 |
Anatech Electronics Newsletter - August 2013
|
Anatech Electronics has published its August 2013 newsletter. As always, it includes both
company news and some tidbits about relevant industry events, regulations, and standards. This
month Sam Benzacar offers his takes on the subjects of toxic waster waste in Silicon Valley,
legacy filters, LTE in residences and Audi vehicles, channels guard bands, and believe it or
not, fruit flies.
WHAT’S NEWS
What's That Smell?
An
excellent article in
The Atlantic discusses a topic in direct contrast to the typical sheen of Silicon Valley:
Toxic waste. It tells the story of the development of the fabled area from the perspective
of what at least in early years was left behind, including six Superfund sites in Santa
Clara County – more than in any other county in the country. The entire state of Illinois
has only 13. Highly recommended reading.
An RF Solution for the Fruit Fly
Problem
Australia’s Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization
(CSIRO) has invented machines that use microwave energy to kill insects and pests inside
fresh fruit and vegetables, replacing the need for farmers to use toxic chemicals and insecticides
on produce after it has been harvested. Australia’s industry and government spent more than
$128 million managing fruit flies, one of the most devastating pests, between 2003 and 2008.
The group’s invention uses microwave energy to kill insects and their eggs inside crops
such as apples, avocadoes, capsicums and zucchinis. Fruit or vegetables were exposed to
the radiation as they moved through the machine on a conveyor belt, killing 100% of the
pests. It may even prolong the shelf life of the produce. They place the machines on a semi-trailer,
roll up to a packing shed and allow the product to flow from the sorting tray and into the
machine.
Audi First To Bring LTE to the Car
Audi is poised
to be the first automaker to bring LTE service to cars. It’s already in the S3 Sportback
(in Europe) and will be added to other A3 models later this year. The U.S. will get it when
the new A3 sedan arrives in 2015. BMW is reportedly integrating LTE via its ConnectedDrive
and by the end of 2015 most General Motors products will have it too. Drivers insert an
LTE-enabled SIM card into the car’s navigation, making the car a Wi-Fi hotspot that can
deliver HD content from the cloud to the cockpit, and making Google Earth, Facebook and
Twitter, e-mail, and streaming internet radio possible as well.
AT&T
Unveils Residential LTE
AT&T has just deployed an LTE service aimed
at home users called AT&T Wireless Home Phone and Internet. Like Verizon's Home Fusion
service, AT&T's Wireless Home Phone and Internet service is aimed at rural users without
any fixed-line options and in fact all DSL markets, as both carriers want to dispense with
DSL for good. The AT&T option reportedly provides unlimited nationwide phone calls for
$20 a month, and $60 a month for 10 Gbytes of data, $90 a month for 20 Gbytes, and $120
a month for 30 Gbytes. |
A Message from Sam Benzacar
Super Wi-Fi:
The Name Game Continues
By Sam Benzacar
The wireless industry
is infamous for renaming various technologies for various purposes. For example, LTE is
not a fourth-generation standard but third generation as defined by the Third-Generation
Partnership Project (3GPP). Neither is HSPA+ (and other HSPA variants) that are also marketed
as 4G. However, to be appealing to consumers, LTE couldn’t be 3.5G so 4G it had to be …and
consumers don’t care anyway.
Then there is the continuing saga of small cells
and distributed antenna systems (DAS). As DAS has been around awhile and isn’t “all-inclusive”,
the DAS Forum decided to change its name to the HetNet Forum, referring to heterogeneous
networks, a name that only an engineer could come up with. The marketing people obviously
weren’t consulted.
And now we have “Super Wi-Fi” or “white space technology”
championed by the Wireless Innovation Alliance. It isn’t actually "real” Wi-Fi as it didn’t
originate and has nothing to do with the Wi-Fi Alliance, which holds the Wi-Fi trademark.
