"Scientists at Tokyo Institute of Technology
have demonstrated the potential of a new, thin-film
ferroelectric material that could improve the performance of next-generation
sensors and semi-conductors. 'Ferroelectric' materials can switch between different
states of electrical polarization in response to an external electric field. This
flexibility means they show promise for many applications, for example in electronic
devices and computer
..."
The
TA1149 is designed for Ku band UAV data and video links for both
GCS and air vehicle installation. The unit contains many standard features including
auto gain leveling, fault detection, and operates from a wide 12-30V DC input range.
This class A GaAs 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
Contained in this obituary honoring Alexander
Graham Bell's assistant,
Dr. Thomas A. Watson, which appeared in the March 1935 issue
of Radio-Craft, is a bit of information about a serendipitous event that led to
the invention of the telephone. I do not recall having heard of it. This is just
one more reason why perusing historical material like these magazines is so important
for keeping alive the details of the other world's momentous events. Many demonstrations
have shown how as stories get passed on from person to person, generation to generation
...
"We're not being cocky, engineers are really
better than everyone else. Well, technicians and designers are still cool too, but
engineers are on top. Other than just saying that, what are some ways in which we
can actually prove that
engineers are better than everyone? Engineers are a unique breed
of human, our ability to process data and work together on teams is unique to our
profession as a whole. That 4 to 6 years of engineering education shapes
..."
"Researchers at the University of St Andrews,
have developed a device that can detect what an object is by placing it on a small
radar sensor. The device, called
RadarCat (Radar Categorisation for Input
and Interaction), can be trained to recognise different objects and materials,
from a drinking glass to a computer keyboard, and can even identify individual body
parts. The system, which employs a radar signal, has a range of potential applications,
from helping blind
..."
"Yet-to-be-developed Federal Aviation Administration
rules stemming from the recent passage in Congress of H.R. 636, the FAA Reauthorization
Act, could pose additional marking requirements for a small number of
Amateur Radio towers. The bill instructs the FAA to enact rules
similar to state-level statutes now in place that are aimed at improving aircraft
safety in the vicinity of meteorological evaluation towers set up in rural areas.
In the wake of fatal crop dusting aircraft collisions with METs, often erected
..."
On the page following an article titled "TVI
and the Novice," the National Company ran one of its conventional full-page
informational advertisements - on the subject of
TVI. This is number 234, and it is the newest one I have so there
likely were many more. National's suggestion for curing TVI issues was to use a
shielded chassis with chokes in series and bypass capacitors in parallel with power
leads ...
Federal Custom Cable
(a Coaxsol
distributor) is a relatively new advertiser, and has chosen to continue supporting
RF Cafe. Please visit their website
today to see whether their cable prepping, kitting,
and labeling services, or rack & panel, modular assemblies, delay lines, inductors
and toroids, semi rigid, stripping and bending, custom molding, Ø-matched, power
and multi-conductor and shielded cables can help with your project
...
"Energy storage devices called supercapacitors
have become a hot area of research, in part because they can be charged rapidly
and deliver intense bursts of power. However, all
supercapacitors currently use components made of carbon, which
require high temperatures and harsh chemicals to produce. Now researchers at MIT
and elsewhere have for the first time developed a supercapacitor that uses no conductive
carbon at all, and that could potentially produce more power than existing versions
..."
Saelig Company announces the Windfreak
SynthHD PRO
- a temperature-compensated, dual-channel, software-tunable RF signal generator
and frequency sweeper, controlled and powered via a USB port on a device running
Windows or Android software. The SynthHD PRO's dual, independent 54 MHz to 13.6
GHz channels can be configured to run at two different frequencies, or at the same
frequency with different phases. This allows its use in antenna beam steering applications
or quadrature signal generation commonly used in image-reject
For Sale: Würth
Electronics SMD 0402 Multilayer Ceramic Capacitor Design Kit, SMD Air Coil Inductor
Design Kit, and Power Elements Design Kit. These are the kits - all unused - graciously
provided by Würth for a product review. I have no need for them at this time, so
this could be your lucky day. Full details are available
here. They sell on Digi-Key for about $110 each, but you can buy
all three for a mere
...
