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3 of the January 2018 homepage archives.
Wednesday 31
 Reporting to the Production Test Manager and partnering
closely with our engineering teams, the
RF Test Technician develops and performs test solutions for RF products from concept
through manufacturing release. He/she supports product development evaluations and final
product characterization testing, and works with the development team in providing testability
planning, strategies and methodologies. Work closely with product engineering, design
engineering and operations to support product development...
 Dolby noise reduction is not really directly applicable
to the RF Cafe theme, but I included this article for two reasons. First, a lot of people
are familiar with the Dolby system and do not know its history or technical details.
Second, the general subject of noise reduction and dynamic range, avoidance, mitigation,
etc., is of interest even if the methods of dealing with audio noise is different from
radio signal noise. Dolby's companding (compressing-expanding) circuitry was an
adaptation of analog video noise reduction used in television. Interestingly, a
lot of people evidently were skeptical about...
The Electronic Design Innovation Conference and
Exhibition (EDI CON) USA, the industry event that brings together RF/microwave and high-speed
digital design engineers and system integrators, has opened the Call for Abstracts for
. Selected papers will be presented at EDI CON USA 2018, held
October 17-19, 2018 at the Santa Clara Convention Center, Santa Clara,
California. Track selections include RF & microwave design, mobile front end
design, low power RF & IoT, 5G advanced communications...
UC Davis offers a senior project course within
the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department that has students designing and building
. To add a fun and competitive element to the class, the
students participate in a competition at the end of the course in which scores
are tallied on the accuracy, power and weight of their final radar devices. In
the most recent 2017 competition, the NI AWR software team awarded a $100 gift
card and a complimentary one-year full...
pSemi™ Corporation (formerly Peregrine Semiconductor),
a Murata company focused on semiconductor integration, announces its ranking for the
second consecutive year on the "IEEE Spectrum" . This annually published benchmark identifies the technology
world's most valuable patent portfolios and ranks the companies by a Pipeline Power score.
The 2017 scorecard ranks the pSemi patent portfolio among the top 10 in the
semiconductor manufacturing...
 "The first 'quadrupole topological insulator' has been created in a mechanical
metamaterial by physicists in Switzerland. The experiment confirms a theoretical prediction
made in 2017 that the concepts behind traditional dipole topological insulators can be
extended to create higher multipole versions. The researchers believe the work
could lead to one-way waveguides that are immune to scattering. Unlike most
topological insulators - which involve the conduction of electrical charge..."
Tuesday 30
 Articles from the January issues are a
mishmash of topics. Last year was dominated with the "5G" theme, but if these
pieces are any indication of the direction for 2018, you can expect a wide
variety of subjects. When selecting the articles for the list, I did not
intentionally filter out those dealing with 5G; there just were not very many.
Items move onto and off of all...
-
Wireless Technology: The Existential Necessity of Life -
Evaluating 77 to 79 GHz Automotive Radar Radome Emblems -
RF and Microwave Filters: Simple and Essential <more>
 "A GPS-like navigation system for spacecraft that
uses X-ray signals from pulsars could soon be a reality because of an experiment done
on the International Space Station (ISS). NASA engineers have shown that the ISS-based
SEXTANT
system can use signals from four pulsars to determine the location of the ISS to
within 15 km. A pulsar-based navigation system would make it much easier for
spacecraft to travel throughout the solar system, and beyond - according to
NASA..."
 This 1970s-era Mac's Service Shop story made me
think about all the
cellphones today being dunked in toilets, swimming pools, lakes, and washing
machines. Of course back in Mac's day not everyone was walking around with an
electronic device tucked into his or her pocket waiting for its absentminded
owner to bend over or drop his/her drawers. At the time, far more wallets made
the dive than transistor radios. I won't bother linking to any articles about
how to best dry your dunked phone because there are hundreds - nay, thousands -
of them out there. They contradict each other about which absorbent materials to
use...
Copper Mountain Technologies is holding a webinar
titled "New Developments in Microwave Material Measurements," with Compass
Technology Group's Dr. John Schultz on February 8, at 2 PM EST.
Fundamental to microwave device design is knowing the electromagnetic
performance of materials used in the device. Whether it is a microwave
substrate, an antenna radome, or an electromagnetic inference absorber, methods
are needed to evaluate materials and determine their intrinsic dielectric and
magnetic properties. Designers use these intrinsic parameters (permittivity...
