up calls.

A quick check of the Internet near midnight brought bad news – additional delays over all of Europe. Although we booked on a US domestic carry the flight was routed through Amsterdam. KLM of the Netherlands wished to start flying on Monday but the government would not allow it. This meant cancelled flight and cancelled taxi, however, my Italian must not be so good since the wake-up call still came! The problem is that the airspace has not been cancelled for a few days…no what they are doing is saying everything will open in 12 hours and that has been repeated for the last five days. So every time you check it seems ok but as the 12 hours get closer it moves another 12 hours. It reminds me of the bar back in NY with a sign saying “Special: Free Beer Tomorrow” and when you return the next day of course the same sign in place.

For clothing first you use your casual dress which soon runs out, then back to your business clothes which eventually run out, so today I am wearing a soccer jersey with the name of the local team captain on the back. With decent Internet connections work can still be done as hot ash does not stop emails from piling up. All and all I don’t expect much sympathy from friends, family and colleagues with being stranded in Rome for a week: history at every turn, great fashion, food and wine. Wednesday is Italy’s National Birthday and all museums were free. Thursday is my birthday and Friday we have flights back to US via Chicago via Chicago. Maybe.

Good luck Brian, we hope you make it home in time for your birthday.

Engineer leaves his work behind in a bar

OK. Here’s the story as I initially heard it on American Public Media’s “Marketplace”, driving home from work yesterday.

Last month in Silicon Valley a very important cell phone was left behind at a bar -- what is widely believed to be a prototype of the new iPhone that Apple's officially going to release in a couple of months. The phone wound up in the hands of Jason Chen, the editor of the technology website Gizmodo.com.

In the news report, this phone was described at one point as Apple’s new 4G phone. Which initially grabbed my attention since I immediately thought they were talking LTE (whoa, that’s news), but I have since come to realize, that they were talking 4th generation iphone operating system. Oh well, it was still worth visiting the Gizmodo site and getting the skinny on the whole story and what the web site reporter’s investigation of the phone revealed before they returned it to Apple.

http://gizmodo.com/5520164/this-is-apples-next-iphone

Turning back to RF/microwave related concerns, I reviewed the gizmodo story with an eye out for relevant information. Here are some snippets about the new iPhone that relate to its radio. Among the most visible changes, is one of functionality over looks. The back is entirely flat, made of either glass (more likely) or ceramic or shiny plastic. Why the plastic back?



"The plastic back is the most obvious of the design choices. The iPad, with its all aluminum back, has seen its Wi-Fi reception radius reduced. The iPhone 3G version comes with a large patch on the top, probably big enough to provide with good reception. But the new tiny iPhone doesn't have the luxury of space: It needs to provide as much signal as possible using a very small surface. Industrial designers and fashionistas might be dying to get rid of the plastic back, and go iPad-style all the way, but the wireless reception is the most important thing in a cellphone. A necessary aesthetical-functional trade-off."



The “editors” then took apart the phone. Once open, they noticed that the battery takes up around 50% of the phone, give or take. Diving deeper became much trickier. There are a total of around 40-50 screws inside the phone, positioned at various angles that were almost frustratingly impossible to get to. The main logic board is one very weird piece of this puzzle. Unlike the iPhone 3GS teardown, which revealed a large logic board along with another part down by the dock connector, this design only has something maybe 1/3 of the size, along with one or two extraneous parts. Basically, the guts have shrunk drastically. The board was encased in metal all around so nothing could get through. EMI or IP protection?








Unfortunately, the editors failed to report on the front-end technology, changes to the antennas, power amps, switch modules and other RF components, etc. Oh, well, that’s information for a different audience than they were writing for, I suppose. We need a microwave editor for that. I'll have to ask my publisher for the new iPhone when it's available legally. The chances of me getting one are about as great as me being able to rip it apart.

Perhaps the bigger lesson is not to leave your work behind at the bar.

Next Generation Networks conference and Green Basestations Summit

The Next Generation Networks conference and Green Basestations Summit is scheduled for next week (April 19th - 23rd) in Bath, UK. The conference will feature twenty keynote operator presentations as well as speakers from leading global Investors, Analysts, OEMS, Vendors and Industry Associations.

