Microwaves and RF July 2012 Magazine: Issue Contents

Jul. 9, 2012

Article

Is An Oscillator Upgrade On The Horizon?

Cell phones, WiFi-enabled tablets, and other electronic devices all incorporate oscillators, which are traditionally silicon-based structures that generate signals by means of an electron-charge mechanism. Recently, however, a team of researchers from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)—ZhongmingZeng, Pedram KhaliliAmiri, Ilya N.Krivorotov, HuiZhao, GiovanniFinocchio, Jian-PingWang, Jordan A.Katine, YimingHuai, JuergenLanger, KosmasGalatsis, Kang L.Wang, and HongWenJiang—have developed a new type of oscillator that utilizes the spin of an electron....More
Jul. 11, 2012

Article

Extra Defense For Mobile Devices

Conducting business over commercial cell phone networks has become an increasing risky proposition, particularly when your job necessitates the sharing of sensitive information. To address this threat, General Dynamics C4 Systems (www.generaldynamics.com) is integrating its defense-grade cyber and information security technologies into Samsung’s (www.samsung.com) line of smartphones and tablets....More
Jul. 11, 2012

Article

Defense Heavyweight Makes Microwaves Play

Attempting to establish a strong foothold in the RF/microwave industry, Chelmsford, MA-based Mercury Computer Systems (www.mc.com) has signed an agreement to acquire Micronetics (www.micronetics.com). A provider of intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) and electronic-warfare (EW) subsystems for defense prime contractors, Mercury will acquire Micronetics via merger for $14.80 per share....More
Jul. 11, 2012

Article

New Corporate Structure Shields IP

In addition to delivering products to customers more quickly, Qualcomm, Inc. (www.qualcomm.com) wishes to insulate its patent portfolio from any claims resulting from actions and activities by portions of the company other than the Qualcomm Technology Licensing Division (QTL). As a result, a new corporate structure will feature the parent company, Qualcomm, Inc., which includes QTL and corporate functions as well as most of Qualcomm’s patent portfolio. A new, wholly owned subsidiary, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc....More
Jul. 11, 2012

Article

People

Anadigics—Tim Laverick has joined the company as Vice President, Infrastructure Products. Most recently, he served as Vice President of Engineering and Product Development at Jacket Micro Devices. Laverick has held previous positions at Anadigics both as General Manager of the company’s fiber-optic product segment and Vice President of Design Technology. In addition, Robert Bayruns has been appointed Vice President and Chief Technology Officer....More
Jul. 11, 2012

Article

Company News: Contracts

Lockheed Martin—Has been awarded a $68-million contract by the US Air Force in support of the first and second GPS III satellites. Lockheed Martin will provide mission readiness, launch, early orbit checkout, and on-orbit operations engineering support. In addition, the company has been awarded a Phase I Airborne Launch Assist Space Access (ALASA) program study contract by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). The contract is valued at approximately $6.2 million....More
Jul. 11, 2012

Article

Company News: Fresh Starts

Qualcomm—Is establishing an integrated-circuit (IC) design and engineering R&D center in Singapore. The new facility will focus on chip-set design and development including analog and power, mixed-signal, and digital design. Underwriters Laboratories (UL)—Has been accredited as a Bluetooth 4.0 testing laboratory by the United Kingdom Accreditation Service (UKAS). UL is now able to test and certify products equipped with the latest Bluetooth standard in the UK....More

Jul. 27, 2012

Article

Mixer Translates Multiple Standards

Wireless communications products continue to support multiple communications standards, pushing designers to develop components that can work across as many bands and standards as possible. Ideally, a single device would handle all wireless communications standards and bands. But before that day comes, it is necessary to develop components—such as upconversion mixers—that can operate with several wireless standards....More
Jul. 26, 2012

Article

Create UWB Filters With Coaxial Cables

Ultrawideband (UWB) communications offers great promise for voice, video, and high-data-rate transmissions, although key components will be needed for such systems. One of those components is the bandpass filter. Although traditional bandpass filters are designed and fabricated in planar form, it is also possible to create a UWB version using coaxial cables and coupled structures. The design approach is straightforward and the filter design can be readily analyzed by means of commercial electromagnetic (EM) simulation software....More
Jul. 26, 2012

Article

Transmitter/Receiver Manages MIMO

Fast data transfers usually require large bandwidths. But the use of multiple-input, multiple-output (MIMO) antenna techniques can also boost data rates for available bandwidths, as shown with this high-performance two-way transmitter and receiver design operating with a 100-MHz bandwidth at 8.05 GHz. It boasts excellent performance, with a receiver noise figure of 2.7 dB and transmitter output power of +17 dBm at 8.05 GHz and associated third-order intermodulation (IM3) level of −41.4 dBc....More
Jul. 26, 2012

