Amplifiers for Set-Top Boxes
Skyworks is pleased to introduce two new broadband, 75 Ohm MMIC
front-end, LNAs designed specifically for set-top box applications: the
SKY65450-92LF (with bypass mode)
and the SKY65452-92LF. These devices
provide high linearity and excellent gain over a wide frequency range (40 MHz to 1 GHz) with minimal
external components, enabling OEMs to leverage cost efficiencies through lower bill of materials. In
addition, Skyworks' new LNAs offer low current consumption and low noise figure (2.9 dB typ.), delivering
energy-saving features, and are packaged
...
CAGR, Rising by 2.5x by End-2022
"Led by adoption across various market segments, the
GaN
RF device market will double over the next five years, reckons Yole Développement in its new report
'GaN RF Devices Market: Applications, Players, Technology, and Substrates 2016 – 2022', which spans
wireless infrastructure, defense & aerospace, satellite communication, wired broadband (CATV and
FTTH), and other industrial, scientific & medical (ISM)-band applications. Indeed, 2015 was a significant
year for the GaN RF industry: In particular, a dramatic increase in wireless infrastructure market sales
is ..."
with the S-Meter
Antenna radiation (beam) patterns published by manufacturers are
obtained under ideal - or close to ideal - conditions with a carefully prepared and calibrated open
air test site (OATS) or an enclosed anechoic chamber. Multipath, imperfect earth ground, obstacles both
manmade and natural, misshapen elements, poor VSWR, antenna orientation (in both azimuth and elevation)
are among the many factors which produce real-world operational results that do not jive with a manufacturer's
datasheet. Without employing some far field 3-dimensional field strength scheme
see Drone-Based Field
Measurement System™), there is no way to obtain a complete picture of how your antenna performs
in all directions
...
5G - New-Waveform-Analysis
5G - New-Waveform-Analysis.
Free download from Anritsu. UF-OFDM, FBMC and GFDM are under investigation worldwide as promising candidates
of the New Waveform for 5G mobile communication systems. This paper describes features of their signal
processing technologies and issues. New Waveform analysis environment is also introduced. Impact of
each waveform to existing system can be estimated quickly by the environment. Preparations for the migration
from LTE/LTE-Advanced to next-generation mobile communications systems (5G)
...
to Neon Gas Supply Shortage
"When many people think of neon, they think of brightly lighted
signs used in restaurants and other retail environments. The element neon (Ne) gives a distinct reddish-orange
glow when used in either low-voltage neon glow lamps or in high-voltage discharge tubes or neon advertising
signs. The red emission line from neon is also responsible for the well known red light of
helium–neon lasers. Neon is commercially extracted by the fractional distillation
of liquid air. It is considerably more expensive than helium, since air is its only source. What those
outside the chip industry likely don't know is that neon has been employed for semiconductor manufacturing
..."
for Their Continued Support!
everything RF
is a product discovery platform for
RF & Microwave Products/Services. We currently have 176,244 RF & Microwave
Products from over 756 Companies listed in 215 categories in our database and enable engineers to search
for them using our customized parametric search tool. The parametric product search tool on everything
RF has been designed to replace paper and PDF catalogs. It is fast, easy to use and very powerful –
You can enter your specs and find products from multiple manufacturers that meet your requirement. You
can then compare products, download datasheets, request quotations, get pricing or contact the manufacturer
for more information
...
on Propagation in Transmission Lines
Free webinar by Microwave Journal and Rogers Corp. to be broadcast on April 7 at 11:00 am ET. "Designers
of high frequency electrical devices have long known that
conductor surface roughness affects loss. Earlier correlations such as those
of Morgan and Groisse underestimate insertion loss by a large margin at higher frequencies and on narrower
transmission lines, where conductor effects dominate. The present work experimentally demonstrates
that the recent Hall-Huray 'snowball' model and the Sonnet conductor loss correlation correctly predict
the shape of the insertion loss versus frequency curve up to 110 GHz, over a wide range of copper profiles.
Quantitative agreement, however, requires empirical adjustment of
..."
for a TV Receiver
Velocity modulation, aka deflection modulation, of electronic
images was evidently considered by some engineers to be potentially disruptive technology when this
article was published in a 1951 issue of Radio & Television News. You can see from the
pictures that the result is an image that today's digital software would render with an 'emboss' technique.
More vertical relief seems to be generated with the analog velocity modulation technique compared to
what my graphics program does when embossing the original photo. At the bottom of the page is a velocity
modulation video demonstration found on YouTube
...