Building on last year's highly successful event led by 12 Leading Operator Keynotes, including Cable & Wireless, China Mobile, Orange, T-Mobile, Telecom Italia, Telefonica, TeliaSonera and Vodafone, the 2010 conference is targeting its content to attract senior managers from across the mobile industry with topics that include:

• Building a Sustainable Wireless Broadband Future - Exploiting the Next Wave of Growth
• Enabling Technologies - Realizing True Mobile Broadband
• Convergent Networks - Delivering an Optimal Service
• Breaking Through - The Challenge of In-Building Coverage
• Opex & Capex - Preparing the Network for an Upturn in Wireless Broadband Demand
• Beyond The Spectrum - Bringing Clarity of the Mobile Broadband Picture
• U-Tube, Facebook & Twitter - What Innovations Will Make A Difference

This event will be a focal point for information and debates on the key topics of LTE, Network Sharing, ROI, Femtocells, OPEX/CAPEXsavings, Business Models, Technology Innovation and Sustainability.

New this year, will be workshops on Picocells/Femtocells - Enabling Operators to deal efficiently with 3G and 4G Capacity Demands (NGN Conference) and Cost Savings for Hybrid Power Deployment with Generator Powered Basestations (Green Basestations Summit) - all included in the conference price.

AT&T Leans on Femto-cells to Support iPhone Coverage

I’ll admit that I get jazzed when I read a news item in the mainstream media that has some Microwave technology playing a leading or supporting role. So I was pleased when I read this story appearing in the New York Times on Wednesday that discussed how AT&T was addressing spotty iPhone service that occurs in locations where there are a shortage of cellphone towers. The solution, “a miniature cell tower in your living room” was described as a mini-tower, the size of a couple of decks of cards that looked like the Wi-Fi hot spots at cafes and could redirect calls from congested cell towers to home Web connections. Hhhmmmm, sounds like a femtocell to me.

The Times reported the story of Christina Zachariades, 28, a Manhattan resident who already pays $130 a month for iPhone service but cannot receive or make calls in her fifth-floor apartment on the Upper East Side. Despite the additional cost to consumers, the technology is poised for big sales, thanks to price drops but also because of the entrance into the market by AT&T. Other companies — Verizon, for example — have already marketed their mini-towers for niche use to customers in places with limited cellphone signals, like basements or homes with particularly thick walls.

The article went on to describe how industry analysts stated that "mini-towers, known as femtocells, are poised for spectacular growth. Shipments should grow from 571,000 this year, to 1.9 million next year, to 40 million by 2013, according to iSuppli, a market research firm. Falling prices are helping propel sales. Two years ago, for example, consumers would have paid $500 or more. "

Cisco, Samsung and Netgear are among the companies that make the towers; Qualcomm and Texas Instruments, which make chips for phones, have also developed products. Francis Sideco, an analyst at iSuppli, said there were still bugs to be worked out before femtocells become a mass-market product like wireless routers or storage devices, which were once hard to market.

Over the long term, basic economics favors mini-towers in homes over big towers, said Pasquale Romano, chief executive of 2Wire Inc., a company in San Jose, Calif., that is developing one of the devices. Ramano claimed that it didn't make sense for carriers to spend money building large towers in residential areas because most people are not home during the day; as it is, AT&T already plans to spend $8 billion this year on improving its wireless coverage, including on big towers, according to public filings.

The price for the AT&T device could fall to $49 if consumers buy a broadband or in-home calling plan, and could be free to customers who buy both. Still, marketing mini-towers has its risks for AT&T. Even though it expects the towers to improve signal quality and take pressure off its network, they could displace landline telephones because wireless consumers will not need a second phone number.

At Microwave Journal, we’ve been following the Pico- and Femto-cell markets for a number of years now with news, articles and application notes from a variety of sources. Earlier this month we reported on the completion of the Femto Forum’s first Femtocell plugfest (Femto Forum Completes First Femtocell Plugfest ). GaAs power amplifier supplier, Anadigics has been targeting this market since 2008 (ANADIGICS Enters Femtocell Market ) and provided us with a white paper that same year

Last May we reported that femtocells, which were virtually non-existent in 2006, and deployed by one operator in 2007, would make up 61 percent of small cellular base station revenue by 2013, according to reports In-Stat.

