Tuesday 31
"The Pentagon
is evaluating encryption technology designed to secure smartphone-to-smartphone messaging, chat
and data sharing applications, DOD officials told Defense Systems. An advanced encryption standard developed
by Secured Communications is among the technologies being assessed by Pentagon developers. Users are
given access to a specific app which enables end-to-end secured exchange of images, files, texts
..."
Version 13, the first
major update in 2017 to
NI AWR Design Environment, has been released. V13 provides key new capabilities
and major enhancements to better address the design challenges associated with highly-integrated RF/microwave
components commonly found in communications, phased-array radar and other electronic systems. NI AWR
Design Environment V13 introduces numerous innovations in design flow management and simulation, supporting
MMIC ...
"Engineers have discovered an important first step towards building
electrically pumped nanolasers that are critical to the development of integrated photonic based
short-distance optical interconnects and sensors. University of Washington Assistant Professor of Electrical
Engineering and Physics Arka Majumdar, Associate Professor of Materials Science and Engineering and
Physics Xiaodong Xu and their team have discovered
..."
The 5-meter band (56-64 MHz) allocated to U.S. amateur radio
operations in the 1930s was reallocated in 1946 to television broadcasting. However, Hams still are
permitted to operate on 6-meter (50-54 MHz) and 2-meter (144-146 MHz) bands on either side
of 5 meters. Therefore, this article on
non-line-of-sight communications within mountainous regions will still be of interest, even if only
from a historical perspective. There is an interesting comment made about feeding a vertical 1/4-wave
antenna from the top rather than from
...
"An 'acoustic frequency comb,' which produces sound at a precise set of frequencies,
has been made by physicists at the University of Cambridge in the UK. The device, which is an acoustic
analogue of an optical frequency comb, works at ultrasonic frequencies. With further improvements, the
device could be used for imaging, metrology and materials testing. Conventional optical frequency combs
emit a spectrum of light made of thousands of discrete peaks at evenly spaced frequencies, like the
teeth
..."
LadyBug Technologies means Peak Performance in Power Sensors:
9 kHz - 40 GHz and 80 dB
dynamic range. LadyBug makes a broad line of First Tier NIST traceable
USB power sensors that are compatible with
Windows systems, along with 
Linux. LadyBug has the only SPI & I2C sensor available.
Patented NoZero NoCal feature - Simply connect and measure to receive a high accuracy measurement. Please
contact LadyBug today to find out how they can help you ...
Monday 30
I have long commented on how the
profligate consumption of everything under the sun, with an accompanying draining
of natural resources and and enormous generation of environmental pollution and waste products is utter
hypocrisy as practiced by a worldwide populace supposedly concerned about the evils of free market capitalism
and the need for 'green' and 'eco' awareness. This report from MIT gives credence to my assertion. "Lack
of efficiency in the use of natural resources is not the only culprit for many of the Earth's environmental
issues
..."
"A team
of researchers at the University of Illinois has recently advanced
gallium nitride (GaN)-on-silicon transistor technology by optimizing the composition
of the semiconductor layers that make up the device. Working with industry partners Veeco and IBM, the
team created the high electron mobility transistor (HEMT) structure on a 200 mm silicon substrate with
a process that will scale to larger industry-standard wafer sizes. According
..."
evissaP
('Passive' spelled backwards) offers a wide variety of
RF cable assemblies and
low PIM RF connector adapters.
Incorporating highly 
repeatable and high quality cable and connectors, our cable/connector
matrices cover the spectrum from DC to 50 GHz. Standard product cable assemblies are built
using lead free solder in combination with state-of-the art induction
soldering techniques. Custom requirements - including cable labeling - always welcome
...
NuWaves Engineering, an international RF and Microwave solutions
provider, announced the addition of their latest miniaturized bidirectional amplifier to their line
of NuPowerTM XtenderTM bidirectional amplifier products. The
NuPower™ Xtender™ 12C04A model, part
number NW-BA-12C04A, provides 15 watts of RF power across L- & S- band frequencies of 1.0 to 2.5
GHz, ideal for extending the communication range of half-duplex transceivers with constant
...
"Having proved it can
deploy and fire shipboard lasers, the U.S. Navy is moving at warp speed to develop lasers with more
punch and power sources. 'We're doing a lot more with lasers,' Rear Adm. Ronald Boxall, director, Surface
Warfare Division, said earlier this month at the annual Surface Naval Association national symposium.
'The Navy plans to fire a 150-kw weapon off a test ship within a year,' he said. 'Then a year later,
we'll have that on a carrier or a destroyer or both
..."