Takes the Next Step
"Military researchers want to join with industry to build a
robotic space vehicle capable of inspecting, repairing and upgrading high-flying
satellites that are out of the reach of conventional spacecraft. The project could not only make satellites
in geosynchronous, or GEO, orbit more effective, but could also reduce costs. The plans calls for developing
a public-private partnership that would eventually develop a commercial space robotics enterprise in
which robotic space vehicles would provide services to military, government and commercial satellites
in GEO orbit
..."
"'Where's Wally'-style puzzles
that involve finding hidden creatures from pandas to owls have left people scratching their heads in
recent weeks. But the latest challenge baffling the internet is a logic puzzle for children that involves
studying a picture of tourists at a holiday campsite and answering a list of nine questions. The image,
thought to be from an old children's magazine, according to The Independent, has recently resurfaced
online, but despite being aimed at youngsters the tough questions are likely to leave adults scratching
their heads
..." OK, so I missed one - big hairy deal :-(
Using a list on Wikipedia
as my source, the following table presents cellphone manufacturer host countries in descending order
(see Wiki list for more details). Even though the majority of mobile phones
are manufactured in countries like China and Taiwan, most are not designed there - although China has
the single largest number of companies: 24 (17%). The United States comes
in second with 15 (10%) cellphone companies. India is home to 13
(9%), Japan hosts 8 (6%), and Russia has
7 (5%). There are a total of about 144 that are not marked as discontinued.
Stand-out names, at least as translated into English, include 'Technology Happy Life' from China, 'Ringing
Bells' from India, 'John's Phone' from ...
Elmer “Bud” Frohardt Jr. Has Passed
"The ham radio mentor who inspired the term 'Elmer'
- Elmer P. 'Bud' Frohardt, Jr., W9DY, of Madison, Wisconsin - died on March 22. He was 93. A friend
and co-worker of the late Rod Newkirk, W9BRD-, who edited QST's -How's DX?- column, Frohardt was the
'Elmer' that Newkirk had in mind when he used the name in his March 1971 column, referring to someone
who helped to mentor new Amateur Radio licensees and calling them 'the unsung fathers of Amateur Radio.'
'Too frequently one hears a sad story in this little nutshell
..."
BTW, I submitted W9DY's info to the National Silent Key Archive while researching this info.
Has -161 dBm/Hz Noise Floor
"Tektronix has expanded its line of disruptive USB-based real-time
spectrum analyzers with 4 new higher-performance models targeting design, spectrum management and wireless
transmitter installation and maintenance applications. The new
RSA500 and RSA600 series of analyzers
offer frequency coverage from 9 kHz up to 7.5 GHz with 40 MHz acquisition bandwidth, a measurement dynamic
range from -161 dBm/Hz Displayed Average Noise Level, and up to +30 dBm maximum input. The new USB-based
spectrum analyzers embrace the design
..."
A few days ago,
Mrs. Amy Burghardt, of Herndon, VA, contacted me asking for assistance in selling her grandmother's
Crosley model 03CA
console style radio. She found my Crosley 03CB radio restoration project page while searching for information
on hers. According to the schematics, the 03CA electronics are exactly the same and the 03CB electronics;
only the wooden cabinet is different. As evidenced by the photos, Mrs. Burghardt's 03CA radio appears
to be in excellent physical condition. Note how well preserved the burl trim pattern is on the edges
and on the speaker grille rods. That was the one aspect of my 03CB was could not be retained because
Crosley used some sort of decal. According to her
...
"Researchers working at NIST have developed a 'piezo-optomechanical circuit' that converts signals among optical, acoustic and
radio waves. A system based on this design could move and store information in next-generation computers.
The team's work, published in Nature Photonics, also was presented at the March 2016 meeting of the
American Physical Society in Baltimore, Md. As transistors shrink, heat and other factors will begin
to have magnified effects in circuits. As a result, researchers are increasingly
..."
TETRA vs. Project 25 in The Big Apple
Anatech Electronics, a manufacturer of
RF and microwave filters, has published its
March 2016 newsletter.
As always, it includes both company news and some tidbits about relevant industry happenings. This month,
Sam Benzacar's main thesis addresses the ineptitude of big city planners when it comes to wireless communications.