Highlight's from last year’s In-Stat report included:

• Femtocells, picocells and microcells are expected to surpass 15 million units by 2013.
• Worldwide annual femtocell semiconductor revenue will approach $400 M by 2013.
• Sprint was the first to market with a femtocell-based service in 2007, while others entered the market in 2008.
• In mid-2009, Airwalk introduced a new enterprise femtocell. These products have the capacity of a traditional picocell and the ease-of-use of a femtocell.
  
  
  
  

Satellite LTE Network Planned by PE Firm

Harbinger Capital Partners plans to deploy a LTE network over spectrum owned by a few satellite companies which would create an open wholesale wireless network available to anyone who wants to offer mobile broadband. The new network will rely initially on 23 MHz spectrum owned by SkyTerra (which is owned by Harbinger) and could later include spectrum from Terrestar Networks, another satellite firm in which Harbinger holds a stake.


The network could help ensure competition among the major wireless carriers because of the conditions the FCC has placed on the spectrum that the private equity firm plans to use as part an agreement to let Harbinger take control of SkyTerra. SkyTerra would be a wholesaler, and that traffic from the wireless carriers in the U.S. cannot comprise more than 25 percent of the traffic over the SkyTerra/Harbinger network. This means AT&T and Verizon could not buy up huge chunks of the network or spectrum to keep others off of it.

The planned network would launch before the end of 2011 and cover 9 million people (trials initially planned for Denver and Phoenix). Then cover 100 million people by the end of 2012, 145 million by the end of 2013 and at least 260 million people in the United States by the end of 2015. Harbinger said in its statements to the FCC that all major markets will be installed by the end of the second quarter of 2013.

However, the 36,000 base stations that Harbinger plans to use, along with the tower sites, backhaul, etc. with a terrestrial network will require billions of dollars. Verizon and Clearwire have already started building out their networks and are investing billions. It is hard to see how Harbinher could afford to do this. According to SkyTerra, the network will have no less than 23 MHz of spectrum, consisting of 8 MHz of 1.4 GHz terrestrial spectrum, access to 5 MHz of 1.6 GHz terrestrial spectrum and 10 MHz of MSS/ATC L-band spectrum. Through a cooperation agreement with Inmarsat and associated waivers of the Commission’s ATC rules, by 2013 Harbinger will have access to an additional 30 MHz of ATC spectrum.

It will be interesting to see how this turns out.

Wireless Wee Wee

I recently came across Simavita that makes wireless monitoring devices for assisted living residents to monitor when they go to the bathroom and logs the events for analysis to improve their comfort level and coordinate scheduling of changes, etc.

The main component is a remotely monitored disposable continence aid – the SIMpad®. It is fitted with a sensor strip (SIM™strip) that is completely safe for the wearer. A reusable SIM™box fitted to the front of the SIMpad transmits sensor readings wirelessly to a central monitoring station (SIM™server). A key component of the system is the SIMsystem™ Manager, software running on the SIMserver that incorporates an algorithm to analyse the sensor readings and provide an assessment of the continence event in real time; alerting the carer if required.

The SIMsystem Manager automates the process of analysing sensor readings from a sensor strip inside a continence device, capturing observations from carers and presenting the data back to care staff in a manner which simplifies decision making. The SIMsystem consists of:

The SIMbox, when fitted into the individual resident's stretchpants (SIMpants), transmits sensor readings from the SIMstrip in the SIMpad over a wireless network to the SIMserver. The SIMsystem Manager software running on the SIMserver then detects key information about continence events and determines when to alert care staff about an event requiring attention. Alerts are sent via text message to the carer's mobile phone, or via the facility's paging system if preferred. As carers are often unable to immediately respond to events, the software will display a summary log of alerts and manual observations can also be entered. The final bladder chart includes all observations in one easy-to-read report.On completion of the 3-day assessment, the SIMsystem Manager produces shift, daily and 3-day reports that may be used by carers for the development of continence care plans.

