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March - In This Issue [Cover Story] Power-Saving Design Brings DDS Flexibility To Portables Direct digital synthesis (DDS) has served a wide range of applications due to its fast frequency switching speed and modulation capabilities. But it has often been relegated to a secondary choice in favor of analog phase-locked- loop (PLL) synthesis for cases where low power consumption and low cost are key factors. However, the model AD9913 from Analog Devices (www.analog.com) provides the fast-switching and modulation ... — Ken Gentile , et al. [News] Synthesizers Squeeze Into Smaller Spaces Demanding requirements for newer communications systems are pushing frequency synthesizer developers to pack more performance into more compact designs. Jack Browne Technical Director Frequency synthesizers are instrumental to modern communications systems, which rely on stable RF signals for frequency downconversion and upconversion in receivers and transmitters, respectively. In response to customer demands for smaller and lower-power... — Jack Browne [Design Features] Design An Integrated Oscillator/Antenna This design tightly integrated an active oscillator with a microstrip patch antenna for miniaturization in WLAN, Bluetooth, and other 2.45-GHz systems. R. A. Abd-Alhameed, D. Zhou, C. H. See, P. S. Excell, A. Ghorbani, and N. J. Mcewan Mobile and Satellite Communications Research Centre, Bradford University, Bradford, BD7 1DP, United Kingdom; e-mail: r.a.a.abd@bradford.ac.uk. Miniaturization... — R.A. Abd-Alhameed , et al. [Design Features] 12-Port VNA Characterizes Crosstalk On High-Speed Lines This 12-port vector network analyzer and novel multiport calibration algorithm combine for signal-integrity analysis on transmission lines and devices at multi-Gigabit speeds. Harry Momjian Marketing Manager Anritsu Co., 490 Jarvis Dr., Morgan Hill, CA 95037-2809; (408) 778-2000, FAX: (408) 776-1744, E-mail: harry.momjian@anritsu.com, Internet: ... — Harry Momjian [Design Features] Analyze EM Parameters Of Slotted Tube Couplers This numerical method accounts for thickness effects in determining the coupling coefficient as well as the even-and odd-mode impedances for slotted tube couplers. Abdelhafid Lallam Assistant Professor of Physics University of Mascara, BP 305 Route de Mamounia 29000 Mascara, Algeria; (045) 80-41-68/69, FAX: (045) 80-41-64, e-mail: ab_lallam@yahoo.fr Nadia Benabdallah Physics Engineer ... — Yamina Bekri , et al. [Product Technology] Microwave Materials Help Build An Industry Materials suppliers are constantly refining their recipes in search of products that offer greater value and increased reliability for a variety of commercial, industrial, and military applications Jack Browne Technical Director Microwave materials represent building blocks for high-frequency circuits and systems. Whether they are used to hold circuit traces, absorb or suppress radiofrequency interference (RFI), or form resonant... — Jack Browne [Product Technology] VNA Extends Four-Port Measurements To 50 GHz VNA Extends Four-Port Measurements to 50 GHz Yassen Mikhailov Product Manager, Network Analyzers Rohde & Schwarz, 8661A Robert Fulton Dr., Columbia, MD 21046-2265; (410) 910-7800, FAX: (410) 910-7801, e-mail: info@rsa.rohde-schwarz.com, Internet: www.rohde-schwarz.com. This instrument brings high performance and four independent test... — Yassen Mikhailov [Editorial] Making Better Microwave Materials Microwave materials form the foundations for almost all high-frequency circuits and systems. Although they are often treated as commodity items, such as the FR-4 printed-circuit boards (PCBs) that are a “necessary evil” required for holding delicate metallized circuit traces and components, advances in microwave materials are as essential to the future of this industry as research and development in test equipment or semiconductor devices. In fact, without improved... — Jack Browne [Feedback] Feedback No Attribution Needed It has been brought to our attention that a reader of Microwaves & RF called into question the original artwork source for Figure 5 in our article, “Evaluate Test System Impedance Matching And Switch Quality,” originally published in September 2007. He stated we had “obviously” used a tool from his web site to create the figure. While we acknowledge that some similarities exist between the figures, we did not use his tool in... — Jaideep Jhangiani , et al. [The Front End] Affordable CPE Equipment Will Drive