As we kick off the new year, we will be posting our thoughts and related news items that discuss economic trends we see in the hope of gaining some insight into the markets that will grow this year as we try to pull out of this recession. This is certainly a time where market focus is more important than ever and targeting growth markets and any other market opportunities that arise will be a key to success. In this type of economic market, we believe that new product development and targeted marketing are two key areas to concentrate on.
Strategy Analytics (SA) recently posted two new market reports about three-five devices. One focuses on the GaN market in which they state that the majority of demand will come from the defense market (55%) with a compound annual average growth rate (CAAGR) of 98 percent through to 2012 for the market as a whole. There are still many opportunities in the commercial infrastructure market also but these are challenged more by improving GaAs and Si technologies. I have seen a strong new set of high voltage Si technologies targeting this market along with some of the lower frequency defense markets and would agree with this assessment.
This is certainly a good opportunity for those companies involved in GaN technology compared to some other markets. SA also believes that SiC will remain as the dominant substrate material. You can review the entire release here.
In a second report about the GaAs market, SA still expects a 9% growth in the GaAs market for 2008 but has revised their estimate for 2009 to be a 5% contraction year on year due to the current economic conditions. SA does expect the market to return to growth in 2010 which is a good sign.
Most of the market contraction is due to the cellular handset market which constitutes 70% of the GaAs market but they expect the defense market to be unaffected by the decline through 2012. SA expects the WiFi will grow to the second largest market by 2012 with a 20% CAAGR. The full release can be found here.
What do you think? We would like to hear which markets you think will offer significant growth this year.
Friday, January 2, 2009
Wednesday, December 24, 2008
Top Ten mW News Items for 2009
Below are the top ten most read News items on the Microwave Journal Website. These were stand alone news postings from our "Industry News". Other widely read news items were compiled in our "Around the Circuit" feature. Judging from the top-ten list, readers were very interested in the outcome of the M/A-COM acquisition by Cobham (stayed tuned for special coverage on these two companies in February) as well as the acquisition of Ansoft by Ansys. News from test & Measurement companies Agilent and Tektronix made the list as did two news items from TriQuint on their high power GaN transistors.
1. Cobham to Acquire M/A-COM for $425 M
2. Tektronix Adds Waveform Image Processing to Spectrum Analyzers
3. M/A-COM Technology Solutions Formed
4. Ethertronics Delivers Small Ceramic GPS Antennas
5. TriQuint Unveils PowerBand High Power, Wideband RF Transistors
6. M/A-COM Acquisition Strengthens Cobham
7. TriQuint Semiconductor Reveals Gallium Nitride Products
8. ANSYS Signs Definitive Agreement to Acquire Ansoft Corp.
9. Agilent Technologies Introduces End-to-End DigRF V4 Measurement Solution for Mobile Handset Design
10.Endwave Modules Feature Integrated Digital Micro-controlle
1. Cobham to Acquire M/A-COM for $425 M
2. Tektronix Adds Waveform Image Processing to Spectrum Analyzers
3. M/A-COM Technology Solutions Formed
4. Ethertronics Delivers Small Ceramic GPS Antennas
5. TriQuint Unveils PowerBand High Power, Wideband RF Transistors
6. M/A-COM Acquisition Strengthens Cobham
7. TriQuint Semiconductor Reveals Gallium Nitride Products
8. ANSYS Signs Definitive Agreement to Acquire Ansoft Corp.
9. Agilent Technologies Introduces End-to-End DigRF V4 Measurement Solution for Mobile Handset Design
10.Endwave Modules Feature Integrated Digital Micro-controlle
Friday, December 19, 2008
Look Mom, No Batteries - Peregrine & K-State Working Together on Energy Harvesting Radios
Kansas State University engineers are helping Peregrine implement its idea of an energy-harvesting radio. This concept could be used to implement bridge structural integrity monitoring with wireless sensors since changing the batteries on hundreds of sensors on each bridge is not practical. Kansas State is developing the energy harvesting radios for Peregrine to be used in these types of applications.
Peregrine's UltraCMOS process leads itself well to very low power devices and K-State engineers are looking at the design challenges of a radio system. Although the prototype captures and stores light energy with solar cells, these energy-harvesting radios could be powered by a number of different ways, including by electrochemical, mechanical or thermal energy. Some of this research is a spin off of work done for NASA for use on Mars rovers and scouts.
This leads me to another interesting technology that has caused some buzz lately which is using microwaves to power devices. WiTricity promises to power devices and lights via inductive coupling like Tesla first demonstrated many years ago. However, no one has ever been able to find a method to implement it for widespread practical use. But MIT has recently developed new technology that might solve this problem and a couple of companies are trying to bring it to market. Here is one such company's videos that are very well done and demonstrate some of its uses. While I don't see this being very good for lighting purposes in the near future, I think the convenience of charging our wireless devices via this method could take off. You just place your cell phone, iPod or other device on the counter in the vicinity of the charging unit and it will always have enough juice to go when you are ready. Let us know what you think of this new approach and if you think it will ever catch on.
Peregrine's UltraCMOS process leads itself well to very low power devices and K-State engineers are looking at the design challenges of a radio system. Although the prototype captures and stores light energy with solar cells, these energy-harvesting radios could be powered by a number of different ways, including by electrochemical, mechanical or thermal energy. Some of this research is a spin off of work done for NASA for use on Mars rovers and scouts.