The SIMbox and SIMnetwork have been built for ZigBee® for low-power and low-range wireless applications. The SIMbox can operate continuously for at least 100 hours before the batteries need charging. The SIMnetwork platform consists of SIMboxes, SIMchargers, SIM repeaters which can extend the network, and a SIMgateway for connection to the central SIMserver. The SIMboxes are specially designed to be of minimal size and maximum battery life, to be flexible and compatible with a range of clinical applications.The SIMnetwork meets the essential requirements of the Australian1 & European2 standards and therefore is deemed EMC compliant so it is approved for use in healthcare facilities.

What will they think of next for M2M applications!

Updates and a Brief History of Aeroflex's PXI 3030

In October 2003 Aeroflex launched the 3000 Series, a PXI-based modulartest suite for mobile phone and general-purpose wireless test. Today, the Aeroflex 3000 Series now encompasses more than a dozen PXI RF modules andsupporting applications for signal generation and signal analysis, meeting the specific requirements for a wide range of mobile communication standards.
Applications include automated measurement of parametric performance of terminal transmitter and receiver characteristics, terminal TX and RX alignment and performance characterization for manufacturing, and research and development.

PXI OverviewPXI derives its name from the PCI eXtensions for Instrumentation specificationthat defines a rugged personal computer-based bus as the basis for a commonplatform for measurement and automation systems. PXI uses the high-speedPeripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) bus combined with the rugged, modular Eurocard mechanical packaging of CompactPCI and adds mechanical, electrical and software features that define complete systems for test and measurement, data acquisition and manufacturing applications. These extensions make it easy for end users and integrators to quickly build open, multi-vendor measurement and automation systems. The PXI was designed to bridge the gap between desktop PC systems and high-end VXI and GPIB bus systems.

In order to exploit the benefits of PXI, RF test system developers required first to have their needs met for performance and functionality, particularly in the areas of RF signal stimulus and RF signal analysis. The RF synthesizer has been used by Aeroflex since its inception as the underlying module for using PXI for RF instrumentation based upon the patented Fractional-N synthesizer. The 3020 Series RF signal generator modules are used in conjunction with the 3010 RF synthesizer to provide modulation and waveform generation, RF leveling and frequency tuning from 100 kHz to 6 GHz.

The 3030 Series RF digitizers provide frequency down conversion and highdynamic range analog to digital conversion for measurement and real timeapplications. The 3030 Series RF digitizers are also used with the 3010 RFsynthesizer, which provides the tune-able local oscillator (LO).

(source: http://www.aeroflex.com/ats/products/prodfiles/appnotes/PXIBackgrounder.pdf)

On March 31st, 2010, Aeroflex introduced its PXI 3030 TD-SCDMA Measurement Suite to provide fast and cost-effective production testing of mobile handsets and RFICs based on ETSI 3GPP TS 34-122. It supports all major cellular standards, including 3GPP LTE, CDMA2000, 1xEVDO, GSM, W-CDMA, and mobile WiMAX. The wireless connectivity standards WLAN and Bluetooth are expected to be integrated into most TD-SCDMA phones and are also supported in this single box solution. The PXI Measurement Suite makes parametric measurements of TD-SCDMA transmitters and supports high-speed alignment and performance verification of devices operated in a non-signalling mode. Applications include high-speed/high-throughput mobile handset testing as well as RFIC characterization.

The platform provides high yield and throughput, achieving dramatic improvements in test time using speed-optimizing techniques such as multi-thread processing, pipelined capture, and fast-sequence tuning (FST).

Capacity Constraints and LTE - Hot Topics at CTIA 2010

The keynote session kicked off the CTIA 2010 show with Ralph de la Vega, president and CEO AT&T Mobility and Consumer Markets, presenting the case that the US is the world leader in mobile broadband no matter how you measure it. The US has the most 3G subscribers (117 million), most WiFi hotspots (70,000), spends the most of wireless capital expenditures on mobile broadband (80%), the highest investment in LTE (30% in 2009), the most smart phones (53 million according to Strategy Analytics) and estimated 412 million M2M devices deployed by 2014. But he emphasized that the US must continue to innovate or this lead could evaporate quickly.

