Microwave Journal Blog

Pat's Predictions - 2012 Microwave Forecast

2012-01-05T15:09:00.007-05:00

It is that time again, I have made my Microwave Industry predictions for 2012:

1. GaN Switches and GaN MMICs experience significant growth in high power commercial markets and start in-roads into military market.

2. LTE continues to grow rapidly taking over the infrastructure market and people start talking about 5G.

3. Wideband RF devices start to replace multiple transmit chains in handsets.

4. Microwave based imaging solutions start to replace some X-ray based imaging in some medical applications.

5. NFC and mobile payments start to penetrate the handset market worldwide.

6. Internet connected homes start to be realized in mass with connected TVs, appliances, heating/cooling systems and security devices.

7. White space radio spectrum and cognitive devices start to be realized.

8. Test and measurement convergence continues at a rapid pace as suppliers combine multiple tests systems into a single box.

9. Modeling software becomes part of the test and measurement systems sell with combined offerings from multiple companies.

10. Addressing interference issues becomes the biggest problem in the cellular infrastructure market – compact filters (IC and miniature ceramic) are offered as possible solutions.

11. Radar sensors become an affordable option in some standard car models (instead of only premium brands such as Mercedes and Audi).

12. UAVs are the only bright spot for Defense spending as cuts are made in most other areas.

2011 Industry predictions and outcomes (let's see how I did last year):

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.
This started to happen to some extent but was limited so maybe this was half correct.

2. Smart Grid applications will take off this year with ISM and Zigbee wireless applications being widely implemented around the world.
While this was talked about a lot, I not sure it really took off so maybe in 2012.

3. LTE will dominate the 4G networks as it is implemented around the world and zooms past WiMAX in deployments.
This definitely happened in a big way as CTIA and MWC were dominated by LTE along with deployments worldwide.

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.
This occurred to some extent again, but not in a big way so only half credit.

5. Metamaterials will start to be used in real world devices for filters and other passive devices (maybe even radar cloaking for the military).
While there continues to be research in this area, it did not happen in any meaningful manner.

6. Adaptive/Cognitive radar and communication systems will go into real development programs.
There was some activity in this area but it was limited.

7. Millimeterwave frequency solutions will dominate the new backhaul and satellite communications deployments.
Same as above.

8. SOI and SOS based switches will start taking market share from the traditional dominant GaAs markets.
This started to occur as the Peregrine SOS switches have made in-roads and companies such as Skyworks and RFMD are now producing quality SOI switches which I expect to see more of this year.

9. The confusion of the definition of 4G technologies will continue while someone will define and start using the term 5G.
The confusion definitely continued but I never heard anyone mention 5G.

10. Microwave applications will see significant use in medical technologies to enhance cures for diseases such as cancer.
I keep hoping for this one to occur more than any other prediction, so I once again added a similar prediction this year but only limited progress has been made in microwave medical technology.

Let me know what you think will happen in 2012.

Summary of Dec Cell Phone Mkt Shares

2011-12-19T08:42:00.001-05:00

This market insight report compares Q3 shelfshare trends in smartphone and non-smartphone markets across the world. The analysis was carried out using SpecTRAX, from Strategy Analytics which covers 13,000 handset models from 140 network operators in 31 countries.

This month’s shelfshare report uses data from Q3 2011 to reveal:

- Smartphones accounted for 49% of global shelfshare with non-smartphones accounting for 46% of operator shelfshare.

- Smartphone presence in operator portfolios has doubled in three years and now the market is dominated by big brands. Mobile phone portfolios are being filled up with smartphones, tablets and USB dongles at all price points.

- The top five global smartphone shelfshares were held by Nokia at 22%, Samsung 17% and then HTC, RIM and Sony Ericsson each had around 10%. Together they occupied 75%.

- Samsung and Nokia also dominated non-smartphone global shelfshare at 27% and 22% respectively. Their nearest competitor was LG which achieved 14%.

- The regional analysis showed extremely different smartphone shelfshare trends in terms of the top ten market leaders outside of Europe. Top of the charts were RIM in North America at 27%, Nokia 22% of South America, Sharp 19% in Japan and Samsung with 20% in South Korea.

Non-Lethal Weapons: Technologies & Global Market - 2012-2020

2011-12-15T09:29:00.002-05:00

Over the next ten years, the Non-Lethal Weapons (NLW) market is forecasted to emerge as a key domain for asymmetric warfare and law enforcement technology providers. Governments worldwide have undoubtedly understood the function of non-lethal weapons following lessons learned in Egypt, Israel, Iraq and Afghanistan. Unforeseen street riots and mass demonstrations over the last decade have revealed the loopholes in the security dogma of the 21st century.

There is a growing demand from combatant commanders, law enforcement officers and political establishments for NLW capabilities. This demand is driven by the need to help them win the hearts and minds of the non-combatant population and prevent world outcry and media attention due to non-combatant casualties. As a result, many governments have entered into non-lethal weapons R&D and procurement dedicated to the full spectrum of public safety, law enforcement, crowd control and asymmetric warfare.

The new Non-Lethal Weapons: Technologies & Global Market - 2012-2020 report is the first and only comprehensive study of the emerging NLW market. In this report HSRC analysts forecast that the NLW market will triple towards 2020. The growth will be accelerated in 2016-2020 to a 17% CAGR due to pipeline NLW technologies.

The report, segmented into 61 sub-markets, offers for each sub-market 2011 data and 2012-2020 forecasts and analysis. In more than 320 pages, 124 tables and 99 figures, the report analyses and projects the 2012-2020 market and technologies from several perspectives, including:

* Market forecast by user sector: military and law enforcement sectors
* Market forecast by application: (e.g., blunt impact NLW, disperse NLW, anti-vehicle NLW, non-lethal ammunition, NLW RDT&E)
* National markets in 16 leading countries, (e.g., US, UK, Germany, France, Saudi Arabia, China, India, Japan, South Korea, Israel, Brazil)
* The NLW Industry: Vendors , Products, Prices ,Performance and RDT&E programs
* Market analysis (e.g., market drivers & inhibitors, SWOT analysis)
* Business environment (e.g., competitive analysis, recent contracts)
* Current and pipeline technologies
* Business opportunities and challenges

Do-It-Yourself M2M in Your Home

2011-12-14T09:43:00.011-05:00

A couple of guys from MIT have started Supermechanical and developed a WiFi module that can connect sensors to the Internet. According to their project listing on the KickStarter website, "Twine is the simplest possible way to get the objects in your life texting, tweeting or emailing. A durable 2.5" square provides WiFi connectivity, internal and external sensors, and two AAA batteries that keep it running for months. A simple web app allows to you quickly set up your Twine with human-friendly rules — no programming needed. And if you're more adventurous, you can connect your own sensors and use HTTP to have Twine send data to your own app."

Twine is a wireless module tightly integrated with a cloud-based service. The module has WiFi, on-board temperature and vibration sensors, and an expansion connector for other sensors. Power is supplied by the on-board mini USB or two AAA batteries (and Twine will email you when you need to change the batteries).

For $99 to support the project development, you can monitor temperature and motion with one module and receive a text message, Twitter or e-mail if the conditions you set are exceeded. There is a simple web interface to setup the module and conditions of your choice with each sensor. The WiFi module comes with a built-in temperature and accelerometer and you can add other external sensors for things such as moisture, magnetic switch, etc. which you can add via an external connector board.

Applications include sensing water in your basement, opening of doors, washer/dryer is finished, etc. They have already exceeded their funding goal by a huge margin but you can order the various configurations on the KickStarter website for delivery in March of 2012.

MIT Camera Captures One Trillion Frames per Second

2011-12-14T09:21:00.002-05:00

A team of researchers over at MIT might have just broken a new record. They’ve created “the world’s slowest fastest camera,” which is able to shoot one trillion frames per second. To put the speed into perspective: one trillion seconds is over 31,688 years. If you then take one second of footage on this camera, and played it back at 30 fps, it would still take you over 1,000 years to watch it, according to Wired.com. (If you decide to host that sort of movie night, please don’t invite us over.)

Led by Ramesh Raskar, an associate professor at the MIT Media Lab, the team relied on this new technology called a “streak camera,” which, essentially, has a slit so narrow that only a thin slice of laser light can be seen at one time, according to ExtremeTech. The laser pulses are then picked up by an array of 500 sensors in the camera, and, with the use of mirrors, the camera’s angle of view is changed over time until each of these one-dimensional slices can be built up into a complete 2D image.

Watch Video

Good Idea: USB Wall Outlets

2011-12-14T08:53:00.003-05:00

File this item in the "why didn't someone think of this sooner" folder - Current Werks, a leading innovator in green mobile power storage and charging devices, just introduced two industry-changing, energy-saving USB wall outlets: the Quattro and Duo. The company will exhibit these products in the Eureka Park TechZone at the 2012 International CES Tradeshow, January 10-13 in Las Vegas.

The Quattro (patent pending) is the first product in the industry that replaces a standard electrical wall outlet with four powerful USB charging ports. The Quattro's four USB ports deliver a combined output of 22Watts, making the Quattro the most powerful in-wall charging solution available anywhere. The Quattro also features an innovative (patent pending) tamper-resistant door that when closed completely eliminates standby power, also known as vampire power. The Quattro has the ability to replace four bulky USB AC adapters with one wall outlet.

The Duo (patent pending) features two powerful in-wall USB charging ports delivering 16Watts of output power from a standard 110V wall outlet. The Duo's advanced power management design gives the consumer a total of four charging solutions, two USB charging ports and two standard US/CAN sockets from a single wall outlet. This makes the Duo the second most powerful in-wall charging solution available in the market today, surpassed only by the Quattro. The Duo supports 15Amp and 20Amp wall receptacles.

The Quattro and Duo USB Wall Outlets, with their energy-saving design, are ideal for both commercial and residential applications. They are powerful enough to provide the fastest charge available to even the most power-hungry portable devices, such as Apple's iPad® and iPhone® as well as Android® smartphones and tablets. The Quattro and Duo outlets are designed to maximize charging power and wall outlet space available for charging, while eliminating unnecessary charging wall clutter.

The Current Werks USB wall outlets are priced at $39.98 for the Quattro and $24.98 for the Duo

Growth in Printed Electronics

2011-12-13T12:35:00.001-05:00

The following was written by Dr Khasha Ghaffarzadeh, Technology Analyst, IDTechEx

At end of November, IDTechEx held the world's largest printed electronics and photovoltaics conference and tradeshow in Silicon Valley at the Santa Clara Convention Center. This show brought together more than 1300 attendees from 28 countries. Players active across the entire value chain were present; covering the full range from research organisations to end-users, and from small start-ups to multi-billion internationals.

Mr Raghu Das, CEO, IDTechEx, opened the show with his keynote speech, arguing that there lies a great untapped market opportunity in offering final integrated products. Indeed, product integrators are in the privileged position of being able to cherry pick the best materials from an ever expanding range of options. This conclusion is supported by IDTechEx statistics showing that 97% of all companies profiled are currently offering only materials and/or components, and not final products. Therefore, IDTechEx is excited to see the printed electronics world evolve towards its next step, which will witness more and more final solutions and/or products appearing on the market.

New printed electronics products

Indeed, things are already moving quickly, as testified by a range of end-user companies including Proctor and Gamble (P&G), MWV Packaging, Boeing, Decathlon SA and more. A notable example was from P&G, the world's largest consumer packaged goods company with sales of more than $80 billion, which unveiled a decorative tissue box featuring an electroluminescent (EL) display. Here the product consisted of two parts: an interchangeable tissue box featuring the display and a fixed base providing the circuitry and power required to drive the EL display. This will be in stores this season. Also interesting was the novel anti-theft packaging produced by MWV Packaging in collaboration with Vorbeck. This product, which won IDTechEx's Best Product Development award, features a low-cost printed flexible graphene conducting layer and will be used in Home Depot stores in 2012.
Boeing discussed their current use of printed electronics as a bird strike detector in aircraft.

Rollable Displays

System and device manufacturers also presented their latest progress. PolymerVision showcased their truly rollable display capable of showing animated images. This is good news for printed electronics as flexible displays could provide a platform for a plethora of printed components, enabling large new markets. These include flexible Indium Thin Oxide (ITO) replacement, printed thin film transistors (TFTs), printed OLEDs, etc. However, replacing vacuum processed devices still remains ambitious, not least because printed TFTs will struggle in the near future to match the performance of the mature organic and the emerging metal oxide TFT technologies. For more information on Thin Film Transistors read the report from IDTechEx; "Printed and Thin Film Transistors and Memory 2011-2021" www.IDTechEx.com/tftc.

Sensor Technologies

Printed sensors and actuators are also showing very promising signs of rapid improvement. PST Sensors offered a printed silicon-based temperature sensor that could be employed as a touch screen. Peratech offered a quantum-tunnelling ink that would change its conductivity by as much as 16 orders of magnitude when pressed with a finger! The Peratech ink can be formulated in opaque, translucent and transparent formats. This technology, which won IDTechEx's Best Commercialisation Award, could extend touch screen capability to a vast array of substrates and products. Artificial Muscle, Inc showcased their morphiepulseTM technology in the "Demonstration Street" area. This technology can bring a high definition feel to touch screens by printing voltage-controlled actuators. This means that touch screens can respond back to users in a fun and intelligent way, giving rise to different vibration modes for different events.

Conductive Inks

A large variety of different conductive inks were also on show. The inks were differentiated on the basis of their conductivity and price. Nanoparticle inks (Nanogap, Nanomas, Intrinsiq, PChem, Applied Nanotech etc) claimed the higher conductivity ground with higher cost. Traditional flake-based polymer thick films (Dupont, Dow International, etc) offered low-cost and familiarity, but that came at the expense of conductivity at the same temperature. All have an opportunity depending on the application. Copper oxide nanoparticles (Novacentrix) offered truly low-cost inks suitable for high-volume applications such RFID tags, but mandate the use of special equipment to provide high-intensity light pulses. Graphene inks (Vorbeck) were also presented, plugging a gap in the market which requires low cost, moderate conductivity and flexibility.

ITO replacements

Conductive inks offering high levels of optical transparency are also becoming a viable ITO replacement option. Most notably, Cambrios announced that their silver nanowire inks are now in hundreds of thousands of Samsung cell phones. This represents a significant endorsement of their technology and a clear leapfrog towards capturing a portion of the $3 billion ITO market. Moreover, Evonik brought an exciting nanoparticle ITO ink to the play that could be printed only where needed thus doing away with the subtractive and wasteful sputter-etch process predominantly used today.
There is currently no one-size-fits-all solution on the conductive ink market. They are a variety of technologies, each sitting in its own niche based on its own attributes. Breaking into mature multibillion dollar markets traditionally served by polymer thick films is one strategy - the other is to deploy the new functionality (such as better conductors on flexible substrates) to do new things. This however still remains a challenge.

While such presentations bear testimony that printed electronics is indeed fast making significant progress and inroads into markets, they also highlight critical challenges that lie ahead. From the end user prospective, these include the fact that the current state of the market largely requires them to take on the challenge of product design and integration. And from the prospective of material/component providers, these include the delay in the realisation of high-volume markets that would enable printed electronics to realise its ultimate promise of being truly low cost.

NI Technology Updates Outlooks For Skyworks Solutions, Anadigics, TriQuint Semiconductor, RF Micro Devices, And Avago Technologies

2011-12-08T09:14:00.000-05:00

PRINCETON, N.J., Dec. 8, 2011 /PRNewswire/ — Next Inning Technology Research (http://www.nextinning.com), an online investment newsletter focused on semiconductor and technology stocks, has published updated outlooks for Skyworks Solutions (NASDAQ:SWKS), Anadigics (NASDAQ:ANAD), TriQuint Semiconductor (NASDAQ:TQNT), RF Micro Devices (NASDAQ:RFMD), and Avago Technologies (AVGO).

Next Inning editor Paul McWilliams has leveraged a decades-long career as a semiconductor industry insider to deliver in-depth insights and winning stock selections for his newsletter subscribers.

After careful research, Next Inning has published a special report outlining what McWilliams expects will be the impact from shortages of hard-disk drives. In this report, he examines how companies in the hard-disk drive, solid-state disk drive, NAND Flash, PC, microprocessor and other semiconductor sectors will be affected. For tech investors, this is a must-read report.
Trial subscribers will receive McWilliams’ earnings previews and his highly acclaimed State of Tech reports that offer in-depth, sector-by-sector coverage of over 65 leading tech companies and specific guidance on which stocks he thinks investors should own and which should be avoided. These reports, as well as McWilliams’ regular commentary and real-time trade alerts, are available for free to trial subscribers.

To take advantage of this offer and receive these reports for free, please visit the following link:
https://www.nextinning.com/subscribe/index.php?refer=prn1324

McWilliams covers these topics and more in his recent reports:
– When Skyworks first announced its intention to acquire Advanced Analogic, McWilliams pulled no punches; he wrote it was a bad deal and investors should avoid Skyworks’ stock. Skyworks was trading solidly in the mid-$20s then. Now that the stock has fallen all the way to the mid-teens and Skyworks was able to renegotiate for a lower price, has McWilliams changed his view on Skyworks? What points of leverage and synergy does the deal offer Skyworks?

– How does Skyworks compare to rivals Anadigics, RF Micro and TriQuint? Which of these four companies is poised to deliver the most upside for investors? Which two does McWilliams think would make a good pairing for investors interested in gaining exposure to the sector while still balancing risk and potential reward?

– Does an investment in Avago offer strong exposure to the RF semiconductor sector? What other high-profile sector is important for Avago and how does its market share there stack up against the sector leader? How much is Avago’s balance sheet worth?
Founded in September 2002, Next Inning’s model portfolio has returned 270% since its inception versus 39% for the S&P 500.

About Next Inning:
Next Inning is a subscription-based investment newsletter that provides regular coverage on more than 150 technology and semiconductor stocks. Subscribers receive intra-day analysis, commentary and recommendations, as well as access to monthly semiconductor sales analysis, regular Special Reports, and the Next Inning model portfolio. Editor Paul McWilliams is a 30+ year semiconductor industry veteran.

NOTE: This release was published by Indie Research Advisors, LLC, a registered investment advisor with CRD #131926. Interested parties may visit adviserinfo.sec.gov for additional information. Past performance does not guarantee future results. Investors should always research companies and securities before making any investments. Nothing herein should be construed as an offer or solicitation to buy or sell any security.

Record Breaking Paper Submissions reported by IMS 2012 TPC Chair

2011-12-07T09:39:00.003-05:00

By 5:30 am EST (00:30 am Hawaii time) on December 6, 2011, one day before the anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor, the IMS 2012 technical program chair, Raafat Mansour sent out an e-mail to several members of the IMS 2012 steering committee (for which I am serving as the promotions co-chair) announcing that the IMS2012 has received the highest number of submitted papers since the inception of IMS. Including the Hawaiian time zone is noteworthy since the deadline for paper submissions was midnight December 5th, Hawaii time, thereby extending the deadline to the very last minute of the day on US soil. IMS steering committees have long recognized and tried to accommodate the procrastinating habits of certain researchers and academics (you know who you are) by setting the deadline to this time zone. I do not have information on how many papers came in at the last minute, but the 2012 steering committee is to be congratulated for achieving the following record breaking paper submissions:
- IMS2012, Montreal received 1231 papers ( New Record) compared to IMS2003 Philadelphia received 1094 papers ( Previous Record). The average number of paper submissions over the last 4 years (2008-2011) was 825 papers.

This is a fitting tribute to the hard work of this year's steering committee and helps commemorate the 60 year anniversary of the very first conference of what today has become the International Microwave Symposium or IMS. Congratulations.

Synopsys buys Magma

2011-12-01T10:42:00.000-05:00

Chip-design software maker Synopsys Inc (SNPS.O) agreed to buy peer Magma Design Automation Inc (LAVA.O) for $7.35 a share in cash, to add complementary technology offerings to its portfolio, and forecast a strong first quarter.
Synopsys will pay a premium of 28.5 percent over Magma's Wednesday closing price of $5.72. Including debt, the deal is valued at about $507 million.