WiMAX Into Emerging Markets In the last two years, the fixed/portable broadband-wireless-access (BWA) equipment market (sub-11-GHz) more than doubled. According to Maravedis, it grew to $1.2 billion in 2007—up from $562 million in 2005. Despite the doubling of the market, the success of WiMAX depends on reaching a critical mass in underserved and developed markets. The higher-volume production of chips, antennas, and other components must occur. Such production will drive down the... — Nancy Friedrich [The Front End] Nujira And TTP Demonstrate High-Efficiency RF Power Amplifier Cambridge, UK and Mobile World Congress, Barcelona, Spain— Nujira has announced the successful demonstration of ultrahighefficiency RF power amplifier (PA) operation with DVB OFDM signals, supported by TTP and the Carbon Trust. “This demonstration shows that the power efficiency savings that Nujira has demonstrated with WCDMA and WiMAX can be achieved with even greater effect for OFDM-based mobile and digital TV standards at UHF, such as DVB-T, DVB-H, ISDB-T and ... — Dawn Hightower [The Front End] CSR Demonstrates Single-Chip Bluetooth+GPS Silicon Cambridge, UK—CSR has successfully integrated GPS with cellular measurements to create eGPS (enhanced Global Positioning System) technology capable of providing accurate position information on demand in all environments. CSR’s location technologies are now confirmed to provide the significant power and performance improvements necessary for embedding into a mobile handset.CSR’s first single-chip GPS with embedded Bluetooth and FM radio technologies is back from... — Dawn Hightower [The Front End] Kudos Rochester, N.Y.—Harris Corporation is providing its JTRS-approved Falcon III AN/PRC-152 handheld radios to the U.S. Army to extend the communications capabilities of soldiers serving in mountainous and urban environments. The Army is installing Falcon III AN/PRC-152 radios in Shadow 200 unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) as part of a relay system to significantly extend the distance communication signals can travel. The radios provide critical aerial communication links... — Dawn Hightower [Financial News] Fox Electronics Acquires Jet City Electronics Fox Electronics (Ft. Myers, Fl), a supplier of frequency-control solutions, recently announced its acquisition of Jet City Electronics, Inc. Jet City is a Seattle, Washington-based fabless-semiconductor design firm. This merger makes Fox one of only a handful of crystal-oscillator manufacturers in the high-performance, analog-intensive, mixed-signal timing arena. The acquisition of a semiconductor company by a frequency-control company reveals an emerging trend toward... — Dawn Hightower [Company News] Company News Contracts CSR and Nam Tai Electronic & Electrical Products (NTEEP)— Announced that CSR’s RadioPro reference design has been selected by NTEEP for its Internet radio module. With full hardware and software components included, NTEEP’s module features an embedded microstrip antenna and an integrated power amplifier and low-noise amplifier and allows designers to add an external antenna. The RadioPro features a chip-scale... — Nancy Friedrich [People] People Science Applications International Corp. (SAIC)—John Hynes, Jr. to business unit general manager for the mission integration business unit; formerly the deputy general manager. John Fratamico, PhD to business unit general manager for the technology and advanced systems business unit; formerly deputy general manager. He succeeds Jurgen Gobien. TETRA—Robert Jastram appointed member of TETRA executive board. He is Tyco Electronics’ director... — Dawn Hightower [Educational Meetings] Educational Meetings Short Courses Besser Associates Short Courses March 24-26 (Sunnyvale, CA) RF Measurements: Principles& Demonstration March 24-28 (Sunnyvale, CA) Advanced RF Power Amplifier Techniques May 12-15 (Burlington, MA) RF Transceiver Architecture, Design, and Evaluation May 12-16 (Burlington, MA) RF and High Speed PC Board Design... — Dawn Hightower [R&D Roundup] Metamaterials Show Potential For Planar Components Metamaterials intrigue researchers for their potential to fabricate tunable and wideband passive components. Because of line parasitics, the reactive elements responsible for the left-handed (LH) band exhibit a forward or right-handed (RH) transmission band at higher frequencies. Usually, they are separated from the LH band by a stop band. Due to the composite behavior of LC loaded lines, these structures