June 23, 2005 Newsletter

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Microwaves & RF UPDATE
PlanetEE - www.planetee.com
MWRF - www.mwrf.com
June 23, 2005
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Greetings and welcome to your personal copy of PlanetEE's Microwaves 
and RF UPDATE e-newsletter. Please see below for address-change or 
subscribe/unsubscribe instructions.

Today's Table of Contents:
1. Optimism Rampant at Long Beach MTT-S 
2. Broadcom Selects Fairchild PAM For Wi-Fi Reference Design 
3. Disruptive Technologies Spark Filters, Resonators
4. Rohde & Schwarz Launches First Eight-Port VNA 
5. CMOS Process Passes 13 GHz 
6. AWR Releases cdma2000 Test Bench For VSS 
7. Cables Cut Loss To Zero 
8. Book Review
9. Happenings - Conferences 


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*******************************************************************


***************
1.  Viewpoint 
***************
Optimism Rampant at Long Beach MTT-S

Although sales are still relatively flat for many high-frequency 
manufacturers, the general tone of exhibitors at last week's 
Microwave Theory & Techniques Symposium (MTT-S) in Long Beach, CA 
was optimistic. Several companies even mentioned direct sales orders 
from attendees at the show. Most indicated that they expected 
business to pick up during the second half of 2005, especially in 
key areas of defense electronics and homeland security.

In terms of technology and products, ultrawideband (UWB) devices 
made a strong showing at MTT-S, notably a series of UWB 
system-on-chip (SoC) devices from M/A-COM ( http://nls.planetee.com/t?ctl=CEAD:FFCBF ). 
Based on an advanced silicon-germanium (SiGe) process, the 24-GHz, 
plastic-packaged transmitter and receiver SoCs target high-end 
automotive radar systems (rather than the more competitive, 
lower-frequency UWB data-communications applications). 

As expected, the MTT-S featured scores of significant software 
advances, along with new components (even involving some 
"disruptive" technologies, such as that offered by Dielectric 
Laboratories) and some impressive test instrument introductions. To 
celebrate some of these new products, the next several issues of 
this newsletter will include various highlights from the show, for 
those who could not be there.

JACK BROWNE
Technical Director


*************
2. News
*************
Broadcom Selects Fairchild PAM For Wi-Fi Reference Design

Fairchild Semiconductor announced at last week's MTT-S that its 
4.9-to-5.9-GHz model RMPA5255 power amplifier module (PAM) had been 
selected for use in Broadcom's single-chip and PCI Express Wi-Fi 
reference designs. According to Brian Bedrosian, senior product line 
manager for Broadcom's Home and Wireless Networking Business Unit, 
"as manufacturers utilize new bus architectures and integrate Wi-Fi 
capabilities into smaller devices, Broadcom is working with leaders 
like Fairchild to develop solutions that meet the latest size, cost, 
and performance requirements." More information on the RMPA5255 PAM 
is available at the data-sheet link below.
Fairchild Semiconductor ---> 
http://nls.planetee.com/t?ctl=CEA1:FFCBF
Broadcom Corporation ---> http://nls.planetee.com/t?ctl=CEB0:FFCBF


*********
3. News
*********
Disruptive Technologies Spark Filters, Resonators

Dielectric Laboratories (Cazenovia, NY) unveiled what it calls its 
"disruptive" technologies at last week's MTT-S. Leveraging expertise 
in ceramic substrate materials, the firm has developed a 
patent-pending high-quality-factor (high-Q) temperature-stable 
cavity resonator. These high-Q resonators (Qs to 1500 at 2 GHz), 
which are compatible with surface-mount packaging and chip-and-wire 
assembly techniques, are available for single frequencies as high as 
67 GHz with frequency tolerances as tight as 0.1 percent. Suitable 
for microwave and millimeter-wave oscillators in automotive, 
commercial, and military applications, the self-shielded resonators 
feature high stability with temperature at a fraction of the size of 
other resonator technologies. The company has also applied its 
"disruptive" ceramic technology to the development of patent-pending 
single- and multiple-pole cavity filters for microwave and 
millimeter-wave applications.
Dielectric Laboratories ---> http://nls.planetee.com/t?ctl=CEAA:FFCBF


*********
4. News
*********
Rohde & Schwarz Launches First Eight-Port VNA

In tune with the old American television comedy program "Eight Is 
Enough," Rohde & Schwarz unveiled the industry's first eight-port 
vector network analyzer at last week's MTT-S in Long Beach, CA. 
Ideal for multiport and balanced component testing, the company's 
model ZVT8 VNA has a reflectometer at each of its eight test ports 
for simultanous testing on multiple components or components with 
multiple ports. The analyzer covers a range of 300 kHz to 8 GHz with 
+13 dBm minimum test signal power at each port and a dynamic range 
of better than 120 dB. 
Rohde & Schwarz, Inc. ---> http://nls.planetee.com/t?ctl=CEA4:FFCBF