He notes how NY City, in updating its archaic analog emergency and public service radio system, has
chosen the TETRA system which is not compatible with FCC recommended Project 25 standards (includes
new 700 MHz public safety band). Sam won't say it but I will - follow the money from city coffers to
the chosen system contractor and you will probably learn why a TETRA system is being installed. Fortunately
for Big Apple occupants, Ham radio operators are standing
...
Nears Despite Infighting
"The US Federal
Communications Commission, an organization apparently as fractured by political warring as other government
bodies, has made public a database of the 104 applicants primed to bid in its upcoming auction of 600
MHz wireless spectrum. Frequency allocations in the United States. Source: NYU Wireless Frequency allocations
in the United States. Source: NYU Wireless Of the 104, 35 applications are still incomplete and must
be resubmitted by April 6. AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, and, U.S. Cellular are among
...
Notable Tech Quote:
Albert Szent-Gyorgyi
"Research is four things: brains with which to think, eyes with
which to see, machines with which to measure and, fourth, money." -
Albert Szent-Gyorgyi,
Nobel Prize winning physiologist who is credited with discovering vitamin C.
"University
of California at San Diego (UCSD) in the USA and the University of Manchester in the UK have been developing
methods to control
excitons
in molybdenum disulfide (MoS2). The researchers hope that states such as Bose-Einstein condensates
found in low-temperature GaAs exciton structures could be realized at room temperature, giving access
to resistance-free superfluid flow. Also, better control of excitons is considered to be a path to more
efficient light emission. The use
..."
Spring Fancies
Mac's young technician sidekick Barney decides to one-up the
do-it-yourself television repair books that were flooding magazine pages those days by writing a
series of do-it-yourself surgery books. He figures if the other guys can get rich by convincing Joe
Sixpack that he can easily fix problems in his TV set - where potentially lethal voltages lurk in every
corner - in as little as five minutes while saving hundreds of dollars from those rascally shop owners,
then surely those same people might buy his books for removing your own appendix or tonsils. Deny the
greedy doctors
...
This is a very extensive app note on making making
noise figure
measurements and interpreting the results. "A list of essential measurements in electronic circuits
and systems would probably include voltage, current, power, and distortion. An even more complete list
should also include the measurement of noise. When assessing the dynamic range of a single electronic
component or an entire electronic system, distortion and maximum power bound the high side of the dynamic
range performance and noise bounds the low side. The measurement of noise is a fundamental requirement
for electronic design. Noise in
..."
It really was not all that long ago when wiring images for news
stories literally meant
transmitting
photographs over a twisted pair of telephone lines either to a fax machine or to a computer on standby
waiting for incoming files. Videocasts were being regularly performed via satellite of ground relay
microwave stations since the 1960s, but most still shots were sent via phone lines. For the last decade
and a half, both still shots and videos have been transmitted as a routine matter via camera-equipped
cellphones, and as with most technologies we have quickly become so accustomed to the convenience that
memories of the old ways are quickly (even thankfully) forgotten. This article from a 1936 edition of
Radio-Craft describes one of the really early systems. Notice that coupling to the telephone
line is
...
ESD in Space
The real story here is an ability to
3D-print specialty tools and components on demand while in space, in this case aboard the
International
Space Station (ISS). What caught my attention, though, is the ESD wrist strap on astronaut Barry
"Butch" Wilmore while showing off his newly fabricated ratchet wrench. Electrostatic discharge is no
respecter of venue. NASA likes the saving of cargo volume afforded by being able to 3D-print many items
- particularly spares - as-required rather than packing things that might never be needed. Containers
of raw materials and a couple 3D printers take up less space and weight - a major concern when planning
interplanetary missions
...
1515 W Wireless Power Tx & Rx Solution
Integrated Device Technology (IDT) today introduced two new devices
that deliver a complete high-efficiency
wireless charging solution for electronics demanding up to 15 W of output power.
Supporting wireless charging for new categories of consumer products and infrastructure, the highly
integrated chips deliver industry-leading power conversion efficiency of over 86% from transmitter input
to receiver output, reducing system losses and improving thermal performance while rivaling traditional
wired power conversion architectures. Compatible with the Wireless Power Consortium (WPC) Qi standard,
the new
...a>
Puzzle for March 27, 2016
This week's
crossword puzzle has
a special message included that has to do with why you might be off work on Monday for a holiday. Oh,
and it also happens to be the world's most revered religious time of commemoration, which to the delight
of some and to the sorrow of others, is rapidly fading into the shadows of time. The colorful 'no-letter'
squares were inspired by the type of candy I am eating as I make the puzzle. As always all the other
words are from a hand assembled file of thousands of terms from science, engineering, mathematics, chemistry,
astronomy, etc. 7 Across + 15 Across to all!
