May 10, 2007

To borrow from the well-known slogan for FOX Broadcasting's 10-O'clock news ("It's 10 O'clock: Do you know where your children are?"), which celebrates its 40th year on the air, this question can also be applied to an engineering company's website. From time to time, the parent magazine, Microwaves & RF, and its associated properties, such as Microwaves & RF NotePad, have carried reviews of different companies' websites. Often, these reviews are greeted much like the brother-in-law with a history of overstaying a welcome, even though they are meant to offer constructive criticism.

Unfortunately, for some companies, the website is a necessary evil, a part of doing business. It must be maintained, at least with some minimal information. These are the sites that often show a "Last Updated" of several years back and very little useful information.

The more-astute companies view their website as a true sales and engineering opportunity. Engineers, in particular, are savvy about finding product and application data on company websites. They will return to the good sites, and abandon the bad sites (along with any possibility of buying from those companies). Engineers like as much information about a product as possible, and they appreciate additional "goodies," such as reference design layouts, application notes, and technical articles.

Do you know where your website is?

Tyco Electronics M/A-COM has developed a Class C bipolar transistor capable of 1-kW peak output power at 1030 MHz. Designed for short-pulsed avionics applications, including IFF and TACAN systems, the 50-V power transistor provides minimum gain of 8 dB and more than 8.6 dB typical gain. The minimum collector efficiency is 45 percent and typically more than 50 percent. According to Andrew Tse, product line manager for Tyco Electronics M/A-COM Radar and Avionics, "The one-thousand-watt power rating on this new transistor can greatly enhance the range capabilities of new avionics systems. Additionally, the unique power capability of the product will contribute to more compact system designs, as one device can replace a pair of devices in the final amplifier circuit architecture."

The M/A-COM MAPRST1w030-1KS is supplied in a hermetic, ceramic/metal package for high reliability and can tolerate a 10:1 load mismatch without damage or loss in performance. The bipolar sells for $393 in hundred quantities.

Times Microwave Systems has published their T-RAD(R) 600 Technical Data brochure with information on 50-ohm leaky feeder coaxial cables for providing radio frequency coverage in enclosed and underground sites. The leaky radiating coaxial cables can be used in tunnels, mines, ships and in-building wireless systems. T-RAD(R) cable may also be used as a single backbone, supplying multiple services across a broad frequency range from AM radio rebroadcast through the higher-frequency IEEE 802.11 wireless-local-area-network (WLAN) applications. The brochure features a loss and coupling versus frequency chart as well as a comparison chart that details the T-RAD-600 versus corrugated copper.

Times Microwave

2007 IEEE/MTT-S International Microwave Symposium
June 3-8, 2007
Hawaii Convention Center
Honolulu, HI
http://www.ims2007.org/

LOGIC NVM 2007
June 14, 2007
Hyatt Regency Santa Clara
Santa Clara, CA
http://www.logicNVMevent.com