As you might expect, Ham radio operators tend to be the type
of people who engage in more than one pastime. Many are handy with tools and like doing challenging
home improvement projects and renovations of cars, trucks or antique furniture. Others enjoy hobbies
like flying model airplanes and/or rockets, boating, fishing, baseball, and other endeavors of skill
and prowess. Some, like Canadian amateur radio operator
Neil Carleton
(VE3NCE), count stamp collecting amongst their extracurricular activities. Stamp collectors are
known properly as philatelists. Neil does not collect just any kind of stamps
...
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. You will never be asked the name of a movie star unless
he/she was involved in a technical endeavor (e.g., Hedy Lamar). Clues
in this week's puzzle with an asterisk (*) are pulled from this past week's (1/23 -
1/27) "High Tech News" column on the RF Cafe
...
Friday 27
"A new type of compact and highly efficient laser that is compatible
with optical telecommunications has been created by Boubacar Kanté and colleagues at the University
of California, San Diego, in the US. The tunable device, which uses a wave phenomenon first proposed
more than 80 years ago, can output light with a range of different beam profiles. According to Kanté,
the laser could someday be used in a wide range of applications including spectroscopy and optical trapping
..."
EDI CON USA 2017, an event that brings together engineers working
on high-frequency analog and high-speed digital designs, will take place at the Hynes Convention Center,
September 11-13 in Boston, MA. The event management team is pleased to announce this year's
call for abstracts (CFA) is
now open. The EDI CON USA Technical Advisory Committee, event management team, and this year's conference
chairs, Thomas Cameron, CTO for the Communications Business Unit at Analog Devices Inc. and Istvan Novak,
Senior Principal Engineer
...
The ARRL Handbook for Radio Communications 2017
The
ARRL Handbook for Radio Communications 2017 is available now. As always, it is chock-full of
easy to understand explanations, tables and graphs, equations, theory, building projects, operational
practices, and regulations. It is the best $50 you will spend this year. New topics are added with each
edition. It probably is not necessary to upgrade if you have a copy from the last couple years, but
if it has been 4-5 years since you last bought an ARRL Handbook, this would be a good time
to get the latest and greatest
...
Saelig Company has announced the availability of the
Teledyne LeCroy HVFO103 - a
high voltage fiber-optically isolated 60 MHz oscilloscope probe that is optimally designed for
the measurement of small signals floating on a high voltage bus in power electronics designs. Optical
isolation between the probe tip and the oscilloscope input reduces adverse loading of a device under
test. It also reduces noise, distortion, ringing, overshoots, and transients on the measured signal.
It far surpasses the measurement
...
"Power
rail probe addresses the challenge of testing
high-bandwidth, low-voltage circuits. Test and measurement of cell phones and tablet
computers may soon be simpler, thanks to a new power rail probe that's scheduled to be introduced at
next week's DesignCon 2017 show and conference. Known as the RT-ZPR20, the new probe addresses the growing
difficulty of making measurements on the high-bandwidth, low-voltage circuits
..."
"European Space Agency recently announced that Europe's beleaguered
Galileo satnav has suffered another setback, with clocks failing onboard a number
of satellites in space. Designed to make Europe independent from America's GPS, the €10B ($11B)
project may experience further delays as the cause of the failure is investigated. 18 orbiters have
been launched for the Galileo constellation to date, a number that will ultimately be boosted to 30
operational
..."
Thursday 26
"A majority stake in
Cambridge Graphene, a spin-out company from the University of Cambridge, has been
acquired by UK-based firm Versarien. Cambridge Graphene develops inks based on graphene and related
materials using processes developed at the Cambridge Graphene Centre. The spin-out company has commercialised
graphene inks for novel technology applications. Cheltenham-based technology
..."
"A simple technique for producing oxide nanowires directly from
bulk materials could dramatically lower the cost of producing the one-dimensional (1D) nanostructures.
That could open the door for a broad range of uses in lightweight structural composites, advanced sensors,
electronic devices – and thermally-stable and strong battery membranes able to withstand temperatures
of more than 1,000 degrees Celsius. The technique uses a solvent reaction
..."
When you read this article's title, I doubt you immediately thought
it would be about a vacuum tube circuit, or even one that uses discrete transistors to implement the
circuit. Rather you most likely though it would be about an integrated circuit (IC).
Operational amplifiers (opamps) are building blocks characterized (ideally) by their infinite input
impedance, zero output impedance, infinite open-loop bandwidth and gain, zero input offset voltage,
amongst other defined parameters. The first commercially produced IC opamp
...
"Thanks to a novel gold fractal metasurface design, an international
team of scientists from Purdue University and the Technical University of Denmark have managed to tune
graphene's natural wideband optical absorption by over an order of magnitude. Published in Nano Letters,
their article 'Enhanced Graphene Photodetector with Fractal Metasurface' describes how the naturally
poor photoabsorption of graphene (merely 2.3% of incident light) can be largely enhanced
..."
Windfreak Technologies designs, manufactures,
tests and sells high value USB powered and controlled radio frequency
products such as RF signal generators, RF synthesizers, RF power detectors, mixers, up/downconverters.
