Sprint continues to struggle

Sprint announced plans to eliminate 8,000 positions by the end of the current quarter--in an effort to trim $1.2 billion in internal and external labor costs. The job cuts were intended to make its cost structure more competitive in the industry and keep the company fiscally secure in the current economic downturn.

While many companies are trying to cut costs during the recession, wireless is one of the few areas where most operators don’t appear to be struggling. Sprint has the double misfortune of facing not only a bad economic climate but the task of simultaneously trying to rebuild its reputation and business among customers, said Jeff Kagan, an independent wireless analyst. “We have seen wireless competitors like Verizon and AT&T continue to do pretty well during this weak economy, but Sprint has continued to lose customers and struggle.”

In the third quarter, Sprint reported net customer losses of 1.3 million, adding to the tally of customers fleeing for other operators. Sprint’s customer base has shrunk 6.3% in the last year, while the industry overall has grown 7%. Meanwhile Sprint’s operational costs have remained fixed as it maintains a network, sales and customer care operation intended to support a much larger customer base.

The biggest concern for Sprint right now, Moffett added, must be the viability of its Nextel iDEN network, which Sprint recently tried to revive. If Sprint can’t reverse customer losses on the iDEN network, it could move from being a cash-generating network to a cash-losing one, compounding Sprint’s problems. “If the volumes on the iDEN network are no longer sufficient to support Nextel, then the hole Sprint is in will be much deeper than we thought.”, said Craig Moffett, senior analyst with Bernstein Research.

Some Cuts Announced

As with many other industries, the electronics market is suffering from the downturn and several companies have announced layoffs. STMicroelectronics has outlined a major cost-cutting effort, including a plan to shed 4,500 jobs. In total, STMicroelectronics (Geneva) plans to reduce its costs by over $700 million in 2009. The actions are focused on ''resizing'' the company's manufacturing operations and streamlining expenses. The company - which issued a recent warning about Q4 - also reported sales of $2.276 billion in the fourth quarter of 2008, compared to $2.696 billion in the third period and $2.742 billion in the like period a year ago.

Texas Instruments said it will lay off 12 percent of its workforce, or approximately 3,400 employees, as it restructures operations following one of the worst sequential and year-over year quarterly performances in the history of the analog and digital signal processor company. Dallas, Texas-based TI also warned that it does not expect sales will improve significantly anytime soon due to continuing weakness in the general economy, which helped drive down fourth quarter revenue 30 percent from the immediately preceding quarter and 26 percent from the comparable quarter of 2007.

Royal Philips Electronics NV (Amsterdam, the Netherlands) is planning to reduce its workforce by 6,000 worldwide this year after reporting its first quarterly loss for almost six years. It also halted an ongoing shares buy-back program. The company suffered a net loss of Euros 186 million for 2008 after a fourth quarter loss of Euros 1.47 billion, partly because of a write-down in the value of its Lumileds diode light unit, as well as downgrading the value of its remaining stakes in NXP Semiconductors and LG Display Co.

Hopefully the RF/microwave industry will not be affected as much as these large electronics companies that are more directly related to consumer demand. Maybe the new stimulus packages will help pull us out of the recession.

Microwave Journal works with Electromagnetic Careers which has job listings available here. Please share any other news you know about or better yet, any hiring companies that would help our readers out if they are looking.

China’s Handset Market Expansion Continues in 2009

According to iSuppli Corp research analysts, China’s domestic wireless phone market is set to maintain its growth in 2009, with a 7.7 percent increase for the year. The forecast calls for the domestic handset market to reach 239.1 million units in 2009, up from 222.1 million in 2008.

“China’s three wireless operators are attracting new subscribers by reducing service fees. This will greatly contribute to demand from first-time buyers,” said Kevin Wang, senior manager of China research at iSuppli. “New subscribers are expected to exceed 90 million in 2009. Furthermore, more existing mobile users will be subscribe to a second number. Beyond that, the government’s broadened subsidy policy for consumer electronics purchases will stimulate demand in rural areas.”

Domestic authorized handset market shipments surpassed 180 million units in 2008. Meanwhile, the domestic gray market decreased to about 40 million units in 2008, down from more than 50 million units in 2007. A number of gray market suppliers became authorized brand-name companies. Their business grew dramatically in tier-three and tier-four urban and rural markets.