This leads me to another interesting technology that has caused some buzz lately which is using microwaves to power devices. WiTricity promises to power devices and lights via inductive coupling like Tesla first demonstrated many years ago. However, no one has ever been able to find a method to implement it for widespread practical use. But MIT has recently developed new technology that might solve this problem and a couple of companies are trying to bring it to market. Here is one such company's videos that are very well done and demonstrate some of its uses. While I don't see this being very good for lighting purposes in the near future, I think the convenience of charging our wireless devices via this method could take off. You just place your cell phone, iPod or other device on the counter in the vicinity of the charging unit and it will always have enough juice to go when you are ready. Let us know what you think of this new approach and if you think it will ever catch on.
Thursday, December 18, 2008
MWJ top ten most viewed technical articles of 2008
Though a tad early, we thought we would get a jump on sharing our top-ten list of web-published articles for 2008. Scanning through statistics in our web site’s back office gives us a pretty good glimpse of which articles were most read by you. Without accounting for when the article was published (articles published earlier in the year have a definite time advantage), the ten most read technical articles were:
1. Now: Phased-array Radars: Past, Astounding Breakthroughs and Future Trends by E. Brookner was very popular the moment it was posted and continued to be well read through-out the year.
2. New Waves: MTT_S Product Showcase by MWJ Staff is always a popular theme, this year was no exception.
3. Phase Noise: Theory versus Practicality. This article was printed more than any other.
4. Measuring S-parameters: The First 50 Years by D. Vye led the pack in articles most often e-mailed to a colleague
5. IMS 2008: A Peachy Return to the East Coast by P. Hindle was the article most read in the month following its posting.
6. An Enabling New 3D Architecture for Microwave Components and Systems by D. Sherrer, this article was accompanied by an executive interview (David Sherrer of Rohm & Haas) which was the most read online executive interview of 2008.
7. Then: Array Radars: A Survey of Their Potential and Their Limitations (May 1962) was the only retrospective article making the top-ten list, but not a bad result for an article that was first published in May 1962.
8. An Historical Perspective on 50 Years of Frequency Sources
9. A 60 GHz Millimeter-wave CMOS RFIC-on-chip Dipole Antenna by H.R. Chuang, S.W. Kuo, C.C. Lin and L.C. Kuo, which was posted online in January 2007
10. High Harmonic-rejection Matching Filters for Quad-band Power Amplifiers written by Rajanish, P. Onno and N. Jain, and published in May 2006
Articles in the ninth and tenth position were from January 2007 and May 2006, respectively, proving that a good technical article can enjoy a long and prosporous life online.
1. Now: Phased-array Radars: Past, Astounding Breakthroughs and Future Trends by E. Brookner was very popular the moment it was posted and continued to be well read through-out the year.
2. New Waves: MTT_S Product Showcase by MWJ Staff is always a popular theme, this year was no exception.
3. Phase Noise: Theory versus Practicality. This article was printed more than any other.
4. Measuring S-parameters: The First 50 Years by D. Vye led the pack in articles most often e-mailed to a colleague
5. IMS 2008: A Peachy Return to the East Coast by P. Hindle was the article most read in the month following its posting.
6. An Enabling New 3D Architecture for Microwave Components and Systems by D. Sherrer, this article was accompanied by an executive interview (David Sherrer of Rohm & Haas) which was the most read online executive interview of 2008.
7. Then: Array Radars: A Survey of Their Potential and Their Limitations (May 1962) was the only retrospective article making the top-ten list, but not a bad result for an article that was first published in May 1962.
8. An Historical Perspective on 50 Years of Frequency Sources
9. A 60 GHz Millimeter-wave CMOS RFIC-on-chip Dipole Antenna by H.R. Chuang, S.W. Kuo, C.C. Lin and L.C. Kuo, which was posted online in January 2007
10. High Harmonic-rejection Matching Filters for Quad-band Power Amplifiers written by Rajanish, P. Onno and N. Jain, and published in May 2006
Articles in the ninth and tenth position were from January 2007 and May 2006, respectively, proving that a good technical article can enjoy a long and prosporous life online.
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
A Sparkling New Microwave Idea for the Holidays
In case you did not see this news item, I just thought I had to share it since it is so appropriate for the holidays (Source: Carnegie Institution for Science):
If you are still deciding on what to give the woman (or microwave engineer) who has everything this holiday season, then researchers in Washington may have solved that last minute gift problem – microwaved diamonds. Members of Carnegie Institution’s Geophysical Laboratory have used a chemical vapor deposition (CVD) method to grow synthetic diamonds for their experiments. Unlike other methods, which mimic the high pressures deep within the earth where natural diamonds are formed, the CVD method produces single-crystal diamonds at low pressure. The resulting diamonds, which can be grown very rapidly, have precisely controlled compositions and comparatively few defects.
The Carnegie team then annealed the diamonds at temperatures up to 2,000° C using a microwave plasma at pressures below atmospheric pressure. The crystals, which are originally yellow-brown if produced at very high growth rates, turned on the size of crystals or the number of crystals, because the method is not limited by the chamber size of a high pressure press. The microwave unit is also significantly less expensive than a large high-pressure apparatus.
