|
Sunday 20
 For the sake of avid cruciverbalists amongst us,
each week I create a new technology-themed crossword puzzle using only words related
to engineering, science, mathematics, chemistry, physics, astronomy, etc. At least 10
clues in this puzzle with an asterisk (*) are pulled from this past
week's (11/13 - 11/17) "Tech Industry Headlines" column on the RF Cafe homepage (see
the Headline Archives page for help). Enjoy! ...
Friday 17
 QuinStar Technology designs and manufactures
mm-wave products for communication, scientific, and test applications
along with providing microelectronic assembly, rapid prototyping, and mass customization.
• Amplifiers • Receivers • Oscillators • Switches • Attenuators
• Circulators • Isolators • Filters • Waveguide • Antennas • Phase
Shifters • Transceivers • Radar Subsystems • Mixers • Detectors • Transducers.
QuinStar specializes in cryogenic amplifiers, circulators,
and isolators. Please visit QuinStar today to see how they can help your project ...
 "The Danish automotive designer behind cars like
the Aston Martin V8 Vantage and the BMW Z8 re-launched his electric car startup this
year and announced that the next car out the gate would be powered by a 'breakthrough'
in solid state batteries, one with a range of 500 miles and a charge time of one minute.
Originally, Fisker and his team were intending to use a brand new
graphene-based hybrid supercapacitor technology but eventually settled
on the standard lithium-ion instead. However ..."
 Akin to how the National Company ran a long series
( a couple hundred altogether) of infomercial type ads in the ARRL's QST magazine
from the 1930s through the 1950s, Mallory had its "Tips
for Technicians" run in Electronics World (and maybe other electronics magazines
of the era). Being a major capacitor manufacturer, its ads featured brief tutorials on
various types of capacitors, their characteristics, and how they should be used in circuits
- both for new design and when replacing capacitors in existing equipment ...
 Free webinar title: "Antenna Design for a Connected Home Multimedia Device." When: November
21, 11:00 am EST. Presenter: Dr. Marc Rütschlin. "As the Internet of Things establishes
itself, more and more connected devices are finding their way into the modern home. The
'connections' are of course wireless and antennas are the key enabling technology which
provides that wireless connectivity. This webinar will discuss the case of a smart projector,
exploring how antennas can be designed given the ..."
 Given the
popularity of working
Sudoku puzzles,
I figured it was about time to include them on RF Cafe. These use embedded JavaScript
code to make them playable online. 4 levels of difficulty can be chosen, depending on
your ability. Sudoku (so͞o dōko͞o') puzzles, despite their Japanese name, were not actually
invented in Japan. According to the history note in
Wikipedia,
they first appeared in France, and then popularized in America. Regardless of its origins,
Sudoku is an immensely popular game today ...
 MegaPhase, a leading provider of RF and microwave interconnects,
is pleased to announce that
Maddiel Gonzalez has joined the MegaPhase Team as Engineering Manager. Maddiel's
career has involved developing state-of-the-art RF connectors for space, military and
commercial applications. Maddiel led a team of technical staff in the design of RF Interconnect
products in his prior position at another cable and connector company. His design ...
 "Scientists at the National Institute of Standards
and Technology (NIST) have developed an underlying architecture for a new class of
quantum photonic circuits - chip-based devices that leverage the
quantum properties of light to process and communicate information. In research described
in the journal Nature Communications, the NIST researchers and their collaborators in
China and the UK developed a class of devices that are composed of networks of low-loss
waveguides and single-photon sources, all on a single chip ..."
Thursday 16
 Brigadier General David Sarnoff's name was well
known to most people in the realm of communications up to the time of his death in 1971.
His technical and leadership skills were recognized and rewarded throughout his very
accomplished lifetime in both military and civilian venues. This brief biography of Sarnoff
was printed in the March 1972 issue of Popular Electronics magazine. As with
many people of high acclaim, he had a few run-ins with other notable people during his
career - the most famous of which was the Battle of the Airwaves fought between Edwin
Armstrong and him over FM versus AM broadcasting ...
 "Researchers at the University of Washington have
found a way to make clothes smarter without on-board electronics using a new type of
data-storing fabric that leverages technology already found in smartphones. One limitation
to wearable technology is the need for electronics and wiring that make so-called
'smart' clothing not so comfortable to wear. Researchers at the University
of Washington have found a way to make clothes smarter without on-board electronics ..."
