Antenna Products Deployed to Handle SuperBowl Data Traffic

PCTEL, Inc. (NASDAQ: PCTI), a provider of antenna and scanning receiver solutions, unveiled its new high-performance, dual-band Multiple Input and Multiple Output (MIMO) panel antenna. This antenna is optimized for cellular data offloading applications. The antenna enables high speed video and data applications on mobile devices through the use of 802.11n based WiFi networks. Offloading data reduces the traffic load on cellular networks in areas with a high concentration of data users such as stadiums, other entertainment venues and transportation hubs. PCTEL’s MIMO antenna has recently been deployed by a major carrier at the Cowboys’ Stadium in Dallas, initially used for the Cotton Bowl.

Over the last two years, there has been a significant increase in the number of smart phones and real time video and data applications. This has strained the capacity of cellular networks, resulting in blocked or dropped calls. Cellular carriers are utilizing MIMO enabled WiFi networks to “offload” cellular data traffic so that when a smart phone user enters the coverage area of a MIMO WiFi hotspot, the cellular carrier diverts data traffic over to the WiFi network, keeping voice traffic over the cellular network. This shifts the data traffic to unlicensed spectrum, reserving licensed spectrum for a better quality voice call experience. MIMO antennas for these WiFi systems have multiple radiating elements covering multiple frequencies and need to be properly designed and optimized. PCTEL’s MIMO antennas will be one element of the data coverage system for this Sunday’s championship football game.

PCTEL's new MIMO panel antenna provides six RF ports, three each, covering 2.4 GHz and 5GHz frequencies. The antenna has been designed with beam width and gain characteristics to provide optimal coverage for areas with a large number of data users without overloading access point capacity and minimizing interference to adjacent sites. The antenna comes with a flexible mounting solution and can be customized by PCTEL to blend in with the aesthetics of the environment in which it is going to be deployed.

"PCTEL has invested significant resources in the development of high performance directional and omni-directional MIMO antenna solutions to enable cellular offloading applications," said Jeff Miller, Senior Vice President Sales and Marketing for PCTEL. "We will continue to work with leading carriers and WLAN radio OEMs to develop custom antenna solutions to enable offloading in more than five hundred entertainment venues nationwide," added Miller.

Microwave Snow Removal

I was shoveling (still) more snow from my driveway this morning and found myself thinking about a blog parody concerning scientists having successfully developed a way to remove snow using microwaves. In my fictitious report, I would embed quotes from Dr. Mi Bak Aches and his colleague Dr. Pho Zen Tose on how they came up with the technology to efficiently melt an 8 inch covering of snow from a 700 square foot driveway in the time it takes to microwave a large Idaho potato. Ah, a truly wonderful fantasy as the snow banks surrounding the end of my driveway surpassed the six feet high mark.

Returning to the warmth of my office (and lap top), I decided to check the internet first, to see if anyone had preempted my early April fools story with an actual use of microwaves to fulfill this fantasy. Lo and behold (such an odd phrase), ANZAI HIROKI(Tsuruoka National Coll. Technol., JPN) and SHIRAHATA DAIKI(Tsuruoka National Coll. Technol., JPN) have already beaten Dr. Bak Aches and Pho Zen Tose in this effort. Why am I not that surprised?

From Science Links (Japan), a paper titled: “A Melting Snow Experiment for Road Heating with A Microwave Snow Melting System and Its Estimation of Electric Power”.

The scenario laid out by the authors - it is winter in Hokkaido and Tohoku region, the Sea of Japan side of Honshu, there are more snowfalls. An accident during the snow-removal work and a slip accident by icy roads occur in conjunction with this, and a problem to affect human life gets up. Therefore a melting of snow system and melting snow agent plans prevention such as icy roads, but there are various problems when they execute the work, and a cost side, environment side do not reach large use expansion. Therefore the author put an important point for melting snow of a road surface (a road, stairs, a parking lot) by this study and did the measurement and an electricity test calculation of a microwave melting of snow system and examined possibility of a microwave melting of snow system. As a result, the author understood that there was melting snow ability enough.

http://sciencelinks.jp/j-east/article/200603/000020060306A0065609.php

Has there been any progress in this area? I'm listening.

Military Spending and GaN Driving RF Power Markets

Although spending on RF power semiconductors in wireless infrastructure markets has continued to stagnate, according to ABI Research other markets – notably the military – are seeing increased activity. Also, according to a new study from ABI Research, Gallium Nitride – long seen as a promising new “material of choice” for RF power semiconductors – is continuing to gain some market traction. Gallium Nitride (GaN) increased its market share in 2010, and is expected to do the same in 2011. Although its adoption hasn’t been as rapid as originally expected, it is nonetheless forecast to be a significant force by 2016.

Other than wireless infrastructure, the vertical market showing the strongest uptick in the RF power semiconductor business has been the military. While the producers of these devices are located in the major industrialized countries, the military market is now so global that equipment buyers may come from anywhere.