 "Can people actually be allergic to Wi-Fi? Some
claim you can and it even has its own official name,
Electromagnetic Hypersensitivity Syndrome.
Wi-Fi and other free to air electromagnetic waves had long been the subject of
suspected detrimental health effects. Some even believe they are in some way
allergic to Wi-Fi. Unexplained bouts of headaches, dizziness, and even skin
irritation have begun to be blamed on some form of severe discomfort or
hypersensitivity to electromagnetic fields. The condition has come to be known
as..."
Monday 29
 "New techniques in chemistry and physics will
allow scientists to create metamaterials. One of these new materials could be the key
to creating an
invisibility cloak.
The highly coveted invisibility cloak lays at the heart of some of the biggest
science fiction and fantasy movies in society. From Star Trek to Harry Potter,
who hasn't wanted an invisibility cloak at some point during their childhood or
even during adulthood. Today there is some good news for those who want the
ability to move around stealthily. A group of researchers has found a way..."
Skyworks Solutions today announced that its new
portfolio of 802.11ax wireless connectivity solutions are being leveraged by Broadcom
in their recently launched reference platforms. Skyworks' innovative modules integrate high power transmit
and low-noise receive amplification with precision switch capability in an ultra-compact
form factor that when paired with a modem, incorporate all the essential functionality
between the system-on-chip (SoC) and the antenna. Specifically, Skyworks' 2.4
and 5.0 GHz 802.11ax modules and..
 This letter to the editor column from a 1969 issue
of Electronics World got my attention because of the submission by reader Walter T.
Stevenson. He mentions having discovered that semiconductors, in his case a transistor,
could have their
junction conductance modulated by ambient light sources, in his case a
fluorescent light. Evidently some of the early transistors were shipped on a
substrate where the die was potted with a translucent epoxy compound that
permitted some light penetration. At least one manufacturer switched to an
opaque compound as a result of Mr. Stevenson's report. I remember the first I
experienced the phenomenon was as a technician working...
 China has completed its own quantum key network;
a perfectly secure network for communication across the globe.
Quantum cryptography
will provide unbreakable security for individuals, companies, and governments.
These systems can create unbreakable codes and provide a new level of secure
communications. Guided by the laws of quantum mechanics, the laws that dictate
what happens on a subatomic level, this technology cannot be corrupted. Just
this past week China has completed its..
 Here is a great opportunity to help design products
that millions of people will use. The
Sr. RF Design Engineer will play a central role in the development and design of
important new products where RF performance is very important for our remote controls
and connected products. You will be able to take pride in seeing your designs used by
your friends, neighbors, and in seeing them on the shelves at home stores. This highly
visible senior role will involve close collaboration with the rest of the new product
development team to produce new sub-gigahertz (UHF) remote...
 "You are sure to have had a
Lego
experience at some point during your childhood, or maybe even recently as an
adult. Those small little colorful plastic bricks have helped tons of small
children take those imaginative ideas from the back of their minds and manifest
them onto the floors of their bedrooms. If you ever played with Legos, you are
sure to have loved them. But, how much do you know about your childhood bricks?
Build the World In Your Image The LEGO group was founded in 1932 by Ole Kirk
Kristiansen. What..."
Sunday 28
 At least 10 clues with an asterisk (*)
in this
technology-themed crossword puzzle are pulled from this past week's (1/22 -
1/26) "Tech Industry Headlines" column on the RF Cafe homepage (see the Headline
Archives page for help). For the sake of all the avid cruciverbalists amongst
us, each week I create a new technology-themed crossword puzzle using only words
from my custom-created related to engineering, science, mathematics, chemistry,
physics, astronomy, etc. Enjoy...
Friday 26
 Anatech Electronics, a manufacturer of RF and microwave
filters, has published its January newsletter. In it, Sam Benzacar writes in "The
RF and Microwave Landscape in 2018" about his vision of what's to come this
year based on current indicators. Both commercial and military industries stand
to fare extremely well as technology advances and the economy shows signs of
performing even better in 2018 than it did in 2017. We're still waiting for
"true" 5G to be implemented, but there are many prerequisites that are maturing
rapidly. Take a few moments to read Sam's thoughts...