were called composite right/left-handed (CRLH) transmission lines.... — Nancy Friedrich [R&D Roundup] 19.7-MHz Chebyshev LPF Targets IEEE 802.11n The IEEE 802.11n wireless-local-area-networking (WLAN) standard employs a high-throughput extension option. As a result, a WLAN system’s bandwidth can be 40 MHz in support of higher data rates. When the direct-conversion architecture is employed for these systems, a lowpass filter (LPF) with a bandwidth of 10 and/or 20 MHz is required. The design of a wideband LPF involves the selection of both the filter inductor-capacitorresistor (LCR) prototype (i.e.,... — Nancy Friedrich [R&D Roundup] Rectifier Circuit Powers Sensor Network Tags At 950 MHz In 1996, R.S. Dixon of Ohio state University proposed a new concept for a radio telescope array dubbed “Argus.” This approach used a large array of broadband antennas with broad beamwidth that provides all-sky field of view (FOV), can generate multiple simultaneous beams, and performs “retroactive observing.” The design of Argus, its theoretical performance, the system’s ability to detect and localize the sun, and various capabilities were recently... — Nancy Friedrich [Application Notes] Programmable Modulus Invites DDS Into New Applications A modification to the typical accumulator based, direct-digital-synthesis (DDS) architectures has emerged in the form of a programmable-modulus DDS. This modulus’ goal is to alter the accumulator modulus. Yet that task is complicated because the angle-to-amplitude converter maps the entire P-bit input range (0 to 2RP) to 0 to 2p radians. This hurdle and an explanation of the main differences between conventional and programmable-modulus DDS can be found in... — Nancy Friedrich [Application Notes] Realize Thermal Considerations Of SMT Devices The RF performance of a surface-mount-technology (SMT) device depends on how well the thermal coefficients of expansion (TCEs) between device and board are matched as well as the design principles and consistency of materials in the device’s construction. Other factors impacting performance include the thermal-management techniques that are used to direct the device’s dissipated energy and the circuit-level methods that minimize reflective losses. In the... — Nancy Friedrich [Editor's Choice] Ku- And Ka-Band PAs Offer Gain Above 27 dB Ku- And Ka-Band PAs Offer Gain Above 27 dB To satisfy both Ku-band very-small-aperture-terminal (VSAT) networks and emerging Ka-band broadband-satellite-communications applications, two new power amplifiers vow to deliver superior power and linearity performance. The Ku-band module boasts a minimum of 40 dB gain and 0.5 dB maximum gain flatness. Typical output power at 1-dB compression (P1dB) is +37 dBm while the typical output third-order intercept is +47 dBm. At... — Nancy Friedrich [Editor's Choice] Noise Source Promises +/-0.25 dB Flatness Over 10 kHz To 3 GHz Noise Source Promises +/-0.25 dB Flatness Over 10 kHz to 3 GHz To reduce measurement uncertainty in broadband applications, a coaxial noise source features typical flatness of +/-0.25 dB over the entire frequency range of 10 kHz to 3 GHz. The NW3G-CS comes with calibrated, cardinal excess-noise-ratio (ENR) frequencies. The noise source is available in 15 and 30 dB ENRs. Standard operation is from +28 VDC with a 20-mA maximum current draw. The... — Nancy Friedrich [Editor's Choice] 90-nm CMOS Module Advances Mobile WiMAX By leveraging 90-nm CMOS technology, a 15-x-15-mm RF module is able to integrate an RF integrated circuit (RF IC), antenna switches, power amplifier, filters, and oscillator circuit. In doing so, it promises to reduce the form factor of mobile WiMAX devices. The 94-pin MB86K71 operates from three voltages: 1.2, 2.925, and 3.3 V. It covers the 2.496-to-2.69-GHz band. Bandwidth is 5 and 10 MHz. For wireless access, the module relies on 512/1024 Fast Fourier Transform... — Nancy Friedrich [Editor's Choice] Broadband Instrumentation Amplifier Delivers 40 To 535 W At the heart of most applications is a high-performing amplifier. The MT4100 broadband continuous-wave (CW) amplifier, for example, targets radar, EMC, EW testing, and other wideband applications. Its typical output power ranges from 40 to 535 W. The amplifier is available in models covering 2 to 8 GHz, 6 to 18 GHz, 18 to 27 GHz, and 26.5 to 40 GHz. By leveraging a modular design, this compact TWTA promises to provide extensive diagnostic capability, advanced... — Nancy Friedrich |
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