Foreign handset OEMs occupied 56 percent of China’s handset market for 2008. Nokia was the largest handset supplier in China in 2008 with a 37 percent market share. At the same time, Samsung expanded its share of handset shipments. Tianyu will continue to be the leading Chinese brand in terms of domestic shipments.

3G arrives
The Chinese government will issue 3G licenses in 2009. However, domestic 3G handset shipments will not increase dramatically during the year. The total domestic 3G handset market is expected to reach 8 million units in 2009. Low-cost multimedia GSM and ultra-low-cost CDMA handsets should be among the best-selling products of 2009. However, smart phones and handsets supporting 3G and the China Mobile Multimedia Broadcasting (CMMB) standard also will represent high-growth segments.

In term of total unit shipments, Huawei and ZTE are likely to be the leaders in China’s 3G handset market. Both were anticipated to ship more than 30 million units in 2008. Moreover, Huawei is now the largest 3G data card supplier in the world. At the time this was written, Chinese handset manufacturers collectively were projected to ship more than 300 million handsets by the end of 2008. iSuppli forecasts that Chinese handset manufacturers will ship more than 360 million units in 2009 driven by both domestic and export markets.

Nokia OSC Technology Extends GSM Capacity and Lowers Costs

Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN) has successfully carried out field trials of Orthogonal Sub Channel (OSC) technology that is said to double the voice capacity of GSM radio networks using standard handsets. The OSC test demonstrated the use of four handsets sharing only one radio timeslot without compromising the call quality. NSN says the demonstration with existing commercially available GSM handsets was the first of its kind and is a "significant step in GSM evolution."

The aim is to help mobile operators cope with their cost challenges due to declining revenues per call minute. With OSC technology, operators can gain more capacity from the same base station hardware, meaning fewer base station sites are needed in network rollouts and capacity extensions, which in turn saves energy and decreases the CO2 emissions.

"This successful demonstration is made possible by a software upgrade to existing Flexi EDGE Base Station and Base Station Controller. OSC is fully interoperable with existing handsets, so it promises immediate cost saving for operators", said Prashant Agnihotri, Head of GSM/EDGE product management, Nokia Siemens Networks.

Cellular Growth Expected in 2009

The Strategy Analytics (SA) has posted a new Wireless Network Strategies service report, “US Wireless Market Outlook: 2009 Key Trends,” and predicts that US cellular subscriber growth will remain strong despite the economic situation but growth levels will scale back slightly from 2008. US cellular service revenues will also continue to grow, albeit at a slower growth rate of 3.9%, down from 7.5% in 2008. This is consistent with some surveys I have heard about saying that the technology products people expect to continue to buy are cell phones and HDTVs (those products are part of our everyday life and we are not willing to give them up easily).

SA says that in the current economic climate, carriers must address tightening consumer wallets. “Rather than just pushing prepaid as the perfect recession-proof tariff, carriers will work to make postpaid plans more attractive to budget-conscious customers who are re-examining their cellular spend,” explains Phil Kendall, Director of the SA's Wireless Network Strategies service. SA predicts more positioning for value rather than straight out price competition. “All-you-can-eat operators MetroPCS and Leap Wireless should fare well and present a challenge, especially to T-Mobile USA. Strategy Analytics expects that Sprint will continue to struggle,” predicts Susan Welsh de Grimaldo, Senior Analyst at SA and author of the report.

“The year 2009 will see heightened competition between AT&T Mobility and the new number one, Verizon Wireless—fresh from its acquisition of Alltel. These two will jockey for technology leadership on Long-Term Evolution (LTE), push wireless connectivity in consumer electronics devices and increasingly represent a larger share of total subscribers and service revenues.”

NY cancels $2B M/A-Com contract

The New York Office for Technology said last Thursday that it has terminated a contract with M/A-Com Inc., a Massachusetts company that was tasked with building and leasing a wireless network worth $2 billion. This was the largest contract ever awarded by this office and the cancellation will severely hamper progress toward a goal of building a statewide wireless emergency network.

The contract was canceled as the state tries to resolve a combined, record-high deficit of $15.4 billion over the next 15 months. The state warned M/A-Com in August 2008 that it was in default of its contract because internal tests and independent audits found 19 flaws in initial systems installed in western New York. Problems ranged from radio equipment failures and outages to “unreliable” and “inconsistent” infrastructure and coverage areas. Subsequent testing in November 2008 revealed that 15 of the 19 flaws had not been fixed.

