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 For the sake of avid cruciverbalists amongst us, each
week I create a new
crossword puzzle that has a theme related to engineering, mathematics, chemistry, physics,
and other technical words. Clues in this puzzle with an asterisk (*) are
pulled from this past week's (7/17 - 7/21) "Tech Industry Headlines" column on the RF Cafe
homepage (see the Headline Archives page for help). Enjoy! ...
 "The use of selected Electrical, Electronic, and Electromechanical
(EEE)
commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) components in space applications is slowly
expanding - too slowly - and not free of myths. It is imperative to be aware of the pitfalls
posed by these myths to reach a decision whether to use COTS parts in a specific space mission.
Myth 1: The main drive to use COTS in space is cost savings. The use of COTS in space is not
a paved road to cost savings. In order not to misinterpret the term 'cost savings,' it should
be emphasized that for an EEE component the following applies ..."
 Triad RF Systems announces the availability of their
TTRM1081, an L-Band bi-directional SSPA suitable for high data-rate wireless
links. Applications include UAVs and military mesh networks. Rx noise figure is approximately
1.3 dB and Tx/Rx switching speed is 1 μS. This class AB LDMOS 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, OFDM, DVB, and CW/AM/FM.
The latest device technologies and design methods are employed ...
 "By day,
Claude Shannon labored on top-secret war projects at Bell Labs. By night,
he worked out the details of information theory. Looking back on the last months of 1940,
Claude Shannon was quite open about his desire to avoid the World War II draft: 'Things were
moving fast there, and I could smell the war coming along. And it seemed to me I would be
safer working full-time for the war effort, safer against the draft, which I didn't exactly
fancy. I was a frail man, as I am now.... I was trying to play the game, to the best of my
ability. But not only that, I thought I'd probably contribute ..."
 Advanced Energy has devoted more than three decades
to perfecting power enabling design breakthroughs and driving growth for leading semiconductor
and industrial customers. Our precision power and control technologies, along with our applications
know-how, inspire close partnerships and perpetual innovation in thin-film and industrial
manufacturing. The
RF Engineer
performs engineering work in applied research, design, development, testing, manufacturing,
and documentation of RF products or systems. In this role, you will work with customers to
understand their equipment ...
 "Researchers at Harvard University have taken an important
step in the realization of 'spintronic' devices by developing a technique for both measuring and controlling
the spin voltage of electrons, also known as their spin chemical potential. This spin voltage
characterizes the tendency of electron spins to diffuse through a material. Whereas in a conducting
material electrons can physically move from point A to point B (an electric current), with
spin voltage the spin of an electron can be transferred to a neighboring electron. This communication ..."
 ConductRF's
FPA RF Cable Assemblies
provide a cost effective high performance solution for applications typically supported by
Semi-Rigid or high cost flexible precision cables. Our Multi-layer shielded cable provides
both flexibility and form-ability by combining a flexible spiral foil over which is a tin
plated copper braid which can be formed. This create a half-way situation, but with added
benefits of lower costs, improved performance and enhanced shielding. FPA Cables are available
on short lead-times with custom lengths and configurations. Precision SMA, 3.5 mm, 2.92 mm &
2.4 mm are our most common ...
 "Chinese researchers were paid an average of
$43,000 in 2016 for each paper published in Nature and Science, according
to a study by information specialists in China and Canada. Wei Quan from Wuhan University,
Bikun Chen at Nanjing University of Science and Technology and Fei Shu at McGill University
analysed 168 "cash-per-publication" policies at 100 Chinese universities from 1999 to 2016.
The researchers found that Chinese universities offer cash rewards ranging from $30 to $165,000
for papers that are published in journals indexed by Web of Science, with the average amount
increasing over ..."
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 I chuckled out loud when I saw this
comic.
Of course the situation would never really occur (then again, maybe it could...). The artist
is G. Lyons, who does not appear to have made many other appearances in Electronics World
magazine. He might have been a loyal reader who submitted it as a one-time stint at fame ...