"This acquisition will enable Synopsys to accelerate the delivery of the technology our customers need to keep the overall cost of design in check," Chief Executive Aart de Geus said in a statement.

Synopsys, which plans to fund the deal with a combination of cash and debt, expects it to modestly add to adjusted earnings per share in fiscal 2012.
Separately, Synopsys forecast first-quarter results ahead of analysts' expectations, as it sees higher demand for its services from makers of mobile devices and cloud computing and electronics companies.
For the quarter, Synopsys -- which competes with Mentor Graphics (MENT.O) and Cadence Design Systems (CDNS.O) -- expects adjusted earnings of 51-53 cents a share on revenue of $412-$420 million.
Analysts were expecting earnings of 46 cents a share, excluding items, on revenue of $389 million, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
For the fourth quarter, the Mountain View, California-based company, which makes software that help design chips, earned 45 cents a share, meeting analysts' estimates.
Total revenue rose 4 percent to $390.5 million, while estimates were for $390.1 million.
The Magma stock rose 25 percent to $7.17 in extended trading, while that of Synopsys was slightly up at $28.01.

95% of Handsets Announced in Sept 2011 Have Bluetooth

2011-11-22T13:49:00.002-05:00

In Strategy Analyitcs' monthly report on handset for data from September 2011:

95% of handsets that entered the market featured Bluetooth, setting a new record for any one month - in Q3 2011 as a whole 89% featured Bluetooth, 18 of which featured version 3

57% of handsets announced had on-board GPS – setting another record for a single month

12 models had 8 MP cameras as the upward trend in resolution continues

Processor speeds increased with 23 models having 1 GHz or greater processors and dual core processors featuring on 7 models

According to Strategy Analytics, handsets are becoming thinner and heavier as component miniaturisation continues. Ten handsets announced in September were thinner than 10 mm with the Samsung Focus S measuring just 8.5 mm and weights reached 184 g with the Motorola Milestone 3.

Screen sizes continued to increase with 50% of the handset screens included in this report exceeding 3 inches leading us to believe that resolutions will follow suit. Rather unsurprisingly this is accompanied by a rising curve in battery capacity as the prevalence of larger touchscreens continues along with the need for more talk and standby time.

Wireless Connectivity ICs to Surpass $8 Billion in 2011

2011-11-17T13:39:00.004-05:00

ABI Research recently reported that the total market for standards-based wireless connectivity ICs is expected to exceed 3.5 billion units per annum in 2011. “Broadcom leads the market with Qualcomm, CSR, and Texas Instruments all snapping at its heels,” says Peter Cooney, practice director, semiconductors. The market will total more than $11 billion per annum by 2014.

Wireless connectivity technologies are well-established in many electronic device markets. Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and GPS are becoming ubiquitous in certain devices, such as smartphones, with attach rates approaching 100% in some cases. Rapid growth is forecast for newer technologies such as NFC and 802.15.4. Wireless connectivity technologies also continue to progress at a fast pace, with new developments such as Bluetooth v4.0 (with low energy being a key facet) and Wi-Fi moving to the 802.11ac standard and 802.11ad coming in the future. As attach rates increase, combinations of different wireless connectivity technologies have been developed to address the needs of customers. "Combo ICs" have become increasingly important, particularly in the smartphone, laptop, and media tablet markets (among others). Standalone ICs are not dead, however, and there are many compelling reasons that not all markets will to move to combo ICs.

Mobile Emergency Alerts Should Save Lives

2011-11-17T11:14:00.000-05:00

When wildfires, tornadoes, and other public-safety emergencies strike, MetroPCS customers will soon be able to receive government alerts on their mobile phones. The network operator is the latest to announce it will use the affordable, hosted Commercial Mobile Service Provider (CMSP) Gateway from Interop Technologies to deliver the Commercial Mobile Alert System (CMAS) alerts when they become available in 2012. Bluegrass Cellular of Kentucky announced earlier this month that it also will rely on the hosted Interop gateway to provide CMAS service.

Industry's First SMT GaN Module for CATV

2011-11-16T15:44:00.002-05:00

I don't normally point out specific products but I like to highlight new technology or products first to the market. RFMD has introduced the industry’s first surface mount GaN power doubler module aimed at CATV networks. It uses a combination of GaN HEMT and GaAs pHEMT technologies and provides high output capability from 45-1003 MHz with excellent distortion performance.

Performance

45 to 1003 MHz GaAs/GaN Power Doubler Module

61dBmV Rated Power

High Current Mode: 450mA at 24V_DC

Low Current Mode: 350mA at 24V_DC

Min. Gain: 22.5dB at 1GHz

Saves ≈ 50% PCBA Area versus SOT115J (with external baluns) 182 mm² versus 362 mm²

Applications

CATV Optical nodes

CATV Line amplifiers

RFCM2680 Product Announcement from RFMD on Vimeo.

Microwave Journal will be covering this subject in depth in our April issue next year.

Military Month

2011-11-15T07:52:00.003-05:00

I call the end of Oct through the beginning of Nov Military Month as we typically attend EuMW, MILCOM and AOC during this period along with our publication of the Oct Government/Military issue. At EuMW 2011, Microwave Journal coordinated a full day Defence/Security Forum in Manchester. The morning sessions concentrated on Security technologies such as through the wall radar, IED detection, etc. Strategy Analytics put on a lunch and learn session covering Defense Budgets and Trends followed by afternoon sessions covering the challenges of next generation radar and testing. It concluded with an executive forum with speakers from Defense agencies and OEMs. Our event page has video coverage and links to some of the presentation that were given.

Next came MILCOM last week in Baltimore which was well attended, and we met with more than 30 companies featuring new components, test systems and software to meet the needs of emerging communications systems. Our MILCOM 2011 show summary lists all the interesting products we found along with some quick facts about the show. We found some interesting new testing systems/techniques, high efficiency GaN amplifiers, tunable filters and more.

Now I am off to AOC 2011 in Washington DC. The Association of Old Crows Annual Convention focuses on EW so it will be interesting to see what new developments have taken place since last year. Digital RF Memory (DFRM) and very wideband detectors/systems have been the trend as enormous amounts of data are being collected, analyzed and in some cases re-broadcast (with some slight modifications).

MILCOM 2011 Preview

2011-11-07T14:54:00.004-05:00

As MILCOM 2011 celebrates the 30th anniversary of their premier international conference for military communications, Microwave Journal will be on site visiting with the RF and microwave companies that are exhibiting in Baltimore this week. MILCOM gathers the leading minds of government, military, industry and academia in an interactive forum to further explore, define and leverage the benefits networks bring to today’s and tomorrow’s challenges. We will see how solutions are being developed for increasing capacity, enabling mobile comms and low cost, secure comms for every soldier. Last year we saw smartphones being quickly adapted to operate as rugged, secure military handsets with the promise of apps for improved situational awareness. This year we expect to see even more solutions that use this model and others.

We have already received product previews for MILCOM from companies such as RFMD, ADI, TI, M/A-COM Tech, Agilent, R&S, Valpey Fisher, Aeroflex, Teledyne, Mercury Computers and EB to name a few. I will be Twittering and blogging from MILCOM using Hashtag #MILCOM2011 and you can follow me @pathindle. Look for our wrap up article next week.

Nokia/Samsung Lead Handset Market - ZTE/LG Fight for 3rd

2011-10-28T16:04:00.003-04:00

ABI reports that 3Q-2011 smartphone shipments grew 33% year-on-year to reach 28.8% shipment penetration of total handsets (381 M) shipped. Mediocre smartphone shipments from Apple, RIM and Nokia have stopped the hyper growth of the smartphone market according to Mike Morgan, Senior Analyst at ABI Research.

Manufacturers are either getting rid of feature phones or re-inventing them for the emerging markets. Nokia achieved a remarkable turn-around through tactical pricing cuts that bounced its market share back up 24.6% to 28% in 2Q-2011. While it cleared out Nokia’s excess inventory and distribution channels, it also resulted in its average selling price slumping to from $65 to $51. While Nokia is pre-installing apps, such as Angry Birds, to its re-invented feature phones, both Sony-Ericsson and LG are moving their focus away from feature phones. Sony-Ericsson has stated its plans to end feature phone production in 2012 while LG seeks to dominate the LTE smartphone market. Motorola grew both handset and smartphone shipments in Q3 while tablet sales slumped to 100 K. ZTE’s Q3 handset shipments are set to bump LG from 3rd place when officially announced on Monday. Samsung’s legal issues with Apple were not sufficient to slow its shipment growth, and it remains comfortably in second place with 20.8% market share.

Ericsson’s announcement to sell its 50% share in the Sony-Ericsson joint venture for $1.5 billion underscores the hugh paradigm shifts in the mobile device market-place. Sony wishes to integrate smartphones more tightly into its portfolio of tablets, laptops and gaming platforms. “Customers are no longer seeing their handset as a ‘standalone device.' Increasingly, customers are seeking out a seamless communications, media and UI experience”, said Jake Saunders, VP for Forecasting. Apple has iCloud integrating the end-user experiences across iPhones, iPads and Macs. Microsoft is striving to achieve the same objective with its Window Phone 7 devices that allow content to cross over from smartphone, Xbox and Windows PC.

I see RIM loosing its grip on the professional market as they seem to severely lag in smartphone features. This segment is ripe for being overtaken by another manufacturer. While Android phones continue to grow in popularity, the iPhone still has the upper hand as the smartphone to beat. It will be interesting to see how Nokia does with Windows based phones next year. Never a dull moment in the handset market.

RF Module Winners in iPhone 4S

2011-10-15T11:19:00.016-04:00

There are already teardowns of the iPhone 4S online, so let's look at the winners in the RF frontend section. Skyworks, TriQuint and Avago all have RF modules in the handset. All of the companies stock prices were up on the news last week. Below is a breakdown of the modules with a picture of the board containing the RF section.

Qualcomm RTR8605 Multi-band/mode RF Transceiver. Chipworks has provided a die photo (orange)

Skyworks 77464-20 Load-Insensitive Power Amplifier (LIPA®) module developed for WCDMA applications (yellow)

Avago ACPM-7181 Power Amplifier (green)

TriQuint TQM9M9030 SAW filter (blue)

TriQuint TQM66052 (possibly a PA-Duplexer Module) (purple)

Photo and part numbers/descriptions via http://www.ifixit.com/.

Microwaves in Manchester - EuMW 2011

2011-10-12T08:23:00.021-04:00

Most of the MWJ editors and staff arrived in Manchester, UK on Sunday for the largest Microwave Conference and Exhibition in Europe, European Microwave Week. There are about 1400 delegates registered for the technical sessions this year and the content appears to be very good. I sat in on a few sessions ranging from emerging technology such as graphene FETs to more mature high efficiency GaN amplifiers.

The exhibition started on Tues and were well attended even through Wed. The Manchester Central facility has a nice layout where all the sessions are very close to the exhibition floor and entrance so finding your way around is relatively easy. The exhibition floor is wide open with a very high roof as it was an old rail station converted into an exhibition center. The major T&M companies like Agilent, R&S and Anritsu have the largest booths up front with other major players like CST, Ansys, AWR, NI, TriQuint, Sumitomo, Cobham, etc. having large booths right behind them. Over 200 companies are represented here . We see a lot of activity in GaN, non-linear modeling, wideband components and test systems, advanced materials and improved packaging.

There has been an emphasis on recruiting young engineers to the field, especially in Europe, including emphasis on more women as evidenced by the Women in Microwaves sessions. Several companies have applications that will engage young people such as Ansys' high frequency educational toolkit in conjunction with Anritsu and Eductika. We talked with Dr. T at NI about this subject, and he indicated that NI also has Labview based programs to engage young engineers in high school and college so several companies are doing something about the problem.

MWJ organized the Defence and Security Forum which was extended to a full day after its success last year in Paris. The morning sessions concentrated on security issues covering UWB and TeraHertz imaging for IED detection, through the wall imaging and detection of threats hidden on the body. The lunch and learn session was given by Strategy Analytics on the future budget trends in a declining budget atmosphere. The afternoon sessions were dedicated to an industry perspective on future challenges for radar and EW. A representative from Thales and Cambridge Consultants spoke first followed by an industry panel including representatives from Agilent, NI, NXP, RFMD and TriQuint. The day's events were concluded with an executive forum covering future needs and trends in defense related to microwave technology. Hundreds of attendees participated in the day's events.

The exhibition is wrapping up tomorrow and MWJ has shot about a dozen videos which will be posted online in a couple of weeks. The videos covered many product demos from the exhibition plus interviews with the president of EuMA, Dr. T from NI and representatives from AWR.

Tattoo Electronics Open Up Many Possibilities

2011-09-30T14:27:00.004-04:00

It was recently announced that researchers from Northwestern University and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have developed “tattoo electronics”. These are wireless electronics so flexible and thin they can be applied to the skin and forgotten.

According to the release, the high-performance epidermal electronic system mounts directly onto the skin with the ease, flexibility and comfort of a temporary tattoo. The system could be used for monitoring brain, heart and muscle tissue activity; wound measurement and treatment; biological and chemical sensing; computer gaming and covert communications.

The challenge for Huang and his colleagues was to make the thickness and stiffness of the electronic system similar to that of skin. The researchers accomplished this through a serpentine design of electronic nanoribbons. The circuits for the various components are fabricated as tiny wires. When mounted on lightweight and stretchable membranes, the wavy, snakelike shape allows the wires to bend, twist, scrunch and stretch while maintaining functionality.

The electronics also can be removed easily. They adhere to the skin the same way it is believed a gecko’s foot adheres temporarily to a surface: through an electrostatic phenomenon called the van der Waals force. Tape or glue is not necessary.

Tattoo electronics could have medical applications from Northwestern News on Vimeo.

The system features electrophysiological and physical sensors and wireless power and communication modules. It is free of cumbersome wires, making it practical for use outside a research lab or clinic, in a natural environment. The researchers also show that their system’s EEG, ECG and EMG recordings are comparable to signals collected using bulky commercial devices that require tape for mounting to the skin.

They also demonstrate their system’s potential for use in human-machine interfaces. The electronics can be mounted on a person’s throat and, after training, the system can translate the simple spoken commands “up,” “down,” “left” and “right” into directions to control the video game Sokoban. This capability could prove useful to patients with muscular or neurological disorders, such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS, who could use the electronic patches to communicate or interface with computers. Another demonstration shows the electronics can be integrated with commercially available temporary tattoos, if there is a desire to conceal the electronics.

Avago and Skyworks Modules Show Up in Droid Bionic

2011-09-30T13:36:00.006-04:00

I like to see the smartphone teardowns for the major new phone introductions to see who the RF/microwave winners are for the high visibility products that will represent significant volume. The latest (long anticipated) smartphone is the Motorola Droid Bionic with market leading specs in many areas. ABI Research (and a few others) have done teardowns and found some interesting findings.

According to ABI Research vice president of engineering James Mielke, “Motorola has mixed some of the latest technology with quite a few components now considered the norm and a few that have not been seen in phones for years.” One of the newer components, the OMAP4430, scored well in performance testing but not quite high enough to top the leaderboard.

Major changes include:

• LTE modem designed by Motorola
• A new LTE transceiver from Intel (Infineon)
• An interesting RF configuration supporting more than the advertised CDMA/LTE support
• Transition from Nvidia Tegra II to OMAP4430 application processor

But for us RF folks, the most interesting is the Avago Quad Band GSM/EDGE PA (ACPM-7868) indicated by red arrow and Skyworks 700 MHz LTE PA module (SKY77483) indicated by the red arrow. According to the Avago datasheet, the PA is a linear quad band/multi-mode PA for both GMSK and 8-PSK modulation schemes. There are two amplifier chains, one is to support the GSM850/900 bands and the other is to support the DCS1800/PCS1900 bands.

The LTE RF module is a Skyworks 700 MHz LTE load insensitive PA with an integrated coupler. ABI also noted that there is a ceramic filter which has not been really seen in modern handsets. I am guessing it might be to prevent interference with the many frequency bands near the LTE signals (could be from Trans Tech which Skyworks owns?).

Let me know if you have further information on these parts. Photo courtesy of ABI Research.

IBM to Publish 2 GHz Graphene IC at Upcoming Conference

2011-09-21T10:36:00.003-04:00

IBM is set to publish a paper on a 2 GHz frequency doubler RF circuit in a CMOS-compatible manufacturing process technology at the upcoming International Electron Device Meeting, due to be held in Washington DC, Dec. 5 to 7. IBM researchers will deliver a paper that is a significant step toward moving graphene from the lab into a manufacturable technology. It will detail how using a 200 mm wafer-scale CMOS-compatible fabrication process can be used to make high-performance graphene FETs and RF passives.

A major obstacle with graphene is the difficulty of building a gate dielectric (insulating layer) on its inherently inert surface. However, graphene layers grown by controlled vapor deposition (CVD) can be transferred to many types of substrates. To take advantage of this property, IBM built silicon wafers containing pre-defined embedded gate structures, and then transferred CVD-fabricated graphene layers onto them. As an example they built a frequency doubler which demonstrated a conversion gain of ~-25 dB at an output frequency of 2 GHz. This performance was nearly constant from 25-200°C, indicating that both n- and p-transconductance are temperature-independent in this range, a new finding for CVD graphene-based devices.

The four images on the right show (a) an 8” graphene FET wafer; (b) single die; (c) SEM image of a typical fully processed device and (d) an enlarged view of the device showing the embedded gate structure with two-finger design. Except for the CVD graphene transfer, all processing was done in a conventional 200 nm fab. Graphene technology is finally making it into production.

New RFIC Greatly Mitigates LightSquared LTE Interference with GPS

2011-09-19T12:22:00.003-04:00

There has been a lot in the news the last few months about LightSquared's proposed new broadband LTE network which is close in frequency to the GPS band and could cause interference in critical areas of navigation systems. LightSquared is seeking FCC approval for 40,000 basestations to support 260 million users across the country establishing a new LTE network. They were approved in Jan 2011 but recent tests have indicated that signals from the network could interfere (jam) nearby GPS receivers so the FCC has said they cannot launch their network until the problems are resolved.

LightSquared has indicated they will adjust the direction of their signals to minimize the strength near GPS stations and move the frequency a little farther away. There is a 10 MHz block near the GPS frequency that they will not use and move to another block of spectrum currently used by Inmarsat. They will also reduce the maximum power levels to provide additional protection.

But today Tahoe RF announced an RFIC solution to the problem with an integrated dual channel (L1 & L2) GPS RFIC that substantially mitigates interference from LightSquared and 4G L-Band LTE signals (and other jamming environments). The RFIC also includes a fractional-N synthesizer with a high performance VCO. The receive paths can be configured high linearity or low power operation by setting the ADC bit rate. The two independent receive paths are integrated with 12 bit analog to digital converters providing complete conversion of the GPS signals from RF to digital data. The RFIC has the ability to process L1 and L2 received signal data in the presence of a greater than 60 dBc jammer.

GPS devices are being improved against the backdrop of various 4G and other signals that can interfere with the relatively weak satellite signals with improved filtering and sensitivity. Infineon recently announced highly integrated GPS/GLONASS modules with improved sensitivity plus pre- and post- filtering around the LNA. These modules have out-of-band rejection of greater than 43 dBc in the cellular bands.

This is a very exciting area as another company is trying to bring broadband to the rural market around the country, something the Obama administration has been promoting and supporting for a while but has not seemed to meet expectations. Can all these signals co-exist as we squeeze more and more data into our limited spectrum?

How I developed the Sixth (or Twelfth) Wavelength Transformer

2011-09-13T10:29:00.005-04:00

The following article was sent to us by Peter (B) Bramham, inventor of the sixth wavelength transformer (I never knew that in his first publication he was mistakenly listed as B. Bramaham so it has taken many years for people to realize it).