“We are extremely disappointed,” said Melodie Mayberry-Stewart, director of the state Office for Technology. “We have given M/A-Com every opportunity to remediate existing deficiencies. However, the state’s testing concluded that M/A-Com is unable to deliver a system that meets the needs of New York state’s first responders.”
The state has spent $59.2 million on the project, including equipment purchases. Tyco Electronics has spent $51 million to date, and was expected to spend up to $75 million in its 2008 fiscal year, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

The state is in line to recover much, if not all, of its investment through a $100 million credit line that M/A-Com established, per the terms of the contract. Half of that money is in escrow. The state has already sent a letter demanding payment to the financial institution managing the credit line.

M/A-Com, a division of Tyco Electronics Ltd. (NYSE: TEL; BSX: TEL), outbid Motorola Inc. (NYSE: MOT) for the 20-year contract in early 2004. The deal is reportedly the largest high-tech project ever undertaken in the state’s history, and the largest statewide, public-safety communications project ever.

Nortel Files for Creditor Protection

On 14 January 2009, Nortel Networks filed for creditor protection in Canada and the US, with Nortel UK entering administration separately under a filing managed by Ernst & Young. The company reached this point after multiple management regimes failed in their attempts to remake the company after the bursting of the telecoms bubble. Nortel’s move may result in a more balanced industry structure for communications equipment.

There is no immediate industry impact from this filing, as Nortel’s downwards spiral has been gradual and bankruptcy restructurings take time. For Nortel’s three key constituencies – customers, investors, and staff – the announcement reinforces but does not fundamentally change earlier concerns. The latest phase in the Nortel saga began four months ago, when it pre-announced 3Q08 earnings (guiding down expectations), publicly put a ‘for sale’ sign on its Metro Ethernet Networks (MEN) division, and then mapped out yet another reorganization. At the time we stated that a more radical approach than divestiture was needed to cure the company’s woes. The bankruptcy filing is radical, but it will be exploited by competitors. They are now in a strong position to remind customers that Nortel can no longer give assurances of continued development of any specific products, which will surely impede Nortel’s ability to bring in new business.

Prior to this week’s filing, Nortel was in the midst of moving from four to three business units by folding bits and pieces of its Services division into the respective MEN, Enterprise Solutions, and Carrier Networks business units. The aim was to create three standalone operations with a more focused set of offerings and resources. Some elements of this restructuring are undoubtedly positive; for instance, rationalization of the Enterprise product line and phasing out some legacy technologies. However, this change follows numerous incremental divestitures or shutdowns of specific businesses and product lines (for example, broadband access and the UMTS and WiMAX RAN segments) in an attempt to focus and differentiate while cutting costs. By entering bankruptcy protection, Nortel’s fate will now be largely determined by its creditors and the courts. Hence the restructuring ahead will be much more brutal and less under Nortel’s control: product lines, technologies, partnerships, divisions, and even customers (i.e. installed base) will be candidates for shutdown or sale to the highest bidder.

Evolution to 4G. Nortel’s mobile infrastructure business is now focused on LTE/SAE (long term evolution/system architecture evolution). It is working hard to develop a strong LTE/SAE ecosystem including LG Electronics, LG Nortel, and other partners. It is doing its best to demonstrate its capabilities through trials (e.g. Verizon and T-Mobile Germany) and announcements (e.g. a deal with KDDI) and expects some commercial launches in 2009. Its LTE assets (part of the Carrier division) may be attractive for another player, perhaps Alcatel-Lucent, NEC, or ZTE.
There may also be some ‘rediscovered jewels’ from the recent acquisitions that became lost in the Nortel shuffle (e.g. Tasman) and may be of specific interest to some acquirers. Nortel emphasizes that its decision to file now – when its cash reserve is $2.6 billion – rather than 6–12 months down the line gives it added flexibility. That may be so, and may allow it to re-emerge as a smaller, better version of itself in the future. However, the scenarios mapped out above, in which rivals use Nortel’s bankruptcy filing as a chance to reshuffle the supplier landscape dramatically to their benefit, seem more likely. While public credit markets are tight and investors cautious, more aggressive capital sitting on the sidelines may also see this as an opportunity too ripe to pass up.