Unfortunately, those late holiday shoppers will still have to go to the store rather than the lab for that diamond ring because the high-quality, single crystal diamond made possible by the new process has a wide variety of applications in science and technology rather than for jewelry. These include the use of diamond crystals as anvils in high-pressure research and in optical applications that take advantage of diamond’s exceptional transparency. Among the more exotic future applications of the pink diamonds made in this way is quantum computing, which could use the diamonds’ NV centers for storing quantum information.
If you are still deciding on what to give the woman (or microwave engineer) who has everything this holiday season, then researchers in Washington may have solved that last minute gift problem – microwaved diamonds. Members of Carnegie Institution’s Geophysical Laboratory have used a chemical vapor deposition (CVD) method to grow synthetic diamonds for their experiments. Unlike other methods, which mimic the high pressures deep within the earth where natural diamonds are formed, the CVD method produces single-crystal diamonds at low pressure. The resulting diamonds, which can be grown very rapidly, have precisely controlled compositions and comparatively few defects.
The Carnegie team then annealed the diamonds at temperatures up to 2,000° C using a microwave plasma at pressures below atmospheric pressure. The crystals, which are originally yellow-brown if produced at very high growth rates, turned on the size of crystals or the number of crystals, because the method is not limited by the chamber size of a high pressure press. The microwave unit is also significantly less expensive than a large high-pressure apparatus.
Unfortunately, those late holiday shoppers will still have to go to the store rather than the lab for that diamond ring because the high-quality, single crystal diamond made possible by the new process has a wide variety of applications in science and technology rather than for jewelry. These include the use of diamond crystals as anvils in high-pressure research and in optical applications that take advantage of diamond’s exceptional transparency. Among the more exotic future applications of the pink diamonds made in this way is quantum computing, which could use the diamonds’ NV centers for storing quantum information.
Friday, December 12, 2008
Cadence releases Accelerated Parallel Simulator for Analog/MS IC Designs
Much of the news concerning Cadence Design these days has not been good, but today’s announcement bucks that run of bad corporate-related news. Today the company announced the availability of an Accelerated Parallel Simulator (APS) for its Virtuoso product. The majority of RFIC designers use the Virtuoso suite for IC circuit design/simulation and in particular its Virtuoso Spectre® Circuit Simulator, which specifically solves large, complex analog and mixed-signal designs across all process nodes. The new simulator adds a breakthrough parallel circuit solver, along with a newly architected engine to give users access to multiprocessing computing platforms.
The result is an accurate circuit simulator that uses models which are identical to the Virtuoso Spectre Circuit Simulator, delivering significantly improved single-thread performance and scalable multi-thread performance. The Virtuoso Accelerated Parallel Simulator improves convergence and capacity for designs with hundreds of thousands of transistors, reducing design and verification time in most cases from weeks to hours. Company spokesmen boosted 20.6 times performance boost over traditional SPICE simulators, which enabled users to verify and detect multiple design issues.
The result is an accurate circuit simulator that uses models which are identical to the Virtuoso Spectre Circuit Simulator, delivering significantly improved single-thread performance and scalable multi-thread performance. The Virtuoso Accelerated Parallel Simulator improves convergence and capacity for designs with hundreds of thousands of transistors, reducing design and verification time in most cases from weeks to hours. Company spokesmen boosted 20.6 times performance boost over traditional SPICE simulators, which enabled users to verify and detect multiple design issues.
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
4G update 12/10/2009
The path to 4G is a tricky one as Sprint Nextel must figure out how to move its CDMA-based wireless business and customers to the 4G network envisioned by Clear, Sprint’s 51%-owned WiMAX joint venture with Clearwire and partners. The challenge is to strike the right balance between Sprint's immediate opportunities which remain with CDMA and the key growth areas for US wireless services that are mobile broadband (or 4G). WiMAX appears to have strong medium term potential and is worthy of Sprint's continued support but the network will need full commitment and time (a few years at least) to establish its brand with consumers. The issue for Sprint (and users) is the lack of a 4G migration path for users of the CDMA-based wireless. The solution is to enter into an MVNO deal with its own joint venture, offering dual-mode CDMA/WiMAX devices under the logo 'Sprint 4G'.
The first dual-mode modems could appear with the new year, enabling Sprint to begin marketing its mobile broadband services to its CDMA base early, before widespread WiMAX coverage and lack of migration path burns their customers. This will let Sprint establish its advanced credentials ahead of any LTE activities from competitors AT&T and Verizon. While a Sprint 4G brand, based on dual-mode will likely delay the new Clear offering, the company will benefit from serving the long term needs of its customers better. And for us folks who make a living off developing and manufacturing components for dual-mode WiMAX/CDMA radios, the concept also makes a lot of sense.
The first dual-mode modems could appear with the new year, enabling Sprint to begin marketing its mobile broadband services to its CDMA base early, before widespread WiMAX coverage and lack of migration path burns their customers. This will let Sprint establish its advanced credentials ahead of any LTE activities from competitors AT&T and Verizon. While a Sprint 4G brand, based on dual-mode will likely delay the new Clear offering, the company will benefit from serving the long term needs of its customers better. And for us folks who make a living off developing and manufacturing components for dual-mode WiMAX/CDMA radios, the concept also makes a lot of sense.