High Growth Electronics Drive Wireless Chipset Markets

According to ABI research, Surging sales of netbooks, media tablets, and other “always connected” consumer and industrial electronics products mean equally robust performance in markets for wireless connectivity ICs. ABI Research expects that when the final numbers for 2010 are gathered, shipments of wireless connectivity chipsets will reach a total of approximately two billion units, a 22% shipment increase compared to 2009.

"Market demand for wireless connectivity chipsets has been increasingly robust in recent years, a trend that will continue in the medium term," says industry analyst Celia Bo. “Total shipments of wireless connectivity chipsets are forecast to reach seven billion units in 2015, with a 2010-2015 CAGR of 30%.”

Bluetooth maintained its lead among all wireless connectivity chipset categories, accounting for almost 60% of all 2010 shipments. Wi-Fi chipsets take second place with approximately a 38% market share. They are expected to achieve the highest growth rate among connectivity chipsets, with a 22% CAGR between 2010 and 2015.

For technology applications, the increasing demand for Wi-Fi-enabled mobile and consumer electronics devices is a key engine driving market growth. Wi-Fi-enabled mobile handset shipments have increased as much as 50% since 2009, and the adoption rate of Wi-Fi technology in mobile handsets is set to reach 32% in 2015. Today almost every netbook, media tablet, and gaming console has Wi-Fi embedded, and 2010 shipments of Wi-Fi-enabled consumer devices showed an increase of about 18% compared to 2009.

Besides the already established segments, other Wi-Fi-enabled consumer electronics devices such as digital still cameras (DSCs), digital camcorders, TVs, DVD players, DVRs and set-top boxes (STBs) are all set for strong growth in the coming years. Between 2010 and 2015, the CAGRs of Wi-Fi-enabled digital still cameras and TVs are expected to reach 63% and 65% respectively, followed by DVD players with a 47% CAGR.

Verizon iPhone 4 Antenna Better Than AT&T?

I am very happy the iPhone 4 is coming to Verizon soon as I have been with them for many years and would welcome the chance to get one. We have covered the antenna issues in a couple of previous posts and the Verizon iPhone brings some changes to the antenna design. Initially, Apple seemed to indicate that the changes to the antenna design were only to make it compatible with CMDA.

Taking a close look at the exterior antenna, one can see that there are now 4 spaces between the antennas instead of 3 so there appears to be a 4th antenna or antenna component. There are now reports that Apple has addressed the "death grip" antenna problems that degrade reception when the antenna is held a certain way. When the antenna is covered by a hand in the right position, this can happen. Because the antenna is around the border of the phone, it can happen in normal use unlike other phone where it is embedded near the top of the phone where a person would not naturally hold it. Reports are that Apple has duplicated antennas so that when one is covered degrading reception, the other one should be unobstructed and function properly.

Let me know what you have heard and if you have other information about the antenna design. In the mean time, I am looking forward to getting my wife one and I may wait for the iPhone 5 which is rumored to be available this summer.

Femtocell Applications Could be Key to Success

I have not seen that Femtocells have really caught on in the market as they seem to be only used for local range extenders. ABI Research says they are now attracting consumers’ attention in other ways. Their initial use-case has been to enhance indoor cellular coverage, but it is now clear that their potential utility is much wider. It is based on “femtozone services” that use key attributes such as location and presence to trigger innovative applications residing on the mobile device, or in the access point, the core gateway, or the cloud.

A simple example: a family alert system. A young person arrives at the family home, and the femtocell there registers the presence of his or her mobile phone and sends out an SMS notification to the parents. Such systems are already in use in Japan. Other kinds of femtozone applications can turn on lights or activate security systems, while still others can be used to sync content between mobile phones and other devices in the home such as TVs, laptops and media players. Via the mobile network, they can even allow remote access to digital content stored at home.

ABI Research forecasts about 2.3 million femtozone subscribers in 2012, providing revenue of more than $100 million. These numbers rise sharply to 2015, when 45% of femtocell users will subscribe to femtozone services. Femtozone services will see initial adoption in the Asia-Pacific region, but ultimately the North American market will be by far the largest.

Practice director Aditya Kaul says, “Femtozone services will be bundled with femtocell subscriptions and will also be available individually, increasing the perceived value of having a femtocell in the home. Eventually, mobile apps available from Apple or Google App stores may be designed to work via a femtocell. The femtozone services market is expected to reach almost $2 billion in revenue by 2015, but operators need to act fast, as the popularity of Wi-Fi/GPS-based over the top applications could pose a hindrance.”