 Satellite evolution occurred at a rapid pace once
Sputnik and Echo were successfully launched in the late 1950s. Sputnik was a simple beacon
transmitter whose signal was used to measure orbital and atmospheric properties and their
effects on radio signals. Oh, and also to announce to the world that the USSR had accomplished
the world's first satellite mission - I'd brag, too. Explorer 1, the first
U.S. satellite, launched the following year, measured and broadcast Van Allen Radiation
Belt data. This Electronics World article appeared about a decade into
the satellite aspect of the "Space Race." By then...
 Empower RF is announcing wide availability of
their fielded
Model 2203
high power HF amplifier operating from 1 to 30 MHz delivering a minimum of 1 kW
CW. Designed for enabling or disrupting HF signal transmissions, this compact
and durable rack mount amplifier is the newest member of Empower's Next
Generation product portfolio. Sharing the families common hardware and software
architecture , the Next Generation family is now in use on mission critical
applications covering 1 MHz to 6 GHz. The 2203 is...
 "Researchers at ETH Zurich in Switzerland and
Caltech have developed a new method to create and design
metamaterials.
This method relies on quantum mechanics, and could be the key for making
metamaterials a mainstream tool. Metamaterials are materials that have been
specifically engineered so that their internal structure can manipulate incoming
waves. The material's structure determines how the waves can be controlled and
adjusted. Back in 2010, scientists at Caltech created an optical metamaterial..."
Thursday 25
 A Practical Guide to RF and Mixed Technology Printed
Circuit Board Layout, by Brendon Parise, appears to be a well-done book on
mixed signal PCB layout strategy. Amazon gives many preview pages to explore
before making a commitment to purchase. Per the author, "Regardless of the
mathematics and simulations that may be employed, strict adherence to best
practices is most likely to make the board 'just work.'" Learn from someone who
has done it, not just theorized about it...
, the premier
provider of test equipment rentals, now offers for rent the
EMC Partner
DOW3000, which is electronic measuring equipment for energy distribution
networks. The EMC Partner DOW3000 is the latest development from EMC Partner. It
is a configurable high voltage test system that can be extended for slow and
fast damped oscillatory waves, impulse voltage test, or any combination of the
three options. The integrated 32 amp three phase coupler (CDN) has a CDN rate...
 Inductor-capacitor (LC) series and parallel combinations
comprised the first lumped element electrical filters for frequency discrimination. Below
a few MHz, with a little judicial placement of components and treatment of lead lengths,
building a successful
LC filter is not hard, and the measured response physical result looks very
much like the predicted response - provided the circuit model is sufficiently
accurate. Above 50 MHz or so, very careful attention must be paid to parasitic
elements (inter-turn capacitance, lead inductance, cross-coupling) to get a good
response. The advent of surface mount components has made higher frequency LC
filter...
announces a new C-band
filter that is ideal for eliminating interference from WiMAX, RADAR and virtually any
other potential source of out-of-band interference. The model
13961W combines innovative design techniques with solid performance.
Utilizing a durable and true one piece body/flange construction, the 13961W is shipped
with hardware & gasketing and is ready to install between the feedhorn and
the LNB/LNA. Passband variations available at no additional cost...
Empower RF Systems, a leading provider of high-power
ultra-broadband radio frequency (RF) amplifier solutions, is seeking a qualified and
driven candidate for a newly-created position of
Field Applications Engineer (FAE). Reporting to Sales/Business Development, the Field
Applications Engineer gives pre and post-sales technical support for key customers. The
FAE actively participates in proposal preparation, sales demos and product development.
The position requires close cooperation and coordination with sales, engineering and
business development to identify power...
 "Wireless engineers and telecoms
executives are making more promises about the possibilities of 5G, but behind
the scenes, they're still working out what exactly 5G will look like. The 3rd
Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), a global collaboration between several
telecommunications organizations, has now begun to outline the extensive
specifications required to build and deploy functioning 5G networks. With a
steady stream of news trickling out - South Korea will deploy a 5G test network
during the Winter Olympics, and AT&T will provide mobile 5G..."