...
There
is something about these proposed 'shorthand circuit symbols'
that reminds me of the IEEE digital logic symbols using the 'distinctive shape' (the traditional format)
versus the newer 'rectangular shape' format. The set is quite extensive when all the different flavors
of combinatorial blocks - flip-flops, timers, counters, shift registers, encoders, decoders, etc. -
are included. My personal preference, you might guess, is the original format with distinctive shapes.
Although I do not do a lot of digital work, it is easier for me to follow the signal flow and mentally
perform the logic operations with the distinctive shapes. But I digress. This article from a 1947 issue
of QST magazine introduces
...
White Paper by Anritsu
Anritsu
recently published a white paper titled 5G Standardization
Status in 3GPP. "3GPP is set to standardize 5G specifications which are expected to be operational
over the next few years. Similar to 3G and 4G cases, 3GPP will submit IMT-2020 specifications based
on ITU-R recommendations. This guide discusses ITU-R's vision of 5G, 3GPP activities for 5G and new
functionalities in 5G." A free download
is available, but you do need to fill out a form to get it.
Needs an RF Field Test Engineer
DEC has an immediate opening for an
RF Field Test Engineer
in Dayton, Ohio. The position requires a BS Electrical Engineering and 5+ years of relevant experience.
Primary duties consist of planning and conducting field evaluations of innovative / experimental RF
systems. This includes travel to western test ranges, coordination with Federal Government agencies,
frequency allocation, trouble-shooting, and data analysis. Experience with bi-static systems desired,
but not required. Applicants must be U.S. citizens with ability to obtain a TS/SCI security clearance.
The primary job location is in Dayton, Ohio at Wright Patterson Air Force Base
...
Competition Winners
The
winners of the 2016 EPSRC "Science Photography Competition" have been announced. It was held by the
Engineering and Physical Sciences
Research Council (EPSRC), the "UK government agency for funding research and training in engineering
and the physical sciences, investing more than £800 million a year in a broad range of subjects - from
mathematics to materials science, and from information technology to structural engineering." Recipients
of funding from EPSRC submit photographs for judging. This year's top prize titled "Microwave Ion-Trap
Chip for Quantum Computation" went to Mrs. Diana Prado Lopes Aude Craik, University of Oxford, for her
photo of a gold ion trap. Per the website, it "shows the chip's gold wire-bonds
...
Elevated to IEEE Fellow
Gabriele Manganaro, an Analog Devices, Inc. engineering director,
has been named an IEEE Fellow for his leadership in the design of high speed converters. Elevation to
an IEEE Fellow involves a rigorous evaluation procedure and less than 0.1% of IEEE voting members are
selected annually for this prestigious honor. Manganaro, who holds a Dr.Eng. and a Ph.D. degree in Electronics
from the University of Catania, Italy, has been engineering director for high speed converters at Analog
Devices since 2010. His career in data converter design spans more than 20 years. "Gabriele has been
a highly visible part of the industry's data converter community for many years, and he was able to
contribute to
..."
of Public Sector Radio Spectrum
"UK Chancellor of the Exchequer George
Osborne announced in the 2016 budget that
750 MHz
of public sector radio spectrum would be 'released' - that is, auctioned. The Amateur Service in
the UK currently shares significant spectrum with the public sector. In 'Supporting the digital economy,'
the Budget
2016 document calls electromagnetic spectrum a valuable and scarce resource. 'Budget 2016 announces
a new government commitment that 750 MHz of valuable public sector spectrum in bands below 10 GHz will
be made available by 2022, of which 500 MHz will be made available by 2020.' The document states
..."
in a Multielement Quad
Multielement quad antennas are as popular today as they were in
1967 when this article appeared in the ARRL's QST magazine. That is not to say they are common.
This particular design is for the 10-, 15-, and 20-meters bands, all three of which are still in use today. If you
build a multielement quad as shown here, you might want to find a substitute for the bamboo frame members;
aluminum tubing is pretty cheap, but if you use metal, you'll need to use insulators at the connection
points. Formulas are provided for determining element lengths and director and reflector
...