As Wi-Fi Alliance marketing director Kelly Davis-Felner puts it: “Wi-Fi is a trademark,
there is no such thing as 'Super Wi-Fi,' and white spaces is not Wi-Fi." That hasn’t stopped
the initial deployment of so-called Super Wi-Fi in several cities.
The white
spaces concept uses empty UHF TV channels for data communications, which are considered
unlicensed frequencies. Traditional Wi-Fi operates at 2400 MHz over short distances but
white space systems operate at UHF so they can cover much longer distances with minimal
base stations. “Super Wi-Fi” systems are related to the IEEE 802.22 standard and are “regional
area networks”. They currently serve only fixed applications like cellular backhaul and
providing rural coverage, as they cannot interfere with nearby TV channels, although a mobile-capable
version may come later. The next offering that can truly be called Wi-Fi will be IEEE 802.11ac,
which operates at 5 GHz (like IEEE 802.11a) and will increase throughput to at least 500
Mb/s and perhaps 1 Gb/s over the same distances as the latest Wi-Fi variant, IEEE 802.11n.
The only two things Super Wi-Fi shares with “real” Wi-Fi is that both operate in unlicensed
spectrum – and have a big need for filters. Keeping interference under control will be paramount
in both systems, and Anatech Electronics offers the most comprehensive custom filter technology
in the industry.
So if you’re working on either one of these systems, please
contact us at (973) 772-4242 or by e-mail at
sales@anatechelectronics.com |
Can’t Find That “Legacy” Filter?
In the last 22 years, Anatech has designed and manufactured thousands of different filters,
most with unique specifications, which lets us draw from this library to “recreate” filters
used in defense (and other) systems that other manufacturers can’t (or won’t) deliver. Give
us a call or send us an e-mail with your requirements. It’s very likely we can deliver what
you need – without big tooling charges.
Anatech Takes on the
(Lack of) Guard Bands
If you’re one of the many designers who’s trying to find a way to deal with tight channel
spacing and minimal guard bands, it’s going to take more than just clean amplifiers and
digital pre-distortion. It takes filters with extremely high rejection. That’s one of our
key strengths, so please call us with your requirements
Download Our 2013 Catalog
Technical Questions?
Download Our Technical Resources
|
[borders/inc-300x250.htm]About
Anatech Electronics;
Anatech Electronics, Inc. (AEI) specializes in the design and
manufacture of standard and custom RF and microwave filters and other passive components and
subsystems employed in commercial, industrial, and aerospace and applications. Products are
available from an operating frequency range of 10 kHz to 30 GHz and include cavity, ceramic,
crystal, LC, and surface acoustic wave (SAW), as well as power combiners/dividers, duplexers
and diplexers, directional couplers, terminations, attenuators, circulators, EMI filters, and
lightning arrestors. The company’s custom products and capabilities are available at
www.anatechelectronics.com and
standard products are available for purchase at the Anatech Electronics Web store,
AMCrf.com.
Contact:
Anatech Electronics, Inc.
70 Outwater Lane
Garfield, NJ 07026
(201) 772-4242
sales@anatechelectronics.com
Posted
5/17/2013
|
 |
|
|
 |
|
|
| |
|
Copyright: 1996 - 2024
Webmaster:
Kirt
Blattenberger,
BSEE - KB3UON
RF Cafe began life in 1996 as "RF Tools" in an AOL screen name web space totaling
2 MB. Its primary purpose was to provide me with ready access to commonly needed
formulas and reference material while performing my work as an RF system and circuit
design engineer. The World Wide Web (Internet) was largely an unknown entity at
the time and bandwidth was a scarce commodity. Dial-up modems blazed along at 14.4 kbps
while tying up your telephone line, and a nice lady's voice announced "You've Got
Mail" when a new message arrived...
All trademarks, copyrights, patents, and other rights of ownership to images
and text used on the RF Cafe website are hereby acknowledged.
My Hobby Website:
AirplanesAndRockets.com
|
|
|