Article

Tiny Spiral Spans 1.4 To 10.0 GHz

Antennas for broadband and multiple-standard communications must provide excellent performance in a small area. While a spiral antenna can provide consistent radiation patterns, the size reduction is often a problem, since the antenna’s design is related to the physical wavelengths of the operating frequencies. Fortunately, a miniaturized arm-width-tapered Archimedean spiral antenna (ATARSA) has been designed that delivers outstanding performance in a size that is dramatically reduced compared to conventional spiral antennas....More
Jul. 11, 2012

Article

Compact Monopole Sleeve Antenna Reaches 11.8 GHz

Antennas for ultrawideband (UWB) must exhibit wide operating bandwidth, but also small size for use in a variety of electronic devices. A monopole planar sleeve antenna may meet those requirements with a broad frequency range extending almost to 12 GHz. It consists of symmetrical strips and a ground plane on the same side, using a coplanar-waveguide (CPW) structure on low-cost FR-4 dielectric substrate material with relative dielectric constant of 2.95 and thickness of 1.6 mm. This antenna is suitable for worldwide interoperability for microwave access (WiMAX) applications....More

Jul. 9, 2012

Article

Medical Applications Seek Wireless Solutions 2

Medical and industrial wireless applications often involve machine-to-machine or machine-to-human communications. Typically using unlicensed frequencies in the industrial-scientific-medical (ISM) bands, these applications are considerably different from what most wireless users consider communications....More
Jul. 9, 2012

Article

Transceivers Trim Power In WPANs

Wireless technology, according to its basic definition, is a way to use radio waves to replace wires. For many, the premiere wireless example is cellular communications. But wireless technology also has many shorter-distance, lower-power applications; the markets are vast for short-range wireless modules and integrated circuits (ICs) for such things as monitoring, remote control, and telemetry. These applications do not have the same bandwidth and data-rate demands as their better-known cellular counterparts, but they must consume extremely low power....More
Jul. 9, 2012

Article

Assemblies Combine Multiple Components

Microwave component manufacturers take many approaches to what are commonly known as integrated microwave assemblies (IMAs). Some tie analog components together exclusively, with others adding digital control, signal processing, and even microprocessors. But while the design philosophies applied to IMAs may vary, the intent of these multifunction modules is the same: to save space in a larger system....More

Jul. 11, 2012

Article

Grappling With Old-Cell-Phone Guilt

A few days ago, my six-year-old daughter was rifling through our junk drawer. She was delighted to discover a number of old cell phones, which she promptly used to “call” her ex-boyfriend—supposedly a boy named Jake. (I guess when you’re six, it’s okay for an ex to come before an actual boyfriend.) While it was fun watching her play, it reminded me—guiltily—that my family still had not recycled our old cell phones....More
Jul. 11, 2012

Article

Wireless SoCs Use Cortex-M0 Core To Slash Power Consumption 1

For more than a decade, designers of wireless products have been struggling to deliver ever-increasing performance while consuming less power. Among the latest products promising to satisfy these opposing demands are two wireless system-on-a-chip (SoC) devices from Nordic Semiconductor (www.nordicsemi.com). Conveniently, the first two low-power wireless SoCs in the nRF51 series share the same architecture and multi-protocol radio. While the nRF51822 has a Bluetooth-low-energy/proprietary 2.4-GHz stack, the nRF51422 has an ANT/ANT+ stack (see p. 42 for more on ANT)....More
Jul. 9, 2012

Article

Interview: Julio Perdomo, CEO, Centellax 1

NF: Although this is an evolving market, many firms have made their living by offering the same types of products for decades. Recently, however, Centellax made a bold change by selling its test and measurement business to Agilent Technologies. What inspired this move?...More

Jul. 11, 2012

Article

Feedback

Feeling Out Filter Options...More

Jul. 11, 2012

Article

60-GHz Helical Array Relies On LTCC

Several gigahertz of bandwidth are now available in the 60-GHz band for short-range communications applications. For antennas, this trend has reinforced the move from discrete designs to integrated on-chip or in-package solutions. For designs that are closer to bringing low-cost, highly integrated 60-GHz solutions to fruition, multilayer, low-temperature co-fired ceramic (LTCC) technology has been used successfully....More
Jul. 11, 2012

Article

Waveguide-Based Mixer Excels In Terahertz Range

To roughly 1.25 THz, the most sensitive and high-resolution heterodyne spectrometers are based on superconductor-isolate-superconductor (SIS) tunnel junction mixers. Beyond 1.25 THz, however, superconducting hot-electron-bolometer (HEB) mixers are considered a better option. Most HEB mixers operating above 2 THz couple the mixer element to a planar antenna on a dielectric substrate lens. Yet waveguide feeds boast better coupling efficiency to free space while naturally reducing the direct detection response of HEBs....More
Jul. 11, 2012