There have been various references in the last few years to a method of matching transmission lines, variously called the “alternated-line” and “twelfth-wave” and “Bramham’s” transformer. This is shown in the Figure below. It is usually compared with the quarter-wave stepped matching section and the half-wave taper, over which it has several advantages. It is shorter in length, and uses only lines of the same impedances as the lines which are to be matched.

Back in 1959 I was a member of the international group working at CERN, the European Laboratory in Geneva, on a proton linear accelerator. I had previously worked in Britain on electron accelerators for medical use, which used high-power RF at S-band (around 3000 MHz). For proton acceleration, lower frequencies were used, in this case 202.5 MHz. So I had to forget about waveguides, and get used to rigid lines and coaxial cable. The high-power feeds to the accelerating cavities used 3-inch line made from brass or copper tubes, and phase-shifters and power-dividers were required in the lines.

At that time, there were various standard impedances for coaxial lines and cables. In Britain, 75 ohm and 50 ohm impedances were largely used. Equipment we had from Germany used 60 ohms, while that from the USA used 50 ohms. CERN had a mixture of these. The linear accelerator design was based on a machine being built at AERE Harwell in Britain, and used high-power lines of 47.6 ohms. This seemed strange, but turned out to be the nearest you got to 50 ohms using standard (“Yorkshire Copper”) brass tubes. Rather than machine metric tubes to get 47.6 ohms, I changed our standard impedance to 50.4 ohms which corresponded to metric tube sizes.

So I had to fit impedance transformers all over the place. I started with half-wave tapers where there was space, or quarter-wave stepped lines where there was not. Then I started looking analytically at various matching systems. Hence my report CERN 59-37. As it seemed to be of interest in other labs, I offered it for publication to the journal “Electronic Engineering” in January 1961 (reference 1). (Due to a printer’s error, my initial appears as B instead of P). Only in recent years have I seen many references to my work, perhaps because the Internet makes it much easier look in the literature.

The main interest in my transformer seems to have been in the USA, among radio-amateurs (“hams”). A common problem was matching a 75 ohm feeder cable to a 50 ohm system. With my transformer you didn’t have to look for a quarter-wavelength of 61 ohm cable.

I have been pleased to see many references to my transformer on the Internet, thanks to L.B. Cebik (reference 2), Darrel Emerson (reference 3), and others. I have retired from CERN now (many years ago), and am living in France, close to the Swiss border and Geneva.

References

1. P. Bramham. A convenient transformer for matching coaxial lines. Electronic Engineering, Jan.1961. (Vol.33 no.395)

2. L.B. Cebik. Antenna application notes. Eagle.

3. Darrel Emerson. The twelfth-wavelength matching transformer. QST, June 1997 (Vol.81 no.6.)

RFID Enables Self Serve Draft Beer

2011-09-07T15:42:00.003-04:00

My new favorite wireless product - self serve draft beer enabled by RFID technology. Coming soon to a bar near you, self service drafts using an RFID card, computer screen or maybe even your smartphone. According to their website, DraftMagik™ is the first hosted service of its kind to manage and deliver draft beer to the Point-of-Pour™ while also providing an interactive patron experience. The beer can be poured in full-service fashion by the bartender (behind the bar) or in a “pour your own beer” mode by age-verified patrons (in front of the bar at a table or wall). Each of these distinct Point-of-Pour™ locations are managed by DraftMagik to provide the establishments a secure and reliable system to control, measure and effectively deliver draft beer.

DraftMagik also meters and tracks patron consumption via secure RFID technology. These RFID loyalty cards or one-time use wristbands can manage pre-paid, declining balance; credit card secured or pre-loaded balances. DraftMagik monitors and centrally controls a wide variety of advanced sensors, flow meters and valves to ensure accurate and real-time display and reporting of all draft beer served at the client site.

I can't wait!

A Stellar Partnership

2011-09-02T10:05:00.003-04:00

Those of you following me on twitter (@mwjournal) received a tweet yesterday as I was about to meet with the folks at Stellar Industries in Millbury Massachusetts –a quiet New England town blending residential homes and “old-school manufacturing” facilities on the outskirts of Worcester. Stellar Industries, a manufacturer with just over 30 employees specializes in custom designed substrates and direct bond copper for photonics and microelectronics. The company does a brisk business selling products to the Telecom, Biomedical, and Defense Industries.

The company believes there is a good business opportunity for their products in the RF market, thus they requested a meeting to see how the Journal could help spread the word. With the recent inflation in gold prices, their copper clad substrate technology offers excellent heat-sinking properties at very competitive prices. Company President Ron Visser is well acquainted with the Microwave industry and has been attending the MTT-S IMS for years. Exhibiting at last year’s show, Ron and his sales manager Eric Brown were pleased by the amount of interest exhibition attendees showed for their technology.

The astronomical price of gold (thanks to speculators and other investors looking for safe haven) would give their copper submounts a huge cost advantage. And the company’s double-digit growth last year vindicates their bullish enthusiasm for revenue growth in the immediate future. So we look forward to hearing more from this company in the future.

Another tidbit that I heard from Eric Brown during our facility tour concerned a successful government initiative to support Stellar’s growth as a business. The Mass Manufacturing Extension Partnership offers companies training in the Time Wise® Principles of Lean Manufacturing to help them become more competitive. I was very impressed by this story, especially considering the news this week about the California solar panel manufacturer that received federal seed money yet is now filing for bunkruptcy because they can't compete with their Chinese counterparts.

Too often the media reports on the government’s shortcomings and one can come to believe the public sector is incapable of getting anything right. But based on Eric Brown's praise for this particular state funded program, this just isnt the case. In an age where government is portrayed as “the” problem and a roadblock to capitalism and the free-market, this example illustrates how government can be get it right. As any investor knows, in business you win some and you lose some. This example tells me that we need continued government support for the private sector, even if every effort doesnt succeed.

From the Mass Manufacturing Extension Partnership website:
http://www.massmep.org/success_stories/stellar.html

Stellar also specializes in vapor deposited thin films and gold/tin solders on thick film and thin film as well as on semiconductor wafers. For small manufacturers, on-time delivery and high quality, long-lasting products are what separates them from larger companies and overseas competition.Stellar Industries, a manufacturer with just over 30 employees, makes a unique product which is good for business, but the types of custom requests it receives from customers can slow down delivery. The Millbury-based company makes miniaturized heat conductive ceramic blocks, similar to circuit boards, which are made-to-order for customers in the telecom, biomedical, and defense industries. Demand for their products is increasing and as the company grew, management recognized a need to more efficiently manage their production process. Stellar called on the Massachusetts Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MassMEP) to help streamline their performance on the production lines.

Utilizing the Time Wise® Principles of Lean Manufacturing, the MassMEP trained all 32 employees. Stellar Industries showed great progress in the time it takes to produce a product and improved their teamwork skills. "The MassMEP team opened our eyes to different ways of manufacturing," said Ron Visser, President of Stellar Industries. "We can now look at everything from a different standpoint. We take what the customer wants and break it down into smaller steps to increase productivity and product quality."Since the program was implemented, the dollar output per manufacturing employee has increased 8 percent to an all time high for the company. Product output has increased by 25 percent. For the first time ever, all weekly work orders were delivered on time."Communication is key. As a result of the training, we have opened up lines of communication that weren’t there before," added Visser.The company also conducts frequent Kaizen events, short bursts of activity to make small improvements with a goal of making large gains in efficiency and productivity, which will continue to wring out more waste from their operation. They now also have a Lean steering committee that monitors such activity."The next step for us is to be certified by the International Organization of Standardization (ISO), the world’s largest developer of production and manufacturing standards," said Visser. "Lean has allowed us to be more disciplined, so we should be able to go into ISO much easier than a year ago. Every day, we see improvements. It takes a continual effort."

About Stellar Industries

Stellar’s products include custom lapped and polished electronic grade ceramics composed of Alumina, Beryllium Oxide, Aluminum Nitride, or specialty ceramics. Stellar also supplies custom services for metalizations on these ceramics using a variety of thick film, thin film, refractory and Direct Bond Copper metalizations. Our ceramic substrates are used in a variety of electronic components including:
Laser Diode / Photodetector Submounts:
• Featuring precision machining and wrap-around metalization vapor deposited gold/tin solder alloys
High Power Microelectronic substrates:
• Featuring Copper Clad High Temperature DBC metalization
Microwave and RF thin film substrates:
• Featuring Precision Ion Etch geometries

Wireless Sensor Networks to Reach $2 Billion in 2021

2011-08-29T13:49:00.002-04:00

According to IDTechEx research in the new report "Wireless Sensor Networks 2011-2021", WSN will grow rapidly from $0.45 billion in 2011 to $2 billion in 2021. These figures refer to WSN defined as wireless mesh networks, i.e. self-healing and self-organizing. Wireless Sensor Networks will eventually enable the automatic monitoring of forest fires, avalanches, hurricanes, failure of country wide utility equipment, traffic, hospitals and much more over wide areas, something previously impossible. It has started already with more humble killer applications such as automating meter readings in buildings, and manufacture and process control automation.

The market for non-mesh wireless sensor systems in general is far larger and some proposed standards apply to both. For example, in addition to the above, the market for Real Time Locating Systems is $0.38 billion in 2011 rising to $1.6 billion in 2021.

Mesh WSN - status today
By far the biggest success of WSN has been in smart meters. Lesson number one - the Governments can make things happen faster than industry. In many countries around the world Governments have mandated that so called "smart meters" need to be installed in certain circumstances, such as new house builds or retrofits. More than 50 million have been installed so far. Now meter reading data is sent wirelessly, and the power is taken from the electricity supply so no batteries are needed. This is seen as a starting point to home automation - wireless sensors embedded in the house that will automatically communicate with the smart meter, your thermostat etc. It is part of the smart grid activity. Here, the ZigBee protocol is being employed.

Lack of Standards Delays Adoption
However, those that supply WSN need to be aware. There is no single standard that has emerged as a clear winner. Indeed, many so called standards are not - many companies implementing ZigBee for example meet the basic criteria to use the ZigBee label but add further capability resulting in systems that are not interoperable with different sensors from different vendors. Many vendors, including giant system integrators that have their own proprietary wireless communications, hope that they may become the chosen default "standard". A small number may win. The industry is not gearing towards a more collaborative approach to allow many to win. This in turn is putting off adoption. Would you install tens of thousands of wireless sensors in your plant locations if it was a proprietary solution? What if that company would not exist in five years?

This reads on to the lack of scalability - party due to lack of multi vendors sensors working together - but no-one has really tested many tens of thousands of mesh wireless sensor nodes. Theory suggests key network paths may form and if they are removed the system can slow down to unacceptable levels.

Lack of Total Solution Delays Adoption
Another challenge that vendors need to address is that many only offer hardware. Adopters are often on their own for the software - which they need in order to make useful decisions on the data collected to give the system a payback. IDTechEx note that in wireless sensing, the big successes are those that offer complete solutions. One example is Savi Technology, part of Lockheed Martin, that offer a full solution to asset tracking/visibility and the other is Ubisense, a successful UK company that has recently listed (and oversubscribed in doing so) based on a real time locating systems (RTLS) solution offering. Those selling only hardware now take note.

Adoption Forecasts
In the new IDTechEx report "Wireless Sensor Networks 2011-2021", IDTechEx forecasts the market in great detail. We study how the average price per node will drop from $29 in 2011 per piece to $25 per piece in 2021. The report looks at the latest activity and sees how these challenges are being tackled.

US ahead but Asia catching up
The USA dominates the development and use of WSN partly because of the heavier funding available there. US industry sits astride the computer industry thanks to companies such as Microsoft and IBM and WSN is regarded as a next wave of computing, so US industry is particularly interested to participate. Add to that the fact that the US Military, deeply interested in WSN, spends more than all other military forces combined and creating and funding start-ups is particularly easy in the USA and you can see why the US is ahead at present.

Watch the Governments
It was the Governments that created the first killer market for wireless sensors in smart meters, even though in reality most do not use the wireless features of the smart meters yet. The US military have spent more than $21.5 Billion on RTLS/sensor asset tracking solutions. Industry usually prioritises rapid payback, Governments don't always have to as they seek better security, safety, longer term efficiency etc. One such new project in Europe is "Living planIT", focused on making smarter cities. 22% of the global population lives in 600 major sized cities, representing 50% of the global GDP. Improving quality of life is therefore a very important challenge but also represents a great opportunity for sustainable technologies. Living PlanIT's aim is to create an ICT platform through aggregating existing and proven technologies that will be blended into real estate development. That would have as a prerequisite to embed technology (e.g. wireless sensors) into the construction process rather than rely on retrofitting which becomes more cost intensive.

In the first wave of the project, 2, 897,640 sensors will be embedded in Living PlanIT's "test-city" in Portugal. Requirements for these include standardisation, open API, horizontal integration but also, zero maintenance for embedded sensors that would have to meet lifetime expectations of over 30 years. Living PlanIT will be presenting at the IDTechEx event "Wireless Sensor Networks & RTLS USA 2011" in Boston, USA on November 15-16. This is the only event on the topic to cover the latest progress with technology and adoption. You will hear the needs and experiences of many end users.

Source: IDTechEx report "Wireless Sensor Networks 2011-2021" www.IDTechEx.com/wsn

Industry leaders predict a 'White Space economy'

2011-08-26T14:38:00.001-04:00

Cambridge Consultants has released a report discussing the foremost business opportunities in wireless technologies enabled by White Space frequencies, predicting the development of the first White Space consumer devices in the next five years. The report entitled is the result of a White Space workshop hosted by Cambridge Consultants, and brings together experts from across the wireless and broadcast industries including representatives from Nokia, Samsung, BBC, BSkyB, Neul and CSR to discuss White Space technology.

The report views the use of White Space radio as an inevitability, addressing a critical need for redressing methods of spectrum usage and opening up new possibilities for wireless devices. Much discussion of White Space to date has focused on the potential for helping meet rapidly increasing demand for mobile data on smartphones. However, the report emphasises that White Space technology has the potential to provide for a far broader range of applications and presents a solution for the ‘always on’ society.

Deemed the ‘White Space economy’, the report considers the expansive new business opportunities for a range of industries and suggests that initial market opportunities will emerge as a series of smaller, niche applications which would minimise dependency on multiple parties and require lower investment. In terms of revenue generation, White Space technologies could see returns both through direct data delivery or indirect revenue streams such as advertising. Data revenue may suit certain geographies for applications such as rural broadband, whereas advertising could be more suitable for applications such as local content broadcasting.

The report also examines the role of the UK as leading Europe in White Space development, and the role Ofcom has in creating a successful model that will set the blueprint for other countries to follow.

Specific opportunities highlighted:

Micro or localised wireless Internet service providers (WISP)
There is great potential for businesses (supermarkets or local government, for example) operating in more remote areas to supply Internet services and advertising to the local surrounding area. Delivery of personalised and location based services to very local clientele, for a very modest investment by the supplier, is an attractive new business model and the report speculates that delivery could cost as little as one tenth of the cost of copper.

Localised broadcasting
For broadcasters, there is now interest in using White Space for interactive ‘back-channel’ applications and the delivery of highly localised content and advertising.

The ‘Internet of Things’
Encompassing areas such as M2M, smart metering, and applications that require connectivity over a long-range but low data rate, White Space stands out as an enabler of the ‘Internet of Things’. White Space is especially appropriate firstly because the method for connecting can be optimised to meet the need for longer range and lower bit rate. Secondly, the data transferred is low rate and in some instances very infrequent, and for some applications the majority of data can be transferred at a time when it is less likely to cause interference.

The report predicts that we will see enterprise White Space devices developed by the end of 2011, and consumer devices entering the market in five years.

Product Highlights from EMC 2011

2011-08-18T15:33:00.014-04:00

I spent the last two days in lovely Long Beach, CA at the IEEE EMC 2011 conference and exhibition. It is a great venue right on the harbor including the nice southern CA weather with the Queen Mary parked right across the harbor. The traffic in the exhibition was average with some busy times in the morning but typically slowing as the day went on. I visited all the microwave companies at the show and have noted below some of the more interesting products I came across. A full report will be coming in a couple of days highlighting all the companies I visited.

AR was showing off their DER2018 digital emissions receiver with continuous coverage from 20 Hz to 18 GHz with 140 MHz of instantaneous bandwidth. We shot a video to demonstrate its fast scanning performance as it displayed a full scan in 7 sec that would take a spectrum analyzer something like 10 minutes to produce.

For test and measurement, R&S had several displays but highlighted their RTO Oscilloscope in a video we shot. The touch screen display and noise floor are very impressive. Agilent was showing off their N9038A MXE EMI receiver which we also captured on video. It can scan 20 minutes of gap less data using its data recording function. Aeroflex was showing off their new S-Series fast, low noise signal generator operating from 100 kHz to 3 or 6 GHz.

There were many impressive amplifiers such as IFI's 1 to 6 GHz, single band amplifier which is unique to the industry, Ophir's family of 80 to 1000 MHz models ranging from 200 to 2000 W and CPI's 18 to 22 GHz 250 W model. Miteq had on display their family of fiber optic links to 22 GHz which are well suited for low loss equipment links that are immune to interference. 3M showed me a ribbon flex cable that performs to 12 GHz even when fully folded at a 90 degree angle.

I was able to attend the Gala Event on the Queen Mary which was spectacular and well put together. Hundreds of attendees were transported for a short ride to the other side of the harbor and enjoyed drinks and dinner on the majestic ship. The organizers did a great job this year! Next year's show is in Pittsburgh, PA - see you there.

RF Things to look for in the UK

2011-08-18T12:32:00.002-04:00

At the Journal, we are currently working on our September European Microwave Week Show issue. This year the event takes place in Manchester, UK and so England is on our minds. The show is about six weeks away and early signs of heavy activity among Journal advertisers and EuMW exhibitors is indicating a strong show. If you are among the microwave professionals travelling to the UK keep your eyes out for the RFID way-finding system that is being deployed troughout the country to assist the blind and partially sighted.

According to RFID News, a UK-based charitable organization known as Guide Dogs is working with the University of Reading to employ RFID technology to provide the visually impared with the means to choose how they get about. The way-finding system consists of three main components: RFID tags, a handheld receiver, and a database of pre-recorded messages about each tag’s location.

The tags are embedded in the surrounding environment such as at bus stops or indoor shopping centers. When it comes into range, the handheld reader scans the tag and speaks to the user, telling exactly where he/she is. The system, dubbed Talking Tags can also provide additional information about the immediate environment around them. Users and potential service providers such as city officals, retail outlets, and transit providers recently tested the system in London and gave it positive reviews.

Electromagnetic Fish Hook Repels Sharks

2011-08-11T11:58:00.004-04:00

This news is a couple of months old but I found it interesting and just now stumbled upon it. A New Jersey-based Shark Defense company developed the SMART (Selective Magnetic and Repellent-Treated) Hook that is intended to repel sharks but does not affect other types of fish. It is magnetic and coated with a metal that produces an electrical current when placed in seawater. Electromagnetic fields are known to affect sharks' sensory systems they try to steer clear of them when possible. Market-valuable fish, such as tuna, do not have this electrical sense and are not repelled by the hook. It requires no power source, and reportedly only costs slightly more than a traditional hook (an amount that should be made back through reductions in damaged equipment, wasted time, and unmarketable catches).

In a set of 50 tests using two different groups of sharks, it was found that smaller, recreational-sized SMART hooks with bait received 66 percent less shark strikes than their conventional counterparts. Larger, commercial-sized SMART hooks received 94 percent less, due to the fact that more of the shark-repellent metal was present.

As reported by Live Science, the original work was sponsored by NSF SBIR grant. "Combining a magnetic repellent with a galvanic repellent is very important, because many studies have shown that sharks behave differently to magnets or metals alone," said Craig O'Connell, who researches the effects of magnetism in sharks with Shark Defense and publishes on the subject. "There are many species of shark, and they seek out their prey differently. Having two repellents available increases the chances that the sharks will be deterred."