 This Radio Service Data Sheet for the
RCA-Victor
Model 15U, which appeared in the April 1938 issue of Radio-Craft, is the first
3-page instance I remember seeing in all the vintage electronics magazines. The Model 15U
is a fairly sophisticated outfit, but not that much more so than some other pieces. There
is a nice example of the Model 15U on the RadioMuseum.org website (thumbnail at left). It
appears to be fairly clean, but not yet fully restored. A lot of adjustments needed to be
made during the alignment of both the radio (commercial broadcast and shortwave bands) and
the turntable. The electronics repair ...
 For more than a decade, RF Cascade Workbook 2005™
has been the de facto standard for spreadsheet-based RF system cascade analysis.
Wireless
System Designer™ is the next phase in the evolution. If you know how to use Excel
and you know anything about cascaded system calculations, then you know how to use Wireless
System Designer™. This is significantly easier and faster than using the multi-thousand
dollar simulators when a quick system analysis is all that is needed. An intro video takes
you through the main features ...
 Parts 1 and 2 of this series covered the theory of
nuclear physics and laboratory investigation devices. This final installation talks about
commercially available test instruments for detecting and measuring nuclear radiation levels.
My introduction to Geiger counters was in the old The Adventures of Superman television
show (the originals with George Reeves) where they were used
by villains to verify that their stash of Kryptonite would be sufficient to disable our superhero.
I could not find anywhere whether Kryptonite's emission type is alpha particles
(helium nucleus; i.e., 2 protons and 2 neutrons), beta particles ...
 News was a bit slow to spread prior to the Internet.
Unless you worked in a newsroom with a ticker machine clacking away all day heralding breaking
headlines from around the world, your access was relegated to the discretion of media editors
and producers. Items like the demise of radio pioneer
Guglielmo
Marconi on July 20, 1937, due to a heart attack would surely have been broadcast on radio
shows (not many households had
TVs at the time) and printed in major newspapers, but long lead times
for magazines meant a four month delay for publications like Radio-Craft. This story
appeared along with separate editorial by Hugo Gernsback ...
 "If you've been tuned in to Electronic Design's articles
this past year in the test and measurement arena, you're probably aware of a series by Colin
Mattson (Keysight Technologies) on advanced
oscilloscope triggering techniques. In the first article, he elucidates
on pulse and pattern modes, where the characteristics of a pulse and the uniqueness of a pattern
are utilized as the impetus of signal acquisition. In part two, he delves into edge-mode triggering,
where the edge characteristics of a signal are used to mark the trigger for waveform capture.
In part three, he ..."
 Saelig Company announces the availability of two new
TekBox
TBCGx Comb Generators for EMC testing. The TBCG1 is a radiating comb generator with an
internal dipole antenna and a base frequency of 100 MHz. It radiates a comb spectrum
that is characterized up to 6 GHz. The comb generator is intended as a quick reference
for testing radiated noise measurements in anechoic chambers, TEM/GTEM cells, shielded chambers,
or to gauge the effectiveness of cable shielding and other shielding materials. With its built-in
dipole antenna the TBCG1 can be used in three orientations to emit vertically- or horizontally ...
 Unlike Radio Broadcast Data System (RBDS) which is
responsible for your FM radio being able to display song title and station identification
via a digital subchannel (began in 1992),
Subsidiary Communications Authorization (SCA) has been around as an analog subchannel
for more than half a century. SCA (was) used for tasks such as book reading for the blind,
telemetry, paging services, and most familiarly - Muzak (aka 'elevator
music'). This article presents a simple circuit for stripping the subcarrier off of
the FM broadcast signal to permit a listener to avoid commercials, PSAs, weather reports,
and other items that are played between songs ...