Top Ten Viewed Technical Articles for 2010 in Microwave Journal

Below is a list of the Top 10 most viewed technical articles for 2010. Many of these articles are from ealier in the year or 2009 as they had more time to be read than articles published toward the end of this time frame so don't miss our Nov cover story, The State of RF/microwave Switches, and Dec cover story, Smart Grid Communications Evolution, as they have been quite popular over the limited time they have been onilne. Here is the list:

1. Fundamentally Changing Nonlinear Microwave Design (March 2010 Cover Story)


2. RFID: The Next Generation Auto-ID Technology


3. The Current State of Technology and Future Trends in Wireless Communications and Applications (2006 article)


4. RF Design of Avionics L-band Integrated Systems (Leo's articles are always very informative)


5. Supporting the Warfighter: Adapting to the Changing Paradigm of the Defense Market (Jan 2010 cover story)


6. The Missing Link in Ethernet Cellular Backhaul: IEEE 1588-2008, Precision Time Protocol


7. A Compact, Omni-directional, Circularly Polarized Microstrip Antenna


8. Development Report of Power FETs for Solid-state Power Amplifiers from GaAs to GaN Devices


9. The Distances Chart: A New Approach to Spurs Calculation (very innovative approach)


10. RFID Reader Architectures and Applications

For a complete list of 2010 articles (categorized by type), see our 2010 Editorial Index. RFID was the only topic that had 2 of the top ten in 2010 (both were written in 2009) - what do you think? What would you like to see covered in 2011??

ABI Research Expects Adaptive Cruise Control for Most Cars

Adaptive cruise control (ACC) has been an option on high-end luxury vehicles for more than a decade, but in the next few years ABI research says it will become available on mid-size and family vehicles. Costs have been falling slowly but steadily over the years, and now a new development promises to bring significant price reductions for the consumer.

“The highest cost component of ACC has always been the radar sensor,” says ABI Research principal analyst David Alexander, “and now the cost advantages of silicon technology are going to take effect. We project that, by 2016, the lower costs will play a big part in increasing volumes and push the global market value up to $30 billion.”

While cameras and lidar sensors are still contributing to ACC systems, especially for the low-speed and stop-and-go features, the core component is still the radar sensor. With Freescale Semiconductor announcing in November 2010 that its Xtrinsic chipset is going into production, the new silicon-germanium technology will allow automotive radar sensors to benefit from the efficiency of the latest CMOS manufacturing techniques. Other suppliers are likely to follow.
“We also expect intelligent speed assistance (ISA) systems to begin appearing in 2013,” says research director Larry Fisher. “However, rather than being pushed as the next big thing, ISA will take the form of an add-on feature to increase the value of existing packages that include navigation systems and forward-looking camera sensors.”

ABI Research still doesn’t see any proposed financial incentives to encourage the public to invest in speed control systems, but the latest NCAP (New Car Assessment Program) assessments are now including driver assistance systems, and manufacturers will have to start offering them to maintain high star ratings. Research has shown that both ACC and ISA can have beneficial effects on traffic flow when used in sufficient numbers.

A few years ago at M/A-COM (now part of Autoliv), the automotive group was making good in-roads into SiGe designs which has been used in their latest generation ACC modules. This really drove the cost down along with lower cost packaging/antenna materials so I can see this being more widely available on mid-range vehicles as an option.

Pat's Predictions for 2011

Last year was my first year of predictions for the RF and microwave industry. So what are my predictions for 2011 and how did I do last year?

2011 Industry predictions:

1. Tunable devices and circuits like RF MEMS and switched capacitor banks will be adopted in cell phones and alleviate some of the antenna reception issues that plagued phones like the iPhone 4.
2. Smart Grid applications will take off this year with ISM and Zigbee wireless applications being widely implemented around the world.
3. LTE will dominate the 4G networks as it is implemented around the world and zooms past WiMAX in deployments.
4. Femtocells, WiFi and other shorter range wireless technologies will be implemented to get around cellular dead spots instead of just deploying more basestations to fill in coverage.
5. Metamaterials will start to be used in real world devices for filters and other passive devices (maybe even radar cloaking for the military).
6. Adaptive/Cognitive radar and commnication systems will go into real development programs.
7. Millimeterwave frequency solutions will dominate the new backhaul and satellite communications deployments.
8. SOI and SOS based switches will start taking market share from the traditional dominant GaAs markets.
9. The confusion of the definition of 4G technologies will continue while someone will define and start using the term 5G.
10. Microwave applications will see significant use in medical technologies to enhance cures for diseases such as cancer.

And here are my 2010 Predictions and Outcomes:

1. The US Gov’t Broadband Initiative Stimulus money will be slow to come but even with the many hundreds of millions given out, it will have little or no affect on rural broadband access penetration (see our Oct 09 article on the Broadband Stimulus Program) - I would say this was right as millions were poured into the Broadband Initiative but it seemed to have little effect on market penetration.
2. LDMOS and GaN will gain major market share in the power product applications and become the leading materials for high power applications in their respective frequency sweet spots (see our June 09 article on the Power Brokers) - I think this was pretty close as LDMOS has dominated the basestation and lower frequency high power products in several areas and GaN has taken a significant hold in many new military and other high power markets.
3. We will see some control components integrated on GaN MMICs (i.e. switches, limiters, etc.) - I am doing well as at least 2 suppliers (Cree and TriQuint) released GaN switch products (See the end of the Nov cover story on Switches) so this one is also correct.
4. Nonlinear characterization advancements in the last couple of years will take hold in the marketplace as widely accepted techniques (X-parameters, S-functions, etc.) - Well, I don't think this was totally correct as these new techniques did become more widely known, but I not sure how widely used that are but this year should complete the task. We plan on trying to have a panel session on this subject at IMS 2011.
5. Several amplifiers with greater than 80% efficiency above 1 GHz will be developed as new high efficiency design techniques are exploited - This goes along with the previous prediction and while there are several examples of power amps over 60 and 70% efficiency, I could not find any over 80%. Have you seen any?
6. LTE will make large gains in deployments but not come close to exceeding WiMAX in the number of users (in 2011 I predict LTE will overtake WiMAX) - LTE was all the rage in 2010 and will continue to be in 2011 but I was correct that there were far more WiMAX deployments than LTE by the end of 2010. In an ABI report in Dec 2010, it was stated that at the end of 2010, mobile WiMAX will cover about 8% of the world’s population, while LTE will cover about 2%
7. SoC and SiP solutions will start to take hold in several applications where discrete solutions used to rule (WiFi, GPS, Bluetooth, etc.) - see our Feb 09 article on SoC/SiP - There are several companies supplying single chip solutions for WiFi, Bluetooth and ZigBee so I think this one is mostly correct (TI, RFMD, BroadCom, SiGe, etc.)
8. Wireless HDTV products will be released into the mass market and one protocol will distance its self as the leading solution of the 4 vying for acceptance (see our Aug 09 article on Wireless HDTV) - This market did not really mature yet (maybe this year) so I think I got this one wrong.
9. RFID will finally take off and see significant growth in multiple markets including front of the store (POS) applications - Same thing as above prediction so this one was wrong also.
10. As a result of the terrorists taping into our UAV video signals, new funding and significant resources will be spent on wireless encryption for the US military - This was somewhat true as there was emphasis to improve wireless security but I don't recall any major programs to do it so maybe I was only half correct here.
11. As a result of the failed terrorist attack on the Detroit bound plane, there will be renewed interest and purchases of mmWave and Terahertz body scanners for airport security - This was a hot topic as several groups and many individuals made a big fuss about going through the mmWave and X-ray scanning machines as they were widely deployed so I got this one correct!
12. As the military backs off the Future Combat Systems approach as being too expensive, advanced software defined radios will be demonstrated for near future systems - This was somewhat correct but again, I don't recall any major programs in this area so maybe it is only partially correct.
13. Smart IED jammers will be developed that actively adapt to different frequencies via software control as IED attacks continue to dominate our attention (see our August 08 supplement article on IED Jammers) - I think this one was correct and a new program was just announced that BAE Systems will develop electronic warfare machine learning to jam enemy adaptive communications automatically
14. A new military broadband satellite communications program will be proposed to ease the capacity crunch for bandwidth (see our August 09 article on the SATCOM Capacity Crunch) - I think this one was wrong as I did not hear about any such programs.

So if you count half points, I got 8 out of 14 correct!

The end of the year in pictures

With my camera-enabled Blackberry (or any phone), its much easier to record life's little snipets for posterity. Eventually though, its time to get those images off the phone's memory, to start a new collection of moments for sharing. And so this week I find myself cleaning out my camera's memory at years end.

I'm not one to take pictures frequently (with a camera or phone), but I did travel quite a bit for work towards the end of 2010 and that is when I am most likely to "snap a few shots". And so here's a quick photo essay of the end of 2010, from the perspective of a roving Microwave Journal editor. Got some industry related shots of your own? Send them to me at dvye@mwjournal.com and we'll consider posting them in a master photo album for the holidays. Enjoy !

Back in November, I travelled with our Northeast Regional Sales Manager, Mike Hallman to the Garden State, where we met a number of hard working RF/mW vendors. New Jersey has a great community of Microwave shops including Voltronics, Synergy, Wireless Telecom Group, MECA, Anatech, Pulsar, GT Microwave, Astrolab, and Anadigics just to name a few. I used to travel there frequently back in my Ansoft days (former Compact Software facility) and have a fondness for the state.















George Apsley, Chief Engineer Product Development and Amy Kulp, Marketing Director, GT Microwave with Mike Hallman, Regional Sales Manager, Microwave Journal.

It was at GT Microwave that I took these pictures. Its not every company whose founder is married to a stained glass artist. If that was the case, perhaps more lobbies would be adorned like GT Microwave. An RF power combiner in stained glass is certainly a thing of beauty. The detail in the coax connectors is amazing, right down to the flange screws. If you're in Randolph New Jersey, pay GT Microwave a visit.