Battery-Operated Superheterodyne
This Radio Service Data Sheet provides schematics and parts lists
for
Silver-Marshall Model 727-DC Battery-Operated Superheterodyne receiver. Most - if not all - electronics
servicemen had subscriptions to these magazines because they were a ready source of not just these service
sheets, but because of the extensive articles offering advice on servicing radios and televisions. In
fact, many electronics manufacturers had a policy of supplying service data only to bona fide shops.
A large list is included at the bottom of the page of similar documents from vintage receiver schematics,
troubleshooting tips, and alignment procedures
...
Family of Programmable Attenuators
Fairview Microwave, a supplier of on-demand microwave and RF components,
announces the release of their new
digitally controlled
programmable attenuators with performance up to 40 GHz and up to 60 dB attenuation range with 0.03
dB minimum step size. These programmable attenuators are commonly used in electronic warfare, military
and space communication systems, radar and test and measurement applications. Fairview's digitally controlled
attenuators perform the important function of adjusting the amplitude of signal
...
Looking for an RF Technician
Defense Engineering Corporation is looking for a full time
RF Technician with at least 5 years experience, specifically in the area of testing in an anechoic
chamber environment. Responsibilities will include maintaining, implementing and operating an indoor
range anechoic chamber test facility measuring antennas, radomes, and multiple RF systems. Experience
collecting and reducing data in a compact range anechoic chamber environment including antenna patterns
and radar cross section measurements is preferred. The job location is in Dayton, Ohio at Wright Patterson
Air Force Base
...
Memory to Be Tested
"Russian
scientists claim to have invented a new
superconducting memory
architecture that will be 100s of times faster and consume dozens of times less power than conventional
memory chips. The Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology working with the Moscow State University
claim the architecture can also be used to perform single-flux quantum logic operations for superconducting
processors, but admits that commercialization is decades away. 'What we have so far is an idea
..."
"Army Times" "Navy Times" Sold to VC
"A group of California
venture capitalists have bought my alma mater, Defense News, as well as Army, Navy,
Air Force and Marine Corps Times and Federal Times. They also laid off several top people there.
Vago Muradian, host of Defense News TV and my successor as editor at the paper, has been laid off, according
to my sources. He was not alone. Defense News' Managing Editor Dave Gustafson, longtime Deputy
Editor Greg Couteau and business reporter Andrew Clevenger were let go. The CEO of Sightline Media Group,
Mark Flinn, and the VP for Defense News, Kate Tapplett, were let go, along
..."
In-flight Broadband
"Low cost
mobile broadband for air-travellers is a step closer thanks to a £300,000 prize
from the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) a UK researcher has claimed. Currently, air
passengers have to switch their mobile phones to 'Flight Mode' and pay an additional charge to access
data on their devices. However, according to Prof Yang Hao from Queen Mary University of London, advances
in next ..."
RFCafe.com Viewed on a Samsung S4
For no particular reason, I took a picture of how the RFCafe.com
homepage looks on my daughter's Samsung Galaxy S4 smartphone. My extreme nearsightedness permits me
to read it at that size without glasses, but zooming in definitely makes it easier. The S4 has a 1080
x 1920 pixel format (~441 ppi pixel density), which is about as good as
it gets for a smartphone display other than
an LG G3/4 or iPhone 6s. This might be just the excuse you need to do a phone upgrade ;-)
Notable Tech Quote: Robert Lucky
"Nothing
is forever, and forever comes very quickly in technology." Robert W. Lucky, writing in
The End of the Smartphone?, IEEE Spectrum. Dr. Lucky authored the "Reflections" column in Spectrum
for more than two decades, always providing a great combination of technical savvy, wit, and humor;
his was usually the first thing I read each month.
Converter Radio Service Data Sheet
Retrofit kits for adding shortwave bands to commercial broadcast
band radios were a big deal back in the 1930s. Magazines like Radio-Craft were full of articles
and advertisements for such kits. Few layman radio owners were capable of installing the conversion
kits, so radio service shops took in a lot of business installing them. A large percentage of radio
models soon thereafter began shipping with the shortwave bands incorporated into the base unit - known
as 'all-wave' radios. This
Majestic Model 11 Short-Wave Converter is a prime example of the kits. My
1941 Crosley
Model 03CB vacuum tube console radio has shortwave bands, as does
..
EW Attack on GPS System
"After two decades of largely ignoring the danger, the Army is
seriously training for a scary scenario: What if GPS, our satellite communications and our wireless
networks go down? It's hardly a hypothetical threat.