**********
5. News
**********
CMOS Process Passes 13 GHz 

Peregrine Semiconductor Corp. has announced that it has passed the 
13-GHz mark with its UltraCMOS process technology, a frequency/speed 
level once thought impossible for silicon CMOS semiconductors. The 
company's model PE9308 prescaler, which is designed for space-based 
and demanding military applications, is the first CMOS device to 
operate at X-band and Ku-band frequencies. According to Jim Cable, 
Peregrine's president and chief executive officer (CEO), "UltraCMOS 
technology has broken the speed barrier long associated with 
traditional CMOS processes." The prescaler consumes about one-tenth 
the power of equivalent GaAs devices, at typically 25 mA current 
from a +2.5-VDC supply.
Peregrine Semiconductor ---> http://nls.planetee.com/t?ctl=CEAE:FFCBF
 

*********
6. News
*********
AWR Releases cdma2000 Test Bench For VSS

Among the many major computer-aided-engineering (CAE) software 
announcements at last week's MTT-S, Applied Wave Research (AWR) took 
the wraps off a code-division-multiple-access 2000 (cdma2000) test 
bench for the company's Visual System Simulator (VSS). The test 
bench allows engineers to evaluate the impact of link impairments on 
essential system performance parameters, including frame error rate 
(FER), bit error rate (BER), and symbol error rate (SER). The 
cdma2000 test bench consists of transmit and receive blocks and 
support various frame sizes, data rates, and numbers of 
communications channels, such as traffic channels, pilot channels, 
and includes an orthogonal channel noise simulator (OCNS).

In other software news at MTT-S, Sonnet Software demonstrated one of 
the industry's first cluster computer applications of its 
electromagnetic (EM) simulation software, using a multiprocessor 
rack-mount computer system to perform analyses on planar microwave 
structures in mere minutes that once required hours or even days.
Applied Wave Research ---> http://nls.planetee.com/t?ctl=CEA9:FFCBF
Sonnet Software ---> http://nls.planetee.com/t?ctl=CEA7:FFCBF


*********
7. News
*********
Cables Cut Loss To Zero

One of the more impressive transmission-line products introduced at 
last week's MTT-S was the Zero dB coaxial cable assemblies from 
Times Microwave Systems (Wallingford, CT). Suitable for fighter 
aircraft and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), the cable assemblies 
seemingly defy the laws of physics by exhibiting no attenuation from 
0.5 to 18.0 GHz. In reality, they incorporate wideband 
monolithic-microwave-integrated-circuit (MMIC) gain blocks to 
overcome the normal loss of the cable, with bias provided through 
the termination connectors. 

Times Microwave Systems ---> http://nls.planetee.com/t?ctl=CEA5:FFCBF


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8. Book Review
***************
Ultra Wideband Signals and Systems In Communications Engineering

Written by M. Ghavami, L. B. Michael, and R. Kohno, Ultra Wideband 
Signals and Systems In Communications Engineering focuses on the 
signal-processing aspects of UWB consumer communications systems, 
rather than on UWB radar systems. It includes sections on generating 
UWB waveforms, modeling indoor communications channels (since most 
UWB communications systems are for short-range indoor applications), 
UWB antennas and antenna arrays, and positioning and location 
applications with UWB technology. The text concentrates on a basic 
presentation of the technology, avoiding current debates over the 
merits of the Intel versus Motorola approaches to UWB 
implementation.

John Wiley & Sons (201-748-6395) ---> http://nls.planetee.com/t?ctl=CEAF:FFCBF


*******************************
9.  Happenings - Conferences
*******************************
Bipolar Circuits and Technology Meeting (BCTM)
October 10-11, 2005
Santa Barbara, CA
http://nls.planetee.com/t?ctl=CEA8:FFCBF

IEEE Compound Semiconductor IC Symposium (formerly the GaAs IC 
Symposium)
October 30 - November 2, 2005
Palm Springs, CA
http://nls.planetee.com/t?ctl=CEAB:FFCBF

Wireless Congress 2005: Systems and Applications
November 9-10, 2005
Munich, Germany
http://nls.planetee.com/t?ctl=CEA3:FFCBF

Automatic RF Techniques Group (ARFTG)
66th Microwave Measurements Conference
December 1-2, 2005
Marriot Hotel, Washington, DC
http://nls.planetee.com/t?ctl=CEAC:FFCBF


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http://www.mwrf.com/


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