APMC/MWE 2010

Here's MWJ publisher Carl Sheffres and Horizon House Event Manager Michel Zoghob together at our booth at APMC/MWE 2010 in Yokohama, Japan. They've been working so closely for years that they are starting to look related. Dont you agree? This was in early December. Great time for a long flight, a glimpse of the Japanese microwave market and some Sushi.

I loved this display. A famous radio tower in Japan constructed from semi-rigid coax cables and a variety of connectors (BNC, SMA, N-type, etc.). I was informed that last year they used similar components to reconstruct a famous Tokyo bridge. Perhaps next year they will go for a Godzilla design. Either way, very creative use of coax and connectors and a good way to get a show attendee to stop by the booth and hear some more about the company. OK MTT exhibitors, here's an opportunity to raise the bar on creativity.






I call this the Microwave Menora but actually it is a very interesting, millimeter-wave waveguide combiner for 60 GHz. Again this is from APMC/MWE. Japan has long been interested in 60 GHz applications, often tied to collision avoidance radar for automobiles. This is a fine example of the precise engineering and machining on display at APMC.


EuMW 2010

Final image for the year goes back to the roving editor in Paris at European Microwave Week this past September. Here I am after the first day at the show in the Latin Quarter, worried that I have arrived too late for the early bird, frog leg special. Our first European Defense/Security Executive Forum went off smoothly. The success of this event and the superb food (no frog legs but plenty of Fois Gras) made for a memorable trip.

GaAs Market Recovers Strongly in Recent Report

According to a report from Strategy Analytics last weeek, the market value for GaAs revenues, driven by smartphones and consumer adoption of data-intensive applications, has grown strongly from the lows it struggled for in early 2009. The recently published Strategy Analytics GaAs and Compound Semiconductors (GaAs) report, “GaAs Device Vendor Market Share 2009: North America,” reports that this growth brought the total market value for GaAs revenues to little more than $4 billion, a slight increase over 2008 revenue levels.

Skyworks Solutions nudged past RFMD to take the top revenue spot for North American vendors. However, less than one percent market share separates both companies. TriQuint and Avago Technologies both recorded strong revenue growth, substantially gaining on industry leaders. “Even though revenue from the GaAs market in 2009 was only slightly higher than 2008, the story that emerges is the strong industry recovery during the last three-quarters of the year,” noted Eric Higham, Director of the Strategy Analytics GaAs and Compound Semiconductor Service. “This growth is driven by consumer demand for new data-intensive applications, smartphones and the infrastructure that supports these capabilities. We expect these drivers to continue fueling growth through 2010.”

The report provides strategic comments, representative products and selected news items for a comprehensive set of North American GaAs vendors. It also identifies the top ten global vendors in terms of GaAs device market share. Strategy Analytics estimates that six of the top ten GaAs vendors—including all four top contenders--are located in North America.

RFMD and Skyworks are always a close 1 and 2 with TriQuint right behind them but I have seen Avago making big push to break into the top 3.

ABI Projects RF PA Revenue for Mobile/Cellular Markets

ABI recently talked about the rapid Chinese TD-SCDMA rollouts and the often-maligned GSM/GPRS/EDGE equipment markets have benefited the base station RF power amplifier and RF power device markets. The stated that GSM/GPRS/EDGE RFPAs and devices are still shipping in the millions. The Asia-Pacific region is presently accounting for more than 50% of the RF power semiconductor devices sold into the mobile wireless infrastructure segment.

Recent Chinese TD-SCDMA base station deployments have been massive, and have buoyed RF power vendors to a tremendous degree. That demand is expected to strengthen the market until at least sometime in 2011, and the Chinese deployments will probably only start to slow in 2012. And in a happy coincidence for equipment vendors, 2011 is the expected time frame for LTE deployments in developed countries to really gather a head of steam. Below is a nice graph of how they project the mobile/cellular PA market to breakdown over the next 5 years:

Microwave Backhaul Favored in W. Europe and Most of Asia-Pac

A new ABI report says that capital expenditure on mobile backhaul varies greatly by region and by technology. While most countries face similar current or future struggles to reduce network congestion, the solutions being adopted differ according to existing infrastructure, network generations, and government mandates and incentives.

One major division is whether to use optic fiber or microwave for mobile backhaul. CAPEX for microwave backhaul will peak in Western Europe this year at almost $4.4 billion, more than triple the figure for the next-highest region, Asia-Pacific. The European spending surge is due to the expansion of 3G networks to new areas, as well as a few initial 4G network deployments.
“Once that wave is completed in Western Europe, microwave backhaul will be left alone for a while,” comments ABI Research analyst Xavier Ortiz. “Following the 2010 spending spree, Western European microwave backhaul CAPEX will tumble in 2011 to just over half its peak level.”

Virtually all world regions will see some increase in microwave backhaul CAPEX over 2011-2013, followed by a gradual decline. The reasons vary by location. In Asia, many 3G networks will be rolled out during that period, and others will be expanded to reach remote, underserved areas. According to practice director Aditya Kaul, “Asia’s investment in microwave backhaul would be even greater were it not for the Chinese government’s mandate to use fiber for the country’s 3G and 4G networks. Although microwave is less expensive and faster to deploy, a governmental commitment to fiber means huge economies of scale, and fewer worries about zoning permissions.”