Russian electronic warfare units locate Ukrainian troops by their transmissions
and jam their radios so they can't call for help, setting them up for slaughter. American soldiers are
much better trained and equipped than Ukrainian ones, but they're also much more dependent on wireless
devices. Almost 80%
..."
Killed the Mercedes-Benz
Here's
a really great installment of EE Times'
Sherlock Ohms feature. Contributor Douglas Pocius tells of his adventure troubleshooting
an intermittent problem with his car inexplicably shutting down, and how pure chance can play a big
role in a solution - provided the circuit probing sleuth is wise enough to recognize the cause and effect
connection (pun intended). As usual readers' responses are as good as the story itself. I particularly
like the Oscar Wilde quote where
Lord Darlington (not the high current gain
transistor pair guy)
defines a cynic as, "A man who knows the price of everything, and the value of nothing
..."
Breaking Records
"The
2016 Mobile World Congress (MWC) broke attendance records and attracted governments,
leading CEOs, the cream of industry and visitors from around the globe. It was a hotspot for innovation
and a springboard for new technologies that will impact people's everyday lives worldwide, now and into
the future. International editor Richard Mumford and technical editor Gary Lerude attended the
event and share their views on the issues impacting the mobile ecosystem, the technology being developed
to address them and the role of the
..."
Here Are a Few with Electronics Themes
Thanks
to Janet Smith, of Keysight Technologies,
for Tweeting the "Power Supply" poem I posted from a 1942 issue of QST, in recognition
of today, March 21, being World
Poetry Day. Back in the middle of the last century it was not uncommon to find reader-submitted
poems in electronics magazines like Popular Electronics and QST. I have posted those
poems here on RF Cafe when I run across them. A full list of poems is posted on each page, including
others like "A Radioman's Nightmare"
and "More
'Tower' to You." Enjoy, and happy World Poetry Day to everyone!
Recording - Phono-Radio Combination
This Radio Service Data Sheet for the
RCA Victor
Model VHR-307 Home Recording - Phono-Radio Combination was published in the May 1941 issue of
Radio-Craft magazine. It was quite a work of electronics art for its day, especially with incorporating
a recording unit. We take for granted today the very simple matter of recording voice and music today
with miniature, inexpensive, maintenance-free recording and playback equipment, but in the early 1930s
the available media were wire, magnetic tape, and phonograph records. Phono recorders actually cut the
audio bumps into the groves. Magnetic tape was considered to be a military secret up through
...
Temperature Sensors Part 2
Martin Rowe, Sr., Technical Editor at EE Times, has posted
a second quiz on thermal sensors. " Did you really think we couldn't come up with enough questions for
a second quiz on temperature measurement? As with last week's questions, today's questions
come from Measurement and Instrumentation: Theory and Application by Alan S. Morris and Reza
Langari and from Handbook of Modern Sensors: Physics, Designs, and Applications
..."
Acceptance in the Cable Industry
Peregrine Semiconductor, founder of RF SOI (silicon on insulator)
and pioneer of advanced RF solutions, announces its high linearity RF switches are designed into multiple
DOCSIS 3.1 certified cable modems. CableLabs, the research and development consortium that develops
the DOCSIS specification, has certified the first DOCSIS 3.1 cable modems. Of the certified modems,
Peregrine Semiconductor's RF switches—the UltraCMOS®
PE42722 and
PE42723—are designed
into the cable modems that feature a band-select feature. The PE42722 and PE42723 are the only RF switches
that enable dual
...
Earth Approach Since 1770
"You'd have to
go back to 246 years to
find a comet that passed closer to Earth than
Comet PanSTARRS (P/2016 BA14) will on March 22nd. Predicted to come within about
nine lunar distances (2.1M mi. or 3.4M km) of Earth around 16:00 UT on that day, P/2016 BA14 will soon
claim the distinction of second closest comet ever recorded. Lexell's Comet has them all beat.
It missed Earth by 1.4M mi. (2.2M km) on July 1, 1770. Although discovered in June that year by
the comet ferret himself, Charles Messier, it became popularly known as Lexell's Comet after astronomer
and mathematician Anders Johan Lexell computed its orbit. As the comet
..."
Puzzle for March 20, 2016
Take a break and work this week's
electronics technology
themed crossword puzzle. All the words are pulled from a hand-built list of terms, names, and abbreviations
that have only to do with science, mathematics, and engineering. If you want a crossword with names
of movie stars and obscure countries, try the local newspaper. If you want to exercise your nerd knowledge,
this is the one for you
...