Article

Quadrature LO Spans 5 To 10 GHz

To more efficiently use spatial and temporal spectrum from 50 MHz to 10 GHz, many are eying cognitive radio (CR). On a system-on-a-chip (SoC), however, a heterodyne approach requires multiple local oscillators (LOs) to handle the potentially independent operations of the CR RF transceiver. Such an implementation can be very tricky, as the design of LO for CR applications demands silicon-area compactness and low power consumption....More

Jul. 11, 2012

Article

Conquer Phase Noise And Jitter In Frequency Standards

To measure a signal’s noise level, phase noise or jitter can be used. The choice depends largely on the application, although jitter can be calculated from phase noise if the phase-noise characteristic is known. In a five-page white paper titled, “Designing for Exceptional Phase Noise and Jitter Performance in Precision GPS Frequency Standards,” Precision Time and Frequency, Inc. provides a concise overview of the steps and considerations needed to design a high-performance, low-noise, precision-frequency standard....More
Jul. 11, 2012

Article

Get A Solid Grasp Of IEEE 802.11ad

Wireless local-area networking (WLAN) was birthed to support computers in the home and office as well as on the road. Today, however, the usage models have moved far beyond such basic functionality. They now incorporate wireless display, high-definition-television (HDTV) distribution, rapid upload/download, backhaul, outdoor campus/auditorium, and the manufacturing floor. Two new IEEE project groups have emerged to provide very high-throughput capabilities: Working Groups TGac (focused on IEEE 802.11ac) and TGad (proposing IEEE 802.11ad)....More

Jul. 9, 2012

Article

Making Microwave Measurements Modular

Test instrument modules once represented a small, specialized area among high-frequency measurement products. But more and more manufacturers are now supporting established module standards—such as PCI eXtensions for Instrumentation (PXI)—with a growing number of measurement functions. As a result, engineers are discovering that they can benefit from the versatility of modular test instruments without sacrificing performance compared to standard-sized rack-mount instruments....More
Jul. 10, 2012

Article

TO-8 YIGs Tune 3 To 13 GHz

Oscillators can be built from many different types of resonators. Perhaps one of the most reliable for high-frequency applications is the yttrium-iron-garnet (YIG) sphere, the heart of YIG-tuned oscillators. At one time, such tunable sources were relatively large and heavy. But with new models such as the second-generation MLTO-Series of permanent-magnet YIG oscillators from Micro Lambda Wireless (www.microlambdawireless.com), these microwave oscillators take up no more space than a small coin on a printed-circuit board (PCB)....More
Jul. 10, 2012

Article

Envelope Tracking Makes Phones Smarter

Power amplifier designers supporting wireless communications aim for high efficiency, often through innovative biasing schemes. These schemes typically use only as much energy as needed by the active devices to meet transmit power requirements. Now, however, there is an easier way to boost the power-added efficiency (PAE) of a power amplifier: through the addition of a Coolteq.L envelope-tracking integrated circuit (IC) from Nujira Ltd. (www.nujira.com)....More

Jul. 11, 2012

Article

USB Steers Digital Pads

Digital attenuators in the LDA series of compact Lab Brick® products are powered and controlled by a Universal Serial Bus (USB) connection to a laptop or personal computer (PC). These step attenuators are available for use through 6 GHz and are easily programmed to provide fixed attenuation or attenuation ramps, using a simple graphical user interface (GUI). Units range in capability from model LDA-102, which provides 63-dB attenuation in 0.5-dB steps from 0.1 to 1000.0 MHz to model LDA-602, which offers 63-dB attenuation in 0.5-dB steps from 6 to 6000 MHz....More
Jul. 11, 2012

Article

USB Meter Reads Power To 8 GHz

RFMW Ltd. has announced that it is offering applications and sales support for the model TED8000-40 Universal Serial Bus (USB) power sensor from Telemakus (www.telemakus.com). Designed for power measurements from 50 to 8000 MHz, the USB sensor uses a laptop or personal computer (PC) as the control and display; this enables it to replace a full-sized power meter. It can also be used with the company’s low-cost USB signal sources to form a cost-effective, USB-controlled microwave scalar network analyzer....More
Jul. 11, 2012

Article

Amplifier Boosts 71 To 76 GHz

Model HHPAE-459 is a millimeter-wave power amplifier designed for use from 71 to 76 GHz. It provides small-signal gain of 29 dB over that frequency range, with +18-dBm output power at 1-dB compression. Based on monolithic-microwave-integrated-circuit (MMIC) technology, the amplifier operates from a single +6.5-VDC bias supply with an internal voltage regulator and bias sequencer. The amplifier is ideal for transmitters in E-band radio communications systems....More
Jul. 11, 2012