In the United States, the situation is very different. The prevalence of fiber optic cable in many parts of the country combined with the high cost of tower leasing mean that interest in microwave as a backhaul solution is lower than anywhere else. “Large service providers are saying they will only use microwave where fiber is unavailable,” says Ortiz.

It is interesting how Fiber and MW backhaul use differ from region to region. The economics and policies are very different in each region. I would think it would be mostly based on cost but that is not the case. Do you think China will ever change their mandate for Fiber only?

Microwaves and the Universe

In cosmology, cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation (also CMBR, CBR, MBR, and relic radiation) is a form of electromagnetic radiation that fills the universe. Unlike a traditional optical telescope, whereby the space between stars and galaxies appears pitch black, the radio telescope, exhibits a faint background glow between celestial bodies, almost exactly the same in all directions, that is not associated with any star, galaxy, or other object. This glow is strongest in the microwave region of the radio spectrum, hence the name cosmic microwave background radiation.

Most scientists believe the universe was created in the Big Bang around 13.7 billion years ago. Stars and galaxies started to form around 300 million years later. Our Sun was born around five billion years ago, while life first appeared on the Earth around 3.7 billion years ago. The CMB dates back to 300,000 years after the Big Bang and has now cooled to around -270 degrees C. Precise measurements of cosmic background radiation are critical to cosmology, since any proposed model of the universe must explain this radiation. The CMBR has a thermal black body spectrum at a temperature of 2.725 K, thus the spectrum peaks in the microwave range frequency of 160.2 GHz, corresponding to a 1.9 mm wavelength. This holds if you measure the intensity per unit frequency, as in Planck's law. If instead you measure it per unit wavelength, using Wien's law, the peak will be at 1.06 mm corresponding to a frequency of 283 GHz.

Nasa’s Wilkinson Microwave Anisotophy Probe (WMAP) is a NASA Explorer mission that launched June 2001 to make fundamental measurements of cosmology -- the study of the properties of our universe as a whole. WMAP is responsible for mapping CMBR and has been stunningly successful, producing our new Standard Model of Cosmology including the first fine-resolution (0.2 degree) full-sky map of the microwave sky.


Concentric circles discovered in cosmic microwave background radiation (CMB) – the after-effects of the Big Bang – display evidence of events that took place before most scientists believe the universe came into being. The recent controversial finding points to the existence of a universe that did not begin 13.7billion years ago, as is generally accepted, but is instead a cycle of so-called aeons. The discovery has been posted online on the website arXiv.org by respected scientist Professor Roger Penrose from Oxford University and Professor Vahe Gurzadyan from Yerevan State University, Armenia.

But Penrose and Gurzadyan argue that evidence unearthed by WMAP shows imprints in the radiation that are older than the Big Bang.. They say they have discovered 12 examples of concentric circles, some of which have five rings, meaning the same object has had five massive events in its history. The rings appear around galaxy clusters in which the variation in the background radiation appears to be strangely low.


The research appears to cast aside the widely-held 'inflationary' theory of the origins of the universe, which claims the universe began with the Big Bang, and will continue to expand until a point in the future, when it will end.
They believe the circles are imprints of extremely violent gravitational radiation waves generated by supermassive black hole collisions in a previous aeon before the last big bang.

They say that this means that this means that the universe cycles through aeons dominated by big bangs and supermassive black hole collisions. Penrose believes that his new theory of ‘conformal cyclic cosmology' means that black holes will eventually consume all the matter in the universe. According to this theory, when the black holes have finished consuming all the matter in the universe, energy will be all that remains, which will then trigger the next Big Bang - and the new aeon.

Penrose told the BBC: 'In the scheme that I'm proposing, you have an exponential expansion but it's not in our aeon - I use the term to describe [the period] from our Big Bang until the remote future. 'I claim that this aeon is one of a succession of such things, where the remote future of the previous aeons somehow becomes the Big Bang of our aeon.'


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1334027/Universe-shows-imprints-events-took-place-BEFORE-Big-Bang-say-scientists.html#ixzz16gn6I0Pl

More Fun with MM-Wave Body Imaging

Thanks to the “don’t touch my junk” traveler, most of the public is now aware of the controversy over the body imaging technology being employed at various airports (65 as of October 2010). Two types of body imaging technologies are actually employed. The first one known as Backscatter X-ray is an advanced imaging technology that detects the radiation that reflected from the target. . Traditional X-ray machines detect hard and soft materials by the variation in transmission through the target. A competing technology is millimeter wave scanner which produces a 3D image whereas the backscatter x-ray 2D image. The airport security machines are also referred to as "body scanner", "whole body imager (WBI)", and "security scanner".

