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Friday 29
Thursday 28
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Sunday 24
Friday 22
RF/Microwave Training Webinar
Title: Mixers and Frequency Conversion | Date: September 28, 2017 |Time: 8am
PT / 11am ET | Sponsored by: National Instruments
Presented by: Allen Podell
Outline: Frequency conversion is a critical function in all wireless systems. A key component
used to accomplish this is the mixer. Designers need to understand different mixer topologies
and specifications in order to meet their system requirements. This webinar provides a brief
overview of frequency conversion ...
 Part 1 of this 3-part series discussed the basics of
radiation, and now author Ello delves into various methods of detecting and measuring radiation
levels.
Ionizing radiation measurement capability is needed for the safety of life forms due its
ability to knock electrons away from their host atoms, thus generating ions that cause molecules
to form that might not otherwise do so. If those molecules happen to part of a self-reproducing
living cell, then a mutant - or cancerous - cell is the result. With luck, body defense cells
will hunt down and kill it, but if not, a tumor will develop - maybe benign, but maybe malignant ...
 Pay Scale has published their 2017-2018 list of college
rankings, along with average starting salaries. For
engineering pay levels, MIT tops the list at $84.7k, followed by Marietta
College and Stanford. The U.S. Naval Academy ranks #6 at $79.9k (and free tuition). Harvard
comes it at #8, and Mr. Einstein's' home of Princeton is #16. West Point, another institution
with free tuition, is at #18. The score of my alma mater,
UVM, is too embarrassing to mention,
but it does go a long way toward explaining my rather lackluster financial status. See the
entire list here ...
 Withwave's
W-Test cable assemblies are complete line of high precision flexible microwave cable assemblies,
specially for stable phase testing. These WT series are designed by excellent microwave interconnection
technologies. The WT500 & 670 cable assemblies, operating to 50 GHz and 67 GHz,
respectively, have excellent insertion loss, high phase/amplitude stability in relation to
temperature ...
 "In a
pioneering effort to control, measure and understand magnetism at the atomic level, researchers
working at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have discovered a new
method for manipulating the nanoscale properties of
magnetic materials.
The ability to control these properties has potential applications in creating and improving
the magnetic memory in consumer electronic devices, and developing a sensitive detector for
magnetic nanoparticles. The discovery ..."
Thursday 21
 According to Microwave Journal Editor Patrick
Hindle, "Antenna measurements are difficult to make due to their multi-directional nature,
their cables / connections to equipment and interfering signals in the environment. The measurement
setup, surrounding environment and physical connections all need to be carefully specified
and setup, paying close attention to the instruments and materials used." Copper Mountain
Technologies collaborated with Microwave Journal to offer you this free eBook,
Precision Antenna Measurements, on precision antenna measurements ...
 RF Cafe visitor
Richard P. posted this challenge on my Facebook page. He would like
a positive Id on the device in order to re-bias it for higher voltage operation. It is in
a HF amplifier he bought on eBay. The package marking is smudged so that the full part number
is indiscernible. I labeled the image with the limited info I could make out. The company
logo is Freescale, which was once Motorola and is now NXP, so it is not a new device. The
ceramic flanged package appears to be for an LDMOS transistor. I spent more than an hour searching,
but had, in Richard's words, "no joy." If you can ID it, please shoot me an e-mail ...
 During my tenure in the early-to-mid 1980s as an electronics
technician at Westinghouse Electric's Oceanic Division, in Annapolis, MD, I assembled many
a Mil-Spec printed circuit board. An initial week-long soldering class and then periodic refreshers
were required to get NASA-certified for the type of critical work we did there. I have
written before about the rigid inspection process that each PCB, cable harness, wire-wrap
board, etc., was put through. Many of the assemblies for use in underwater vehicles and ship-based
controllers needed to be
conformably coated for protection against the corrosive salt water environment. The first
step ...
 "American Tower and Phillips Lighting partner on connected
light poles to add network density for smart city applications Siting of
wireless infrastructure in urban spaces is often a tricky proposition
for wireless carriers and neutral host providers. Regulations vary between jurisdictions,
which makes developing a scalable deployment model difficult and, in turn, drives up costs
and extends project timelines. In the context of a smart city, ultra-dense network ..."
 "Officials in Xilinshui, in the city of Baoding, Hebei
province, created the scannable [QR] code, which measures 227 m along each side, using about 130,000
Chinese juniper trees, Xinhua reported on Thursday. The evergreen trees, which are native
to northeast Asia, are all between 80 cm and 2.5 m in height. While difficult to
do, anyone who scans the greenery using a smartphone or tablet will be connected to the village's
public WeChat account for tourism ..."
 The LDMOUNT is ideal for pump and communication diode
lasers. The LDMOUNT from Wavelength Electronics is designed for optoelectronic modules
in a 14-pin butterfly package that require up to 5A. With integrated heatsinking, built-in
safety features, and easy connection to eight different high performance Wavelength controllers,
the LDMOUNT can be used in a variety of applications, mounted on an optics table or to a chassis ...
 "Revolutionary, tower-style computer chips could boost
microprocessor performance a thousand-fold. In the age of big data, cloud and the internet
of things, our thirst for computing power has never been greater. Many of our readers will
be familiar with
Moore's law, the observation that predicts a doubling of computing capability
every two years, as integrated circuits are packed ever denser with ..."
Wednesday 20
 ConductRF's skill in the manufacturing of
Phase Matched RF Cable
Solutions is second to none. We have phase matched a diverse array of solutions from Low
Frequency RG and LMR Cables to more premium exotic cables up to 70 GHz. Flexible, conformable &
semi-rigid, phase & amplitude stable, low loss & high power, phase differential as
low as ±0.2 °/GHz, many connector types, indoor & outdoor solutions. A broad base
of standard connectors and cables in stock, we turn solutions around fast ...