"Publishing their findings in the journal
Science, a research team led by faculty scientist Ali Javey at the Department of
Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley
Lab) have devised the smallest transistor ever reported. The feat was realized
by embedded a
single carbon nanotube, 1nm in diameter in a thin layer of zirconium
dioxide (ZrO 2) under atomically thin sheets of molybdenum
disulphide (MoS 2), about 0.65 nanometers thick
..."
Nokia is a very fine and respected Finnish company. I benefitted
greatly from their engineering and marketing prowess during my years with RFMD.
I was somewhat taken aback, though, when I learned that yet another non-American
company now owns the historical Bell Labs, in Murray Hill, New Jersey. French firm Alcatel bought
Lucent Technologies
in 2006, owner of Bell Labs at the time. Then, this past January, Nokia bought Alcatel-Lucent,
thereby inheriting Bell Labs. It has been out of American hands for a decade now,
and likely will someday be owned by China as American greatness wanes.
Where There Are Power Lines,
There Can Be Broadband
It's like the in
The Matrix
Reloaded where Sentinels (utilities companies)
relentlessly seek out and attack the Nebuchadnezzar (Ham
radio operators): "Imagine WiFi everywhere. Bringing fast, reliable internet
connectivity to the world is the dream of many, manifesting in a range of technologies
including internet.org's Aquila unmanned aircraft. Now, US telecom giant AT&T
has thrown its hat in the ring with
Project AirGig. They hope the technology will one day bring 'low-cost,
multi-gigabit wireless internet speeds using power lines'
..."
"Alcatel-Lucent Submarine Networks and Nokia
Bell Labs have jointly announced they've broken another record which very few people
knew about in the first place. The pair have achieved a record
transmission capacity over a 6,600 km single mode fibre, demonstrating
a total 65 Tbps transmission using 'submarine grade dual band erbium doped fibre
amplifiers.' Seriously, that's an actual quote. You couldn't make it up. 'This new
record is the latest in a long series of achievements by Alcatel
..."
Television interference (TVI) was a major
concern for amateur radio operators back in the heyday of broadcast TV. Other than
radio broadcasts, magazines, and newspapers, it was the only other major form of
media available; there was no Internet. Even the lowest priced TV sets represented
a significant portion of a typical family's disposable income. There was no government
handout program that provided every household with a television set and antenna.
Consequently, people were very irritated by nearby electrical or electronic equipment
that dared to interfere with their reception
...
Sivers IMA Intros RFIC for FCC's New V-Band
Frequencies
"'It is with great pleasure Sivers IMA now
can launch a fully integrated RFIC in Silicon-Germanium. On top of this, we are
proud to announce that we are the first in the world to include coverage of the
new FCC
V-band frequencies 64-71 GHz, which was recently made available
in the United States. I am excited to see how this new circuit will be received
by the market. Having the full transceiver in Silicon-Germanium for V-band, provides
a fundamental platform, including the relevant
..."
"Weaving two types of specially designed
fibres with cotton yarn and conductive copper-coated threads, a team of researchers
from China and Singapore has devised a smart fabric that can both harvest energy
from light and store it as a supercapacitor would do. As its main threads
(used as flying shuttle), the textile combines fibre-shaped
photo-anodes interlaced with counter electrodes (CEs)
for the energy harvesting functionality, with TiN nanowire-based
fibre for
..."
Since 1961, MECA
Electronics has designed and manufactured an extensive line of
RF / Microwave components with
industry leading performance including attenuators, directional & hybrid couplers,
isolators, circulators, dividers, combiners, RF loads, DC 
blocks, bias Ts and adapters & cables. MECA
has long been the 'backbone' of high performance wired and air-interfaced networks
such as in-building, satellite, radar, radio, telemetry, mobile radio, aviation &
air traffic communications.
"Bill Schweber points out that sometimes
the old ways are best ways and sometimes the only ways, although they can be sometimes
dressed in new formats. There's the transformer, the electromechanical relay and
the
gas discharge tube (GDT) is still
alive and well. What is a GDT? In essence, it's a sealed version of the automotive
spark plug, as a spark-gap device in a sealed, gas-filled glass or ceramic enclosure,
which offers near-infinite resistance
..."