With thanks to - Dana Cooperson and Matt Walker, analysts at Ovum and Maria Di Martino , European PR Executive

LTE Market Provides Enthusiasm for Market Growth

While WiMAX dominated the news over the last year or so, LTE will probably be the hot topic this year as deployments start to happen. ABI Research reports that more than eighteen operators globally have announced LTE deployment plans, and the tough economy does not seem to have dampened their enthusiasm.

ABI Research estimates that operators will spend over $8.6 billion on LTE base station infrastructure alone. Verizon has announced acceleration of its LTE deployment timetable, bringing the launch forward from 2010 to 2009. Many of the others are looking at a 2011-2012 time frame, by which time, they hope, much of the current pain will have passed. ABI Research believes that NTT will also deploy LTE in Japan in 2009 and in general, LTE application development will also drive investment as operators work to determine which services to deploy on this high speed, low latency network.

We will certainly see where things are heading at Mobile World Congress in Feb as everyone congregates in Barcelona, Spain.

Gearing up for a Slow Down

Last October at the European Microwave Week in Amsterdam, I met with a number of RF/mW component manufacturers and frequently got onto the subject of the financial crises that had been unfolding for several months. At the time, the economic downturn still seemed confined to the housing and finance markets and had not yet impacted our industry. Apparently the recession had started the previous December, but those keeping count must wait a few quarters before declaring that a recession is actually in effect.

While most everyone I spoke with was concerned about what was happening, the immediate future looked stable enough. Folks were busy, contracts were being won and business was respectable. Today, everyone seems much less up-beat and many folks seem jittery about potential business and are hunkering down for a long lean period. Personally, I think times like these provide individuals and companies that are willing to be aggressive yet smart with an opportunity to make some real gains against their competitors. It is a time for solutions that save costs and improve efficiency in the long term. Companies that can save their customers money should do fine, but they must communicate this value proposition.

David Strand, president of Strand Marketing Inc., a Newburyport, Massachusetts-based marketing and advertising agency specializing in the high tech industry, has written a marketing brief entitled “Gearing Up for a Slow Down: 7 ideas for Marketing in a Challenging Economy.” Contained within the brief are tips on investing marketing dollars in the most efficient ways. Topics include time-sensitive advertising, e-marketing, search engine optimization, PR and sales incentives.

“In these unstable times, business owners are understandably looking to cut costs. But is it time to do the Ostrich, or be a cautiously optimistic leader in your field?,” said Strand. “I’ve prepared this brief to offer some simple and inspiring ideas for keeping yourself out there in front of customers while the business world is building new cornerstones.”

The brief is available as a free PDF download at www.strandmarketing.com/7things.

More than ever companies need to invest in the R&D that will produce products that most benefit their customers needs and they must communicate this solution effectively. I believe engineers (the bulk of our authors and our audience) need that information in the form of technical articles, white papers and even multi-media outlets such as webinars. Companies connecting to their customers these days will likely develop loyalty that will last through many future business cycles.

Samsung Developing LTE and WiMAX Chipsets

Samsung Electronics has announced that they will be developing their own baseband silicon ICs for both for both LTE and mobile WiMAX networks as well as media accelerators. The effort is geared toward to lowering the costs of its handsets and reducing their exposure to IPR royalties, according to Young Cho Chi, senior VP of strategic planning for Samsung's telecom division. The company historically relied on chips from Qualcomm but began diversifying its suppliers last year by moving to Broadcom and Infineon chips which use a software stack from Comneon, a joint venture between Infineon and InterDigital Communications that reportedly does not rely on Qualcomm's patents.

"It looks like the Koreans are revolting against the royalties that Qualcomm has been extracting for some time," said Will Strauss, principal of market watcher Forward Concepts. "Both Samsung and LG have long chafed at Qualcomm's royalties," he added.

Samsung is already sampling its mobile WiMAX chipset to engineers in and outside the company. The Korean giant wants to be among the first to launch LTE handsets, but whether it will use its own LTE baseband in its first models is uncertain.

The company will support both WiMAX and LTE for next-generation cellular networks, Chi said in his San Francisco talk. Between the two technologies, WiMAX is as much as five years ahead in maturity, but LTE will ultimately be more broadly used, Chi said. "We are also trying to develop competitive multimedia chipsets to support various multimedia functions," said Chi in an e-mail exchange following a presentation in San Francisco in early December.