Article

Conductive Foams Shield Cell Phones 2

Condux Plus™ electrically conductive foams provide excellent electrical conductivity, consistent mechanical properties, and outstanding electromagnetic (EM) shielding capabilities. These attributes enhance conductivity and improve shielding performance in small wireless devices, such as cellular telephones. The materials are available in different thicknesses (0.33, 0.53, and 0.73 mm) to serve a variety of circuit and package configurations. They feature consistent and reliable connectivity while also offering excellent mechanical stability over time and temperature....More
Jul. 11, 2012

Article

Tiny Caps Feature Tight Tolerances

The Accu-P® line of RF capacitors has been augmented by some of the industry’s smallest, tightest-tolerance capacitors available, with subminiature 01005-size chips now available with capacitance values from 0.05 to 2.40 pF. The capacitors, which are ideal for applications at VHF, UHF, and microwave frequencies, boast tolerances to within ±0.01 pF. The capacitors, which are fabricated with high-thermal-conductivity materials, incorporate high-purity electrodes for low effective series resistance (ESR)....More
Jul. 11, 2012

Article

Switch Controls 0.1 To 2.7 GHz

Model SKY13388-465LF is a symmetrical, single-pole, four-throw (SP4T) switch designed for applications from 100 MHz to 2.7 GHz. Built with a silicon-on-insulator (SOI) process, the switch requires only two control lines for operation. The high-performance SP4T switch features typical isolation of better than 30 dB at 1.0 GHz and more than 23 dB at 2.7 GHz. The insertion loss is typically 0.60 dB at 2.2 GHz and 0.65 dB at 2.7 GHz. The switch, which runs on supplies of +2.5 to +5.5 VDC, is rated for +37 dBm maximum input power....More
Jul. 11, 2012

Article

Mod/Demod Unit Spans 20 to 300 MHz

Model CMX973 is a combination of an IF/RF quadrature demodulator and quadrature IF/RF modulator, supplied in a 32-lead VQFN package. It operates from 20 to 300 MHz with in-phase/quadrature (I/Q) receive bandwidth of 10 MHz and I/Q transmit bandwidth of 25 MHz. The demodulator is suitable for superheterodyne architectures with IF frequencies up to 300 MHz and may be used in low IF systems or those converting to baseband. The modulator converts directly from baseband to the desired transmit frequency and features quadrature phase correction to minimize unwanted spectral components....More
Jul. 11, 2012

Article

VCO Maintains 3200 MHz Output

Model CVCO55CCQ-3200-3200 is a voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO) that operates at a center frequency of 3200 MHz. Its frequency is adjusted by a control voltage range of 0.5 to 4.5 V. The oscillator has typical phase noise of −115 dBc/Hz offset 10 kHz from the carrier. It delivers typical output power of +6 dBm with second-harmonic suppression of typically −12 dBc. Pushing and pulling are minimized to 0.3 MHz and 0.1 MHz/V, respectively. The VCO, which is supplied in a 0.5 x 0.5 in. SMD surface-mount package, draws maximum current of 27 mA from a +6-VDC supply....More
Jul. 11, 2012

Article

Amp/Attenuator Combo Covers 0.45 To 2.40 GHz

Model DVGA1-242+ is a digitally controlled variable gain amplifier; it combines a high-gain E-PHEMT amplifier with a wide-dynamic-range step attenuator, and is fabricated using CMOS on silicon. The end result is a variable gain amplifier with 30-dB nominal gain at 0-dB attenuation that features a 31.5-dB gain control range from 0.45 to 2.40 GHz. The digitally controlled attenuator includes a 6-b serial interface for fast switching and 0.5-dB step resolution. The attenuation accuracy is typically 0.1 dB....More
Jul. 11, 2012

Article

LNAs Limit Noise In Cellular Stations

A pair of low-noise amplifiers (LNAs) leverage GaAs E-pHEMT technology to achieve low noise figures through 2.7 GHz. Model TQP3M9036 operates from 400 to 1500 MHz with a noise figure of 0.45 dB at 900 MHz and the model TQP3M9037 runs from 1500 to 2700 MHz with a noise figure of 0.40 dB at 1900 MHz. Model TQP3M9036 features 19-dB gain at 900 MHz with +20-dBm output power at 1-dB compression and an output third-order intercept point of +35 dBm. Model TQP3M9037 offers 20-dB gain at 1900 MHz with +21-dBm output power at 1-dB compression and an output third-order intercept point of +36 dBm....More

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