 Well, these are the last three Radio Service Data
Sheets I have from my collection of vintage electronics magazines. That makes a total
of 219 that I have scanned and posted over a span of 3 years. At some point I will bid
for other editions on eBay. They can cost $5 or more apiece, so the cost adds up quickly. •
Remler Model No. 36 6-Tube Dual-Wave Auto-Radio •
Stromberg-Carlson 10 Tube No. 82 All-Wave Receiver •
Fada Model 155 5-Tube Super Fadalette A.C.-D.C. Set
 "Researchers from the Cambridge Graphene Centre
have led a project that has successfully demonstrated printing of fully-integrated electronic
circuits directly onto fabric for the first time. The circuits, which contain complex
layered semiconductor devices, are printed using inks containing graphene and a similar
two-dimensional conductive material, hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN). Previous attempts
at printing electronics on fabric are have used inks containing metal oxides ..."
 Skyworks Solutions, an innovator of high performance analog semiconductors
connecting people, places and things, today announced that its connectivity solutions
are enabling next generation tracking devices, a new and exciting Internet of Things
application. Specifically, Skyworks' high efficiency, front-end systems have been adopted
by
XY Findables, a market leader in wearable technology, to increase battery life and
nearly double the range when compared to other ...
 "Scientists aren't normally treated to fireworks
when they discover something about the universe. But a team of University of Chicago
researchers found a show waiting for them at the atomic level - along with a new form
of
quantum behavior. 'This is a very fundamental behavior that we have
never been seen before; it was a great surprise to us,' said study author and professor
of physics Cheng Chin. Published Nov. 6 in Nature, the research details a curious phenomenon
- seen in what was thought to be a well-understood system - that may ..."
Wednesday 15
 Saelig Company has introduced Siglent's
SDG6000X
series of Dual-Channel Pulse / Arbitrary Waveform Generators (AWG) that create test signals
up to 500 MHz using a sample rate of 2.4GSa/s and 16-bit vertical resolution for an 80dB
dynamic range. This series features Siglent's proprietary TrueArb and EasyPulse technologies
that solve the weaknesses inherent in traditional DDS waveform creation. TrueArb technology
generates arbitrary waveforms "point-by-point" to produce a very low jitter output signal
from stored memory ...
 "A seemingly paradoxical prediction in physics
has now been confirmed in an experiment: No matter whether an object is opaque or transparent,
the average length of the light's paths through the object is always
the same. What happens when light passes through a glass of milk? It enters the liquid,
is scattered unpredictably at countless tiny particles and exits the glass again. This
effect makes milk appear white. The specific paths that the incident light beam takes
depend, however, on the opacity of the liquid ..."
 In his trademark style, electronics-themed storyteller
John T. Frye used his Mac's Service Shop venue to introduce readers to another new development
in the
medical electronics field - the "ultrasonoscope." It was the forerunner to modern
sonogram machines. Relatively recent advances in solid state electronics and signal processing
techniques - albeit mostly analog in nature - made design and construction of compact
devices practical and affordable by medical facilities. Unlike today where many doctor's
offices have their own x-ray and sonogram machines, it was still mostly hospitals that
owned them in the late 1960s when this piece was written. Mac McGregor schools ...
 Axiom Test Equipment, a provider of efficient
and cost effective solutions customers' test equipment needs, offer the following special
deals on their inventory. Axiom offers our customers several practical, efficient and
cost effective solutions for their business or projects' test equipment needs. Whether
you need to rent &
buy test equipment,
repair test equipment, sell or trade equipment, we are committed to providing superior
customer service and high quality electronic test equipment ...
 Over 30 new features and enhancements have been
added to the latest release of
AntSyn™ automated antenna design, synthesis and optimization software.
This cloud-based, software-as-a-service (SaaS) product takes antenna design to the next
level by enabling engineers to input antenna requirements and automatically produce a
range of viable antenna designs as a result. Thirty-nine new antenna designs have been
added to the AntSyn antenna library ...
 "As our cars turn into rolling supercomputers,
it's easy to forget one of their emerging electronic needs: managing massive data flows
within the car. In a self-driving car, sensors should throw off some 4 terabytes a day.
'Connectivity is one of the missing elements,' says Micha Risling, head of the automotive
business at Valens, a fabless semiconductor company in Israel. 'On one hand you have
the Nvidias of this world - the companies that offer processing solutions - and, on ..."
Tuesday 14
 "Interoperability, adoption, use case, readiness,
and safety / regulatory are the key differentiating factors among these competing technologies.
Apple announced that its iPhones, AirPods, and other accessories will all include Qi
(pronounced 'chee')
wireless charging. The Qi standard is one type of wireless power
transfer, and certain to be a popular one due to Apple's adoption. However, other types
of wireless power transfer, such as AirFuel Resonant ..."