Samsung also plans to develop its own lineup of mobile GPUs in a bid to avoid the increasingly expensive licensing fees associated with using either ATI or other third-party mobile GPU technologies. The company plans to begin production at a newly opened Texas plant with no details on a release timeframe. Samsung also plans to be one of the first handset manufacturers to support LTE, but it has not clarified whether it will use its own chipset in the first handsets scheduled to be available at the end of 2009

Good Economic News for Leading Technologies

Some of the industry news that reflects the current economic climate in the first week of the New Year has been surprisingly upbeat. The analysts have been busy forecasting and several of the predictions are better than we expected, given the non-industry related news we keep hearing about.

Last month, West Technology Research Solutions (WTRS), a California based research, publishing and consulting company predicted that WiMAX adoption would be strong despite economic turmoil. Analysts feel that consumer demand for entertainment and communication as well as governmental regulatory and economic incentives would push the US broadband market forward over the next 4-6 years. They cite that demand is due to the development of new technologies by many companies at all levels of the broadband services and infrastructure value chain enabling new services. WTRS believes these services are somewhat protected from cutbacks by the recession-concerned consumer market since WiMAX targets on-the-go professionals.

Contrary to this perspective on a weak consumer market for broadband technologies, Motorola envisions strong growth in 2009 for LTE, WiMAX and Fiber-to-Home driven by consumer demand for rich media. Motorola also touted the technology coming online in 2008 - ”historic demonstrations, including the industry’s first CDMA to LTE network handoff, and a steady drumbeat of WiMAX and FTTH deployments and products” as proof that the technology is ready to meet demand.

How does this translate into hardware? ABI Research sees a thrust of demand for dual-mode LTE/WiMAX chips from those wireless device makers seeking to reduce the number of their SKUs; they will welcome the economies of scale that come from creating devices that support both 4G standards. Vodafone, for example, has a foot in both WiMAX and LTE camps. They will use LTE in industrialized regions, and WiMAX in developing nations. In Japan, KDDI may deploy LTE on its own, but as an investor (along with Intel and others) in WiMAX operator UQ Communications, KDDI has an interest in both standards.

Hold the euphoria as the excitement of the new must be held in check with the reality of our times. According to ABI Research, the global mobile handset market went into a tailspin in October and November, which will result in a nearly 5 percent YoY decline in unit shipments in Q4. While 2009 is likely to see more stormy economic weather, there are a few rays of sunshine.

“The number of WCDMA and CDMA2000 mobile handsets sold (currently 39 percent of the total) is expected to exceed 50 percent in 2009,” says ABI Research Asia-Pacific vice president Jake Saunders. “Much of the brunt of the economic downturn will be experienced in the 2G categories. WCDMA handset shipments are projected to grow from 258 million in 2008 to 725 million in 2009. By 2013, more than 67 percent of all handsets shipped will be 3G/3G+ capable.”

Smartphones represent another robust segment, capturing 14 percent of the 2008 market with expected growth throughout the challenging period of 2009 to comprise 31 percent of the market by 2013.

Strategy Analytics was also optimistic about our long term prospects despite predicting a decline of 2.9 percent in 2009 for radio components in wireless handsets as the result of the current slowdown. The latest results from the firm’s global forecast models for handsets and handset components, which consider regional handset shipment trends correlated with GDP, component bills of material, integration and partitioning trends, and component average selling prices.

“Basebands, transceiver-baseband SoCs and complex PA modules should remain relatively strong segments of the market,” notes Chris Taylor, author of the report. ”These components will benefit from the trend toward multi-band, multi-mode W-EDGE phones ranging from ultra low cost models to feature phones and smart phones.”

Stephen Entwistle, vice president of the Strategic Technologies Practice at Strategy Analytics, adds, “The market should rebound in 2010, and we expect cellular radio components to chalk up an average annual growth rate of 4.2 percent per year from 2008 to 2013 after a down year in 2009. On top of this, emerging wireless-enabled mobile computing devices such as mobile internet devices (MID) will add as much as another 10 percent to annual component demand by 2013.”

In uncertain economic times, delivering more (i.e. multi-band 3G/3G+) for less is going to be one of the keys to survival.

Economic Ups and Downs

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.