Trade Show Schedule
Are you
planning on attending any conferences or exhibitions this year? everything RF has compiled a list
of all the important upcoming
RF &
Microwave Industry Events in 2016. Visit these events to keep up to date with the latest technologies,
network with colleague and view presentations. everything RF currently has 175,854 RF & Microwave
products from over 750 companies listed in 195 categories
...
and On-Chip Interconnects
"Under the four million
Euro Carbon Nanotube Composite Interconnects (CONNECT) European project, CEA, Fraunhofer
IPMS, IBM, Aixtron, CNRS, GSS and University of Glasgow join forces to explore the fabrication techniques
and processes that will enable reliable Carbon NanoTubes (CNTs) for on-chip interconnects in ULSI microchip
production. Today, interconnects have become the major bottleneck irrespective of the application domain
due to ..."
Based on beleaguered wife Sylvia Kohler's mention of GE's Electronics
Park in this story (surely a fable... or not), she and unintentional antagonist, superheterodyne hubby
(aka 'Happy Boy', but we know him as Popular Electronics cartoonist
Carl Kohler) probably lived in the Syracuse, NY, area. Electronics Park existed during the hey days
of General Electric when the sprawling campus , just north of I-90, designed and manufactured a plethora
of both household and military electronics products. GE's Electronics Laboratory ('E-Labs') was the
company's pride and joy. Today, a tiny portion of Electronics Park is still occupied by Lockheed Martin,
who bought that GE division in the 1990s, and the rest belongs the city. But I digress... enjoy the
story (her reason for referring to hubby as a Superheterodyne is highlighted)
...
Secure Radar Technology
"Radar detectors signaling speeding motorists of police presence
are about to get a run for their money as the Army is developing innovative radar technology that could
someday be common practice for users wanting to mask their radar emissions. Over the past several years, the threat of being compromised
has become an increasing issue for Soldiers in theater. The need to preserve radar system performance
while operating in both a contested (adversarial attack) and congested (high traffic) radio frequency
environment ..."
Very recently
while watching a 1960s era TV show I asked myself a question I've asked many times before: If one of
those heavy, bulky vintage cars constructed of thick pressed sheet steel body components, full steel
tube frames, and cast iron 8-cylinder engine blocks was to have a head-on collision with a modern car
built with light-weight materials of composite construction and minimal structural bulk, which would
be the victor? My gut reaction was to think that the result would be like a
sledge hammer and a Coke can colliding;
I'd rather be the sledge hammer. I know cars are engineered to sacrifice the car to preserve the passenger
compartment by ...
Radio & Television News
The December 1947 issue of Radio News and February 1954
issue of Radio & Television News published these
electronics-themed
comics. I give them a score of about 7 out of 10, but you might think otherwise. There is a growing
list of other comics at the bottom of the page
...
Matched SP4T WiFi Switch
Skyworks is pleased to introduce a dual-band single-pole four-throw
(SP4T) WiFi switch with integrated GPIO interface and 50 Ohm match on all RF output ports. The new
SKY13575-639LF is ideal for dual-band
switching in Wi-Fi access points, WLAN 802.11ac and 3G/4G LTE systems and is also suitable for access
points, customer-premises equipment (CPE), LTE systems, dual-band WLAN and test and measurement equipment.
Using SOI technology, the switch consumes less than 10 µA of current
...
Solar Power in Space
"One way to amp up solar power is to get closer to the sun -
as in space, where there are no atmospheric disturbances to get in the way and where spacecraft in geosynchronous
orbit can stay within the sun's rays. The challenge is in being able to collect enough solar power to
make it worth the expense of launching a large solar array into space and then efficiently getting that
power transmitted down to Earth. A government/industry team of scientists led by Dr. Paul Jaffe, a spacecraft
engineer at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory, has
..."
This late 19th century photo of
a telephone cable tower in Stockholm, Sweden, is seen frequently on the Internet. The 'telefontonet' tower, owned by Stockholms
Allmänna Telefon AB (which later merged with Ericsson), supported 5,500
lines. Those four decorative turrets at the top were added to beautify the tower after residents complained
about it being an eyesore. Raise your hand if you think it was a good solution. A couple decades later,
the company began burying phone lines underground and the tower was eventually taken down. At a smaller
scale, many modern data centers look a lot
...