He stressed that we are at a threshold now, so we must address the looming capacity issues as this expansion continues. The US is freeing up quite a bit more of spectrum to use for mobile broadband but we must also find more efficient ways to use the spectrum. LTE could be as much as 2.5 times more efficient than HSPA and the industry needs to work together to develop efficient apps. We also need to use other methods to supplement capacity such as WiFi and femtocells.

Steve Largent, president and CEO of CTIA, went on to say this is the 25th year of CTIA and showed the new "Freedom is Wireless" commercial being released. He stated that connected devices grew from 270 to 285 million from last year to this year and MMS grew 130% in 2009.

A video from the FCC chairman addressed the US Broadband plan spurring business and addressed the plan to free up spectrum. Then other CEOs went on to address their markets and businesses.

The exhibition floor was very busy most of the day and many new phone announcements were made along with various apps. Yahoo was demonstrating their app where you could just draw a line or circle on Google maps and it would automatically list the restaurants within the immediate area.

I got a hands-on look at the new HTC HD2 - what a nice phone! It has a very large, vibrant screen (4.3 inches), 1 GHz processor running Windows mobile, 5 mega pixel camera and HTC Sense which makes the experience very intuitive. I am going to have to check this out as soon as I get home and possible buy one.

The RF/Microwave Zone was busy with exhibitors from Freescale, JFW, Spinner, Times, Atrium, RF Electro Rent, Innertron, Trilithic, Park Electrochemical, RF Window, ACC, Rojone and Microwave Journal.

A full show wrap up will be coming in a few days covering the RF and Microwave companies and products.

Satellite 2010 - Brighter Days Ahead

The opening session on Tues with the CEOs from the big four (Romain Bausch, SES; Daniel Goldberg, Telsat; David McGlade, Intelsat; and Michel de Rosen, Eutelsat) showed that the companies are more optimistic about the market than they were last year. The needs to expand bandwidth and provide communication services to less populated areas are opportunities for satellite providers. The desire for countries to provide Internet access to more of those without access today is another area where satellite can be a solution. While satellite does not have data rates as high as fiber, it can provide coverage much easier to remote areas. But some want to push higher data rates (like 100 Mb/s) over more access. It was said, "Should we get 100% access at 10 Mb/s for everyone or get 100 Mb/s access but not 100% coverage." The cost to do both is probably too high so it would make sense to give everyone access first but people love to talk about very high speed access.

There is concern about interference issues so coordination is a key issue to tackle especially with new bands and applications involving LTE, WiMAX, etc. Also concerning is that many view satellite solutions as too expensive and low in data rates when it should be an economic trade off depending on the service needs, coverage area, etc. It would not be fair to subsidize other technologies which could threaten higher data rate Ka-band implementations for satellite. But a combination of bands is the best solution depending on the needs of the service and area to be covered. Higher order modulation schemes, higher frequencies, etc. will eventually enable even higher data rates that satellite could deliver 100 Mb/s service for some needs.

The hot topics are comms on the move, security, lower power consumption (green tech), M2M/SCADA, video standards, hosted payloads, among others. There are forums on various subjects including the MSUA Conference co-located. They moved the event to the Gaylord outside of DC and found it was not large enough to accommodate all the exhibitors this year so it probably will move back to the convention center next year. That is good news for the industry.

I will have a full wrap up article covering all the RF/microwave companies we visited in the exhibition including the new products they were featuring at the show.

Hybrid Car EM Radiation Concerns

There have been various reports over the last few years about possible electromagnetic (EM) radiation generated by the high current in hybrid cars being harmful. The EM radiation is due to the high AC current running from the batteries to the electric motors. Some older hybrid models were reported to have relatively high fields measured in them some exceeding what was recommended by government. This seems to have hit the news again as Israel has recently stated that they will issue a safety radiation scale for hybrids as they found some current models exceed what they recommend as the maximum exposure level per day.