Its oddly humorous to see microwave technology back in the mainstream news (I considered the Apple iPhone antenna design flop to be a microwave story). In August of 2006 - Endwave announced an agreement to manufacture a complete RF system for a portal scanner used in a variety of security applications. The company would fully integrate and test the active RF subsystems which form the vertical electronic scanning array (or RF mast). Once assembled into the mechanical housing, each RF mast rotates 180 degrees around a person standing in the portal, providing a full 360 degree scan of the body within a matter of seconds. These masts would incorporate a full suite of Endwave switch arrays and transceivers, along with the associated cabling and surrounding framework that holds the scanning antennas onto each side of the portal.

In August of 2008, the Microwave Journal discussed this technology with an Endwave executive in our Executive Interview series:

MWJ: One interesting millimeter-wave application is “whole body imaging” that is being developed by L3 Communications for security and detection systems useed in places such as airports and government facilities. What’s Endwave’s contribution to this system and will they eventually replace metal detectors?

MH: I think our relationship with SafeView (part of L-3 since they were acquired in 2006) is one that deserves some special attention. We initially began our relationship with this private Santa Clara start-up by designing the Tx/Rx modules that went into their first generation scanner. This was straightforward for us, given our leadership in telecom transceivers and the similar technology and manufacturing processes used in our core business. Soon after, we were awarded the switch modules that allow the transmit signal to quickly switch between antenna elements and scan the body from floor to ceiling. Still later, SafeView awarded us the entire RF “mast” – or chassis, of which there are two inside any ProVision™ portal. These 7-foot tall chassis include all of our electronics, plus all the associated cabling, connectors, and metalwork. We integrate all that, run final test, and deliver these large masts to L-3 SafeView where they do the final integration into the portal and ship it out the door. So you can see we are far more than your everyday module supplier.

In April of this year, the Transportation Security Administration Chief, Kip Hawley, publicly announced that the TSA was going to ramp up purchases of millimeter-wave checkpoint security equipment. Specifically, the L-3 SafeView ProVision™ portals were singled out for deployment in many US airports. During Q2 of this year, the TSA began deploying 38 ProVision™ scanners in LA, Baltimore, Denver, Albuquerque, Dallas, Detroit, Las Vegan, Miami, and New York’s JFK airport. Even more encouraging were comments from other TSA officials stating that the scanners could eventually replace metal detectors at the nation's 2,000 airport checkpoints and the pat-downs done on passengers who need extra screening. In addition to these airport checkpoint deployments, L-3 has publicly stated that scanners are already used in many different locations, including a few courthouses, jails and US embassies, as well as overseas border crossings, military checkpoints, government buildings and some foreign airports such as Amsterdam's Schiphol. So, it will be difficult for anyone reading this article to NOT see these millimeter-wave portals if they do airline travel. That should be exciting to our entire industry, as it’s sort of like “millimeter-waves going mainstream”.

MWJ: That is very interesting and I look forward to seeing this technology showing up in airports, especially if it means getting through security faster.

So despite the benefits, the public and TSA official need to resolve the objections people have to machines that can look through clothes.




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Cell Phone Radiation Risks - Now I have seen it all

There has been a wide array of cell phone radiation protection devices such as antenna shields, cell phone holders/covers, gloves and hats but now there is Belly Armor. It claims to protect an unborn child from everyday radiation from sources ranging from cell phones to WiFi with a material that is provided to act as a Faraday cage. It comes in various forms such as a blanket, belly band and tee.

I have not seen any evidence that non-ionizing radiation does any damage to the body other than heating from very high power sources. The FCC has set conservative limits on the power levels of cell phones and other devices in order to protect the public but there are still many concerns about long term exposure to various sources of radiation.

Can anyone point to any conclusive reports or studies that I have missed? What do you think??

The 4G Controversy

Some industry experts and research analysts agree that today's WiMAX (802.16e) and LTE technologies are 4G but do they really meet the definition of 4G as others say they do not. Now that the ITU has officially accepted 802.16m and LTE-Advanced as IMT-Advanced technologies (4G), the issue has surfaced again. What makes it more confusing is that where the ITU mainly referred to IMT-2000 and IMT-Advanced in the past, it is now including 3G with IMT-2000 and 4G with IMT-Advanced.

It is true that the current LTE and WiMAX systems are 4th generation networks so shouldn't they be called that. But 4G networks should also meet some minimal performance specs for data rates, security, etc. (ITU now specifies 4G with peak rates up to about 100 Mbit/s). With the ITU's specifications of 4G now published, the performance specifications for 4G are far above those of current systems making them more like 3.9G (or something like that) as their speeds are in the tens of Mbit/s speeds.

All the carriers are calling their latest networks 4G any way in order to keep up with their marketing to the public of the latest faster networks. T-Mobile is saying their new HSPA+ network is 4G; AT&T and Verizon are deploying LTE networks as 4G; and Sprint and Clearwire are deploying WiMAX in the same way. So the point is probably mute as these carriers are already defining and marketing their current networks as 4G, so I think it is too late for the ITU to define it. But I agree that the ITU has a more proper definition since performance specifications are spelled out to quantify the requirements.