Wednesday 24
 Seeed Studios is a major supplier of systems
and components for a wide range of electronic projects commonly undertaken by the Maker
community of inventors and experimenters. Amateur radio operators (Hams), students, technicians,
and engineers can find the large assortment of RF modules (GPS, WiFi, BT, ZigBee, NFC),
Arduino kits, sensors (V, I, T), robotic components, drones, etc. A prime distributor
of
RF Explorer spectrum and EM field analyzers and accessories
Please explore Seeed's website today...
 I tried to find some information on "direct-impedance
amplification," but alas none could be located. At first, I suspected that it being
in the April edition of Radio-Craft might have meant it was a ruse on readers,
especially since author L. Mitchell Barcus focused on the nearly sub-audible portion
of the sound spectrum down to around 16 Hz. Careful reading of the article reveals,
however, that his pièce de résistance was designing the circuit with a minimum of biasing
resistors, capacitors, and inductors that might otherwise attenuate low frequencies.
Success was in the form of direct coupling of stages sans Rs, Ls, and Cs. I'm
guessing the...
Here is a great opportunity to help design products
that millions of people will use. The
Sr. RF Design Engineer will play a central role in the development and design of
important new products where RF performance is very important for our remote controls
and connected products. You will be able to take pride in seeing your designs used by
your friends, neighbors, and in seeing them on the shelves at home stores. This highly
visible senior role will involve close collaboration with the rest of the new product
development team to produce new sub-gigahertz (UHF) remote...
Microwave Journal
has published an enhanced online section with a compilation of tools, software, calculators, spreadsheets
and more that RF and microwave engineers can utilize or download. A description, graphic
and link are available for each tool for quick reference. The library includes offerings
from leading RF/microwave companies such as Analog Devices, Pasternack, NI/AWR, Keysight,
CST, ANSYS, Sonnet, Comsol, MathWorks, Remcom, Custom MMIC, Mician Rogers, K&L,
Coilcraft and...
announces the availability of the
Rigol Technologies
RSA5000 Series of RF spectrum analyzers.
These real-time devices scan a complete frequency spectrum of 9 kHz to 3.2 or
6.5 GHz with a maximum sample rate of 51.2 MS/s. They offer significant
performance improvements over traditional swept spectrum analyzers with a 1 ms
full span sweep, an expanded vertical range to +30 dBm, reduced phase noise to
-108 dBc/Hz, 1 Hz RBW (resolution bandwidth), and a reduced noise floor (DANL)
to -165 dBm. They can also be used in a traditional swept scan mode...
 "Thin-film transistors (TFT) form the foundation
for many of today's technologies, including smartphones and flat-panel TVs. And these
TFTs are made possible by amorphous silicon. While this material has managed to do the
trick for the most part, it does have some performance limitations, such as limited carrier
mobility, that have sent researchers in search of something better.
Organic thin-film transistors
(OTFTs) have proven better than amorphous silicon-based TFTs in some areas of
performance, especially carrier mobility..."
Tuesday 23
 "At VidaRF, the phrase 'Providing Simple Solutions
for Complex Connections' is more than just a slogan – it's a mindset, a mission, and
a driving force behind everything we do. Our pledge is to design and distribute high
performance, cost effective
RF
Microwave products to fit each customer's unique applications." Please visit VidaRF
today to see how their lines of Attenuators & Terminations, Directional Couplers,
Power Dividers, Coaxial Connectors, and Circulator & Isolators can be of use to your
project.
 By now, most people involved with spread spectrum
communications are (or should be) aware that Hollywood starlet
Hedy Lamarr is credited
for being the first to suggest a frequency hopping scheme for secure communications.
If you do a Google search on Hedy Lamarr and spread spectrum, you see that except for
a few mentions on tech websites, it has only been in the news since the end of the last
decade. Scientific American magazine ran an article titled, "Hedy
Lamarr: Not Just a Pretty Face," in 2008. Google honored her in 2015 with a
Doodle on their homepage. "The most beautiful woman in the world," with the
assistance of her co-inventor-composer George Antheil...
 "The
2U Zhou Enlai CubeSat, developed with primary and middle school students
in China, is expected to launch on January 19. The satellite is named after the first
Premier of the People's Republic of China, who held office from 1949 until 1976. A report
on the official Xinhua Net website said the CubeSat, constructed at Huai'an Youth Comprehensive
Development Base in Jiangsu Province, has been transported to Jiuquan Satellite
Launch Center, where a CZ-11 solid-fuel rocket will put it into orbit Friday.
