ISSUE DATE: MAY 2008  OPTIONS
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May 2008 - In This Issue

[Cover Story]
LTCC Arms Mixer For 7.3-To-20.0-GHz Systems
Frequency conversion is one of the more critical functions within the RF/microwave portion of a highfrequency system. In spite of continuing advances in the speed and bit resolution of analog-to-digital converters (ADCs), they rely on a frequency mixer to translate high-frequency signals within their bandwidth range. The model SIM-24MH+ frequency mixer from Mini-Circuits (Brooklyn,...  — Mini-Circuits' Engineering Dept.

[News]
IMS Displays Microwave Advances In Atlanta
MICROWAVE WEEK has become a true meeting place for members of the highfrequency industry. Part continuing education, part product showcase, and part social networking, this week-long series of events is scheduled for the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta, GA from June 15-20, 2008. Organized by members of the IEEE’s Microwave Theory & Techniques Society (MTT-S), it includes the 2008 International Microwave Symposium (IMS), the 2008 radio-frequency-integrated-circuit...  — Jack Browne , et al.

[News]
Novel Approaches Vow To Upset The Status Quo
Despite the constant innovation in the microwave industry, many products are rooted in the same technologies. Gallium arsenide (GaAs), for example, is at the heart of many of today’s advanced amplifiers and other active components. Amidst this seeming status quo, however, lurk new innovations that could change the way that many products are made. These “disruptive technologies” can take the form of brand-new, completely novel approaches that have never...  — Nancy Friedrich

[News]
Chip-Scale Packaging Approach Cuts Losses
Chip-scale packaging (CSP) offers great promise for shrinking the size and cost of certain semiconductor devices. With customer pressures to reduce the size, weight, and cost of commercial semiconductors for wireless handsets, infrastructure equipment, and other commercial electronic applications, semiconductor manufacturers have sought ways to reduce the impact of packaging on their chips. Avago Technologies (...  — Jack Browne

[Design Features]
Eliminate Fixture Effects On Device Measurements
Increased accuracy has been an objective of the earliest vector network analyzer (VNA) measurements. By means of calibration and vectorerror- correction techniques, the accuracy of a VNA can be extended from the instrument ports to the ends of the test cables. When the device under test (DUT) connects directly to the test port cables, the calibration plane and the measurement plane are one and the same. In this case, calibration and error ...  — David Ballo , et al.

[Design Features]
Large-Signal Approach Yields Low-Noise VHF/UHF Oscillators
Last month, the first half of this article introduced the large-signal approach to oscillator design. This concluding section will offer some VHF/ UHF design examples, including the 144-MHz oscillator first presented last month in Part 1. The component values for the 144-MHz oscillator (C1, C2, C3, C4, and L) can be calculated in the following way. First, the values of capacitors C1 and...  — Ulrich L. Rohde , et al.

[Design Features]
Multilayer Microstrip Forms Tunable Bandstop Filters
Tunable bandstop filters are useful for a wide range of applications in eliminating unwanted signals and interference. Designing such filters can be greatly simplified with a new structure fabricated on multilayer microstrip substrates with a metallic diaphragm. This new structure overcomes the limitations of traditional tunable bandstop filter designs and supports simple, low-cost manufacturing processes.1 The new tunable filter...  — Yamina Bekri , et al.

[Design Features]
Reviewing GNSS Basics For Software Engineers
Position tracking, using the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS), including Global Positioning System (GPS) and/or Galileo, is driving many consumer electronics applications. GNSS is no longer limited to automotive applications, surveying equipment, marine guidance, or expensive handheld tracking systems, but is now finding its way into many new cost-sensitive applications, including cellular handsets and Personal Navigation Devices (PNDs)....  — Malcolm Lomer

[Design Features]
Modular Approach Provides Fast And Easy Prototyping
Prototype development of RF and microwave designs can be tedious, requiring weeks or even months of engineering and construction time. For those who seek a faster, easier approach to the prototyping of new RF and microwave designs, however, MicroWaveCells (www.microwavecells.com) offers a new and innovative approach to building high-frequency circuit functions, subsystems, and complete systems in hours and days,...  — Jenny Jiayan Shen