Here is our latest article written by the UMTS Chairman about the evolution of from HSPA to LTE and beyond. What do you think?

and the winner is....

The Global Semiconductor Association (GSA) just announced its 2010 Award Nominees for the Annual Awards Dinner Celebration and there are a few familiar RF/Microwave semiconductor vendors among the list of companies being honored at the gala happening on December 9th in San Jose.

- SiGe Semiconductor, Inc. was nominated for the Most Respected Private Semiconductor Company award

- Broadcom Corporation was nominated for the Most Respected Public Semiconductor Company award nominees achieving $500 million to $10 billion in annual sales

- Hittite Microwave Corporation and QUALCOMM CDMA Technologies were nominated for the Best Financially Managed Semiconductor Company award

- In the Analyst Favorite Semiconductor Company award category: Skyworks Solutions, Inc. (along with Broadcom and QUALCOMM) was nominated by analyst Tim Luke of Barclays Capital, Avago Technologies was nominated by analyst Ross Seymore of Deutsche Bank Securities and Hittite was nominated by Needham & Company analyst Quinn Bolton.

The GSA Awards Dinner Celebration is made possible through the support of this year’s title sponsor, TSMC; VIP sponsor NASDAQ OMX; networking reception sponsor GLOBALFOUNDRIES; as well as general sponsors including Advantest, Amkor Technology, ARM, ASE Group, Atheros Communications, Barclays Capital, Broadcom Corporation, Cadence Design Systems, CSR plc, Deutsche Bank, eSilicon Corporation, GlobalFoundries, IBM, J.P. Morgan, KPMG, MagnaChip Semiconductor, Marvell Semiconductor, MIPS Technologies, Mohawk Valley Edge, Morgan Stanley, Needham & Company, NetLogic Microsystems, NVIDIA Corporation, PricewaterhouseCoopers, QUALCOMM CDMA Technologies, Samsung Semiconductor, SAP and UMC.

I’ll be sending my tux out for cleaning, just as soon as I receive my invite.

NFC Rumored to be in Next iPhone

There was a report last week that Apple is already testing a prototype iPhone with near-field communication (NFC) capability inside that could lead to using future iPhones as a mobile wallet or payment device. Unnamed sources say that Apple is testing an iPhone with NFC chips procured from NXP Semiconductor. It's not clear what exactly what they are testing and is very preliminary at this point. But coupled with the hire of Benjamin Vigier from mFoundry as mobile payments product manager, it seems possible that Apple could be planning to open up to mobile commerce.

Using it the iPhone for payment seems to be a good idea for Apple, which has 150 million credit cards already hooked up to iTunes accounts, as CEO Steve Jobs announced in June to its annual meeting of developers. There are applications being built for iOS devices as well as Android and other platforms that enable mobile payment, so building in a contactless payments feature makes sense and has been tested and used in other countries like Japan.

Do you think the iPhone will be the first to implement NFC or will an Android phone beat them to the punch?

MILCOM 2010 - Utilizing Smartphones for the Warfighter

One of the major trends at MILCOM this year is leveraging the use of commercial smartphones for military use to field advanced communications to the field quickly. Billions of dollars are invested in commercial development for smartphones so why not use that advanced technology for the military. The commercial market also updates capabilities quickly so if the commercial smart phone can "plug" into a secure military network, the comm device does not become obsolete after a year or two.

One of the best examples of utilizing this strategy is Lockheed Martin's MONAX 3G broadband network. MONAX is designed to bring an affordable, 3G broadband network to Warfighters at the first tactical mile and enables the use of smartphones and delivers smartphone data, imagery, video and applications. Lockheed has designed a "brick" device (called a Lynx) that has a battery, antenna and RF circuitry to transmit and receive secure 3G communications to the network that the smartphone just clips into. A rubber sleeve is also used to encase the smartphone to make it more rugged. The device uses standard AES 256 encryption and utilizes different frequencies than commercial networks so as to not interfere with the local communications. The basestations can be put up on towers but are better used on airborne platforms like balloons where they are quickly deployed over the area and provide wider coverage. Below is a short video demonstration of the MONAX network.

The MONAX devices are available on GSA for around $1000. They provide a low cost quickly deployable network that can be used now. It is well suited for the Warfighter, disaster communications, rescue situations and similar situations where secure communications are needed quickly. It is not a fit for top secret or highly rugged communications but is a possible solution for most military communications needs. It is currently a 3G network but can be updated as the technology progresses to 4G and beyond.

They plan to build a library of apps appropriate for the Wargfighter such as mapping programs, video surveillance, facial recognition for identification, battle planning, medical apps to forward injured soldier information ahead to the medical unit and more. This will provide capable communications now while other programs come on line in the future like JTRS and WIN-T. The might be a secure iTunes app store in the future!