Magnetic and voltage-creating metals have separately been shown to reduce shark catches by 18 to 68 percent in past studies, although the Shark Defense researchers state that combining the two properties boosts the SMART hook's repellent properties.

EM waves have many uses!

Google Wallet and NFC Smartphones Starting to Take Off

2011-08-10T14:08:00.004-04:00

ABI stated that recent developments in contactless payment technology are generating renewed interest, and suggest that the long-delayed dream of comprehensive contactless payment systems may finally be approaching reality. The introduction of Google Wallet and the expectation that several new NFC-enabled smartphones will reach consumer markets soon have created a sense of optimism.

According to ABI Research, in 2010 only about 10% of total POS terminal shipments included some form of contactless technology. While the analyst firm does not agree with some of the wilder media predictions for contactless POS growth – for example that within 12 months, one third of all terminals in the US will accept contactless payments – it does forecast that 85% of terminals shipped worldwide will be contactless-enabled in 2016, driven by increased proliferation of contactless cards and especially, rapid adoption of NFC-enabled cell phones.

Senior analyst Craig Foster comments, “Contactless has the potential to change the way we pay for goods completely, significantly reducing time spent queuing at the point of sale. It also represents an almost perfect fit for the vending industry, because:

• The increased speed and simplicity of check-out go hand-in-hand with the very essence of the vending machine – to provide goods quickly and conveniently;

• The fact that small-value transactions – typically under $25 in the US – do not need to be authenticated by signature or PIN entry is very appealing to vending machine operators.”

M2M practice director Sam Lucero adds, “Contactless technology is also in the very early stages of adoption in ATMs: rather than inserting the card, a customer waves it in front of the machine and enters a PIN.”

Ingenico, VeriFone, and Hypercom are the three leading vendors of POS terminals and command most of the market. VeriFone recently completed the acquisition of Hypercom after satisfying the antitrust concerns of the US Department of Justice. Contactless terminals have formed an increasingly significant part of Ingenico’s portfolio in recent years, accounting for a claimed 21% of the company’s shipments in 2010.

After Chinook Downing, RPG Defeat Should Get More Priority

2011-08-09T11:14:00.006-04:00

It was very sad to hear about the recent downing of the Chinook helicopter in Afghanistan that killed 38 soldiers. Eastern Afghanistan has steep mountain ranges, providing shelter for militants with rocket-propelled grenade launchers creating a dangerous area for military aircraft and personnel. Large, slow-moving air transports like the CH-47 Chinook are particularly vulnerable, so the military should not be surprised that one was shot down especially if it is not equipped with countermeasures as it is a relatively defenseless aircraft.

The two greatest dangers faced in asymmetric warfare are improvised explosive devices (IED) and rock propelled grenades (RPG) as they are easy to obtain and widely used by insurgents. Large funding has gone into IED defeat systems in the US, such the Warlock and JCREW programs, with thousands of systems being fielded. These are RF based systems to jam wireless frequencies that remotely detonate the IEDs. The systems have been relatively effective but there are other ways to detonate IEDs (wires, pressure plates, etc.) so they are not a total solution to defeat them. However, there seems to be much less emphasis put on defeating RPGs as there are only a few systems available today.

Most solutions are deployed on land vehicles which have cages or nets around them that are designed to defeat RPGs but these would not be appropriate for airborne vehicles (photo courtesy of Polish military). There are a couple of active RPG defeat systems that have been developed for vehicles that use RF technology. Rafael Advanced Defense Systems and Israel Aircraft Industries' Elta Group developed an active protection system called Trophy. Trophy intercepts and destroys incoming missiles and rockets with a shotgun-like blast by using radar sensors to track the incoming RPGs. The system includes the Elta EL/M-2133 F/G-band fire-control radar with four flat-panel antennas mounted on the vehicle, that has a 360-degree field of view. A computer uses the signal from the incoming weapon and calculates an approach vector. The system then calculates the optimal time and angle to fire the neutralizers. The launchers fire the neutralizing agents, which are usually small metal pellets (like buckshot).

A few years ago it was reported that there was resistance to incorporating Trophy into the US Army. The US DoD had contracted with Raytheon to develop a similar system, Quick Kill, which at the time was several years behind Trophy in development so there were rumors they wanted their own system instead of the Trophy. Later, in February 2011, Rafael announced that the Trophy system completed a successful evaluation in the US. This system is primarily intended to be used on ground vehicles so these systems probably need to be adapted to be used on airborne vehicles.

Another system that is a non-lethal RPG defeat concept is the RPGNet from Qinetiq US that uses a net shaped "trap" made of super-high strength ballistic fiber, developed under a joint ONR/DARPA program. The net intercepts the flight trajectory at a safe distance from the vehicle and defeats the RPG by crushing its nose, rendering the fuse inoperable. This prevents the high-order blast effect by preventing the formation of the shaped charge plasma jet. The system is in development by Foster Miller from program for the Office of Naval Research (ONR).

Several US companies are working on systems to defeat RPGs but they seem behind several other countries like Israel and the UK. General Dynamics has developed the ShotScreen™ RPG Defeat System which is an active protection system that can be mounted on new or retrofitted on a variety of vehicles including helicopters. The system releases a wave of small diameter, low velocity non-lethal pellets from several non-slewing locations to defeat multiple anti-tank type RPGs. It provides 360° horizontal protection with variable inclination coverage and an option for full hemispherical coverage. As mentioned previously, Raytheon has also worked on active protection systems.

Asymmetric warfare presents different challenges than the military is used to dealing with over the years so priorities need to be assessed and new systems deployed quickly to meet these new challenges. Airborne vehicles operating in insurgent areas need protection/countermeasures such as RPG defeat systems which should be more of a priority for the military on vehicles performing critical missions such as the Chinook that was shot down.

NI Week: Austin in August

2011-07-29T13:40:00.003-04:00

Every year in August, National Instruments hosts NIWeek, a truly impressive event that focuses on graphical system design and the company’s test & measurement and controller software. This conference attracts more than 3,000 of the world's brightest engineers, educators, and scientists. NIWeek 2011, the company's 17th annual customer and technology conference, opens August 2 at the Austin Convention Center in Austin, Texas, for three days of interactive technical sessions, targeted summits, hands-on workshops, and exhibitions on the latest developments for design, control, automation, manufacturing, and test. The conference also features keynote presentations and demonstrations that highlight how engineers and scientists can use NI graphical system design to test, measure, and fix inefficient products and processes to improve everyday life.

There are many benefits for attending NIWeek 2011, including the technical sessions, a chance to see NI collaborators and their products, and the opportunity to network, which is such a critical part of our careers. The conference provides opportunities to boost productivity through the three full days of interactive technical sessions, exhibitions, and hands-on workshops on the latest technologies for control, design, measurement, automation, manufacturing, and test. The company claims that most engineering professionals who attend the conference increase their productivity significantly.

This year's keynotes include founder Dr. James Truchard who will discuss the latest technologies, including timing and synchronization, streaming digital signal processor (DSP) design, and software-defined radios, to optimize graphical system designs around the world.Jeff Kodosky, coinventor and "Father of LabVIEW" with more than 30 patented LabVIEW technologies, sharing his vision for tackling challenging timing problems with LabVIEW, the future of graphical system design, and the possibilities it presents for engineers and scientists.

NI R&D engineers will also explore cutting-edge products and technologies that enable new applications and change the way engineers and scientists design, build, and test complex systems. I had the chance to attend NI Week several years ago and I have to say it is a great experience. The atmosphere is similar to the most advanced science fair you could ever imagine. When the R&D team shows off their stuff, they always put together a highly entertaining demo. When I attended there were chopper motorcycles, dunk tanks, archery, high-speed video capture and giant flat panel screens called into service to wow the audience. Not to mention the hyped-up sound system. It was a little bit like a Vegas production, a little bit Mac World.

If we wanted to get the next generation of kids excited about science, I would send them to NIWeek. Its that much fun. Unlike dedicated microwave shows like IMS, this event really lets engineers experience technology far outside their usual experience. It is very rewarding and eye opening. Of course their will be a dedicated RF pavilion for RF/microwave engineers that want to slip into their comfort zone while attending. I will also be there to meet Massachusetts Executive Fanny Mlinarsky of Octoscope and hear her talk about Over-the-Air Test solutions.

And the big acquisition of AWR and Phase Matrix this past spring should make this year's NI week especially relevant. Hope to see some of our readers there.

Industry Hardware Gets 15 Minutes of Fame

2011-07-25T15:54:00.004-04:00

I get that this is entertainment and not real news, so please indulge my little rant, which is meant for your entertainment.

My "exposure" to the daily television show GMA (Good Morning America) occurs as a captive viewer stuck on a treadmill at the local gym. With no access to the TV controls, getting in shape usually means turning a little piece of my brain into mush on those days. Between the steady diet of "mind-numbing repetition of that day's big story with little depth or insight" or the "day after day reporting of nothing new in some long-drawn out soap-opera trial for some grizzly murder", it is hard for me to say great things about the programming of this or other similar shows. But the kicker for me is the health alert. You know the one. This segment warns the viewer that what you don’t know about some commonly found object, food/drink or activity could harm you and your family.

As mentioned, I’m just a captive audience on a treadmill. My intake is purely visual, no audio. And so what gets burned into my consciousness is the message suspended on the lower portion of the TV screen during the segment that is responsible for today’s rant, which reads, “Health Alert: Cell Phone Cancer Alarm, Rating your Radiation Levels”. Well that doesn’t look good. And I wonder, do most people understand the difference between non-ionizing microwave radiation and X-ray radiation? If you’ve ever watched the hilarious Jay Leno interviews with the average person on the street, it is hard to believe that they do. Certainly the appearance of the words “Cancer” and “radiation” next to each other doesn’t help clarify the distinction.

View Video

This recent broadcast was a follow up to a statement from the World Health Organization this month that people should be “more cautious about how much we use our cell phones due to concerns about a link to brain cancer”. Wait, back-up. What statement? What was the link? What was the method used to determine a link? Could you explain/quantify “more cautious”? Not in this segment.

Here’s a little background on the WHO report, courtesy of CNN.

A team of 31 scientists from 14 countries, including the United States, made the decision after reviewing peer-reviewed studies on cell phone safety. The team found enough evidence to categorize personal exposure as "possibly carcinogenic to humans."

What that means is they found some evidence of increase in glioma and acoustic neuroma brain cancer for mobile phone users, but have not been able to draw conclusions for other types of cancers. "The biggest problem we have is that we know most environmental factors take several decades of exposure before we really see the consequences," said Dr. Keith Black, chairman of neurology at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles.

"What microwave radiation does in most simplistic terms is similar to what happens to food in microwaves, essentially cooking the brain," Black said. "So in addition to leading to a development of cancer and tumors, there could be a whole host of other effects like cognitive memory function, since the memory temporal lobes are where we hold our cell phones." In February, a study by researchers at the National Institutes of Health, revealed radiation emitted after just 50 minutes on a mobile phone increases the activity in brain cells. The effects of brain activity being artificially stimulated are still unknown.

Wireless industry responded to the announcement saying it "does not mean cell phones cause cancer." CTIA-The Wireless Association added that WHO researchers "did not conduct any new research, but rather reviewed published studies."

"When you look at cancer development -- particularly brain cancer -- it takes a long time to develop. I think it is a good idea to give the public some sort of warning that long-term exposure to radiation from your cell phone could possibly cause cancer," said Dr. Henry Lai, research professor in bioengineering at University of Washington who has studied radiation for more than 30 years.

Results from the largest international study on cell phones and cancer was released in 2010. It showed participants in the study who used a cell phone for 10 years or more had doubled the rate of brain glioma, a type of tumor. To date, there have been no long-term studies on the effects of cell phone usage among children.

"Children's skulls and scalps are thinner. So the radiation can penetrate deeper into the brain of children and young adults. Their cells are at a dividing faster rate, so the impact of radiation can be much larger." said Black of Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. Of course, I rarely see children hold a phone up to their head, nobody can text that way.

Back to the GMA segment where electrical engineering associate professor, Dr. Michael Knox from NYU Polytechnic University (winner of the 2011 Distinguished Teacher Award) has been recruited to monitor the RF energy in a typical American home (husband, wife, 2 kids, 5 cell phones, Wi-Fi and microwave oven) using the N9340B Handheld Spectrum Analyzer from Agilent Technologies. I had to chuckle as the anchor described how the family allowed ABC to invade their home with a “Big machine that measures radiation”. Maybe I’ve seen too many handheld spectrum analyzers at various trade shows, but that one doesn’t look so big to me. In fact it looks kind of cute. Congratulations on making prime time TV, Agilent.

As Dr. Knox roamed the house (interrupting dinner time) with a “fancy machine that measures radio waves” aka spectrum analyzer, the family got a visual glimpse of the radio activity from their cell phones, Wi-Fi and microwave oven. While Agilent’s spectrum analyzer performed flawlessly detecting the RF signals from each, I’m not convinced the information meant anything to the on looking, non-technical family. I have to imagine the same was true for the majority of the TV audience paying attention. Nice try GMA. I wonder what’s on The Today Show?

The Mine Clearing Beast Autonomous Vehicle

2011-07-20T10:50:00.006-04:00

Wireless controlled autonomous vehicles of all kinds are being developed by the military. An interesting type being developed are IED and mine clearing vehicles. They can safely clear areas for the military and civilians caught in war tore areas.

The Digger D-3 is a mine-clearing robot with a unique approach. Instead of poking around to locate mines and explosives, it shreds that area and eats them. It is a land tiller on steroids (and lots of them). At the front of the D-3 is a giant spinning metal pulverizer, which has tungsten hammers that beat down a quarter meter into the ground, turning everything into mulch. The mines do blow up but don't seem to damage the Digger at all. It is designed to width stand antitank mines and unexploded shells of sizes up to 81 mm and has been able to successfully ingest mines containing as much as 8 kilograms of explosive.

Here is the Digger D-2 in action:

An operator commands this beast from a safe distance using a remote control unit. The hull of the robot is made up of hardened steel plates in a "V" shape to help limit any damage from explosions. The only potentially vulnerable spots are the air intakes, which are protected from flying shrapnel by special grates. At full throttle, the D-3 can reliably clear a comforting 100 percent of landmines from the ground at a rate of 1,000 square meters per hour (about 10,000 square feet per hour), while also divesting the land of any unwanted shrubbery (I guess you can plant the field it leaves behind). I can't wait to try one in my back yard so I can plant new grass!

Is RF Radiation from Cell Phones Dangerous?

2011-07-20T10:33:00.003-04:00

A very controversial subject is whether RF radiation from cell phones is dangerous to our health. There are studies showing that it might be and others that show is not dangerous. Many people do not realize that RF radiation at these frequencies is non-ionizing so it cannot damage the cell structure on the molecular level like solar radiation does. However, it can heat the cells (as a microwave oven does to food) but cell phones are relatively low power so does it do any damage to us? Nothing conclusive to date has shown that it is dangerous at the power limits set by the FCC or other international organizations. Below is a recent release about the subject.

The International Journal of Hyperthermia has unveiled a new special issue which addresses the thermal aspects of RF exposure on human health. This special issue resulted from a workshop born out of the controversies surrounding huge growth and use of wireless communication. In the issue, invited experts further refine a quantitative assessment of the effects of thermal energy on tissue damage, fetal development, immune function and neurocognitive behaviour. The special issue papers are available on: http://informahealthcare.com/toc/hth/27/4.

One of the key findings of the workshop and research papers is that while RF exposure standards can surely be refined further, it is fair to say that the present exposure limits set for the general public are far more protective against thermal hazards than recommended limits for the temperature of hot water in the home.

“The purpose of the workshop – and the resulting special issue – was to review current knowledge of the effects of heat on the body that are of potential relevance to setting limits for human exposure to RF,” explains the lead review author, Kenneth R Foster, of the Department of Bioengineering at the University of Pennsylvania. “Thermal damage to the body is clearly a very large topic; our discussion and this special issue focuses on thermal effects that are likely to be relevant to setting RF exposure limits.”

“We examined the most appropriate health endpoints for a given tissue or system, appropriate time periods for acute and chronic exposure, time-temperature thresholds for adverse effects, as well as cost effective and targeted research to help us better understand and define human exposure standards,” continued Foster.

“The upshot was that current RF limits, as recommended by the WHO and adopted by the majority of the world’s governments, are – in thermal terms – far below temperatures that could harm the body,” says Foster. “Indeed, under ordinary environmental conditions, exposure at the whole body limits for the general public, will lead to no detectable increase in core body temperature due to thermoregulatory responses.

That said, both sets of current guidelines on exposure to radiofrequency are subject to limitations, despite the fact that they form the basis for exposure guidelines throughout most of the world. The IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) and the ICNIRP (International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection) limits set out basic restrictions in terms of power absorbed in tissue. However, the biologically significant quantity is the thermal exposure (increase in temperature and duration of exposure to elevated temperature).

Within the human body, time-temperature functions for thermal damage to different tissue types varies widely and current limit definitions are complex and difficult to explain to the public. In addition, new technologies employing high-power mmWave sources are coming into use and the possibility of human exposure to such energy at potentially injurious levels is increasing.

“If the limiting hazards of RF energy are indeed thermal, several questions must be addressed,” says Mark Dewhirst, Professor of Radiation Oncology, Pathology and Biomedical Engineering at Duke University. “Are current limits adequate to protect diverse tissues from thermal injury? Would it make sense to move to a time-temperature based limit? Are present standards adequately protective for exposures to the types of energy employed by modern electronic devices?”

I am sure there will be more to come on this subject. What do you think?

New Ga Tech Device Captures Ambient EM Energy to Drive Small Electronic Devices

2011-07-18T13:26:00.002-04:00

This was published from Ga Tech a week or so ago - interesting research on energy scavenging:

Researchers have discovered a way to capture and harness energy transmitted by such sources as radio and television transmitters, cell phone networks and satellite communications systems. By scavenging this ambient energy from the air around us, the technique could provide a new way to power networks of wireless sensors, microprocessors and communications chips.

Georgia Tech School of Electrical and Computer Engineering professor Manos Tentzeris displays an inkjet-printed rectifying antenna used to convert microwave energy to DC power. This grid was printed on flexible Kapton material and is expected to operate with frequencies as high as 10 gigahertz when complete. (Click image for high-resolution version. Credit: Gary Meek).

“There is a large amount of electromagnetic energy all around us, but nobody has been able to tap into it,” said Manos Tentzeris, a professor in the Georgia Tech School of Electrical and Computer Engineering who is leading the research. “We are using an ultra-wideband antenna that lets us exploit a variety of signals in different frequency ranges, giving us greatly increased power-gathering capability.”

Tentzeris and his team are using inkjet printers to combine sensors, antennas and energy-scavenging capabilities on paper or flexible polymers. The resulting self-powered wireless sensors could be used for chemical, biological, heat and stress sensing for defense and industry; radio-frequency identification (RFID) tagging for manufacturing and shipping, and monitoring tasks in many fields including communications and power usage.

A presentation on this energy-scavenging technology was given July 6 at the IEEE Antennas and Propagation Symposium in Spokane, Wash. The discovery is based on research supported by multiple sponsors, including the National Science Foundation, the Federal Highway Administration and Japan’s New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO).

Communications devices transmit energy in many different frequency ranges, or bands. The team’s scavenging devices can capture this energy, convert it from AC to DC, and then store it in capacitors and batteries. The scavenging technology can take advantage presently of frequencies from FM radio to radar, a range spanning 100 megahertz (MHz) to 15 gigahertz (GHz) or higher.

Georgia Tech School of Electrical and Computer Engineering professor Manos Tentzeris holds a sensor (left) and an ultra-broadband spiral antenna for wearable energy-scavenging applications. Both were printed on paper using inkjet technology. (Click image for high-resolution version. Credit: Gary Meek)

Scavenging experiments utilizing TV bands have already yielded power amounting to hundreds of microwatts, and multi-band systems are expected to generate one milliwatt or more. That amount of power is enough to operate many small electronic devices, including a variety of sensors and microprocessors.