[Product Technology]
Synthesized LO Spans 0.05 To 20.48 GHz
Direct-digital synthesis (DDS) is capable of impressive frequency and amplitude switching speeds and, depending upon the bit resolution of the DDS architecture, extremely fine frequency and phase control. DDS technology is the basis for the WaveCor line of high-performance microwave signal sources from ITT Microwave Systems (Lowell, MA), notably the firm’s latest addition, the WaveCor synthesized local oscillator (SLO) model 20.0 frequency ...  — Jack Browne

[Product Technology]
LDMOS FET Drives UHF TV Transmitters
Television broadcast systems in the ultrahigh-frequency (UHF) region from 470 to 860 MHz will make the transition from analog to digital technology next year, and broadcasters are taking advantage of digital performance while attempting to keep equipment costs low. Since one of the highest cost components is the transmitter, it is no surprise that the MRF6VP3450H 50 V LDMOS FET from Freescale Semiconductor (...  — Jeannette Wilson

[Product Technology]
High-Dynamic-Range Mixer Upconverts 1.5 To 3.8 GHz
Active frequency mixers provide the frequency-translation function required in modern communications systems, with the added benefit of conversion gain in contrast to the conversion loss of passive mixers. Model LT5579 from Linear Technology (www.linear.com) is such an active mixer, designed for upconversion applications from 1.5 to 3.8 GHz. It offers enough bandwidth to cover the 1.9-GHz cellular...  — Jack Browne

[Product Technology]
VCOs Offer Linear Tuning Through 10.9 GHz
Linear tuning is essential for a wide range of applications requiring frequency precision over time and temperature. The latest series of voltagetuned oscillators from Synergy Microwave (www.synergymwave.com) provide outstanding tuning linearity at frequencies through 10.9 GHz. The first three models in the DCO and DXO families of voltage-tuned oscillators provide frequency coverage of 4730 to 5420...  — Jack Browne

[Product Technology]
Custom Synthesizers Range 144 To 4500 MHz
Frequency synthesizers provide the fixed and tunable signals for local oscillators (LOs) in a wide range of commercial and military communications systems, including in wireless base stations. Technologies for creating frequency synthesizers are diverse, from traditional analog methods using phase-locked loops (PLLs) to direct digital synthesizers (DDSs) that rely on high-speed digital-to-analog converters (DACs) to transform digital input words into...  — Jack Browne

[Product Technology]
Modular GPIB Switches Connect Test Applications
Switching signals among test sources and devices under test (DUT) in a measurement setup can be cumbersome and time-consuming. Fortunately, the GPIB series 8000 modular switch assemblies help simplify complex test assemblies with reliable electromechanical microwave switches mounted in their own rugged enclosures. The switch assemblies are designed for applications from DC to 18 GHz...  — Jack Browne

[Editorial]
Making A Mid-Year Assessment At IMS
Atlanta, GA is home to this year’s Microwave Theory & Techniques Society (MTT-S) symposium and exhibition, popularly known as the International Microwave Symposium (IMS) or Microwave Week. In many ways, it is a “microwave week,” since the event literally takes a slice from many people’s schedules and gathers together an interesting combination of RF/microwave industry representatives, including friends and enemies. It is a week that “stops the world” and allows colleagues to...  — Jack Browne

[Feedback]
Feedback
A Job Well-Done Congratulations on your article dealing with microwave materials ("Microwave Materials Help Build An Industry," March 2008, p. 98). It has come to my mind those past times, trying myself to go beyond gigahertz with FR-4 materials. I really enjoy reading your articles. All are the product of an experienced engineer in MW and RF. ...  — Various Readers

[The Front End]
IDS Microchip Revolutionizes RFID Labeling/Tracking
WOLLERAU, SWITZERLAND—A radio-frequencyidentification (RFID) chip is promising to make it practical for companies to automatically track, monitor, time-stamp, and record information about goods in any supply-chain or cold-chain transport on land, sea, or sky. Such goods may range from expensive fragile components, medical goods, and pharmaceuticals to bags of bananas . This innovation in affordable, automatic data-logging RFID applications hails from IDS Microchip...  — Dawn Hightower