I find it hard to believe that the current levels in hybrids would be high enough to cause harm to someone in the car from EM radiation but it does not seem like anyone knows for sure. It has been suspected that EM radiation from power lines can be harmful if you live close to them but I don't think that has been proven either. It is also like cell phone radiation exposure - there is no conclusive data that it is harmful. If the current level in hybrids is dangerous, then the higher currents produced in pure plug-in electric cars would be even worse as there motors are larger than those in hydrid models. It also should be possible to shield the wires if there are concerns about their safety.

Has anyone seen data on actual measured EM field values and how it compares to the allowed standards? I have also seen reports that such EM fields can be beneficial to our health so who knows how they truly affect our bodies overall. Please chime in with your opinions as this might be a topic we cover in a future article.

ADI Poised for Growth – RF and Converters Emphasized

I attended the Analog Devices (ADI) Analyst’s Day on Thurs and discovered how much they are going to focus on RF technologies and leverage their expertise in the converter market, where they are dominant (44% market share/ $1.1 B in sales), to expand their RF business in the transmit/receive chains. They currently have RF sales of about $200 M from a total available market of about $8 B if you exclude handsets. They are targeting high performance, high margin markets so they are not aiming for the handset or WLAN markets which are more commodity oriented. They have products covering the entire T/R chain but are not widely known outside the converter, modulators and PLL/VCO/Synthesizer markets from what I have seen but they expect to change that.

I was surprised to learn that the Barry Gilbert who invented the Gilbert Cell mixer works at ADI and still leads their development efforts in that area. The also emphasized their expertise in fast hoping PLL synthesizers and RMS detectors along with variable gain amplifiers. They recently released (ADRF670x and ADRF660x) a transmit modulator and receiver down converter that integrate many functions onto a single chip for high performance infrastructure applications. They expect strong RF growth in the medical, wireless infrastructure and building automation (smart grids, security, etc.) markets and they expect to grow at over 15% in the RF market going forward. It is good to see companies expecting large growth this year in the RF market.

First Junctionless Transistor Fabricated

A team of scientists at the Tyndall National Institute have designed and fabricated the world's first junctionless transistor that could revolutionize IC chip manufacturing. Existing ICs are based on junctions which turn the current off and on to control the device but in the junctionless Tyndall device, the current flows in a very thin silicon wire and the flow of current is controlled by a ring structure that electrically squeezes the silicon wire to control the current. These devices are easier to fabricate and can be made on a smaller scale than current junction devices which seem to be nearing their limit for miniaturization. The junctionless devices also act more like a perfect transistor so they have less leakage current and could reduce power consumption.

I wonder how a RF junctionless transistor would behave. Any insights or thoughts?

Potential GPS Security and Reliability Risks

Last week the International Business Times reported that critical infrastructure dependent on GPS satellites are increasingly threatened by attack from widely available equipment such as jammers and spoofing devices. Air traffic communications, the electricity grid, telecom networks and other emergency services are under threat from such devices that are widely available at low costs in underground market places.

They reported that experts met in the UK at the National Physical Laboratory in Teddington on Feb 23 and professor David Last, a past president of the Royal Institute of Navigation and now a GPS consultant stated, “A portable jammer in a tall building could cover most of London and aircraft approaching its airports. GPS gives us transportation, distribution industry, 'just-in-time' manufacturing, emergency services operations - even mining, road building and farming, all these and a zillion more. But what few people outside this community recognize is the high-precision timing that GPS provides to keep our telephone networks, the internet, banking transactions and even our power grid online.”

They said that jamming devices that can disrupt GPS signals are sold on the Internet for around $100. Last was also quoted as saying “GPS now is like computers before viruses. But there are no big security companies working to protect GPS.” He explained that the gadget could be used to "spoof" a location -- useful to evade GPS based tolls or worse to set others off course. "You can now buy a low-cost simulator and link it to Google Earth, put on a route and it will simulate that route to the timing that you specify," said professor Last.

I am sure the military portion is a better protected but how about personal navigation and public safety applications. Even if jamming is defeated, spoofing would be difficult to stop since it would be localized to a specific area.

There were also previous reports that the US GPS system was aging and nearly its design life for many of the satellites. It was stated that satellites would reach their end of life much faster than they could be replaced weakening the network to the point where accuracy and coverage could be decreased. The reliability and security issues of the US system are concerning. How dangerous do you think it really is? Any insights from technical people involved in such systems??