"While transitioning toward an upgraded,
electronic system, the Navy is continuing to invest in its
Consolidated Automated Support System, which it uses to test the
electronics systems on aircraft, surface ships and submarines. The service has awarded
Lockheed Martin, a longtime vendor for CASS, a $214.5 million contract for up to
400 CASS stations and 150 reconfigurable transportable CASS stations for the Navy
..."
Southwest Antennas has released the first in their new product line of , giving
users additional operational flexibility in radio placement while helping to attenuate
disruptive frequencies outside of their operational frequency band. This is particularly
important for users who will be operating in close proximity to high-powered transmitters,
such as military radio systems. A 3-pole RF bandpass filter is securely fitted inside
of the antenna radome and integrated
Radio-Craft magazine used to run
a feature where readers would write in with questions, and someone on the staff
would respond. This month's query requested that a table containing
current carrying capacities for various wire gauge sizes. Values
of fusing current were provided for 10 through 40 GA, for copper, German silver,
and iron. The "B. & S. Gauge" wire size scale refers to Brown & Sharpe,
which now goes by the designation of American Wire Gauge
(AWG)
...
"Google just launched its new Pixel and
Pixel XL smartphones, complete with Google Assistant and virtual
reality capabilities. The Pixel and Pixel XL are powered by Snapdragon 821 processors
and a new version of Google's Android software. The software includes capabilities
with Daydream virtual reality platform, which Google announced over the summer.
Both phones are built by HTC, but Google takes full credit for the design
..."
Skyworks has broadened its antenna tuner portfolio with two new Mobile Industry
Processor Interface (MIPI®)-controlled devices that support ultra-low Ron (SKY19247-686LF) and ultra-high Vpeak (SKY19237-001).
These new tuners are ideal for smartphones, data cards and MiFi® hotspots and improve
antenna efficiency, as well as Total Radiated Power (TRP) and Total Isotropic Sensitivity
(TIS) performance. They deliver high linearity for carrier
The
Instrument Landing System (ILS) has been around for an amazingly
long time - almost as long as commercial airlines have been operating. This 1937
article in the October issue of Radio-Craft magazine reports on the current
state of the art. The Douglas DC-3 twin-engine airliner (my
all-time favorite airplane) entered service in 1936 and is credited with
creating widespread public acceptance of the safety and comfort of airplanes. Much
of the content for this article also appeared in "The History and Development of the Washington Institute of Technology,"
by
...
"A team led by Cory Dean, at Columbia University,
Avik Ghosh, professor of electrical and computer engineering at the U. of Virginia,
and James Hone, Wang Fong-Jen, at Columbia Engineering, has directly observed -
for the first time -
negative refraction for electrons passing across a boundary between
two regions in a conducting material. First predicted in 2007, this effect has been
difficult to confirm experimentally. The researchers were able to observe the effect
..."
everythingRF has been a long-time supporter
of RF cafe through their advertising.
everythingRF is a product discovery platform
for RF & Microwave Products/Services. We currently have 231,624 Products from
more
than 1,053 Companies across 225 Categories
in our database and enable engineers to search for them using our customized parametric
search tool. Please visit everythingRF now to see how they can help you
...
"Reiterating a stance popular with U.S. wireless
carriers, AT&T is telling the FCC that '5G' and 'mmW' spectrum are not, and
should not be, synonymous, reminding regulators that to fully realize the potential
of 5G, the nation needs access to low-, mid- and high-band capacity. While AT&T
commended the FCC's efforts with respect to
millimeter wave (mmW) spectrum, 'it should not lose sight of the
need to continue to allocate more spectrum below 6 GHz,' the company said
..."
This
engineering crossword puzzle contains words and clues related
to topics that appeared in the past week's technical headline news
(clues with an asterisk* after them). If you paid
attention to the items in the upper left-hand column on the RF Cafe homepage, you'll
have a bit of an easier time with the answers. An archive page is maintained of
all the headlines posted, so you can look there if you get stuck
(or you can look at the bottom of this page for the puzzle's
complete solution). Enjoy!
...
Special Snowflake
alert on this article from a 1939 edition of QST! Do not read the first
paragraph if you are easily offended or easily induced to self-flagellation over
misplaced guilt for statements made by people you had no relation to or control
over. If you are brave and decide to continue, author George Grammer provides a
very good guide regarding how to be safe around
high voltage, high power electronics equipment. A lot of the opportunity
for harm has been removed with modern transistorized circuits and improved chassis
...