And by combining energy-scavenging technology with super-capacitors and cycled operation, the Georgia Tech team expects to power devices requiring above 50 milliwatts. In this approach, energy builds up in a battery-like supercapacitor and is utilized when the required power level is reached.

The researchers have already successfully operated a temperature sensor using electromagnetic energy captured from a television station that was half a kilometer distant. They are preparing another demonstration in which a microprocessor-based microcontroller would be activated simply by holding it in the air.

Exploiting a range of electromagnetic bands increases the dependability of energy-scavenging devices, explained Tentzeris, who is also a faculty researcher in the Georgia Electronic Design Center at Georgia Tech. If one frequency range fades temporarily due to usage variations, the system can still exploit other frequencies.

The scavenging device could be used by itself or in tandem with other generating technologies. For example, scavenged energy could assist a solar element to charge a battery during the day. At night, when solar cells don’t provide power, scavenged energy would continue to increase the battery charge or would prevent discharging.

Georgia Tech graduate student Rushi Vyas (front) holds a prototype energy-scavenging device, while School of Electrical and Computer Engineering professor Manos Tentzeris displays a miniaturized flexible antenna that was inkjet-printed on paper and could be used for broadband energy scavenging. (Click image for high-resolution version. Credit: Gary Meek)

Utilizing ambient electromagnetic energy could also provide a form of system backup. If a battery or a solar-collector/battery package failed completely, scavenged energy could allow the system to transmit a wireless distress signal while also potentially maintaining critical functionalities.

The researchers are utilizing inkjet technology to print these energy scavenging devices on paper or flexible paper-like polymers – a technique they already using to produce sensors and antennas. The result would be paper-based wireless sensors that are self-powered, low-cost and able to function independently almost anywhere.

To print electrical components and circuits, the Georgia Tech researchers use a standard materials inkjet printer. However, they add what Tentzeris calls “a unique in-house recipe” containing silver nanoparticles and/or other nanoparticles in an emulsion. This approach enables the team to print not only RF components and circuits, but also novel sensing devices based on such nanomaterials as carbon nanotubes.

When Tentzeris and his research group began inkjet printing of antennas in 2006, the paper-based circuits only functioned at frequencies of 100 or 200 MHz, recalled Rushi Vyas, a graduate student who is working with Tentzeris and graduate student Vasileios Lakafosis on several projects.

“We can now print circuits that are capable of functioning at up to 15 GHz — 60 GHz if we print on a polymer,” Vyas said. “So we have seen a frequency operation improvement of two orders of magnitude.”

The researchers believe that self powered, wireless paper-based sensors will soon be widely available at very low cost. The resulting proliferation of autonomous, inexpensive sensors could be used for applications that include:

· Airport security: Airports have both multiple security concerns and vast amounts of available ambient energy from radar and communications sources. These dual factors make them a natural environment for large numbers of wireless sensors capable of detecting potential threats such as explosives or smuggled nuclear material.

· Energy savings: Self-powered wireless sensing devices placed throughout a home could provide continuous monitoring of temperature and humidity conditions, leading to highly significant savings on heating and air conditioning costs. And unlike many of today’s sensing devices, environmentally friendly paper-based sensors would degrade quickly in landfills.

· Structural integrity: Paper or polymer based sensors could be placed throughout various types of structures to monitor stress. Self powered sensors on buildings, bridges or aircraft could quietly watch for problems, perhaps for many years, and then transmit a signal when they detected an unusual condition.

· Food and perishable material storage and quality monitoring: Inexpensive sensors on foods could scan for chemicals that indicate spoilage and send out an early warning if they encountered problems.

· Wearable bio-monitoring devices: This emerging wireless technology could become widely used for autonomous observation of patient medical issues.

The Week's Microwave News... in Rhyme

2011-07-08T13:33:00.004-04:00

Editor's note: Even though its summertime, news from the Microwave industry remains quite active in both military and commercial markets with announcements of contract wins, new products, M&A activity and more. We offer this light version of this weeks news as a reminder to enjoy the lazy days of summer.

From Raytheon
Stimulus money can still be found
As Raytheon breaks new ground
To deploy 700 Megahertz LTE
Dedicated to serving public safety

From Suncastle Microwave
A new antenna with decade-plus bandwidth and high gain
Will help extend the coverage range
Of UAVs on special missions
Thanks to Suncastle Microwave’s recent innovation

From L3 Telemetry-East
To ensure interoperability in aeronautical telemetry
Air Force ground receivers will get an upgrade from L3
A new IRIG standard utilizes C-band
In a down-conversion architecture used across the land.

From Tektronix
To help debug ASICs and FPGAs that are complex
Veridae Systems was acquired by Tektronix
Supporting multi-device systems with enhanced visualization
And shortening the time needed for system validation

From Integral Systems
Installation of Integral System’s SAT-DSA is now complete
And helping Elettronica Industriale of Italy to compete
Through better traffic maintenance and RF interference identification
The company can offer the best broadcast quality in that nation

From Roke Manor Research
For tactical deployments of the military kind
A portable, long range 3G base station was hard to find
Until Roke Manor launched “Battlefield Connect” for ad-hoc communications
To help spectrum overload in both peace-keeping and special operations

From Rohde & Schwarz
As TDD version of LTE fights for market share
Network providers and device OEMs must test their wares
So this week R&S and China Mobile signed an agreement
To collaborate on an end-to-end TD-LTE test environment

ABI Research Teardown: Samsung Galaxy S II Shows Interesting RF Design-ins

2011-07-07T13:38:00.006-04:00

I received this ABI Research promo today and found some interesting RF findings in the Samsung Galaxy S II, a new flagship member of Samsung's Android smartphone lineup. As part of its new Teardown Research Service, ABI Research has dismantled, analyzed, and tested the device down to the component level. If you are looking to keep up with the latest technology in 2011, the Galaxy S II is a good place to start.

According to ABI Research vice president of engineering James Mielke, “Samsung started from scratch with this phone: almost every component is new. Its application processor is the most powerful on the market at present. It is the first to use the Samsung Exynos 4210 dual-core application processor (a competitor to NVIDIA’s dual-core Tegra 2). The name Exynos combines Greek words for ‘smart’ and ‘green,’ indicating Samsung’s energy-efficiency goals for the design.”

Major changes include:

Exynos dual-core apps processor. 118.8 mm2 die size with amperage specs roughly similar to the Tegra 2

New single-packaged multi-band multi-mode PA from RFMD

New CMOS-based antenna switch

New lower-power XMM6260 cellular chipset from Infineon

Mielke sums up: “Samsung took many risks by combining all these new technologies into one phone. But ABI Research believes those risks will pay off; the Galaxy S II sets a new benchmark for almost every category on which a smartphone is measured.”

ABI Research’s “Samsung Galaxy S II Teardown” report provides detailed photos, process evaluation, and part descriptions for all of the major components such as power amplifier, power management, baseband processor, RF, Bluetooth, GPS, WiLAN, and many discretes. Tying all this information together are unique circuit board photos, performance measurements, cost information, and board area data.

RFMD has been promoting the use of their newer multi-band, multi-mode PAs and it has paid off in this design-in. This is the future of PAs that can support many bands with one device especially as LTE will add many new bands to the already numerous ones current phones have to support.

Microwave Journal has also reported that lower cost CMOS switches have now achieved performance on par with GaAs switches for lower power applications and would make their way into handsets very soon. And here they are!

High Capacity MM-Wave Coms: A Mid-Year Checkup

2011-06-24T10:22:00.005-04:00

Wireless Technology Expert Jonathan Wells reports that at mid-2011 the high capacity wireless market segment continues to grow in strength. All the carriers are now advertising 4G networks and claiming super-fast download speeds. High-capacity gigabit wireless products are being deployed in both the microwave and mm-wave frequency bands to address the backhaul demands of these networks.

Over 1 million microwave radios in 2010
Although 2010 saw a drop in overall PTP radio shipments, high capacity solutions remains the shining sector. EJL Wireless reports that of the almost 1.1 million PTP radios shipped last year, 75% of them are in the high capacity product segment. Leading high capacity vendors such as Aviat Networks, Ceragon and Dragonwave all have microwave products that can now deliver almost 1 Gbps true data throughput in the regulated microwave channels.

$500+ million mm-wave market
The 60 GHz and 70/80GHz bands, which permits multi-gigabit transmission, remains the fastest growing market segment. EJL Wireless forecast radio shipments in this sector grew 67% in 2010. Leaders BridgeWave announced earlier this year that they have shipped their 10,000^th mm-wave system, and have released a novel 60 GHz product for picocell backhaul. Visant Strategies have forecast that revenue from 60 GHz and 70/80 GHz PTP radios will reach over $500 million in 2016, citing growth from 4G base stations driving Gbps speed requirements in dense urban areas. Infonetics Research has published a more bullish prediction; that 70/80 GHz PTP equipment will grow to over $450 million by 2014.

For More Information
To better understand the high capacity microwave and mm-wave product landscape and the wider wireless technology implications, see his new book on “Multi-Gigabit Microwave and Millimeter-Wave Wireless Communications”. For more information, or to purchase a discounted copy of this book, click here …

Jonathan Wells, Ph.D. M.B.A.
President, AJIS LLC
Wireless Technology Consulting
Email: jonathan@ajisconsulting.com
Web: www.ajisconsulting.com
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/jonathanwells

GaAs and Compound Semiconductor Technologies Service (GaAs) Viewpoint

2011-06-22T20:21:00.009-04:00

Strategy Analytics reported that recent financial reports from companies in the microelectronics portion of the compound semiconductor industry indicate continued sharp revenue growth. The Strategy Analytics GaAs and Compound Semiconductor Technologies Service (GaAs) viewpoint, “Compound Semiconductor Industry Review April 2011: Microelectronics,” reports the latest revenue results for leading companies in the microelectronics segment of the compound semiconductor industry, such as RFMD, Skyworks Solutions, Fairchild, Fujitsu, Hittite Microwave, TriQuint Semiconductor, Soitech and WIN Semiconductors.

"The strong revenue reports which Strategy Analytics saw in April show continued compound semiconductor market expansion,” noted Eric Higham, Director of the Strategy Analytics GaAs and Compound Semiconductor Technologies Service. “Growth in this industry is broadly-based as both gallium arsenide (GaAs) and silicon manufacturers are showing strong year-on-year revenue gains.”

Asif Anwar, Director, Strategy Analytics Strategic Technologies Practice added, “Increasing data consumption is driving development in consumer electronics and networks.” This viewpoint summarizes April 2011 financial, product, contract and employment developments from major GaAs and silicon suppliers, addressing a variety of commercial and military applications that require gallium arsenide (GaAs), gallium nitride (GaN), Silicon carbide (SiC) and complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) technologies.

Eric Higham gave us some exclusive addition information. He added the following:

In our “Compound Semiconductor Industry Review April 2011: Microelectronics” report, we captured the latest quarterly revenue reports from several of the largest compound semiconductor device manufacturers. A few trends were notable. Most of the year-on-year revenue comparisons were positive and substantial, with GaAs manufacturers Hittite and TriQuint reporting 24% growth, Skyworks reporting 37% growth and Silicon manufacturer Microsemi leading them all with 73% quarterly revenue growth. This is important because it shows the growth is broadly based, with both Silicon and GaAs suppliers demonstrating strong results. It is important to note that 2010 was a banner year for the compound semiconductor industry. Strategy Analytics believes revenue in the industry grew by 35% in 2010, so strong quarterly revenue gains in 2011 indicate continued strength in the compound semiconductor industry.

There is a cautionary note, however, and this is the second notable trend. Two of the leading GaAs suppliers in the industry, RFMD and ANADIGICS both saw year-on-year declines in quarterly revenue. Both companies attribute this to challenges at major handset customers. Previous reports from Strategy Analytics have captured how diligently compound semiconductor companies have been working to develop products for a variety of other market applications. This is certainly the case at RFMD and ANADIGICS, but it underscores how important the handset market segment is to the overall compound semiconductor industry.

Uplink and Downlink to Follow Two Different Technology Directions

2011-06-21T11:48:00.003-04:00

A new report released today by Mobile Experts predicts an industry shift away from the 3GPP roadmap, which calls for evolution to 8x8 MIMO (Multiple Input-Multiple Output) technology.

“Field testing has shown limited benefit from the simple addition of more antennas and early implementation of Multi-User MIMO” said Joe Madden, Principal Analyst at Mobile Experts. “Instead of blindly following the 3GPP evolution path, mobile operators are looking for different, creative ways to boost throughput and capacity. Interference cancellation and Cooperative Multipoint (CoMP), as well as advanced MU-MIMO will be important technologies during the next few years”.

“Mobile Experts is the only analyst firm that focuses on the radio chain for both infrastructure and device markets. In the case of MIMO, it is critical to examine concerns of suppliers of a huge variety of equipment, ranging from base stations and femtocells to smartphones, tablets, and PC modems. In particular, the concerns of device suppliers regarding size, battery life, and cost are crucial in the technology choices for the 2014-2016 timeframe”.

The new report, MIMO Adoption in Mobile Communications, can be found at http://www.mobile-experts.net/, and provides:

* A broad overview of the market drivers which are pushing mobile operators toward new architectures;
* Technical analysis and block diagrams for devices and infrastructure;
* Insightful analysis of:
* Infrastructure in the macro layer, including macrocells, microcells and picocells;
* Femtocell adoption of MIMO antenna techniques;
* Expected architectures for DAS, repeaters, and relays;
* Device migration from Tx and Rx diversity to higher order MIMO
* Cost vs. Benefit analysis of MIMO in:
* Handsets and other devices;
* Base stations using Remote Radio Heads (RRH)
* Forecast spreadsheets predict market size and segmentation through 2016:
* By device type (PC embedded modems, tablets, smartphones, feature phones);
* By infrastructure type (Macrocell, microcell, picocell, femtocell, DAS, repeater, relay);
* By uplink vs. downlink;
* By MIMO type (SISO, SIMO, 2x2, 4x2, 4x4, etc.);
* Predictions of alternatives to MIMO are presented.

About Mobile Experts LLC:
Mobile Experts provides insightful market analysis for the mobile infrastructure and mobile handset markets. Research topics center on technology introduction for radio frequency (RF) and communications innovation. Recent publications focus on Multi-Standard Radio Base Stations, Semiconductors for Remote Radio Heads, Outdoor DAS, In-Building Wireless, and Small Cells and HetNets.

Interesting Products at IMS2011

2011-06-12T19:49:00.006-04:00

After crusing around the inner harbor (aka the exhibition floor) for three days, here is a quick rundown of some interesting products we came across:

- Agilent's integrated vector signal generator up to 44 GHz and analog signal generator up to 67 GHz (operational to 70 GHz), and the first microwave analog signal generator to break the 1 W output power barrier.

- Anritsu introduced a new broadband VNA system that provides single-sweep coverage from 70 kHz to 110 GHz with operation from 40 kHz to 125 GHz, and utilizes an advanced design that eliminates the need for large, heavy mmWave modules and coax combiners.

- R&S introduced a network analyzer with dynamic range up to 140 dB, sweept time of 4 ms with 401 pts

- Hittite's 33 news products (too many to cover here) which is unique for a company of this size

- M/A-COM's new family of GaN products covering L- and S-bands with much better efficiency and power than their BiPolar products

- Avago introduced the first front end module designed specifically for coexistence operation of WiMAX with other cellular and WiFi radios in the same device

- NXP's 1200 W ISM LDMOS transistor that can widthstand a VSWR of 125:1 and still operate

- Peregrine's digitally controlled variable capacitors targeting 100 MHz to 3 GHz applications

- Crane's Multi-Mix technology that creates multilayer integrated microwave circuits and modules using direct bonding of low cost composite substrates reducing cost, weight and size

- Skyworks ceramic based high power filters offering size and weight improvements over metal cavity based filters

- RFMD's upcoming Si SOI and GaN switches should be exciting to see

- ADI's new PLL synthesizer operating from 35 to 4400 MHz with rms jitter of .3 ps and typ EVM of .4% at 2.1 GHz

A couple of new finds were:

- Daisy RS wireless portable power meters using 2.4 GHz wireless links up to 100 meters

- Octane Wearable antennas using flexible antenna technology that allows them to be woven into many shapes and sizes for applications for soldiers, first responders, security/intelligence and more

Let me know what new things you saw at the IMS2011.

IMS2011 First Impressions

2011-06-08T07:22:00.011-04:00

The Baltimore inner harbor area is a beautiful setting for the IMS2011 and certainly convenient for us on the east coast. The sessions are in full swing with some very interesting topics being presented. I see trends in very high efficiency amplifiers with better modeling/measurement techniques, new packaging techniques from LCP to fusion bonded laminates, very wideband active devices to cover multiple frequency bands, highly integrated modules that solve co-existence problems, new signal generators that provide real life signal replication and storage and more.

The exhibition is very lively and positive - attendance looks very good this year. The MicroApps sessions seem to get better each year with more companies participating. Our Nonlinear Expert Forum is today at noon in the MicroApps featuring experts sponsored by Agilent, R&S, Anritsu and Tektronix. Some products that caught my eye so far are Agilent's new signal generator that eliminates expensive flight testing, Avago's highly integrated co-existence WiFi/WiMAX module (only 5 x 7 mm), Crane's new MultiMix laminate process to realize highly integrated circuits and modules, Freescale's ever improving LDMOS products with 65:1 VSWR on a low frequency device and improved video bandwidth on their cellular band products, IHP's (Germany) 500 GHz fmax SiGe process and Peregrine's digitally tunable capcitors.

Yesterday we attended the Women in Microwaves reception at the Hilton which is growing each year and then made our way down to the inner harbor for the MWJ customer appreciation party at the Tir Na Nog. It has a nice deck overlooking the harbor with great beers and a nice buffet. I hope everyone who attended had a good time.

Let us know what you have seen around the show and in the technical sessions.

Heading Off to IMS2011 in Baltimore

2011-06-03T12:13:00.005-04:00

The "dance card" is full (actually overflowing) and the pre-show coverage, articles, May show issue and Online Show Daily are ready. Our Online Show Daily page will be updated each day (or even more often) with the latest news items and features a real-time Twitter Feed, blog updates, exclusive show articles and chair message plus will have pictures and videos just following the show.

The biggest surprise leading up the show for me was all the acquisitions (Skyworks acquired SiGe and Advanced Analogic Tech plus NI acquired AWR and Phase Matrix). In addition, the abundance of news items and new product releases has already been at the highest level that I can remember which should make for an interesting show.

Microwave Journal will host the MicroApps Nonlinear Characterization Forum on Wed at noon which will be webcast live from the event. After the experts from Agilent, Anritsu, R&S (NMDG) and Tektronix (Cardiff Univ) speak, there will be a Q&A session with both the live and virtual audiences, a first for IMS.

The Plenary Session will be given by Dr. Rhodes, "Migration of WCDMA and 4G LTE Into Existing Cellular Bands". Our May Cover Story was about the history of filter companies in the Maryland area and mentions Dr. Rhodes' accomplishments in this area. The closing keynote session is given by Dr. Guerci who is an expert on Cognitive Radar and was the author of our Cover Story in Jan this year.

It should be an exciting show this year and it is a nice short flight for us from the Boston area. Let us know how you are making out at the show and if you have any exciting news.