Monday, December 8, 2008
This news arrived today, Monday December 8th. Zensys (http://www.zen-sys.com/) and Nokia today announced the availability of the Z-Wave-enabled Nokia Home Control Center. Powered by Z-Wave technology, the device is compatible with the entire Z-Wave ecosystem of more than 300 home control products. Nokia is making a major step into the home automation and control market, which is expected to grow to $10 billion in the next two years.
Z-wave background
Z-Wave is a low-power wireless technology designed specifically for remote control applications. Z-Wave transforms any stand-alone device into an intelligent network node that can be controlled and monitored wirelessly. Unlike high-bandwidth standards such as IEEE 802.11-based systems that are designed for high-speed data, the Z-Wave RF system is optimized for low-overhead commands such as on-off and raise-lower (as in volume control). Applications for Z-Wave intelligence include home entertainment systems, lighting and appliance control, HVAC systems, security and access control, meter reading and digital home health care.
Z-Wave is a mesh networking technology where each node or device on the network is capable of sending and receiving control commands through walls or floors and around household obstacles or radio dead spots that might occur in the home. Z-Wave devices can work singly or in groups, and can be programmed into scenes or events that trigger multiple devices, either automatically or via remote control.
Because Z-Wave operates apart from the 2.4 GHz frequency of 802.11 based wireless systems, it is largely impervious to interference from common household wireless electronics, such as Wi-Fi routers, cordless telephones and Bluetooth devices that work in the same frequency range. This freedom from household interference allows for a standardized low-bandwidth control medium that can be reliable alongside common wireless devices.
As a result of its low power consumption and low cost of manufacture, Z-Wave is easily embedded in consumer electronics products, including battery operated devices such as remote controls, smoke alarms and security sensors. Z-Wave is currently supported by over 200 manufacturers worldwide and appears in a broad range of consumer products in the U.S. and Europe.
Zensys
Zensys offers the Z-Wave® protocol , a wireless RF-based communications technology designed for control and status reading applications in residential and light commercial environments. Z-Wave delivers reliable wireless networking at a fraction of the cost of other similar technologies, by focusing on narrow bandwidth applications and substituting costly hardware with innovative software solutions.
One clear benefit of electronic consumer devices that can be made to network together cheaply is that they can avoid the cost of building device to device networking into the house or business infrastructure itself. Given the housing slump, it is advantageous to offer a technology that is not to tied into that economy.
Z-wave background
Z-Wave is a low-power wireless technology designed specifically for remote control applications. Z-Wave transforms any stand-alone device into an intelligent network node that can be controlled and monitored wirelessly. Unlike high-bandwidth standards such as IEEE 802.11-based systems that are designed for high-speed data, the Z-Wave RF system is optimized for low-overhead commands such as on-off and raise-lower (as in volume control). Applications for Z-Wave intelligence include home entertainment systems, lighting and appliance control, HVAC systems, security and access control, meter reading and digital home health care.
Z-Wave is a mesh networking technology where each node or device on the network is capable of sending and receiving control commands through walls or floors and around household obstacles or radio dead spots that might occur in the home. Z-Wave devices can work singly or in groups, and can be programmed into scenes or events that trigger multiple devices, either automatically or via remote control.
Because Z-Wave operates apart from the 2.4 GHz frequency of 802.11 based wireless systems, it is largely impervious to interference from common household wireless electronics, such as Wi-Fi routers, cordless telephones and Bluetooth devices that work in the same frequency range. This freedom from household interference allows for a standardized low-bandwidth control medium that can be reliable alongside common wireless devices.
As a result of its low power consumption and low cost of manufacture, Z-Wave is easily embedded in consumer electronics products, including battery operated devices such as remote controls, smoke alarms and security sensors. Z-Wave is currently supported by over 200 manufacturers worldwide and appears in a broad range of consumer products in the U.S. and Europe.
Zensys
Zensys offers the Z-Wave® protocol , a wireless RF-based communications technology designed for control and status reading applications in residential and light commercial environments. Z-Wave delivers reliable wireless networking at a fraction of the cost of other similar technologies, by focusing on narrow bandwidth applications and substituting costly hardware with innovative software solutions.
One clear benefit of electronic consumer devices that can be made to network together cheaply is that they can avoid the cost of building device to device networking into the house or business infrastructure itself. Given the housing slump, it is advantageous to offer a technology that is not to tied into that economy.
Defected Ground Structures
We receive several technical articles each month about circuits that utilize Defected Ground Structures (DGS) to improve performance. A DGS is where the ground plane metal is purposely modified with a certain geometry (and positioning of that geometry) to enhance performance. They can be used in various circuits with antennas, filters, delay lines, phase shifters, etc. to improve performance such as modifying the band pass/reject characteristics for filters or modifying the slow wave effect for delay lines or phase shifters.
While DGS may improve performance, these circuits are highly susceptible to the effects of the packaging since they radiate. Any physical structure near the DGS (within the EM field) will probably affect their performance. Therefore publishing results which show improved performance but do not include the adverse (and real-world) effects introduced by packaging would mislead our readers, so we have made it a policy not to publish papers on DGS without measured results which include these effects.