"Graphene Flagship researchers used layers
that included transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs), graphene, and boron nitride
to build thethin LEDs that can be used in quantum communications and network
applications. The research was reported in Nature Communications, and was led by
the University of Cambridge, UK. According to the paper, 'The diverse materials
are layered forming a heterostructure. As electrical current is injected into ..."
QST magazine occasionally used to
run a feature titled "Quist
Quiz" that was a short test of knowledge in the areas of antennas, impedance
matching, amplifier biasing, etc. I'm not sure where the "Quist" part of the title
comes from. A guess about it possibly being the last name of the author could not
be confirmed or ruled out based on a quick Internet search. The only definition
I could find for 'quist' is one meaning a wooden pigeon. If anyone knows the origin
of "Quist," please let me know
...
"The
negative refraction of electrons in graphene has been seen for
the first time in experiments done by physicists in the US. The work represents
an important advance in the fabrication of graphene electronic devices, and could
lead to new applications of graphene such as low-power transistors. Negative refraction
can occur when light or other waves cross an interface between two different materials.
The term 'negative' is used when the direction of the light is bent in the
..."
Saelig Company has introduced the
PSU-Series
of single output programmable switching DC power supplies that can provide up
to 200 A current and cover a power range up to 1520 W. These high efficiency, high
power density supplies include five models from 6 V to 60 V rated voltages. The
PSU-series can be connected in series for increased power capacity: up to two units
in series or up to four in parallel to cover a broad coverage of applications
AccuWeather has a story titled "A world without Twitter and iPhones: What has changed since the last
major hurricane hit the US?" A bullet list included the following:
- The average price of a gallon of gas was $2.60. The current price is $2.24.
- Facebook had been around for only 18 months.
- Twitter would not launch for another 5 months.
- Apple and Steve jobs were still developing the first iPhone.
- YouTube had launched just 8 months prior.
Passive Plus (PPI) Intros
Series of Broadband Capacitors
"Passive Plus, Inc. (PPI) has developed a
series of Broadband
Capacitors available in 4 different case sizes; 01005BB, 0201BB, 0402BB, and
the 0603BB. Values available are 10nF (103) and 100nF (104) These capacitors are
intended primarily for coupling RF signals or, occasionally, for bypassing them
to ground, while blocking DC. The applications for which they are intended require
small, surface-mountable devices that provide low RF impedances ..."
These two "Radio Service Data Sheets" appeared
in the August 1931 edition of Radio-Craft magazine. They bring my total
thus far to 122. The
Bosch Models 60 and 61 and the
RCA-Victor Radiola "Superette" Model R7 Superheterodyne radios
were superheterodyne sets. It had only been a dozen years since Edwin Armstrong
devised the circuitry in 1918.
"The Navy is moving forward with its incremental
upgrades to shipboard
electronic warfare systems with a $148.9 million contract award
to Lockheed Martin for Surface Electronic Warfare Improvement Program (SEWIP) Block
2 subsystems. The roughly three-year deal, part of the Navy's ongoing improvements
to the AN/SLQ-32 electronic warfare system, calls for full-rate production of the
system to improve electronic warfare for early detection, analysis, threat
..."
"Peregrine Semiconductor, founder of RF SOI
and pioneer of advanced RF solutions, announces the UltraCMOS® PE42525 and PE426525,
the industry's first
RF SOI switches to operate up to 60 GHz. These two switches set
a new standard for RF SOI at microwave frequencies and significantly extend Peregrine's
high frequency portfolio into frequencies previously dominated by GaAs technology.
Both 60 GHz switches deliver exceptional performance in all key RF ..."
"Humans have harnessed large portions of
the electromagnetic spectrum for diverse technologies, from X-rays to radios, but
a chunk of that spectrum has remained largely out of reach. This is known as the
terahertz gap, located between radio waves and infrared radiation,
two parts of the spectrum we use in everyday technologies including cell phones,
TV remotes and toasters. A theory developed by the late Stanford professor and Nobel
laureate Felix Bloch
..."