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 -
Archive -
FCC Eyes Midband Spectrum Between 3.7 and 24 GHz
DOD Puts 'Foot on Gas Pedal' to Catch up on Electronic Warfare
Tower Companies Likely Enjoyed Solid - If Not Spectacular - Q2
Electronics in Europe Update
Europeans Will Only Buy Electric Cars by 2035
(by decree, not choice)
Tech Companies Push Offshore Cash Pile to Record High
(to avoid taxes, while their CEOs back pols who raise your taxes)
U.S.
Paves Roads to Trusted Fabs
Semiconductor Content in Electronic Systems Forecast to Set New Record in
2017
The Difference Between IEEE 802.11ah and 802.11af in the IoT
 The
NY
Times has an article about a growing trend to harken back to website layouts reminiscent
of the early days of the Internet. RF Cafe, which began life in 1996 as
RF Tools on AOL, was there. The RF Cafe
logo at the top of this page is the original from 1999.
"Web designs have come a long way
in 20 years, but some are taking a step back to evoke a sort of hipster nostalgia for the
early days of the internet. They're tipping their hat to the 1990s,' said David Lee, the chief
creative officer of Squarespace.' 'I really
hate the modern internet,' Mr. Drake said. 'My vision is to bring back making websites
as a creative thing, not just as a business thing."
I couldn't agree more ...
 Radiocrafts AS,
a leading provider of RF modules, today announced that it has entered a global distribution
agreement with Digi-Key Electronics,
the industry leader in electronic component selection, availability, and delivery. Design
engineers around the world get access to RF modules and design tools from Radiocrafts with
short lead-times. Radiocrafts provides surface mount RF modules for wireless networking in
the ISM bands world-wide. The modules support industry standard protocols such as Wireless
M-Bus, Sigfox and KNX-RF ...
 "Two important breakthroughs in the understanding of
iron-selenide superconductors have been made by two independent research
groups. One team has shown that the electrons responsible for superconductivity in the material
probably come from a specific atomic orbital. The other team, meanwhile, has measured the
interaction between electrons and atomic vibrations in iron selenide, which is believed to
be involved in its superconductivity. The research could shed light on the mystery of why
some materials based on iron selenide are superconductors at relatively high temperatures ..."
Controlling Heat and Particle Currents
in Nanodevices
 OK, I admit that the
Escher-like
waterfall drawing caused me to post this. "Researchers from the Theory Department of the MPSD
have realized the control of thermal and electrical currents in nanoscale devices by means
of quantum local observations. Measurement plays a fundamental role in quantum mechanics.
The best-known illustration of the principles of superposition and entanglement is Schrödinger's
cat. Invisible from the outside, the cat resides in a coherent superposition of two states,
alive and dead at the same time. By means of a measurement ..."
 A lot of us still use older test equipment at home
and even in the company lab. As discussed in this 1972 article from Popular Electronics magazine,
the displayed rise time on an oscilloscope display is not necessarily that true
rise time of a signal - particularly when the speed approaches the rated bandwidth of
the equipment. In that case, it is necessary to mathematically compensate for the rise times
of each individual component used for making the measurement. Hooking the o-scope probe tip
to the calibration point on the front of the instrument and adjusting the probe's trim capacitor
for a flat response is not always good enough. Most modern o-scopes ...
 Pasternack, a leading provider of RF, microwave and
millimeter wave products, has launched a new line of waveguide phase shifters in sizes ranging
from WR-42 to WR-10. Typical applications include instrumentation, test benches, product development
and characterization. Pasternack's new series of
waveguide phase shifters is comprised of seven models that operate in
the frequency range of 18 GHz to 110 GHz and in 7 waveguide bands from K to W band.
They provide phase shift range from 0 to 180° and 1 dB ...
 "The rapidly developing science and technology of graphene
and atomically-thin materials has taken another step forward with new research
from The University of Manchester. This research, published in Science, shows how a variety
of different electronic properties - essentially new materials - can be realised simply by
applying a magnetic field. Electrons inside materials move quite differently from a free electron
in vacuum: their properties are strongly affected by the electric potential of ions comprising
the crystal lattice. This interaction changes the mass of electrons and makes materials ..."
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