Short Range Wireless Taking Off

I have posted a couple of reports on near-field communications growing and got a lot of attention at MWC 2010 but short range wireless as a group of technologies is also taking off. ABI Research reports that global shipments of short range wireless ICs (Bluetooth, NFC, UWB, 802.15.4, WiFi) are expected to surpass two billion units this year, increasing approximately 20% compared to 2009. Shipments are forecast to total five billion in 2014.

Bluetooth took more than 55%, following by WiFi at around 35%; the rest of the shipments were made up of NFC, UWB and 802.15.4 ICs. Mobile handsets maintain the highest adoption rate for Bluetooth ICs. In addition to data transmission between mobile handset and Bluetooth headset, the application of Bluetooth technology is gradually moving into computers and consumer electronics products such as laptops, UMDs, and the wireless remote pole of game consoles.

Low power consumption and short range transmission are two key technical features of Bluetooth technology. Furthermore, in December 2009 the Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG) announced the adoption of Bluetooth low energy (BLE) which opens an absolutely new market for products and devices needing low cost and low power wireless connectivity. Likely vertical markets include healthcare, security, and home entertainment. Chip manufacturing technology migration is driving down chip cost too, and as Bluetooth chip ASPs continue to decline, new business opportunities will be created.

Combination chips, integrating two or more short range wireless technologies to deliver further cost reduction and chip size decreases, are paving the way for another trend in short range wireless IC market development. The three major integration solutions — Bluetooth+FM radio, Bluetooth+WiFi+FM, and Bluetooth+FM+GPS — are forecast to account for more than 30% of all Bluetooth combination chip shipments in 2010. The combination chip using BLE is expected to make up 50% of total Bluetooth combo IC shipments in 2014.

TriQuint has plans to release a combination WiFi + Bluetooth front end module soon and others are probably working on similar architectures for future products. These are becoming ubiquitous functions in all of our electronics from cameras and mp3 players to printers and phones. The best option on my car is the handsfree Bluetooth option for my radio.

Mobile Commerce Gets Attention at Mobile World Congress 2010

Apps (enabled by all the new smartphones) got most of the attention at Mobile World Congress. But Near Field Communications (NFC) also got a lot of attention with some trials going on and big projections from the market research firms for mobile commerce. At Mobile World Congress the GSM Association launched the first SIM-based NFC payment trial to drive NFC adoption. The trial included handset maker Samsung, wireless operator Telefónica and financial companies Visa, G&D, Ingenico, ITN International and La Caixa. The companies loaded 400 Samsung Star NFC mobile phones with Telefónica SIM cards from O2 and Visa’s mobile payment application and gave them to attendees to purchase goods.

ABI Research projects that in 2015, shoppers around the world are expected to spend about $119 billion on goods and services purchased via mobile phones. That number represents about 8% of the total e-commerce market. “Mobile online shopping is reaching critical mass,” says senior analyst Mark Beccue. “In the United States, mobile online shopping rose from $396 million in 2008 to $1.2 billion in 2009. While definitions of ‘mass market adoption’ vary, a more than threefold increase in one year indicates significant consumer interest." Noteworthy is that even that $1+ billion turnover in the US is dwarfed by the size of the mobile online shopping market in Japan, which exceeded $10 billion in 2009 alone. This market is growing solidly in Europe too, and is expected to outpace the US by the end of 2010.

In another ABI report, they project that in 2015 about 407 million people worldwide will carry out financial transactions with their banks using their mobile phones. Of those, some 66 million will be in North America. Beccue commented, “It’s not the North American market that is moving fastest to mobile banking: that crown goes to the Asia-Pacific region, which accounted for the lion’s share of the world’s 52.2 million mobile banking subscribers in 2009. The global number of subscribers more than doubled between 2008 and 2009, and is expected to almost double again in 2010. This growth can be seen everywhere, but Asia – led by India – is pushing it particularly hard.”

Do you feel comfortable using your phone to purchase goods? Microwave Journal editors David Vye and Richard Mumford were on site and will report their findings next week.