[The Front End]
American Radio Relay League Petitions Federal Communications Commission
The American Radio Relay League, Inc., has petitioned on behalf of licensed amateur radio operators for the review of two orders of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) promulgating a rule to regulate the use of the radio spectrum by Access Broadband over Power Line (Access BPL) operators. The FCC concluded that existing safeguards combined with new protective measures required by the rule will prevent harmful interference to licensees from Access BPL radio...  — Dawn Hightower

[The Front End]
Mobile-Device Market Exceeds Expectations In First Quarter
LONDON, ENGLAND—According to ABI Research, operators and distributors continued to top up their inventories in the first quarter of this year after a strong fourth quarter of 2007. “Year on year, 1Q 2008 was up 13.7 percent. But 2Q 2008 is likely to be softer than in previous years,” said ABI Research vice president Jake Saunders. Shipment volumes in the developed markets have softened slightly due to the credit crisis. Yet emerging markets like Asia-Pacific,...  — Dawn Hightower

[The Front End]
Kudos
WOBURN, MA—Skyworks Solutions, Inc. congratulated Samsung on winning two FEMTO cell awards. Jang Young Shil, which is presented by the Maeil Business Newspaper—an economic daily in Korea—and the Korea Industrial Technology Association (KOITA)—operated by the Korean government—is granted based on technological importance, originality, and economic value. In addition, Samsung was awarded the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) Best of Innovations 2008 in the...  — Dawn Hightower

[Financial News]
STMicroelectronics And NXP Merge Businesses
NXP (GENEVA, SWITZERLAND) and STMicroelectronics have agreed to combine key wireless operations to form a joint-venture company with strong relationships with all major handset manufacturers. The new company will have the scale to better meet customer needs in 2G, 2.5G, 3G, multimedia, connectivity, and all future wireless technologies. Specifically, the company will be well positioned for Universal Mobile Telecommunication System (UMTS), the emerging 3G...  — Dawn Hightower

[Company News]
Company News
CONTRACTS Elcom Technologies—Received a contract for $1 million from a major US aerospace-defense military contractor for a VME-based synthesized RF source and synthesized broadband downconverter. Elcom was selected due to its ability to integrate a synthesizer and tuner in a VME package. This recurring contract will require support through 2009. Etihad Atheeb Telecommunication Company (Atheeb) and ...  — Dawn Hightower

[People]
People
Raytheon Recognizes Employees As Missile-Defense Pioneers MICHAEL T. BORKOWSKI, technical director, Raytheon RF Components, and DAVID G. LAIGHTON, former chief engineer, Raytheon RF Components received the Missile Defense Agency’s Technology Pioneer Award at the 6th Annual US Missile Defense Conference in Washington, D.C. Borkowski and Laighton were honored for the development of affordable and reliable X-band, solid-state,...  — Dawn Hightower

[Educational Meetings]
Educational Meetings
ICCE-Integration and Commercialization of Micro and Nanosystems International Conferences & Exhibitions June 3-5 (Hong Kong, China) Internet: www.asmeconferences.org/MicroNano08 Emerging Telecom Market Forums: BRIC Opportunities June 5-6, 2008 • (Washington, D.C.) Freescale's Technology Forum (FTF) 2008 June...  — Dawn Hightower

[R&D Roundup]
Electrically Tune A Planar Inverted-F Antenna
WITH THE PLETHORA of wireless standards being applied to today’s handheld devices, the antennas integrated in those products must often operate in 10 or more frequency bands. For the antenna designer, this translates into the challenge of having to cover a single very wide frequency band or multiple frequency bands while maintaining small size and high efficiency. A novel solution may be to use antennas that have a reconfigurable operating frequency with...  — Nancy Friedrich