Resistors, probably the most common electronic
components in existence, have undergone significant evolution since first being
mass produced in the late 19th century. Amazingly, less than two centuries have
passed since the concept electrical resistance was first published in 1827 by Georg
Simon Ohm, a German physicist. As with most products of the era, and well into the
20th century, resistor manufacturing involved a degree of human labor. Resistors
(and capacitors and inductors for that matter) found
in your grandparents' old vacuum tube radios were most
...
offers new a pair of high performance, Low-PIM
coaxial cable adapters
in 4.3-to-10 and 4.1-to-9.5 configurations. Features include: Excellent PIM performance,
superior electrical performance, compact design (40% less than 7/16), screw / hand
screw / quick lock coupling, light weight. Full line of in-series and between-series
adapters catalog ...
"For the first time beginning next month,
forecasts of the regional effects of
solar storms will help protect the power grid and communications
satellites, thanks to a new tool developed by researchers at the University of Michigan
and Rice University. Solar storms are torrents of charged particles and electromagnetic
fields from the Sun that rattle the planet's magnetic field. Major disturbances
can send harmful current into power lines, hampering operations and putting expensive
transformers at risk
..."
"Superconductors are the holy grail of energy
efficiency. These mind-boggling materials allow electric current to flow freely
without resistance. But that generally only happens at temperatures within a few
degrees of absolute zero, making them difficult to deploy today. However, if we're
able to harness the powers of
superconductivity at room temperature, we could transform how
energy is produced, stored
..."
This is a true story. When I was in 9th grade,
the class was being shown a film (yes, the kind on a reel,
on a projector, circa 1972-73) where the narrator mentioned how some person
committed a 'boner.' A girl in the class busted out laughing so hard that she actually
wet herself. That made the rest of the class laugh. I guess she had never heard
the word used in that context before - remember, we're talking teenagers here. Sorry
for the rude reference, but for some reason the incident came to mind when reading
the section labeled 'Radio Boners' in this article from a 1935 edition of Radio-Craft
magazine. Funny what triggers a particular memory. All that
...
"Qorvo, a leading provider of innovative
RF solutions that connect the world, today introduced two new power amplifiers (PAs)
including the industry's first 500-watt,
L-Band PA internally matched to 50 ohms. These high-power devices
are optimized for use in defense and civilian radar systems, with features designed
to shorten and simplify system implementation. Built on Qorvo's high-performance
GaN
..."
"The military of the future, in addition
to the well-known goal of being better connected, will also be a lot lighter, if
current work by researchers comes to fruition. Lighter aircraft, for example, could
be faster and more agile while requiring less fuel. As for the
electronics carried, or worn, by troops in the field, the lighter
the better. Two examples involve breakthrough work being led by the Army Research
Laboratory and the Defense
..."
"Our planet is nestled in the center of two
doughnut-shaped regions of powerful, dynamic radiation: the
Van Allen belts, where high-energy particles are trapped by Earth's
magnetic field. Depending on incoming radiation from the sun, they can gain energetic
particles. On the other hand, the belts can lose energized particles too. We are
familiar with rapid changes in weather, and the radiation belts can experience these
too - particles can be depleted
..."
I was surprised to not find in this story
any mention of military training as a possible pathway to a career in electronics.
1948 was a year when a plethora of highly trained and competent cadre of
electronics technicians were available for exploitation by commercial
industries. During the years of World War II, which came to a close in the
Fall of 1946, most research, development, and production of high tech equipment
resulted in major advancements in radio, television, radar, teletype, medicine,
and creature comforts was operated and maintained by
...
"A
nitrogen-vacancy (NV) defect in diamond has been used to create
a magnetometer that can measure the broadband magnetic fields generated by hard-disk
write heads. The work was done by researchers in Germany and the UK who have shown
that a single NV can detect the oscillating and static magnetic fields associated
with write heads at nanometre resolution. The new work could help further miniaturize
hard-disk drives, thereby increasing their data-storage capacity. 'The hard-disk
industry
..."
Anatech Electronics offers the industry's largest portfolio of high-performance
standard and customized RF and microwave filters and filter-related products for
military, commercial, aerospace and defense, and industrial applications up to 40 GHz.