'Twenty teenagers who participated in the development project.."
Pasternack has released a new line of attenuators
for quick mating and easy installation. Typical applications include DAS systems, remote
radio heads (RRHs), base stations and antennas. Pasternack's 23 new
quick connect attenuators
are available with QMA, QN or 4.3-10 connectors for easy mating. These
attenuators support operating frequency ranges from DC to 6 GHz. They boast
attenuation values from 0 to 20 dB and VSWR as low as 1.15:1. The 4.3-10
attenuator models have power handling up to 15 W maximum with low-PIM..
 "A
Tesla Model S
reportedly on 'Autopilot' smashed into the back of a fire truck parked at a
freeway accident scene Monday morning, authorities said. The union representing
Culver City firefighters whose truck was hit around 8:30 a.m. on Interstate 405
in Culver City tweeted that the Tesla driver said he had been using Tesla's
Autopilot system, which performs automated driving tasks. The CHP and Culver
City Fire Department confirmed the southbound Tesla had struck the fire truck,
but could not immediately...
 "Indeed.com just released its 2017
Silicon Valley salary survey, looking at which tech jobs command
the highest average pay over the past year, according to job openings posted on the job
search firm's web site from November 2016 through October 2017. Product development engineer
claimed the number one spot, with an average salary of US $173,570, and director of product
management was just a few dollars behind, with an average salary of $173,556. Meanwhile,
dev ops manager, machine learning..."
Monday 22
 This is Part 2 of a 3-part series of articles on
atomic radiation that appeared in Electronics World magazine in
1969. The first part, which dealt with various types of radiation and how they
interacted with matter, was posted a week or so ago. For instance ionizing
versus nonionizing radiation, where the former can cause cancer, the latter just
burns you. This installment discuses methods and equipment for detecting and
measuring radiation levels. Ionizing radiation detectors rely on having massive
particles impinge on gas, solid, or liquid media and causing a reaction that is
visible or measurable by electronic means. Nowadays there are highly...
Triad RF has introduced the
TA1056, a compact and powerful designed for use with JTRS Military Radio
Communications, as well as any other applications that require operation over a
broad spectrum. This amplifier boasts 40W of output power for long range
communication capability. This class AB GaN module is designed for both military
and commercial applications. It is capable of supporting any signal type and
modulation format, including but not limited to 3 - 4G telecom, WLAN...
 This quiz tests your awareness of the many
mergers
and acquisitions that occurred in the RF, microwave, and analog electronics industries
during 2017. Mr. Raghav Kapur, of the everythingRF website, compiled a good
list of events with a short description of the transactions, so I used it to
generate this 10-question quiz. It was made using Google Docs. Winners receive a
free subscription to the RF Cafe website for a full month. Good luck...
 Federal Custom Cable (FCC)is offering a free Yeti
tumbler with a purchase of $100 or more. FCC boasts over 200,000 custom cable assemblies1,000s
of coax adapters & connectors, 100s of attenuators & terminations, and over 150,000
non-existent & hard to find adapters. BTW, in case you don't know,
Yeti
is a big name in insulated cups and containers. Our local Field & Stream store
has one sitting on the counter with hours-old ice cubes in it to demo its
ability. Come for the cables, leave with the Yeti Tumbler...
 "Researchers based in Singapore and the USA have
integrated indium gallium arsenide (InGaAs) transistors with aluminum gallium arsenide
(AlGaAs)
laser diodes (LDs) using molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) on silicon
substrates. The team from National University of Singapore, the Singapore-MIT Alliance
for Research and Technology-Low Energy Electronic Systems, Nanyang Technological
University in Singapore and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the
USA are working towards low-cost, low-power, high-speed optoelectronic..."
Sunday 21
 At least 10 clues with an asterisk (*)
in this
technology-themed crossword puzzle are pulled from this past week's (1/15 - 1/19)
"Tech Industry Headlines" column on the RF Cafe homepage (see
the Headline Archives page for help). For the sake of all the avid cruciverbalists
amongst us, each week I create a new technology-themed crossword puzzle using only words
from my custom-created related to engineering, science, mathematics, chemistry, physics,
astronomy, etc. Enjoy!...
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