 "As demand grows for more versatile, advanced robotics
and other technologies, the need for components that can enable these applications also increases.
Producing such components en masse has been a major challenge. But now, in ACS Applied Materials &
Interfaces, researchers report that they have developed a way to help meet this need by printing
electronics that can fold themselves into a desired shape. Creating small
electronic pieces with specific architectural designs can now ..."
 Each month (unless I forget) I post a list of articles
with advice on
career enhancement including tips on preparing resumes, conducting yourself properly at
interviews, getting along well with co-workers, handling a difficult boss, etc. I also
post links to polls and studies done on career satisfaction, pay rates, education and experience
levels, years in the field, etc. Those types of articles have been around since Johannes Gutenberg
invented the movable type printing press. In the 1970s, Popular Electronics rand
a series of articles titled "Opportunity Awareness" that offered such advice, much of which
in principle is still valid today. One of the biggest advantages you can give yourself ...
 "There, his new specimens
joined his collection and waited patiently as only rocks can
until he could find time to analyze them." -
Kat McGowan, "Where Did It Begin?"
September / October 2017 Popular Science (p41).
 Glenn Robb, owner / engineer from Antenna Test Lab
Company sent me this very excellent whitepaper he just wrote titled "Circularly Polarized Antennas Explained, Without the Math." As promised,
his tutorial introduces the concept of circular polarization in electromagnetic waves and
then describes how he measures and reports results in a spreadsheet using automated antenna
positioning and frequency sweeping. Antenna Test Lab Co's evaluation service includes fully
circular polarization antenna evaluations at no extra charge. Practical antenna evaluations
with 2D or 3D patterns in hundreds of test directions (and frequencies) are available for
$450 ...
 "Chang Gung University and Episil-Precision in Taiwan
claim the first demonstration of in-situ silicon nitride (SiNx) gate dielectric aluminium
gallium nitride (AlGaN) barrier metal–insulator–semiconductor high-electron-mobility transistors
(MISHEMTs) on 6-inch silicon on insulator (SOI) substrates. The devices showed improved DC,
dynamic and radio frequency (RF) performance over the same structures grown on HR Si ..."
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 Agendas are set and registration opened for the Russia
leg of AWR Design Forum (ADF) 2017, an open forum that aims to bring together
NI AWR Design Environment customers,
partners and engineering professionals to learn, network and collaborate on the design of
today's RF/microwave circuits and systems. ADF 2017 will visit three cities in Russia: St.
Petersburg on October 3, Moscow on October 4 and Zelenograd on October 5 ...
 KR Electronics part number
3012-220 is a
220 MHz bandpass filter designed for Positive Train Control (PTC) applications. Encapsulated
for enhanced shock and vibration resistance, 50 Ω source and load, N(F) to N(M) connectors.
The filters are encapsulated/ruggedized for enhanced shock and vibration resistance. Thousands
are currently installed and operating successfully in the field with major rail companies.
Other frequencies and bandwidths are available ...
KR Electronics part number
3012-455 is a
160 MHz bandpass filter designed for Positive Train Control (PTC) applications. Encapsulated
for enhanced shock and vibration resistance, 50 Ω source and load, N(F) to N(M) connectors.
The filters are encapsulated/ruggedized for enhanced shock and vibration resistance. Thousands
are currently installed and operating successfully in the field with major rail companies.
Other frequencies and bandwidths are available ...
 "I would
like to die on Mars... just not on impact." -
Elon Musk, SpaceX
CEO, during 2013 South by Southwest (SXSW) interview. Begins at 44:15 in video ...
 "Light is strange, but you can get used to it." - Robert
Lanza & Bob Berman in
Beyond Biocentrism. The book discusses some of the stranger aspects
of quantum physics including the dual particle and wave nature of light, and the "spooky action
at a distance" of entanglement. The biocentrism theme is weird, but there is a good review
of quantum theory ...
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 "Spin separation caused by the thermal flow of electrons
has been observed by an international team of physicists. Called the "spin Nernst effect", the phenomenon involves the separation of spin-up
and spin-down electrons without the application of a magnetic field. The research could help
with the development of new technologies including spintronics – circuits that store and process
information using spins – and devices that convert heat into ..."
 "Triboelectricity, which is defined as small-scale static-electricity charges
generated by contact and motion between surfaces, seems like a winning 'something for almost
nothing' scenario. It can be used to generate energy that's harvested and stored, and then
used to power extremely low-power sensors and electronics. Now there's a rigorous analysis
and model-based framework, developed by a team of researchers at three UK-based ..."
 Intersil has released the first three members of its
new family of
radiation-tolerant plastic-package ICs designed to support the emerging
field of small satellites. Intersil's rad-tolerant plastic parts include the ISL71026M 3.3V
controller area network (CAN) transceiver, ISL71444M 40V quad precision rail-to-rail input
and output (RRIO) op amp, and the ISL71001M 6A point-of-load (POL) voltage regulator. These
ICs deliver rad-tolerance performance at a much lower cost point versus radiation assurance
tested Class V (space level) products. All three ...
 "As the Internet of Things grows, sensors and other
devices must collect and transmit data while consuming as little power as possible. One way
to do this is to take advantage of
backscatter by having IoT devices reflect radiofrequency signals transmitted
to them. Tuned properly, these waves can deliver information over short distances. A team
from the University of Washington, with the Internet of Things in mind, has expanded the range
of backscatter to several kilometers. Last week ..."
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