Because we stress the importance of practical applications, we want to make sure the circuit performance presented in an article reflects how it would perform if packaged and used in an application. I believe this is now the policy of the IEEE also for technical publications and we have adopted it too. So I wanted to state this policy here and get any feedback we can from design engineers and others. Let us know what you think by posting a comment.
While DGS may improve performance, these circuits are highly susceptible to the effects of the packaging since they radiate. Any physical structure near the DGS (within the EM field) will probably affect their performance. Therefore publishing results which show improved performance but do not include the adverse (and real-world) effects introduced by packaging would mislead our readers, so we have made it a policy not to publish papers on DGS without measured results which include these effects.
Because we stress the importance of practical applications, we want to make sure the circuit performance presented in an article reflects how it would perform if packaged and used in an application. I believe this is now the policy of the IEEE also for technical publications and we have adopted it too. So I wanted to state this policy here and get any feedback we can from design engineers and others. Let us know what you think by posting a comment.
Monday, December 1, 2008
RF/microwave in Cars
The Auto show is coming to Boston this week, so I am excited to make my annual visit to this event. We get a group together each year and spend several hours salivating over the new cars (especially the exotics) and then have a nice Italian dinner in the north end. Every year I look for more RF and microwave products in cars but hope the severe down turn in the industry does not effect what we will see too much (I am not counting on getting any giveaways this year).
RFID is available on the new Ford F150 as an optional package to tag your important tools (or other items) and it will tell you if you are missing anything before you leave the job site. I hope to see this in action at the show.
While long range radar sensors have been in the Mercedes for years functioning as auto cruise control (77 GHz), I think 2009 will be the year that short range sensors (24 GHz) are integrated into the bumpers for several safety and assist functions such as blind spot detection, parking assist, collision warning, etc. (For more information, see our Dec 2007 article on auto sensors). It will be interesting to see how radar sensors do against laser and ultrasonic sensors.
There is also a lot of buzz lately about mobile TV being developed for automobiles so it will be fun to see if there is any news on this front. The integration of voice, data and GPS mapping is progressing quickly and some companies offer real time traffic information and automatic routing via GPS. This will lead us toward what has been talked about for years in intelligent traffic control systems.
My favorite option on my car now is the Bluetooth hands-free phone system and it will be interesting to see what other applications can use Bluetooth technology. I love the Microsoft Sync system currently available in some Ford models but unfortunately, bought another brand. It should be an interesting future for wireless in automobiles but certainly tempered by the economic woes of the industry.
RFID is available on the new Ford F150 as an optional package to tag your important tools (or other items) and it will tell you if you are missing anything before you leave the job site. I hope to see this in action at the show.
While long range radar sensors have been in the Mercedes for years functioning as auto cruise control (77 GHz), I think 2009 will be the year that short range sensors (24 GHz) are integrated into the bumpers for several safety and assist functions such as blind spot detection, parking assist, collision warning, etc. (For more information, see our Dec 2007 article on auto sensors). It will be interesting to see how radar sensors do against laser and ultrasonic sensors.
There is also a lot of buzz lately about mobile TV being developed for automobiles so it will be fun to see if there is any news on this front. The integration of voice, data and GPS mapping is progressing quickly and some companies offer real time traffic information and automatic routing via GPS. This will lead us toward what has been talked about for years in intelligent traffic control systems.
My favorite option on my car now is the Bluetooth hands-free phone system and it will be interesting to see what other applications can use Bluetooth technology. I love the Microsoft Sync system currently available in some Ford models but unfortunately, bought another brand. It should be an interesting future for wireless in automobiles but certainly tempered by the economic woes of the industry.
Monday, November 24, 2008
Microwave Journal in China
At this past year's IMS show in Atlanta and EumW in Amsterdam, the Microwave Journal booth displayed the beta-version of our pending Microwave Journal China Website. China has for a number of years been a big manufacturing center of microwave hardware and over the past few years has shifted into design work itself. With the large number of engineers graduating in China focused on Microwave technology, we feel the timing is right for Microwave Journal to report on the news, product information and events coming out of China and to provide this vast community of new microwave engineers with our technical content in a chinese-language format.
To understand our new targeted audience better, MWJ publisher Carl Sheffres and I traveled to Shanghai, Shenzhen and Guangzhou last week. We met with a number of company executives, conference organizers, manufacturer representatives (representing China, US and European-based products) and engineering managers. The feedback was unanimous. China is ready for a dedicated source of information about our industry - in Chinese - which targets the growing number of new and experienced RF/microwave engineers.
Our first stop was the IME 2008/EMC 2008 show in Shanghai, where we saw familiar faces (Agilent Technologies, Rohde & Schwarz, AR Worldwide, Valpey Fisher, Gore, LPKF, Emerson & Cummings and Yantel) as well as many new faces.
Booth traffic was very heavy at times as engineers lined up to fill out subscription cards and take a complimentary copy of our October issue (English version). Of course, we were very pleased to hear that a number of show attendees considered the Journal to be "very famous".
Our immediate goal will be to put the finishing touches on the new Microwave Journal China web site in time for its January launch date, work with the partners we had identified to expand our audience and line up authors for this new venture. All in all, it is a very exciting time for us at the Journal as we begin this new adventure. Have ideas for our Chinese web site, add them to this blog or send me an e-mail at dvye@mwjournal.com.