New TASC Report Defines Cyber Vulnerabilities

2011-06-01T10:32:00.000-04:00

A new report published by TASC, Inc. examines today’s key cyber threats facing the United States and highlights the deep interrelatedness of the challenges facing the nation. As the White House and Congress consider cybersecurity legislation to protect the nation’s cyber systems, there is an urgent need for better coordination and cooperation across government and industry.
“The integration of the Internet into critical operational structures of all levels of the government, the military and the nation’s economy has created a collective reliance on information technology that will only increase in the coming years,” says Steve Winterfeld, cyber technical lead at TASC. “Today the growing dangers of cyber warfare present a new national threat—one that demands a national commitment.”
The report, “Understanding Today’s Cyber Challenges,” groups the nation’s primary cyber threats into three categories: psychologically driven cyber challenges, process-driven challenges and technologically driven cyber challenges. These challenges range in severity from those that can be quickly and easily addressed to those that require sustained, long-term investment.
“Daily security breaches threaten everyone who operates in cyberspace,” says Winterfeld. “We face more devastating attacks as cyber thieves, nation-states and others become increasingly sophisticated in their knowledge of today’s networks.”
Government agencies and businesses can use the TASC report as a tool to categorize risks and mitigation practices most relevant and appropriate to their organizations. The study was produced in collaboration with the University of Virginia.
“Before 9/11, no one imagined an attack of such magnitude could happen anywhere, especially on U.S. soil,” says Winterfeld. “The threat of a cyber calamity of similar proportions is real, and such an attack would have far-reaching impacts at every level of our society. We urgently need to reach a common understanding of what those threats are and do what we can to mitigate them.”
To download a free copy of the report, or to learn more about TASC, visit http://www.tasc.com.

Advice for IMS2011?

2011-05-25T14:12:00.002-04:00

There's only 12 days left until IMS2011 in Baltimore. I've been looking forward to this event since I was hired as MWJ's staff editor in April. But as the event draws near, I am starting to think about what I need to do to prepare and what my strategy should be for getting the most out of the show. Publisher Car Sheffres has already given me some good advice -- don't buy a new pair of shoes the day before the trip. Carl told me he did just that before his first trade show (in 1988 in NYC) and ended up spending every night in his hotel room with his shoes off and his aching feet up. If anyone has any more advice about getting ready for the show, please comment.

Unmanned US Military Expenditures to Total $64 billion by 2021

2011-05-25T12:12:00.001-04:00

Strategy Analytics reports that the success of unmanned aerial systems (UAS) in providing real-time information to military commanders has contributed to both mission effectiveness and personnel protection. Despite budgetary pressures, a number of factors will help drive demand. The Strategy Analytics Advanced Defense Systems (ADS) service forecasts that US expenditure for military unmanned aerial platforms is approaching $64 billion, cumulatively, over the 2011 to 2021 timeframe, as described in the report, “US DoD Budget Implications for UAS Electronics Demand.”

While the global economic crisis has led to a reexamination of defense budgets, there remains concern for improved battle space integration, leading to support for the development of UCAV (Unmanned Combat Aerial Vehicles) platforms. This, in turn, will drive growth in the demand for EO-IR (electro-optic/infrared), radar, communications and EW (electronic warfare) systems and other associated electronics.

“Strategy Analytics analysis indicates that the UAS segment will maintain a growth trajectory, accounting for 31 percent of US DoD budget expenditure on aircraft platforms by 2021,” noted Asif Anwar, Director, Advanced Defense Systems. “The US military market for UAS platforms will grow at a compound annual growth rate of 3 percent over 2011 – 2021.”

Eric Higham, ADS Service Director, North America, added, “EO-IR payloads for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR), as well as radar and communications, represented 75 percent of military electronics demand in 2010, which Strategy Analytics projects will grow to 80 percent by 2021. This will create a cumulative market opportunity approaching $21 billion.”

One example is the Boeing Phantom Ray UAS which successfully completed its first flight April 27 at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base, CA. The 17-minute flight took place following a series of high-speed taxi tests in March that validated ground guidance, navigation and control and verified mission planning, pilot interface and operational procedures.

Comparing Active and Passive Mixers with Besser Associates

2011-05-24T09:44:00.005-04:00

In a recent webinar, one of the attendees commented that Besser Instructor Allen Podell was presenting results based on "rather wimpy performance assumptions" for his active mixer versus passive mixer comparison (see below) and suggested using newer active mixers such as ADL5801 or LT5557 from ADI or LTC? This attendee asserted that mixers based on these particular devices compete very well with the best passive mixers. Allen took up this challenge and did a little investigation. His response is below.

Post-webinar response from Allen Podell -

First of all, I must admit that it is true that the ADL5801 and the LT5557 mixers mentioned were quite comparable in performance to the combination of the passive mixer and IF amplifier given as an example. Let me point out that the power consumed by the amplifier in the example was about 10% of the example HDR mixers. My statement was that Gilbert Cell active mixers were inferior in dynamic range, based on their figure of merit. Even 10 of the Avago mixers would not have been as good as the course example, at a much high dc power consumption. Are the ADL and LT active HDR mixers truly Gilbert Cell mixers, as the Avago part is?

I tried to research the Analog Devices and Linear Technology recent patents to determine the design used in these mixers, but could not find an answer. Eliminating the common emitter amplifier stages and replacing them with a transformer would improve the performance of the active mixer, but it would no longer be a Gilbert Cell mixer. Had I used in my example a feedback IF amplifier running 80 mA and a Peregrine FET mixer together, we could have built an HDR mixer about 10 dB better than that of the example.

We could then re-start the mixer war.

To view the original webinar go to: http://www.mwjournal.com/WebinarBesser_May17

JSF Makes First Public Fly Over Appearance

2011-05-23T09:22:00.003-04:00

The Joint Strike Fighter, F-35C version, made its first public appearance this past weekend at Andrew's Air Force Base in Maryland. The flyover on Saturday originated from the F-35C's primary test site at Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Maryland. The aircraft, CF-2, flew within its approved flight envelope and was accompanied by an F-18 Hornet flying chase.

The F-35C is a 5th generation strike fighter with stealth capability and has larger wing surfaces and reinforced landing gear for the demanding carrier environment for the Navy. The Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter program is in the system development and demonstration phase, focusing on delivering three different and new aircraft variants to the US Marine Corps, Navy and Air Force and NATO.

This is an important program for RF/microwave companies as many of them are involved in the radar and EW systems development and production. It is one of the few programs that has some potential for a large number of units as the F-22 production quantities have been cut many times of recent years.

Anritsu Techtime Tour Visits Boston Area

2011-05-20T11:36:00.015-04:00

I attended the Anritsu Techtime Tour this week (co-sponsored by AWR) since it was in our neighborhood in Chelmsford, MA. The Techtime Tour is a complimentary full-day educational seminar focused on the applications of Vector Network Analyzers (VNAs). Presentations included both lecture and live demonstrations presented by industry experts and allowed everyone to ask questions.

The topics covered were:

VNA Fundamentals

Advanced Amplifier Design and Test Including Nonlinear Measurements

Advanced Time Domain Techniques

Co-Simulation with Real-Time Channel Measurements

The session covered everything from the basics to the more advanced subjects in the afternoon so there was something for everyone. This was the last stop of the 6 city tour which included 2 stops in CA, 2 in TX, NJ and the Greater Boston. There are typically around 50 people who attend these sessions and if this tour is successful, they will try to continue having them from time to time.

I met one very interesting guy there who had his own personal VNA in his backpack. I was curious to see what he was using and he told me it was a VNWA which can be purchased as an assembled kit online for about 400 pounds from SDR-kits.net in the UK. It works up to about 1.3 GHz and he showed me the unit in action by measured a homemade filter he had rigged up. It is only 10.4 x 8 x 4.6 cm weighing 0.2 kg. A far cry from the VNAs sold by Anritsu but it is an interesting product.

Anritsu does have a big announcement for its VNA product line being released for IMS MTT-S so catch the news on the MWJ Online Show Daily.

MWJ Article Forecasts Technology used to Report Bin Laden Operation

2011-05-13T17:36:00.006-04:00

Around the time last year when the Obama administration was first learning about bin Laden’s where-abouts in Abbottabad Pakistan, we at the Journal were putting the final touches on our August Military Microwave supplement. While the Journal and its staff has no obvious connection to the administration, military and intelligence community behind this successful covert operation, we do have a connection to this story by way of an article we were about to publish that month. The previous fall at the Milcom show in Boston, I had read an article by Dr. Simon et. al. of Queen’s University in Belfast on millimeter-wave ad hoc personal communication system for war fighters. I had invited Dr. Cotton to author the cover story for our Military supplement and he along with William Scanlon (Queen's University of Belfast), Efstratios Skafidas (University of Melbourne) and Bhopinder Madahar (Ministry of Defence, UK) graciously accepted our offer. The article was entitled, “Millimeter-wave Stealth Radio for Special Operations Forces”.

The Abstract read as follows:
For Special Operations Forces, an important attribute of any future radio will be the ability to conceal transmissions from the enemy while transmitting large amounts of data for situational awareness and communications. These requirements will mean that military wireless systems designers will need to consider operating frequencies in the mm-wave bands. The high data rates that are achievable at these frequencies and the propagation characteristics at this wavelength will provide many benefits for the implementation of ëstealth radioí. This article discusses some of the recent advances in RF front-end technology, alongside physical layer transmission schemes that could be employed for millimeter-wave soldier-mounted radio. The operation of a hypothetical millimeter-wave soldier-to-soldier communications system that makes use of smart antenna technology is also described.

I thought of these high speed data communication networks when I heard that the White House and operation leaders were watching the action in Pakistan unfold in real-time. After years of developing microwaves for weapon systems created and used during the Cold War, perhaps older Microwave Journal readers are well accustomed to knowing the technology story behind the headlines, but it still gives me the chills when it happens. I invite everyone to go back and read Dr. Cotton’s article now that it has moved from science fiction to forecast to fact.

Read: Millimeter-wave Stealth Radio for Special Operations Forces

Stealth Technology is Being Applied Everywhere

2011-05-09T08:57:00.014-04:00

We learned last week that Navy SEALs probably used advanced technology on the Sikorsky choppers used in the raid on Osama bin Laden's compound in Pakistan. Military aviation experts have been poring over photographs of the debris (photo courtesy of Reuters), particularly the tail section, of the Black Hawk that had a hard landing and was purposely destroyed to protect its technology.

Exactly how the Black Hawk helicopters were modified is not completely known, but the photographs of the wreckage offer new clues to the military's cutting-edge methods. Several analysts agreed the aircraft used technology that appeared to stem from the Comanche, a $39 billion, joint project between Sikorsky and Boeing until it was scrapped in 2004 due to high costs. The tail rotor was modified with a dish covering part of the rotor to suppress noise and the tail section was modified to reduce it radar cross section. In addition, there was evidence of radar absorbing materials being used on the Black Hawks.

Also last week, Boeing announced that its Phantom Ray unmanned airborne system (UAS) successfully completed its first flight April 27 at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif. This is a stealth unmanned platform which is obvious from its shape. The 17-minute flight took place following a series of high-speed taxi tests in March that validated ground guidance, navigation and control and verified mission planning, pilot interface and operational procedures. Phantom Ray flew to 7,500 feet and reached a speed of 178 knots.

The flight demonstrated Phantom Ray's basic airworthiness, setting the stage for additional flights in the next few weeks. These company-funded flights will prepare Phantom Ray to support potential missions that may include intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance; suppression of enemy air defenses; electronic attack; strike; and autonomous air refueling.

Stealth technology is being applied to most combat aircraft built in the US these days, so it is a pretty safe prediction that all future US combat aircraft will be built using stealth technology and might even be all unmanned going forward.

Can RF Benefit from 3D Transistor Technology?

2011-05-06T13:28:00.006-04:00

The buzz this week was of course the big announcement from Intel that all their new processors will use 3D transistor technology. Their "Tri-Gate" transistor that will allow the company to keep shrinking chips and keep up with Moore's Law which for a while looked to be an impossibility in the near future. Intel says the transistors will use 50 percent less power, conduct more current and provide 37 percent more speed than their 2D transistors while only adding an estimated 2-3 percent cost to existing silicon wafers. This isn't future technology any more as Intel says the it will be used its 22nm Ivy Bridge CPUs, going into mass production in the second half of the year and going forward on future platforms.

If you have not already seen it, the Tri-Gate transistor is really a FinFET which was invented about 10 years ago. The gate metal wraps around the active channel on three sides of the fin like structure of Si allowing it to better control the current. It has less leakage in the off state and allows better current flow in the on state making the FET more efficient. Here is the nice video Intel released showing how it works.

FinFET transistors suffer from stronger device parasitics compared to planar bulk transistors and tend to have lower cutoff frequencies. However, the improved performance of FinFET transistors is motivation for more work in this area, especially for reducing power consumption. There have been some papers on RF FinFETs - many of them on dual gate structures instead of Tri-Gate but the results seem limited. Has anyone seen some more recent work with RF FinFETs/Tri-Gate devices?

Weather Radar Technology Captures Tornado Activity

2011-05-02T15:10:00.022-04:00

The devastating tornadoes last week were tragic, but I saw some amazing photos of the intense storms while watching the news. Many of these photos and animations are enabled by advanced radar technologies that our industry has developed.

One NASA platform that provided vital information is the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM). The TRMM has several instruments including a Precipitation Radar that was the first space borne instrument designed to provide 3D maps of storm structure. These measurements yield information on the intensity and distribution of the rain, on the rain type, on the storm depth and on the height at which the snow melts into rain. It can provide vertical profiles up to 12 miles and detect fairly light rain rates down to about .027 inches per hour. The Precipitation Radar uses a frequency 3 times higher than similar ground based systems in order to obtain high resolution images. It uses 128 solid state power amplifiers to provide a robust design and minimize power consumption (it only uses 224 W). As the beam size is small, it also utilizes scanning phased array technology to steer the beam over the target area.

The TRMM also has a Microwave Imager (TMI) whichi is a passive microwave sensor designed to provide quantitative rainfall information over a wide swath under the TRMM satellite. By carefully measuring the minute amounts of microwave energy emitted by the Earth and its atmosphere, TMI is able to quantify the water vapor, the cloud water, and the rainfall intensity in the atmosphere. The TMI measures the intensity of radiation at five separate frequencies: 10.7, 19.4, 21.3, 37 and 85.5 GHz. Calculating rainfall rates from TMI requires fairly complicated calculations using Planck’s radiation law, which describes how much energy a body radiates given its temperature.

The primary instruments for measuring precipitation are the Precipitation Radar, the TMI, and the Visible and Infrared Scanner. Additionally, TRMM carries the Lightning Imaging Sensor and the Clouds and the Earth’s Radiant Energy System Instrument. These instruments can all function individually or in combination with one another. TRMM is part of NASA’s Mission to Planet Earth, a long-term, coordinated research effort to study the Earth as a global system. The following images and description were taken from the NASA website:

The TRMM satellite saw severe weather over the eastern United States for the third day in a row on 27 April 2011. TRMM Microwave Imager (TMI) and Precipitation Radar data from this orbit shows numerous intense thunderstorms stretching from Louisiana to the Ohio valley. By 2:53 PM, four tornadoes had been reported as this stormy weather moved through Alabama and Mississippi (Images and Captions by Hal Pierce - SSAI/NASA GSFC).

Ground radar systems have added the capability to create very detailed 3D images of severe weather. One reason for this is the use of dual polarization radar. The images and descriptions below were taken from an article written by Jason Samenow in the Washington Post:

Radar sequence of tornado supercell thunderstorms that tracked from western Mississippi into southwest North Carolina. (Brian Tang, a post doctoral research fellow at the National Center for Atmospheric Research)

It is a Radar montage of the most impressive supercell from the large tornado outbreak. This cell traveled about 450 miles and lasted over 8 hours. It also was responsible for the large, violent tornado that caused the destruction in Tuscaloosa. The National Weather Service reported that the tornado spawned by this supercell from Tuscaloosa to Birmingham was on the ground for 80 miles and reached high-end EF-4 intensity (winds to 190 mph).

Vertical cross section of radar when tornado was in the vicinity of Tuscaloosa, Alabama on April 27. (@iwitnessweather and The Weather Channel via Twitter)

The above three-dimensional radar image shows not only the hook echo across the horizontal plane but also see the “debris” generated by the tornado right as it’s in the vicinity of Tuscaloosa. The debris is depicted by the “ball” of pink (indicating the high reflectivity) at the point of the hook echo. In the vertical, you can see the radar’s reflection of the actual funnel.

These newer tools should help scientists learn more about these storms and improve our warning systems. All these images and capabilities enabled by RF engineering!

M2M App Developers Projected to See Lower Module Prices

2011-04-18T14:49:00.004-04:00

According to ABI Research, Mobile operators AT&T and Sprint have recently struck deals with cellular embedded module vendors to provide modules for M2M (machine-to-machine) application developer partners at discounted rates. Their goal is to encourage app developers to embrace 3G – and now 4G – M2M modules.

The M2M market largely consists of low data rate, low data consumption applications where 2G technology is perfectly adequate. Given a choice, M2M application developers would prefer to stay with older technology that is not only adequate from a connectivity standpoint, but more optimized from a cost component standpoint. In 2010, a 2G GSM/GPRS cellular embedded module cost approximately $18, while a 3G WCDMA module was roughly $65.

ABI Research forecasts that as WCDMA module shipments grow from less than four million last year to more than 62 million in 2016, ASPs will fall by more than half, approaching $30 in 2016. According to ABI Research practice director Sam Lucero, “The operator-module vendor deals we are seeing today may cause that ASP to be reached much sooner for the overall WCDMA market.”

The operators, in contrast, want all data devices on the network to use the most spectrally efficient technology – 3G or even 4G rather than 2G. “It makes sense for the mobile operators to do whatever they can to facilitate adoption of 3G/4G technology by the M2M ecosystem,” notes Lucero. “The AT&T/Sprint deals are examples of just such symbiosis: large mobile operators using their size to benefit typically much smaller M2M application developers.”

AT&T is working with Ericsson, Huawei and ZTE (the latter two being leading China-based module vendors) while Sprint has selected Fusion Wireless, an innovative new CDMA-focused module vendor based in San Diego, California.

I still think companies deploying these systems will be very cost driven so it will be a hard sell for the operators to force companies to use newer technology where the module cost will always be higher. The incentives will have to be substantial for them to adopt 3G/4G technology.

FCC Decision Could Lead to Interference Among GPS Receivers

2011-04-12T15:46:00.002-04:00

Coalition Warns Recent FCC Decision Could Harm U.S. Economy and Exports. Threat of GPS Interference Could Have Unintended Consequences

As the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Communications and Technology begins its in-depth examination of spectrum issues, the Coalition to Save Our GPS submitted a detailed statement warning that a recent FCC decision that may disrupt the Global Positioning System(GPS) could have the unintended consequence of giving the Chinese, Russians, and Europeans competitive and economic advantage over the United States.

The “Coalition to Save Our GPS” is working to resolve a serious threat to the Global Positioning System. The threat stems from a recent decision by the FCC to grant a conditional waiver allowing the dramatic expansion of terrestrial use of the satellite spectrum immediately neighboring that of GPS, potentially causing interference to millions of GPS receivers. The FCC granted the conditional waiver for a proposal to build 40,000 ground stations to a company called LightSquared.

A portion of the Coalition’s statement follows:

“The Global Positioning System has stimulated a multi-billion dollar global industry that contributes both to the domestic economy and to U.S. exports. However, the Chinese, Russians, and Europeans are all developing their own GPS systems. If the rest of the world concludes that the U.S. system is compromised by interference, those other powers are ready to step forward to assume global leadership in this critical and highly sensitive area.

“LightSquared's proposal to build 40,000 terrestrial base stations operating at 1 billion times the power levels of GPS signals as received on Earth represents a tectonic change in the use of the L- Band. While the GPS community supports efforts to add new broadband competition and free up spectrum for mobile uses, this must be done in the context of rational, long term spectrum planning, rather than the rushed, ad hoc waiver process followed by the FCC to date. Spectrum is a public asset and it should not lightly be handed over at the behest of a private party. More fundamentally, the laws of physics cannot be waived by the FCC. The placement of LightSquared’s high-powered ground-based network in the middle of a satellite band full of weak and distant signals is a recipe for massive interference.”