Anatech has introduced 3 new : a 2025-2120 MHz / 2200-2230 MHz / 1750-1850 MHz triplexer
with N connectors, a 1000 MHz LC lowpass filter with SMA connectors, and an L1 /
L2 GPS duplexer / combiner with SMA connectors. Custom design are available
"The FCC Thursday voted to adopt rules to
update its
Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA) system, which delivers messages
to mobile users regarding severe weather, missing children and other critical situations.
The move follows a chorus of officials calling for major changes to the program
in response to recent bombings in New York and New Jersey. But wireless carriers
say the Commission may actually be moving too quickly. The new rules increase the
maximum length
..."
The free whitepapers, pamphlets, books, magazines,
and chapter examples listed here are a small sample of a lot of new items that are
offered for FREE through
TradePub.
The publishers make them available to qualifying people as a promotional campaign
for their full line of offerings. Note: I earn a few pennies
(literally) when you download one of these or the
many other pubs available, so please help yourself.
"Previously, the high-k dielectric has always
been too lossy to be of use, according to researchers at University of California,
Santa Barbara. 'The catch is that the deposition of complex oxides, such as barium
strontium titanate, is problematic because of the high temperatures and oxygen-rich
environment involved,' said the University. 'The team's work clarifies that early
work within the field
..."
Technology advancement has always been about
research and development in all fields related to the concept, be it any combination
of mechanical, electrical, programming, implementation, usage, or training. Television
went fundamentally unchanged from the time of its commercial implementation in the
early part of the last century until the advent of plasma screens in the latter
part of the last century. Color tubes added complexity to the signal, but it was
still an analog signal. Then came digital broadcasting in the early part of this
century. The same sort of evolution occurred with telephones and to some extent
with radio. This
Television I.Q. Quiz from a 1948
...
"The Nobel Prize winner spent a decade trying
to create a household solar energy system - and failed. In the summer of 1958, a
new employee at Texas Instruments,
Jack St. Clair Kilby, had not yet accrued enough time off to take
a company-wide vacation. Alone in the lab, Kilby pondered the then-current 'tyranny
of numbers' problem: the time-consuming and imperfect process of soldering connections
between very large numbers of discrete solid-state components. Within a few short
weeks, Kilby came up with
..."
San-tron, a designer and manufacturer
of RF coaxial connectors and cable assemblies, will be discussing their latest innovations
at European Microwave Week in London, UK October 3-7th in stand #67. The pSeries
family of pressurized cable assemblies is highlighted in San-tron's latest case
study: London Underground Keeps Trains Moving. The case study explores how San-tron's
engineering team custom designed an IP68 rated pressurized connector to keep
For the sake of avid cruciverbalists amongst
us, each week I create a new science themed
crossword puzzle that has a theme related to engineering, mathematics,
chemistry, physics, and other technical words. You will never be asked the name
of a movie star unless he/she was involved in a technical endeavor (e.g., Hedy Lamar). Enjoy!
...
"Mark Zuckerberg has given a rare glimpse
inside one of Facebook's secretive server farms. The Facebook boss said he is going
to reveal more pictures from Facebook's facilities around the world. To kick off
the project, he revealed a stunning series of pictures of the firm's gigantic
Luleå data center in Sweden. 'Over the next few months, I'm going
to start posting some rare photos of the most advanced technology Facebook is building
around the world,' Zuckerberg posted
..."
EDI CON USA 2016, a conference
that brings together engineers working on high-frequency analog and high-speed digital
designs, had a successful inaugural event in the US on September 20-22 in Boston,
MA. "We are very pleased with our first EDI CON USA, which exceeded our expectations
in number of exhibitors and submitted abstracts for the conference program. We appreciate
the support of the EDI CON USA exhibitors, received very positive feedback from
conference attendees, and look forward to building on these strengths for next year
"
Sal ammoniac is a new term for me; it appeared
in this 1935 issue of Radio-Craft magazine. It is a rare mineral composed
of ammonium chloride. I suppose I should have been familiar with it because of its
use for cleaning soldering iron tips. This compound is another example of how two
otherwise lethal elements can form a molecule that is safe for human consumption,
like sodium chloride (table salt). Per Wikipedia, sal ammoniac is used the Netherlands,
it is still widely used in the production of salty licorice candy known as Salmiak.
Sal ammoniac was also used in solution with sulphuric acid as a battery electrolyte.
Anyway, the main theme of this article positive
...