[R&D Roundup]
Dielectric Blood Measurement Detects HIV/AIDS
DESPITE THE FACT THAT HIV/AIDS has grown into a worldwide pandemic, Elisa and Western Blot tests are still the only tests available for detecting it. Yet a new testing method could be based on the measurement of the dielectric properties of blood at microwave frequencies. Behind this proposed method are the efforts of C. Rajasekaran from the Department of Medicine at Medical College (Kerala, India) together with Anil Lonappan, Vinu Thomas, G. Bindu, Joe Jacob,...  — Nancy Friedrich

[Application Notes]
Discrete LNAs Improve Performance Of GPS-Enabled Cell Phones
GLOBAL POSITIONING SYSTEM (GPS) functionality is being widely added to cellular phones and other handheld devices. Yet cell-phone manufacturers are still placing restrictive requirements on device size and power consumption. To meet these conflicting demands, GPS receiver/processor integrated circuits (ICs) have been developed that incorporate onboard, low-noise-amplifier (LNA) front ends. The problem is that the noise performance and resultant system sensitivity...  — Nancy Friedrich

[Application Notes]
Mobile WiMAX Multi-Antenna Techniques Offer Carriers New Option
FOR WIRELESS OPERATORS, the introduction of bandwidth- intensive, rich media applications means that more subscribers will begin to consume increasing amounts of data packets. To conquer the resulting capacity issues, operators can acquire more spectrum channels and deploy more sites. Yet these approaches are both inefficient and costly. In “A Practical Guide to WiMAX Antennas: MIMO and Beamforming Technical Overview,” Motorola asserts that mobile WiMAX—in...  — Nancy Friedrich

[Editor's Choice]
FETs Target WiMAX PAs From 2500 To 2700 MHz
TWO LDMOS RF power transistors have debuted for wireless-infrastructure applications in the 2.5-GHz-to-2.7- GHz frequency band. By providing peak output power of up to 170 W, these transistors should help designers simplify their RF power-amplifier (PA) designs. Under WiMAX signal conditions, the PTFA260851E/F single-ended, 85-W FET typically features 14 dB gain and 22 percent efficiency at 16 W average output power. Its sibling, the PTFA261702E push-pull,...  — Nancy Friedrich

[Editor's Choice]
7/16 Panel Receptacle Exhibits –175 dBc IMD Performance
LOW INTERMODULATION distortion (IMD) is key to newer wireless systems like WiMAX. Such systems rely on outstanding linearity in both amplifiers and passive components to process the complex modulation schemes needed data rates. By consistently delivering passive-intermodulation (PIM) levels of –175 dBc, a 7/16 panel receptacle is promising to meet this need for connectors. This receptacle exhibits a voltage standing wave ratio (VSWR) of less...  — Nancy Friedrich

[Editor's Choice]
2.5-GHz, 90-Deg. Antenna Serves WiMAX Base Stations
TO TARGET both fixed and mobile WiMAX applications, a new antenna is promising to provide a very predictable pattern and consistent performance. The antenna specifically targets maximal-ratio-combining (MRC), multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO), and other wireless wide-areanetwork applications. The 2.5-GHz, dual-slant 45-deg., 90-deg. WiMAX base-station antenna is fully compliant with ETSI EN 301.525 CS pattern specifications. It operates across the 2.3-to-2.7-GHz...  — Nancy Friedrich

[Editor's Choice]
Software Speeds Development Of Mixed-Technology PCBs
A JOINTLY DEVELOPED solution is promising to significantly improve productivity for the design of RF circuits on printed circuit boards (PCBs). This integrated solution enables PCB mixedsignal designers (RF, analog, and digital) to concurrently design a PCB using Mentor Graphics’ Expedition Enterprise or Board Station XE flows. At the same time, the design is integrated with Agilent’s Advanced Design System (ADS) electronic-design-automation (EDA) software...  — Nancy Friedrich

[Bookmark]
Advanced Phase-Lock Techniques
Phase-locked loops (PLLs) are an integral part of many communications systems. Essential for their capability of synthesizing stable output signals from tunable oscillators, such as voltagecontrolled oscillators (VCOs), the PLL has grown in importance with the growing use of digital modulation formats and design requirements to compress more information onto transmitted RF/microwave signals. For those seeking a comprehensive roadmap to the world of PLLs, there may...  — Jack Browne