Fundamental Limit of Computing
"No matter how efficient we make our transistors and memory cells,
they will always consume a fixed but tiny amount of energy set by the second law of thermodynamics,
a new study suggests. Now the question is how close our real-world devices can get to this fundamental
value. The idea that there might be such a universal limit stems from a 1961 paper by Rolf Landauer
of IBM. Landauer postulated that any time a bit of information is erased or reset, heat is released.
At room temperature
..."
for Their Continued Support!
Triad RF Systems comprises three partners
with over 40 years of accumulated knowledge of what is 
required to design, manufacture, market, sell and service
RF/Microwave amplifiers and amplifier systems.
"We do not make decisions via committee or after time-consuming meetings; instead when
an idea is suggested, we typically prototype it and if successful,
turn it into product. We view Triad more as a technology partner than a vendor for our line-of-sight
communications product line."
LNA for Amateur Radio Operation
Ham radio operation at 10 GHz is somewhat exotic, being far removed
from global shortwave communication typically below 30 MHz. So when the design of a 10 GHz ham radio
station was originally discussed within the amateur radio community, one of the key components that
was missing in order to make this a reality included a good LNA. This application note describes how
an LNA was custom made utilizing NI AWR Design Environment™, inclusive of Microwave Office software,
to bring a 10 GHz ham radio station into operation. The "Design of a 10 GHz Low-Noise Amplifier for Amateur Radio Operation" application
note is available for immediate download.
"Nature Photonics today published
research by a team from South Africa and Italy demonstrating a new type of laser that is able to produce
laser beams 'with a twist' as its output. The outputs and superpositions of the new type of laser form
a set of beams, called vector vortex beams. Using geometric phase inside lasers for the first time,
the work opens the way to novel lasers for optical communication, laser machining and medicine. The
idea was conceived by Professor Andrew Forbes of the University of the
...
Keysight Technologies
was kind enough to provide me with a copy of
Spectrum and Network Measurements, by Robert A. Witte
(SciTech Publishing). Its contents will soon be the subject of an
RF Cafe Quiz. "This new edition of Spectrum and Network Measurements
enables readers to understand the basic theory, relate it to measured results, and apply it when creating
new designs. This comprehensive treatment of frequency domain measurements successfully consolidates
all the pertinent theory into one text. It covers the theory and practice of spectrum and network measurements
in electronic systems. It also provides thorough coverage of Fourier analysis, transmission lines, intermodulation
distortion, signal-to-noise ratio and S-parameters
..."
to Inspire Student Scientists
""On Thursday, March 10, 2016 astronauts on the International
Space Station logged their 1,000th educational contact with the ground. NASA astronaut Tim Kopra answered
questions posed by the North Dakota Space Grant Consortium in Grand Forks, North Dakota. No matter how
many times it happens, talking directly with someone orbiting above the Earth remains a thrill for students.
Amateur Radio on the International Space Station/a> (ARISS) works through an international
consortium of amateur radio organizations and space agencies
..."
as a New Supporter of RF Cafe !
RF &
Connector Technology (RFCT), located in S. Korea, is a full solution & service provider
of passive RF components including attenuators,
terminations, power dividers, couplers, antennas, surge arrestors, coaxial connectors & adapters,
and coaxial cable & assemblies. From your very first contact, you will be supported by competent
RF specialists, all of whom have several years of field experience in this industry, allowing them to
suggest a fundamental solution and troubleshooting approach. Please contact
RFCT today to see how they might help your project.
Another
month brings another round of engineering
career enhancement and advancement articles. I do try to vet them to filter out one that appear
to be written by people who have no real experience telling other people how to act and run their lives.
Sometimes when reading an advice article what comes to mind is the line in the 1970s vintage song "Sunshine"
that says, "He can't even run his own life, I'll be damned if he'll run mine." These first two items
are videos recommending how to dress for an interview based on
...
- How to Dress for an Interview
(M)
- How to Dress for
an Interview (F)
-
25 Highest Paying Jobs in the U.S.
(doctor #1, lawyer #2, IC designer
#8-
Top LinkedIn Mistakes Mid-Career
Professionals Keep Making <more>
Fluctuations in Nanoresonators
""The expectation has been that nano-electromechanical systems
(NEMS/a>) will replace its technological predecessor micro-electromechanical systems
(MEMS) in the varied range of applications for which MEMS are currently used. However, the emergence
of the usurper technology has not been without some struggles. There have been durability issues with
NEMS devices and there has also been the nagging issue that they never seem to perform quite up to their
theoretical limits. Now in joint
..."