Booth traffic was very heavy at times as engineers lined up to fill out subscription cards and take a complimentary copy of our October issue (English version). Of course, we were very pleased to hear that a number of show attendees considered the Journal to be "very famous".
Our immediate goal will be to put the finishing touches on the new Microwave Journal China web site in time for its January launch date, work with the partners we had identified to expand our audience and line up authors for this new venture. All in all, it is a very exciting time for us at the Journal as we begin this new adventure. Have ideas for our Chinese web site, add them to this blog or send me an e-mail at dvye@mwjournal.com.
Changing of the Guard- Cell Phone Leaders
There have been several market research reports out over the last month that show what I think is a permanent shift in cell phone leaders. Samsung took over as leading mobile phone shipments in the US market (Apple moved up to #6). RIM seems to be holding strong and introducing some nice products. It seems like the global market leaders of Nokia and Motorola are loosing some of their grip on some of the market. The iPhone also took over as the best selling phone which had been held for a couple of years by the outdated Razor. The smart phones are really starting to take over as they become affordable and Apple, RIM, Samsung and even LG seem to be playing the game better than the traditional leaders (at least in the US).
What do you think? How will the G1 and Android do competing against these phones??
What do you think? How will the G1 and Android do competing against these phones??
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Antenna Measurement Techniques Association (AMTA) Conference
I attended the AMTA Conference this week in Boston at the Park Plaza hotel including the keynote speech by Dr. Eric D. Evans (Director of MIT Lincoln Labs) about radar measurement activities within their organization. I was surprised at the wide array of RF/microwave projects they are working on. He said they are concentrating on key technology enablers such as digital sensors, portable software, open system architectures, sensor/network sidecars and online processors. He said they are still innovating in hardware but spend more effort these days on software. They use rapid proto-typing (3 months from inception to hardware) and typically transfer the technology to industry for production.There were also a few talks about the European Antenna Network - how they are structured to provide support for antenna research and what projects are underway. A very interesting and comprehensive set of programs for Europe and many of them have global participation.
The exhibits included most of the key players like ETS-Lingren, Agilent, CST, Satimo/Orbit RF, MI, Rohde & Schwarz, etc. One of the most interesting products on display was the helicoidal scanning for elongated antennas from MI Technologies which will greatly speeds up the measurement process (see image).
More to come in my conference wrap up on the Microwave Journal web site.
Thursday, November 13, 2008
New Microwave Technologies for Medical Applications
Microwave technology currently has relatively limited uses in medical applications such as MRI and Telemetry systems with RFID starting to find some uses, but I can think of many others. However, there seems to be a resurgence in some new medical research activities that could change that. Our Dec. issue feature story will describe research being done by Duke University to use microwaves to mildly heat tumors so they respond better to other treatments. New modeling software has enabled better results to eliminate hot spots so that this technique shows promise now.
And now UMass has just released news that they are working on a portable breast cancer screening system that uses low power microwaves for imaging. The idea is to bring modern breast cancer screening to Third World countries without the danger, high cost and access problems of X-ray based machines. This new technique would take advantage of the fact that normal breast tissue and cancer cells have different electrical properties. These differences can be identified and measured using an array of tiny transmitters and external sensors embedded in the walls of a cylinder that fits comfortably around the breast.
It should be interesting to follow these technologies as the develop. Let us know if you can come up with other contributions of microwave technology to the medical field.
And now UMass has just released news that they are working on a portable breast cancer screening system that uses low power microwaves for imaging. The idea is to bring modern breast cancer screening to Third World countries without the danger, high cost and access problems of X-ray based machines. This new technique would take advantage of the fact that normal breast tissue and cancer cells have different electrical properties. These differences can be identified and measured using an array of tiny transmitters and external sensors embedded in the walls of a cylinder that fits comfortably around the breast.
It should be interesting to follow these technologies as the develop. Let us know if you can come up with other contributions of microwave technology to the medical field.
Monday, November 10, 2008
New Tunable Capacitor Technology for Mobile-TV
Speaking of mobile-TV (see David's entry below), Peregrine Semiconductor has developed a new digitally tunable capacitor (DTC) technology using their UltraCMOS process. Mobile-TV antennas must be able to receive signals efficiently over the frequency range of 470 to 862 MHz, so using a traditional passive internal antenna can result in a VSWR of 6:1 across the band causing reduced sensitivity. But using a DTC to change the antenna match across the band can maintain a VSWR of better than 2:1. In addition, this DTC technology can withstand the GSM transmitted power levels without affecting the mobile-TV signal integrity.
The initial design is for 5 bits of resolution or 32 tuning states and a tuning ratio of close to 5:1 with a Q factor of 40. Because it is designed using the UltraCMOS process, there is flexibility to scale the power handling capability, integrate digital and analog functions as well as other RF active/passive circuitry. This gives very good flexibility and new circuits can be designed quickly to get to market ahead of the competition.
I see several new and exciting tunable technologies coming in the near future and will share them as they are released. Microwave Journal has an exclusive first look into the Peregrine technology in our Nov issue.
The initial design is for 5 bits of resolution or 32 tuning states and a tuning ratio of close to 5:1 with a Q factor of 40. Because it is designed using the UltraCMOS process, there is flexibility to scale the power handling capability, integrate digital and analog functions as well as other RF active/passive circuitry. This gives very good flexibility and new circuits can be designed quickly to get to market ahead of the competition.