Members of the Coalition include the Aeronautical Repair Station Association (ARSA), Air Transport Association (ATA), Aircraft Electronics Association (AEA), Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA), American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO), American Car Rental Association (ACRA),American Congress on Surveying and Mapping (ACSM), American Council of Engineering Companies/Council of Professional Surveyors (ACEC/COPS), American Rental Association (ARA),Associated Equipment Distributors (AED), Association of Equipment Manufacturers (AEM), Avidyne Corporation, Case New Holland, Caterpillar, Deere & Company, Edison Electric Institute (EEI), Equipped to Survive Foundation, Inc. (ETSFI), Esri, Farm Equipment Manufacturers Association (FEMA), Garmin, General Aviation Manufacturers Association (GAMA), Hemisphere GPS, International Air Transport Association (IATA), Intelligent Transportation Society of America (ITS America), Leica, Mid-Atlantic Aviation Coalition-New Jersey (MAAC-NJ), National Agricultural Aviation Association (NAAA), National Association of Manufacturers (NAM), National Business Aviation Association (NBAA), Networkfleet, OmniSTAR, Orienteering USA, Payment Assurance Technology Association (PATA), PeopleNet, PocketGPSWorld.com Ltd, Regional Airline Association (RAA), TomTom, Topcon Positioning Systems, Trimble and UPS.

Assessing Japanese Quake Impact on GaAs Industry

2011-04-07T13:57:00.004-04:00

Strategy Analytics issued a report today that the impact of the March 11 earthquake and ensuing tsunami, as well as the on-going issues with the nuclear reactors at Fukushima, are affecting the equipment and materials suppliers, consumer electronics companies, automotive, test and measurement companies in Japan. The Strategy Analytics' GaAs and Compound Semiconductor Technologies (GaAs) service report, “Japanese Quake Impact on the GaAs Industry,” contains a preliminary assessment of the impact of the tragedy on the global GaAs industry in Japan and throughout the world.

Strategy Analytics assessment of the situation indicates that there is no danger of immediate disruption to the supply of gallium and arsenide raw materials. The supply of SI (semi-insulating) bulk substrates will also be sustained. GaAs device manufacturing facilities were also largely unaffected. They state that the Japanese materials supplier were running at full capacity when the quake hit so if there was a surge in demand, shortages could result.

Japan is a leading player in the GaAs RF/microelectronics industry, accounting for 50 percent of bulk substrate supply, 18-20 percent of global SI GaAs epitaxial substrate production and up to one-fifth of the global GaAs device market. Japanese companies involved in the GaAs industry include Hitachi Cable, Renesas and Sumitomo Chemical.

TI to Acquire National Semiconductor

2011-04-05T08:44:00.005-04:00

TI announced late yesterday that it is acquiring National Semiconductor. The purchase was for $25 per share in an all-cash transaction of about $6.5 billion and creates a combined product portfolio of 42,000 products.

Here is a letter Templeton wrote to stakeholders:

I am excited to let you know that TI has signed a definitive agreement to purchase National Semiconductor, uniting two industry leaders that have a common commitment to solving your analog needs. I want to reinforce TI's commitment to you, our customer, as we merge our two companies.

This acquisition will allow us to address your analog needs with a product portfolio of unmatched breadth and depth. National's 12,000 products plus TI's 30,000 means more performance, power and packaging options when selecting the right ICs for your application. And we'll provide a common set of best-in-class online tools to make the selection and design process easier.

Our combined sales and applications team of 2,500 will be larger than any in the industry so we can provide more customers with greater face-to-face support than ever before.

Our manufacturing operations will offer more capacity to support your growth. TI's fabs and National's available capacity can enable higher production levels.

While both companies will operate independently pending the close, our goal thereafter is to make the integration process as seamless as possible. No requalification of products will be necessary since National's manufacturing sites will continue to be utilized. Part numbers from both companies will remain the same. There will be no obsolescence of products.

I'm excited about what the integration of our two companies will mean for you: an unmatched portfolio to meet your analog needs, an extensive sales and applications network to ease the design process, and manufacturing capacity to support your growth.

You can learn more about the acquisition at www.ti.com/acquire, including answers to frequently asked questions and video messages from TI leaders regarding the acquisition.

Thank you for choosing TI. I look forward to a great future together.

Best regards,

Rich Templeton Chairman, President and CEO Texas Instruments

Active Antenna Markets Projected to Exceed $2 B by 2016

2011-04-04T12:57:00.005-04:00

ABI Research released a new report last week that looked interesting to me. They stated that the global market for antennas for wireless infrastructure, including base station, fixed and active types, is set to reach almost $2.0 billion in 2016. So-called “active” antennas are the hot segment of this market. Widespread installations of active antennas, which combine the base station’s RF electronics in the antenna housing mounted at the top of the tower, have only begun quite recently.

According to research director Lance Wilson, “Active antennas offer a solution to the problem of rapidly growing wireless data traffic. Conventional designs are not as efficient; active antennas offer much greater efficiency and versatility when handling large quantities of signals, including wireless data.” Apart from the “active” segment, the antenna market can be described as stable and mature. “Market growth is gradual and steady,” says Wilson. ”That, along with the huge size of the market (from a component or subassembly standpoint), is precisely part of its appeal for vendors.”

The antenna vendor ecosystem is slightly unusual in that there are multiple tiers and many participants. The bulk of these vendors are small companies that command only fractional percentages of the total available market (why is that?). ABI Research believes that some market consolidation is likely. The scenario for active antennas is a bit different, with antenna manufacturers normally partnering with equipment builders.

Will 4G provide much stimulus to the antenna market? “Some upside is present with LTE/4G,” says Wilson, “but this will be moderated by the eventual decline in the GSM family of technologies. With the exception of still-developing regions, GSM infrastructure is largely built-out already. 4G won’t replace the millions of existing GSM base stations with similar quantities.”

I think antenna hardware and technology are overlooked in the most wireless markets as one of the more vital components of the system. Antenna articles are one of the most submitted types of articles we receive at Microwave Journal but few antenna manufacturers advertise or seem to be active at shows with the exception of the Satellite show.

In Aftermath of AT&T Buying T-Mobile: Apple Buys Sprint

2011-04-01T09:10:00.003-04:00

In the latest deal in a wave of consolidation sweeping the wireless industry, Apple has announced it plans to acquire Sprint, and its stake in Clearwire. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed, but there is a provision in the deal for Apple to also buy out Clearwire's other investors, which include Google, Intel, and several cable firms. For Apple and Sprint, this deal represents a quick resolution to several long-term challenges facing each company. Sprint, which had been reeling in the wake of the AT&T/T-Mobile deal, gains the iPhone, the cash it needs to buy out Clearwire from its existing investors, and a needed psychological lift after years of being pummeled by customers, the media, and analysts. Dan Stressee (pronounced Stress-ee), Sprint's CEO, expressed delight at the news, saying: "I was looking at plowing all of the profits I was just starting to make again into lawyers and lobbyists to fight the AT&T deal. I met with Steve last week and we agreed that we'd prefer to focus on just selling a #$&%$load of phones." Steve ['creating lotsa'] Jobbs, seemed similarly ebullient. "Sprint completes us", he said, recognizing that a wireless network is "the only part of the value chain I don't already control." A network is a critical component of Apple's cloud strategy. The company is building a super-secret, underground, $1 billion data center in North Carolina, codenamed: Operation: Beat Google and Amazon At Their Own Game. "I realized that Sprint and Clearwire own a boatload of spectrum", said Jobbs. "Plus, by getting Sprint to throw in Clearwire, I take Google and the cable companies out of the picture as investors. So, Ha." Apple is going to need all of the spectrum it can get if it wants to offer cloud-based access to all of the music, apps, and video content to the hundreds of millions of devices it sells every hour. Despite his well-known disdain for telcos, Jobbs spoke highly of Sprint and Clearwire. "Combine them and you get "fast", and "simple", which is what we're all about." Apple, predictably, was not prepared to comment on its cloud strategy, though its CFO, Tim 'I can' Cooke, said in a recent interview that "we hope by 2013, our customers will never have to physically connect their iDevice to a computer again." Sources tell me the plan is called Operation Sync the Cable. Ironically, Jobbs and Stressee met, secretly, at the same bar near Redwood City where, nearly a year ago, Gizmodo's Jason Chen found an early version of the iPhone 4, mistakenly left there by an Apple engineer. "I needed to get those demons out of my system", said Jobbs. "Plus, I know that no Apple employee would ever set foot in the place again." The two men hit it off immediately. "Dan is clearly the best pitch man among the operator CEOs", says Jobbs. "I really like his folksy manner." In an immediate goodwill gesture, Apple will provide Sprint with a cash infusion, so its next round of TV commercials can be produced in color. "Yeah, it is 2011 after all", said the typically understated Stressee. Addressing concerns that there might be layoffs at Sprint/Clearwire, Jobbs said the severance package would include an iPad, and tickets to Disney theme parks and the upcoming Cars 2 (Jobbs is on the Disney and Pixar boards). "Who needs more than that?", said Jobbs. Customers Are Winners Customers are clearly among the winners in this deal. They'll be able to buy an iPhone from all the major U.S. operators. There were rumors that Apple wanted to make all future iPhones in the U.S. exclusive to Sprint, but Jobbs realized that this wouldn't pass muster with the DOJ. Given that he slipped by the feds, relatively unscathed, in the stock backdating scheme, Jobbs decided he didn't want to ruffle any feathers. One key benefit for consumers is that the Apple-Sprint deal solves the "CDMA iPhone problem" of not being able to handle voice and data calls simultaneously. A consumer can now talk on a Verizon iPhone with one hand, while running a data session on a Sprint iPhone with the other hand. In order to facilitate simultaneous voice and data, Verizon and Sprint, in an uncharacteristic moment of cooperation, will be offering a "Buy One Get One Free" (BOGO) deal on the CDMA iPhone for the next three months. Said a Verizon spokesperson: "I gotta admit - those AT&T ads are pretty effective." Reaction Across the Industry Needless to say, there was plenty of reaction from companies across the industry. Verizon was, particularly, peeved, having waited for three-plus years for AT&T's iPhone exclusivity to run out, only to then witness the T-Mobile and Sprint deals signed in a fortnight. The company plans to oppose the deal. Said a Verizon spokesperson: "We were content with 'Ruling the Air'. Apple wants to 'Rule The World'." AT&T, which thought it now had bragging rights to being the "biggest and baddest wireless carrier" in the country, said it did not plan to oppose the deal. "I'm a gambling man", said AT&T Mobility CEO, Ralph de la Vegas. "I'm bettin' on every smartphone platform - iOS, Android, Windows, Symbian, WebOS, BREW, BADA, you name it." True to form, the company is unveiling a new advertising slogan, 'if you want it, we've got it'. Google's stock took a major hit from the announcement. "We were so used to the operators spending billions of dollars to advertise Android phones", said George 'I am Not Helmut' Schmitt. "We might actually have to spend our own money to market the things." Asked what Google might do to get a leg up on Apple, one analyst commented that Google could improve the customer service experience for Android. But Schmitt said Google is sticking to its strategy: "I promise you, it will never be possible for an Android customer to call us and actually talk to a human being." In a related development, taking advantage of the mania around cloud services, Oracle announced that it would rename its Sun subsidiary, which had been underperforming of late, to...you guessed it... RIM, which has seen its stock slide precipitously amidst all the competition in smartphones, seemed prepared for an Apple-Sprint scenario. It has renamed all existing Blackberries "Blackberry Classic", hoping to put a retro spin on the messaging-centric devices. It has also been seen handing out Playbook flyers to all those standing in line for an iPad2. Amazon is clearly gearing up for a tectonic battle with Apple and Google over mobile services, apps, and the cloud. Emphasizing that it remains the only one-stop-shop on the Internet for just about anything, an Amazon spokesperson snipped: "let them find an app for that." Among the wireless and digital media giants, Netflix seemed perhaps the most perturbed. Said the company's CEO, Reid 'the battle of' Hastings: "Man, we've taken on video stores, Blockbuster, Redbox, Tivo, Hulu, Cable on Demand services. We thought it would be sufficient to offer all possible content across all possible media, to all possible devices, at an impossibly low price. But even that's not enough." Even though this is clearly the right move for Apple, the company is sensitive to possible regulatory and customer concerns about becoming too powerful. In one sign of humility, Apple has decided to rename its MobileMe product, which it has been revamping as part of its forthcoming cloud-based offering, to MobileYou. "We thought MobileMe sounded a bit egocentric", said an Apple spokesperson. Still, as Apple focuses on closing the Sprint deal, many analysts believe the much-anticipated iPhone 5 launch might be delayed until fall. Even though Apple rarely comments publicly about future plans, the Apple spokesperson hinted that there might be some validity to the rumors: "Listen, we still don't know if there will be a new Mad Men or NFL season. Focus on that." (Is it April 1st? - this April Fool's day spoof was provided by Mark Lowenstein's Lens on Wireless )

Strategy Analytics: Compound Semiconductor Market Cools Down

2011-03-28T13:08:00.000-04:00

Strategy Analytics reported that after a strong rebound in the first part of 2010, revenue growth in the microelectronics segment of the compound semiconductor industry flattened in the final quarter. The recently published Strategy Analytics GaAs and Compound Semiconductors Service (GaAs) viewpoint, “Compound Semiconductor Industry Review January 2011: Microelectronics,” captures product, financial, contract and technology announcements for microelectronic companies such as RFMD, Skyworks Solutions, Hittite Microwave, ANADIGICS, Freescale Semiconductor, Microsemi and Cree for January 2010.

“Overall, the compound semiconductor industry rebounded strongly in 2010, thus slowing growth at some of the major suppliers in the fourth quarter should not be viewed with concern,” noted Eric Higham, Director of the Strategy Analytics GaAs and Compound Semiconductor Technologies Service. “The January announcements show significant product development activity that will serve to strengthen growth in 2011.”

Asif Anwar, Director in the Strategy Analytics Strategic Technologies Practice, added, “Results from some of the wafer suppliers were very strong and this also bodes well for growth throughout 2011.” Their viewpoint summarizes January 2011 financial, product, contract and employment developments from major GaAs and silicon suppliers addressing a variety of commercial and military applications using GaAs, GaN, SiC, and CMOS technologies.

CTIA Wireless Opens with a Bang

2011-03-23T08:03:00.010-04:00

Of course, the biggest news at CTIA is the proposed merger of AT&T and T-Mobile. The keynote auditorium at CTIA Wireless was packed as everyone wanted to here what AT&T and T-Mobile executives had to say about their proposed $39 billion deal which would create the country’s largest wireless operator. AT&T understandably did not say much and T-Mobile was not there. But CEO Dan Hesse of Sprint expressed concern as he said there would be 79% market share in the top 2 providers so he has concerns it would stifle innovation if that much power was in the hands of two providers. That is a valid point and of course he message is that it is not a good idea.

The first day of the exhibition was busy but not overly packed and all the big players seem to be here. Lots of 4G phones and tablets but there seems to be significant activity with 3D devices which I did not expect but should have as CES was full of 3D electronics. The RF/Microwave Zone was our first priority as that is where many of the companies we cover are present. We are glad to welcome Infineon and NXP this year in addition to many other companies who have exhibited before. With Freescale also in the Zone, there is of course a major representation of high performance Doherty LDMOS amplifier technology. All are offering various configurations (symmetric, asymmetric and single package solutions). NXP and Freescale are offering a lower cost plastic package with up to 200 W of power which seemed unique. Also near the RF/Microwave Zone are the Backhaul Pavilion, M2M Zone and Test & Measurement Pavilion so we are in a perfect position. The test and measurement companies are featuring MIMO OTA and PIM testing solutions which are both very hot topics and areas of high interest. We are running the MIMO OTA Expert Forum on Thurs which will be simulcast online so anyone can attend. It will include a question and answer session after the presentations so you can even submit questions online if you are not here in Orlando.

We will have a complete show wrap up next week.

Tektronix Contest - "Scopes, Camera, Action”

2011-03-21T12:48:00.003-04:00

To celebrate and highlight the beloved oscilloscope, Tektronix is introducing a “Scopes, Camera, Action” contest to showcase the many different uses for the instrument. Engineers, technicians, students and even electronic hobbyists will be invited to upload short 1-5 minute videos to MyTektronixScope.com about their most brilliant, novel, ingenious or fun use of a Tektronix oscilloscope.

Community members will have the opportunity to vote on their favorite “Scopes, Camera, Action” videos throughout the 8-week duration of the contest which started Feb 28. The person uploading the video that receives the most votes will receive a new Tektronix MSO2024 oscilloscope and each of two runners up will receive a TDS2024C oscilloscope. Each video entry qualifies the submitter for a chance to win an Apple iPad®.

Engineers by nature are a very creative group and Tektronix wants to give them the opportunity to showcase the cool uses they are applying to Tektronix equipment, whether that is in a work environment or in a garage shop or basement lab. Not only is this contest a nice way to win one of several great prizes but more importantly provides a mechanism to showcase great ideas and share best practices among the design engineering community.

To learn more about the “Scopes, Camera, Action” contest, or to upload, view or vote on videos, and review contest rules, visit www.mytektronixscope.com. Free registration to the site is required in order to participate.

Satellite 2011 is Taking Off

2011-03-16T07:32:00.007-04:00

According to a release this morning, the 30th annual SATELLITE Conference has record attendance this year. More than 10,000 satellite communications professionals from 70 countries are at the event which continues today and tomorrow at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center located in Washington D.C.

The SATELLITE 2011 Exhibition has grown to include 325 companies, more than 60 of which are exhibiting at SATELLITE for the first time. In addition to enjoying the variety of products and services available on the show floor, attendees have enjoyed the outdoor exhibit area featuring large antennas, truck- and car-mounted satellite systems and more. I was excited about the outdoor exhibit but was somewhat disappointed that is only had 2 displays - hopefully it will grow next year.

The SATELLITE 2011 Conference began yesterday with chief executives from the world’s four largest satellite operators discussing the future of the satellite marketplace. Today’s general session is Competing For Customers: The MSS CEOs Speak Out.

The conference’s remaining sessions include High Throughput Satellites: Broadband and Beyond; A New Generation of MSS Terminals: What’s Next for MSS Equipment: Hosted Payloads: Thinking Outside the Box; 3-D TV via Satellite: Building Foundations for Success: Earth Observation- A Luxury Item or a Commodity?; How Can Commercial Satellite Providers Best Meet Government Requirements for COTM?; Satellites and Broadcasting: A 30-Year Warning, among many others.

There are a large number of RF/microwave companies here ranging from T&M to antennas to components. There are a very large number of filter and high power amplifier companies represented along with the system companies like L-3, Cobham, Rockwell Collins, Boeing, GD, LMC, Hughes, Thales, EADS, etc. We will do a complete wrap up of the show in a few days and then it is on to CTIA next week. Hopefully I will have time for a few videos today and will try to include those also.

Internet for Everyone - FREE

2011-03-03T13:02:00.002-05:00

About a year ago Kosta Grammatis contacted Microwave Journal about satellite and communications experts he might contact to start an effort to supply Internet to everyone in the world for free. A huge challenge but a great idea and if anyone can pull it off, he can. He is now part of BuyThisSatellite.org which says it'll take $150,000 in contributions to take the first step toward a successful bid on the bankrupt Terrestar-1 satellite (they will probably need over 10 times that much to purchase the satellite plus costs to supply modems and maintain the whole system). After obtaining the satellite, they plan to move its orbit to point over a poor country in order to supply Internet access for free.

The group also plans to manufacture and distribute cheap satellite modems to get people hooked up on the ground. A lot of other things will have to be overcome but countries like Papua New Guinea—which has an open orbital "slot" which the Terrestar-1 could move into—only has Internet access for 2.1% of its population and would be the first to benefit from this effort. Terrestar-1 is a school bus-sized satellite (launched in 2009) that is for sale as its corporate owner is going bankrupt. But rather than let it go to waste, this non-profit is raising money to re-purpose it as a free Internet provider for the poor.