 Radio control hobbyists realized a huge technology
advance with the introduction of solid, proportional control system that began appearing
in the late 1960s. Prior to then, most R/C systems used vacuum tubes and necessary accompanying
large, heavy batteries. Size and weight was not too big of a deal for the transmitter,
but both factors significantly impact airplane design and performance. The new systems
enabled smaller, lighter weight aircraft that not only cost less, but flew better. Of
course other forms of R/C modeling like boats and cars also benefitted from the advances,
but weight and size was not as ...
 Mr. Al Rabassa (NW2M) had a great letter
in the November 2017 issue of the ARRL's QST magazine titled, "Saving the Neighborhood." In it, he described how his proactive response
to a new neighborhood with houses full of poorly designed arc fault circuit interrupter
(AFCI) circuits breakers resulted in him being regarded as a hero (of sorts) rather than
as a bad guy. Only ARRL members can access the online version, but fortunately Mr. Rabassa
placed a copy of it on his Yaesu FT-101 Repair Facebook page. (see my
previous
AFCI comments)
 Saelig
sells and supports a wide range of electronic control and instrumentation equipment and
components to customers ranging from Fortune 500 industrial users, military, educational
institutions and hospitals to individual end-users. They've found remarkable
test equipment and components from
around the world with specs or prices you won't find anywhere else. Please visit Saelig
today for your test equipment needs
...
 Innovative Power Products introduces their latest "Ultra
Broadband" high power 4-Way Combiner/Divider model IPP−1271 which
covers the full 700 – 6000 MHz band. The Model IPP−1271 combines four coherent input
signals or divides one signal into four up to 300 Watts CW of total RF power. This Combiner/Divider
is produced in a 5.20" x 3.90" x 1.10" package with a type N connector on the sum port
and SMA connectors on the four other ports. Insertion loss is less than 1.1 dB, phase
balance is less than ±7 degrees and VSWR ...
 "Kyma Technologies, Inc., a developer of advanced
wide bandgap semiconductor materials technologies, announced it has used its new K200
hydride vapor phase epitaxy (HVPE) growth tool to produce high quality 200mm diameter
HVPE GaN on QST (QROMIS Substrate Technology) templates. Today's
announcement of Kyma's development of 200mm diameter GaN on QST templates follows its
announcement in 2016 of its demonstration of 150 mm diameter GaN on QST templates ..."
Monday 13
 Unless you happened to live close to a television
broadcasting tower, receiving an acceptable signal has always been a matter of luck.
Obstructions such as buildings and terrain can greatly attenuate signal strength and
multipath can generate telltale ghost images and confuse the synchronization portions
of signals. It was bad enough with black and white (B&W) broadcasts, but the advent
of color made the situation notably worse because more information needed to be received
properly in order to display a good picture.
Color TV adoption really began to take off in the late 1960s, and that is about ...
 This is a major change in technology transfer
policy! "Soon after Trump's departure, China Vice Premier Wang Yang, who ranks No.4 in
the Communist Party, published an article under his own by-line in the Peoples' Daily
newspaper, saying that foreign companies would no longer be forced to turn over technology
to China in return for access to the China market. The forced
technology transfer has been a sore point with the USA for many years
and the U.S. government ..."
 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. With a broad base
of standard connectors and cables in stock, we turn solutions around fast. We have solutions
across all standard industry interfaces all the way to 70 GHz with 1.85 mm
Solutions. We support all variants of SMP/SMPM as well as all common standards including
SMA, SMB ...
 Axiom Test Equipment (1-760-806-6600)
has posted a new entry on the website blog that is a review of some of the essential
measurement capabilities of a VNA and how to go about selecting an instrument to suit
your needs. "Vector network analyzers (VNAs) were once associated mainly with
RF/microwave frequencies, although they have gained popularity in recent years at audio
frequencies. They are unique among electronic measuring instruments in their capabilities
to measure circuits as networks and to understand the transmission and reflection of
signals through those networks ..."
 "Graphene has enabled the development of the first
flexible terahertz detector, paving the way for high-powered electronics
on flexible materials. Graphene has shown its mettle as a breakthrough material yet again,
with researchers using it to enable for the first time the development of high-power
electronics on flexible, inexpensive materials. Researchers at Chalmers University have
developed a flexible detector for terahertz frequencies using graphene transistors on
plastic substrates. The detector ..."
Sunday 12
 For the sake of avid cruciverbalists amongst us,
each week I create a new
technology-themed crossword puzzle using only words related to engineering, science,
mathematics, chemistry, physics, astronomy, etc. At least 10 clues in this puzzle with
an asterisk (*) are pulled from this past week's (11/6 - 11/10) "Tech
Industry Headlines" column on the RF Cafe homepage (see the Headline Archives page for
help). Enjoy! ...
|