I see several new and exciting tunable technologies coming in the near future and will share them as they are released. Microwave Journal has an exclusive first look into the Peregrine technology in our Nov issue.
A Chief Technology Officer for the new Administration
This morning was my first time hearing about President-elect Obama's plan to create a position of chief technology officer within his administration, an idea that was actually floated one year ago by Obama - the candidate. The CTO's mandate would be to implement various technologies to support more transparent govenment including open meetings, live webcasts of those meetings, and use blogging software, wikis and open comments to communicate policies with Americans.
Second, Obama has several other policies in this area that should benefit the engineering community as a whole . The president-elect is calling for more aggressive government support of broadband access. Specifically, he will seek subsidies for phone carriers offering both regular phone service and Internet broadband to rural areas. To date, carriers offering merely phone service have been able to claim subsidies from the so-called Universal Service Fund, giving them little incentive to roll out out broadband. Currently the United States is 14th in the world with regard to broadband internet access. Such a roll-out would improve rural internet access and provide a welcome economic boost to microwave component manfacturers.
Obama’s is also calling for a review of the decision by the Federal Communications Commission to open the wireless spectrum for competition. Specifically, Obama is strongly considering advocating that spectrum on the 700 MHz band be opened so that third parties can lease it on a wholesale basis. This will ensure winners of a pending auction for the spectrum don’t just sit on the spectrum and not use it, a move designed to avoid other entrants from competing with them. During the campaign, Obama appeared ready to support the right of service providers to interconnect with a licensee’s wireless network. Google is expected to bid on the wireless spectrum.
Innovations like Maplight.org and Sunlightfoundation.com are building new tools to monitor government — to track influence, identify corruption, etc. These tools have been hampered by hard to access government data. Obama wants to make the raw data available: “So think about all the value that gets added to the free weather data given away by the government. This is the same idea in the context of data to make government more transparent, and less corrupt.”
Second, Obama has several other policies in this area that should benefit the engineering community as a whole . The president-elect is calling for more aggressive government support of broadband access. Specifically, he will seek subsidies for phone carriers offering both regular phone service and Internet broadband to rural areas. To date, carriers offering merely phone service have been able to claim subsidies from the so-called Universal Service Fund, giving them little incentive to roll out out broadband. Currently the United States is 14th in the world with regard to broadband internet access. Such a roll-out would improve rural internet access and provide a welcome economic boost to microwave component manfacturers.
Obama’s is also calling for a review of the decision by the Federal Communications Commission to open the wireless spectrum for competition. Specifically, Obama is strongly considering advocating that spectrum on the 700 MHz band be opened so that third parties can lease it on a wholesale basis. This will ensure winners of a pending auction for the spectrum don’t just sit on the spectrum and not use it, a move designed to avoid other entrants from competing with them. During the campaign, Obama appeared ready to support the right of service providers to interconnect with a licensee’s wireless network. Google is expected to bid on the wireless spectrum.
Innovations like Maplight.org and Sunlightfoundation.com are building new tools to monitor government — to track influence, identify corruption, etc. These tools have been hampered by hard to access government data. Obama wants to make the raw data available: “So think about all the value that gets added to the free weather data given away by the government. This is the same idea in the context of data to make government more transparent, and less corrupt.”
Friday, November 7, 2008
TV-enabled handsets. Are you ready for some football?
Last night (November 6) for the first time ever, a National Football League game between the Cleveland Browns vs. the Denver Broncos was broadcasted on Sprint mobile phones as part of the wireless company's exclusive partnership with the league. That partnership deal is valued at about $500 million over five years.
Sprint will phone-cast eight games that are televised solely on the NFL Network, the league's cable channel. In addition, Deutsche Telekom's T-Mobile unit has an exclusive sponsorship deal with the National Basketball Association.
The increasing availability of mobile handsets capable of receiving free-to-air analog and digital terrestrial TV signals will adversely impact the prospects for dedicated mobile broadcast TV networks. According to a new report from Juniper Research, more than 330 million mobile users worldwide will own broadcast TV-enabled handsets by 2013, yet less than 14% will opt for mobile pay TV services. Although mobile broadcast TV is expected to generate global annual end-user revenues of $2.7 billion by 2013, this level is markedly lower than previously forecast.
Meanwhile, Telegent Systems, the company that makes television mobile with its high-performance single-chip mobile TV solutions, together with Beijing Tianyu Communication Equipment Co., the leading original equipment manufacturer of mobile handsets in China, announced this week that Tianyu is increasing the number of handset designs leveraging mobile TV technology from Telegent to drive growth into the Southeast Asia market and capitalize on the popularity of analog TV phones in this region. Tianyu has also integrated Telegent's technology into the world's first hybrid CMMB and analog TV handset targeted at the domestic China market.
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
Do Engineers Make Good Presidents?
According to WikiAnswers.com, two US Presidents had university degrees as engineers. They were Hebert Hoover and Jimmy Carter. Herbert Hoover, the United States 31st President, studied mining engineering at Stanford University, graduating in 1895. Jimmy Carter, the 39th U.S. President , attended Georgia Tech and the United States Naval Academy, from which he graduated in 1946. Carter served in the Navy for 10 years as an engineer working with nuclear-powered submarines.