The organization believes that "Internet access is a tool that allows people to help themselves - a tool so vital that it should be considered a universal human right. Imagine your digital life disconnected. Without access to the 100 million man-hours that have been put into Wikipedia, how much do you actually know? Without your contacts online social networks how much can you accomplish? Without access to the news, weather, your bank account-- how in charge of your life are you?The Internet has transformed what it means to be human - we are now more connected to one another than ever before. Yet, over 5 billion people do not have access to this incredible invention, do not have a voice in the global dialog, or the opportunity to share ideas and learn from the Internet's ever-expanding knowledge pool.We believe that access to information and the Internet is a necessity for every global citizen and We plan to address the information inequality by making Internet access so ubiquitous you can take it for granted: Free, global, seamless connectivity."

They have a concrete plan spelled out on their web site:

PHASE 1
Our goal is to raise $150,000 USD to do the following: 1. Finalize a business plan for large scale funders. 2. Process the legal and business aspects of submitting a bid for the satellite. 3. Hire several full-time engineers to make our calculations and planning into a concrete reality. While this work is in process we will meet with investors, businesses, governments, and foundations who are interested in funding the purchase of Terrestar-1. Partnerships will be created with the country or countries over which the satellite will be positioned. When our plan is funded we will.

PHASE 2
1. Make an official bid for the Terrestar-1 satellite. 2. Begin development of an open source low cost modem. 3. Acquire an orbital slot (satellite parking spot) and spectrum (radio wave allocation). 4. Finalize plans with partner governments. 5. Continue all of the technical work required to reposition a satellite.When all of these details are finalized we will continue,

PHASE 3
1. Move the satellite to a new orbit over our partner country/countries. 2. Distribute low cost modems. 3. Roll out service.

They are asking for donations so if you agree that this is a worthy cause, please visit their website at http://www.buythissatellite.org/.

TriQuint and Skyworks Power iPhone 5

2011-02-26T08:00:00.018-05:00

The upcoming Apple iPhone 5, due this summer, will be powered by TriQuint and Skyworks PAs. While it is disappointing that it will not have 4G LTE capability, according to an article from The Street about TriQuint, the Apple iPhone 5 will be a full featured world phone equipped with "seven power amplifiers" to improve the wireless reception on the full array of WCDMA and EVDO frequencies in the U.S. and Europe, says Rodman Renshaw analyst Ashok Kumar. This is good news for power amp supplier Triquint, which was left out of the Verizon iPhone 4 this year.

The Street goes on to say that Triquint is back in the iPhone 5 and sharing power amp supply duties with rival Skyworks. "We expect Triquint to gain share and outgrow most of its peers in mobile phones, while improving margins," according to Charter Equity Research analyst Ed Snyder. Snyder says chipmaker Triquint is in a sweet spot as phone makers push for better wireless performance.

Apple's move to improve its wireless reception performance comes after three rough years of complaints about poor service at AT&T. And as industry experts have pointed out, not all of Apple's iPhone connection quality issues were due to AT&T. Apple's effort to design the iPhone to use less power apparently caused some unintended effects with signal jamming. The iPhone was recently released on Verizon and while there does not seem to be major reception complaints, Consumer Reports has said that their tests show the Verizon iPhone 4 version still has some antenna issues when the antenna element gaps is bridged by holding it.

RFMD, Skyworks and TriQuint continue to dominate the cellular front-end market ast the big three but Avago and Anadigics are fighting for larger market share. We are seeing a lot of innovative changes coming in the front-end modules as different configurations are being developed including new switch technologies such as SOI/SOS switches, miniature BAW filters, tunable devices such as MEMS and others, and wide band power amps that can support multiple bands. It will be interesting to see how these technologies play out over the next year or so.

MWC - the week after

2011-02-25T10:43:00.006-05:00

Everyone who "does" trade shows knows how a week away from the office and three days of back to back meetings can put you in the weeds. So while Richard Mumford and I have posted our show wrap-up and impressions earlier this week, I've been playing catch up on a number of fronts, including at least one more intended blog about events from Mobile World Congress. So here's some more on what we did not cover so far. For the complete Journal coverage of MWC try the links below.

MWC news and twitter feed
http://www.mwjournal.com/Article/MWC2011/AR_10287/

see Richard's wrap-up
http://www.mwjournal.com/News/article.asp?HH_ID=AR_10365

David's MarketWatch
http://www.mwjournal.com/News/article.asp?HH_ID=AR_10370

My networking started Sunday, the day before my first day at MWC, in an Irish bar on La Rambla where we met VP of Sales John Loia and Kevin Dobis, American/EMEA Director of Sanjole. Chances are that during MWC week, if the person next to you in a restaurant or bar isnt a native, they are there for the congress. John and Kevin were great guys to hang with (and sing anthems with under pressure for the Irish), but they also represent an interesting company, Sanjole. Turns out that John is an old hand in the industry with over 20 years experience selling telecom test equipment to chip manufacturers, network equipment manufacturers and service providers and tenure at well-known industry leaders such as Spirent Communications, TTC and Hekimian.

Sanjole makes the WaveJudge WiMAX and 3GPP LTE test system. This test system determines what messages were sent, what events occurred, and the timing of those messages and events. Diagnosing the root causes of problems between layers often takes hours, days or even weeks, resulting in delays in certification, late deployment, reduced credibility, added costs and lost revenue for network providers.

The WaveJudge 4900 architecture supports four independent ports. Each can be configured as either a receive (RX) or transmit (TX) port, supports AGC to allow accurate reception of DL/UL signals with a wide range of power levels, and has its own radio and internal resources. In addition, the ports can be driven either from the same or from separate low-noise highly accurate oven-controlled crystal oscillators (OCXOs), providing maximum flexibility in test configurations requiring multiple ports, such as:

Tower handover

Multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) solutions including transmit diversity, spatial multiplexing, and UL Collaborative with rank measurements

Co-channel interference across multiple sectors

Check out the company and their products at: http://www.sanjole.com/index.htm

here's a summary of meetings that did not make the show wrap-up

Monday Afternoon

- meeting with Steve Caliguri of Acorn Technologies. Steve is now out in sunny La Jolla California but he's an ex-east coaster with plenty of knowledge about the microwave industry nestled on and around Route 128 in Massachusetts. As VP of Biz dev, Steve wanted to introduce me to the company's HellaPHY technology a set of advanced signal processing algorithms designed to improve the reception of OFDM, the digital modulation scheme of WiMAX, LTE and Wi-Fi by significantly improving the channel estimation.

HellaPHY allows for equal-or-higher modulation-coding sets at any given point in a cellular network. For example, at some location a modem using a conventional OFDM PHY may only allow for QPSK due to high mobility and interference from other users. At this same point in the cell, a modem using an OFDM HellaPHY™ can allow for higher-rate 16-QAM or 64-QAM. Such gains in capacity can greatly impact an operator’s bottom line, and such improvements in data rate allow for attractive product differentiation.

see more at: http://acorntech.com/

- met with Skyworks and Thomas Richter, Sr. marketing director for Front-end solutions. I run into Thomas yearly at MWC, he is a knowledgable and colorful guy with no shortage of opinions about technology and market trends... and the shortcomings of his competitors, which we will keep off the record. Its always a pleasure to spend some time with Thomas and so I was happy to save this meeting for the end of the day, when I wouldnt have to rush off to another meeting.

The company's big show announcement was the introduction of a new family of antenna switch modules (ASM) for dual- and triple-mode smart phones, tablets and datacards. These devices are based on both gallium arsenide (GaAs) and silicon-on-insulator (SOI) technologies, targeting a wide range of applications from low-cost 3G handsets to HSPA+/LTE-enabled datacentric devices such as high-end smart phones, data dongles and tablets, all of which require design flexibility, high performance and cost-effective architectures.

The short of our market conversation was that the RF front-end for mobile device market is extremely strong with enormous growth potential and fabs cranking at full speed to keep up with demand.

to be continued....

Mobile World Congress - Bueno Dias

2011-02-17T06:24:00.005-05:00

From our hotel just off La Rambla in the heart of Barcelona, Publisher Carl Sheffres, European editor Richard Mumford and I take the metro to Place Espanya among a sea of black suits, which must be the official business attire color for those attending Mobile World Congress. At the top of the salida (exit), we stop for a quick photo opportunity. Anticipating a mob at the registration desk (attendance estimates are north of 50,000 attendees) each of us had already obtained our passes the day before and so with passes in hand the three of us glide past the front gate security.

Mobile World Congress is one of those mega-events on par with Electronica in terms of scope and size, CES in terms of style and cool factor. The congress is devoted to all things mobile, which has transformed from the early days of cell phones to today’s smart phones and is evolving toward a future that connects the entire planet to the internet via mobile devices. Connected tablet devices, cloud computing, HD and 3D mobiles and some seriously powerful processors being stuffed into mobile devices dominated much of the tech news coming out of the show. Partnerships (Nokia adopting Microsoft’s window platform 7 – WP7), more accessible social networking mobility, gaming, mobile banking and lifestyle were among the themes delivered by various keynote speakers throughout the week.

Among all the new devices, services, and applications that were unveiled and opportunities for connecting mankind in previously unfathomable ways that were envisioned over the course of the week, one underlying concern will be the challenges behind fixing the “capacity crunch” as demand continues to grow. Many conversations in the various exhibition halls were focused on this less glamorous but real problem of optimizing the use of available spectrum to support the connectivity dream.

For many of us in the microwave trenches, this eco system of user devices, cell equipment and backhaul represents our end customers. The majority of exhibiting companies that Microwave Journal readers would recognize include RF test and measurement manufacturers, front-end semiconductor and module vendors, filter and backhaul equipment providers. The high cost of exhibiting at this event may have kept other microwave categories from appearing in an official capacity, but I would not be surprised if more component, cable and connector folks were working the exhibition floor as attendees.

Day one
First meeting - Agilent. The Test & measurement powerhouse are well-prepared for their day of press and customer meetings with a presentation touching upon the past, present and future of mobile communications and their part in this unfolding story. In their booth the company was demonstrating test and measurement solutions for 3GPP LTE-Advanced, LTE, W-CDMA, HSPA+, E-EDGE (EDGE Evolution), UMA/GAN, WiMAX™ and femtocells.

With an eye on what’s to come, team Agilent is prepared to talk about the challenges of LTE-advanced. With a lock-down of features in the 3GPP release 10 standard scheduled for sometime in March, Agilent is looking to get ahead of the curve with providing test solutions. LTE-A at a glance will introduce carrier aggregation, clustered SC-FDMA (for enhanced uplink multi-access) and higher order MIMO. Several products have been enhanced for the challenges of the new standard including LTE-Advanced signal generation and analysis tools, Signal Studio and 89600B vector signal analysis (VSA) software which were shown performing both user equipment and eNB RF measurements.

Other solutions being shown: Agilent’s PXB baseband generator and channel emulator supporting MIMO test performance in real-world conditions, closely characterizing end-user environments. Agilent PXT wireless communications test set supporting development phase testing ( RF characterization, protocol test and functional test of LTE user equipment). This solution is highly scalable from a single PXT on the developer’s bench to a full conformance test system with the latest release supporting user equipment performance tests during handover between LTE and legacy technologies. Test automation tools are also available.

more day one (and the rest of the show) to come....

Microsoft and Nokia to Join Forces in Smartphone Market

2011-02-11T12:40:00.002-05:00

ABI Research has commented on the fact that Nokia has announced this sweeping and profound change in its strategy. Accepting that the Symbian operating system cannot meet the needs of today’s smartphone consumer, Nokia has opted to throw in its lot with Microsoft and use the Windows Phone 7 operating system in future Nokia smartphones. In addition, the Nokia devices unit has been split into two business units that will address smartphones and low cost phones separately. I have heard rumblings about this partnership but thought it would take more time to pull it off with these two giants.

The sweeping changes made at Nokia will begin immediately and likely take two years to be completely digested as the two technology giants try to merge their mobile service ecosystems and product development roadmaps. ABI Research VP Kevin Burden states, “With Nokia taking over the Windows Phone 7 universe, the other OEMs who have initially supported Window Phone 7 may rethink their commitment, and eventually end support of Windows Phone 7 the way they did with Symbian, due to Nokia’s dominance and influence over the platform.”

The speed at which such a major decision was made speaks to the desperate situation Nokia CEO Stephen Elop perceived in Nokia’s device strategy. Senior Analyst Michael Morgan states “Elop’s decision to go with his old employer makes sense up front; however the decision to tie an incomplete operating system with an ailing handset design company is a very risky proposition.” Microsoft and Nokia need a strong partner to push their mobile efforts forward. While this alliance may not be optimal for either party, when fighting for survival it is always nice to have a partner.

Antenna Products Deployed to Handle SuperBowl Data Traffic

2011-02-04T08:41:00.001-05:00

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

2011-02-02T12:23:00.004-05:00

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

2011-01-26T20:11:00.005-05:00

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

2011-01-26T11:28:00.001-05:00

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?

2011-01-18T20:17:00.003-05:00

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

2011-01-18T11:00:00.001-05:00

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.”

ABI Research Expects Adaptive Cruise Control for Most Cars

2011-01-06T15:18:00.003-05:00

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

2011-01-03T12:27:00.014-05:00

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:

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.
Smart Grid applications will take off this year with ISM and Zigbee wireless applications being widely implemented around the world.
LTE will dominate the 4G networks as it is implemented around the world and zooms past WiMAX in deployments.
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.
Metamaterials will start to be used in real world devices for filters and other passive devices (maybe even radar cloaking for the military).
Adaptive/Cognitive radar and commnication systems will go into real development programs.
Millimeterwave frequency solutions will dominate the new backhaul and satellite communications deployments.
SOI and SOS based switches will start taking market share from the traditional dominant GaAs markets.
The confusion of the definition of 4G technologies will continue while someone will define and start using the term 5G.
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:

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.
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.
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.
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.
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?
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%
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.)
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.
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.
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.
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!
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.
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
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

2010-12-22T16:57:00.019-05:00

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

2010-12-21T13:40:00.003-05:00

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

2010-12-09T14:41:00.005-05:00

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

2010-12-09T10:15:00.002-05:00

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

2010-11-29T12:10:00.004-05:00

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

2010-11-24T18:03:00.004-05:00

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

2010-11-24T12:48:00.002-05:00

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

2010-11-16T16:20:00.005-05:00

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....

2010-11-16T12:55:00.002-05:00

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

2010-11-10T08:45:00.002-05:00

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

2010-11-03T09:49:00.005-04:00

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!

FAQs - 4G and Future Directions in Cellular Wireless Standards

2010-11-02T11:44:00.000-04:00

Courtesy of TriQuint Semiconductor

Q: What is 4G and where does it fit in the development of cellular communication standards?

A: 4G refers to the Fourth Generation of cellular wireless standards.

The First Generation (1G) of cellular wireless supported analog mobile phones. This transitioned to Second Generation (2G) digital service, which offered a significant upgrade in capabilities. The Third Generation (3G) supports multi-media, spread-spectrum transmission with larger volumes of data transfer and improved speeds. It enables numerous applications including e-mail and web browsing.

Fourth Generation (4G) takes the capabilities of wireless a step further. 4G increases bandwidth and modulation complexity and adds spatially multiplexed data streams (MIMO). This in turn increases the data rates and enables exciting new services and applications. For example, the key 2G application was voice. 3G brought data services to the market, enabling e-mail and web browsing. 4G applications are still being defined but may include things like streaming video.

Q: Where are we with 3G and the shift to new standards for 4G networks?

A: Major US wireless networks are using 3G specifications, providing users with a noticeable improvement in data speed. 3G allows simultaneous use of voice and data transfers. The speed of a smartphone browser, and the ability to send and receive pictures and larger files, are significant 3G enhancements.

While 4G offers even more capability, there are different approaches to 4G standards. Whenever there are new generations of wireless standards, differing innovations are developed and tend to find their own audiences over time.

The major 4G standards are Long Term Evolution (LTE) and WiMAX (also known as 802.16m). LTE commitments are the logical extension for organizations whose current systems are UMTS / 3GPP based. LTE is favored by organizations that hold paired frequency spectrum allocations. WiMAX commitments tend to come from organizations that hold unpaired frequency spectrum allocations, although there is significant interest in the time division duplex version of LTE (TD-LTE) here as well.

Regardless of which standard eventually prevails, TriQuint will support new generations of systems to assist all developers as they work towards continuous improvement.

We do this while looking ahead of the current trends in the evolution of wireless.

Q: What exactly are the improvements that make each new Generation?

A: Generation changes in wireless communications generally have to do with both the data rate and architecture of the system infrastructure. It is safe to say that each new generation enables higher data rates, lower latency and new applications relative to the previous one.

One major change is that 4G systems use a packet infrastructure rather than traditional telephone architecture. Since 4G is relatively new, it will still take time for the full extension of the improvements to present themselves.

Q: With the acceptance of 3G and 4G, is the 2G system obsolete?

A: While 2G systems have been surpassed by new generations of wireless, the system remains viable and has a large user base in areas where 3G and 4G systems have not been deployed. It will continue to be important for several years into the future. At some point, it is likely that the 2G spectrum will be refarmed to support newer generations of wireless services.

Q: What are WiMAX, WiFi and LTE technologies? How do they fit into the 4G network?

A: LTE is a cellular communications protocol for 4G networks. LTE is favored by organizations that hold paired frequency spectrum allocations and especially those whose current systems are UMTS / 3GPP based. There is also growing interest in the time domain version of LTE – TD-LTE – for use in unpaired spectrum.

WiMAX is also a communications protocol for 4G networks It is also known as 802.16m and tends to be favored by organizations that hold unpaired frequency allocations.

WiFi is a short-range communications protocol popular for consumer devices and also a familiar term with broad audience recognition. WiFi is best viewed as a supporting protocol that works in conjunction with LTE or WiMAX devices rather than as a competitive technology.

Comparisons and confusion between LTE, WiMAX and WiFi are frequent because all are related to the ability to wirelessly connect and provide Internet access. WiFi generally operates in a home or office building to connect computers, smartphones and other wireless devices.

Q: What are the major design considerations for 4G systems?

A: The most significant changes are new frequency bands that have been opened to support the 4G services. The most well known examples are in the “Digital Dividend” bands where former analog TV channels have been refarmed for 4G services. Other changes are wider bandwidths, more complex modulation and the usage of spatial diversity (MIMO) to improve data rates.

Q: What can we expect in future 5G or 6G systems?

A: The main goals for new generations of wireless service will surely include the ability to handle massive amounts of information without any delay.

Communications will be clearer as they become increasingly error free and reliable no matter where you are. New generations of wireless will have the ability to sort through, identify, send and receive wireless transmissions on ever more crowded airways.

Safety and security, always a concern, will be built deeper into the systems to protect information, provide privacy and integrate all aspects of wireless. Astonishing new applications are always on the horizon. These will need new generations of wireless capabilities that TriQuint research is dedicated to help design and build.

MILCOM 2010 - First Impressions

2010-11-02T08:06:00.005-04:00

Although IP communications have been around for many years, interoperable and secure IP systems are now being realized in many military applications. The Warfigther is now being connected with vehicles, UAVs, ships, helicopters and other aircraft so that everyone can share information immediately and there is no single point of failure in the network as they can all act as nodes. This year's theme, "The Next Decade of Military Communications," addresses the issues with connecting various Defense, intelligence and homeland security networks as well as the evolution of communications systems and networks as we move into network-centric operations as the president and CEO, Wanda Austin, of the Aerospace Corporation put it in her welcome letter to attendees.

Although the major players are all here such as Boeing, GD, Raytheon, Harris, NGC, etc. Lockheed Martin seems the most active as they and the Aerospace Corporation were the co-sponsors for the show. They are showing off AMR-JTRS and MONAX 3G broadband network. AMR-JTRS provides a secure mobile network allowing rapid connectivity. JTRS provides communications between Warfighters and AMF provides new IP-enabled waveforms that deliver high data throughput and secure internet capability (to 10 Mbps). As JTRS units are deployed to aircraft, vehicles and Warfighters, they can now form ad hoc networks and seamlessly communicate voice and data. 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.

Most of the component and test/measurement companies are also here so I will make the rounds today and interview as many of them as I can. I will have a show summary up by the end of the week.