Hoover – a republican, deeply believed in the Efficiency Movement (a major component of the Progressive Era), arguing that a technical solution existed for every social and economic problem. In the first year of his presidency (1929). Hoover tried to combat the Depression with volunteer efforts and government action, none of which produced economic recovery during his term. The consensus among historians is that Hoover's defeat in the 1932 election was caused primarily by failure to end the downward spiral into deep Depression.
Hoover – a republican, deeply believed in the Efficiency Movement (a major component of the Progressive Era), arguing that a technical solution existed for every social and economic problem. In the first year of his presidency (1929). Hoover tried to combat the Depression with volunteer efforts and government action, none of which produced economic recovery during his term. The consensus among historians is that Hoover's defeat in the 1932 election was caused primarily by failure to end the downward spiral into deep Depression.
Carter – a democrat, was elected after the Nixon Watergate scandal, perhaps signaling Americans desire for an “honest” politician. Reflecting his engineering background, Carter created two new cabinet-level departments: the Department of Energy and the Department of Education and established a national energy policy. In general, Carter’s energy conservation efforts were not well-received by the American public. The final year of his presidential tenure was marked by several major crises, including the 1979 takeover of the American embassy in Iran and holding of hostages by Iranian students, a failed rescue attempt of the hostages, serious fuel shortages, and the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. By 1980, Carter's disapproval ratings were significantly higher than his approval
Both engineers-turned president left office with poor approval ratings and neither served more than one term. While this is true for other presidents, we have yet to prove that an engineer can make a great president. This year it is not even a choice. So whoever does win let’s all hope he is good for engineers and the scientific community as a whole. Hopefully the next administration will hear our concerns to preserve a vibrant commercial and military microwave industry, the need for training our next generation of engineers and all else that impacts our business. But today, make sure you get out and vote. Too many people have sacrificed for us to have this right, it is not to be wasted.
Monday, November 3, 2008
The Highs and Lows of EuMW 2008
Managing Editor, Keith Moore rides the train back to Schiphol Airport
I imagine most US attendees to EuMW 08 left on Friday unless they were going sightseeing after the show. The MWJ crew left early Friday morning, while several Horizon House staff members stayed behind to address lingering show duties. Thursday night was a last chance to take in this wonderful host city and sample some of its world cuisine. After eating Indonesian, traditional Dutch, and Thai earlier in the week, we settled on one of the many Argentenia restaurants downtown for our final supper in Amsterdam. I must admit it was quite a good steak.
Hey - look its a horsey. Hmmm - Ever wonder what kind of steaks they were serving at the El Rancho?
Some highlights from the Show:
I saw some very impressive demos from the T&M sector: Agilent with their PNA-X and multiple demos (I like the new IMD measurement system), Anritsu's medium priced fast-switching frequency synthesizer, R&S's mm-wave converter bringing their VNA up to 325 GHz, Keithley's SignalMeister and Tektronix's SignalVu. Lots of new RFIC/MMIC devices from Integrated Device Manufacturer's such as Skyworks, Analog Devices, Mimix, TriQuint, Hittite, and others. Time spent talking to HVVi Semiconductor about their new high voltage power devices, David Hall at National Instrument's always has an interesting demo (multi-protocol test system), meeting Joe Thomas, VP at M/A-Com Technology Solutions. All the major and minor EDA vendors were on hand as were all the major foundries (TriQuint, Win, Ommic, UMS).
The lows - rainy, cold weather, dinner at the "Vermont" restaurant and the rather loud public announcement system. Other than that, I can't really complain.
Where can we get a hot bowl of Cream of Mushroom soup in this town?The Online Show will wrap-up with our final word on the exhibition and conference as well as product wrap-up and pick of the papers.
Friday, October 31, 2008
Thursday at EuMW08
Its time to cram - the last day of the exhibition was the usual frantic start as exhibitors, delegates and the press were all busy trying to squeeze in as many last minute appointments as possible. By the end of the day, the cumulative impact of talking and listening, demoing, brainstorming, and answering questions had left most attendees with depleted energy reserves. Certainly by 4:30, as the work crews arrived to tear down the exhibition stands and pull up the carpet, I was ready to take my notes from three days of meetings and pack it up.
Richard Mumford and I have identified many excellent editorial opportunities for the new year and I will need the plane ride home just to organize all the proposed articles, webinars, white papers and special projects onto the 2009 editorial calendar. I am very excited with the way next year is shaping up for editorial and this show has been a big contributor, thanks to both the conference and the exhibitors. I will be writing a show wrap-up to conclude our live coverage of EuMW 2008.
I hope many of you have had the chance to visit our Online Show Daily (OSD) coverage (http://www.mwjournal.com/2008/EUMW/) - the exhibitor perspectives, chairmen messages, the blogs, podcasts, videos (as part of the Virtual Trade Stands) and special articles. The show site will be updated with several remaining new posts through the early part of next week after which we will keep the site available for our readers to use as a reference. The Journal staff at the show and back in our Norwood offices worked very hard to bring you this show coverage and we would like to hear back from you. Let us know what you liked and what you might like different.
Finally, I'd like to thank our OSD sponsors - RFMD, Rohde & Schwarz and TriQuint Semiconductor. Signing off from Amsterdam , this is David Vye. Safe travels home.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