Worldwide customers include Europe, Australia,
and Asia. Please contact Windfreak today to learn how they might
help you with your current project ...
VidaRF, celebrating
10 years, has released new website and full digital
product catalog with comparative pricing and high quality as attached. VidaRF is a global technology
provider of custom RF microwave components to client’s requests, or directly built-to spec for the most
specific applications. Along with providing our customers with a variety of MIL-SPEC products, VidaRF
Components specializes in designing custom solutions. Instead of designing around catalog items
...
"Foxconn, the world's largest contract electronics maker, is considering setting
up a display-making plant in the United States in an investment that would exceed $7 billion, company
chairman and chief executive Terry Gou said on Sunday. The plans come after U.S. President Donald Trump
pledged to put 'America First' in his inauguration speech on Friday, prompting Gou to warn about the
rise of protectionism and a trend for politics to
..."
Wednesday 25
"Carbonics,
a startup founded in 2014, is offering first access to its carbon nanotube (CNT) technology in the form
of
carbon-on-silicon and carbon-on-quartz wafers that the company claims will allow RF performance
beyond that of gallium arsenide. Carbonics claims that CNT devices can be 30x more linear and 1000x
more power efficient than gallium arsenide. The so-called 'zebra' wafers are 100 mm in diameter
and include a 1 nm monolayer of self-aligned CNT material. However
..."
Here are 4 more "Radio Service Data Sheets" from the pages of
a vintage Radio Craft magazine. The most unusual is probably the
Detrola Model 105C
5-Tube Dual-Band A.C.-D.C. superheterodyne tabletop receiver.
•
Fairbanks-Morse
9-Tube All-Wave Model 91
•
International
Model 500 5-Tube Dual-Range Battery
• Zenith 6-Tube
All-Wave No. 5634
"The
Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) has awarded £578k funding to researchers
at the University of Liverpool to develop
liquid antennas which have the potential to transform modern radio communications
and radar. Antennas convert radio waves into electrical signals and are an essential component in mobile
and wireless products from smart phones to radars. Traditionally antenna are made out of materials such
as copper have good conductive properties but are hard to
..."
Candidate
will serve as an EW sensor engineer for the
Electronic Warfare Division at NAVAIR
Weapons Division, Point Mugu. The major responsibilities include the evaluation and analysis of
various radio frequency (RF) INTEL data, design and development of Mission Data files/libraries and
the defining system requirements and design for EW systems. Responsibilities also include writing and
updating intermediate and final technical documents including system requirements and design
...
Note: These are the folks that produced the extremely popular
Electronic Warfare and Radar Systems Engineering Handbook!
"A
novel slot waveguide with tunable, two-dimensional electron gas could form the basis of a room temperature
THz modulator, according to Massachusetts-based Tufts University. Through lack of
THz facilities, the researchers have created a lower frequency prototype, than can amplitude modulate
a 250 GHz carrier to 96% intensity with a 14 GHz signal. 'This is a very promising device that can operate
at terahertz frequencies, is miniaturized
..."
Anatech Electronics,
a manufacturer of RF and microwave filters, has published its first newsletter of the new year. As always,
it includes both company news and some tidbits about relevant industry happenings. Sam Benzacar discusses
the DoD's 'onerous' task of dealing with the overwhelming number of
potential interferers to
its critical communications systems throughout the world. An apropos reference to an oft-quoted
Pogo line is used regarding the significant source of interference from the military itself, with
its multitudinous transmitters across the entire EM spectrum
...
"Worcester Polytechnic Institute has found a way to use light
to produce motion in a
semiconductor nanocomposite material. There is tremendous amount of interest in
the potential of infinitesimally small machines. Whether they are to be incorporated into integrated
circuits or even implanted in the human body, this is indeed a new frontier. Last year’s Nobel Prize
in Chemistry went to three researchers whose work led to the first molecular motor
..."
Tuesday 24
When you read today where someone writes about, "back in the eighties...,"
you naturally think of 1980-something. This 1949 advertisement by
Bell Telephone Laboratories mention of "back in the eighties" was referencing 1880-something. The
picture juxtaposes a telephone pole massively populated with cross poles, insulators, and wires, with
an engineer holding up a section of coaxial cable that was in the process of replacing the poles and
wires. Thanks to Bell Labs' relentless
...
Federal Custom Cable is your direct source for
RF & microwave and contract manufacturing (CM), cable prepping,
kitting, labeling, 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. Please contact Federal Custom Cable today for your project
needs ...
Microwave Journal's
free Innovations in EDA webinar series presents "mmWave Antenna Design Made Easy in ADS" on February 2, 2017, at 1:00 pm
ET. "For chip designers, planar antennas are easy to integrate. Yet, at millimeter-wave
(mmWave) frequencies, new challenges in design and multi-technology integration
surface. One such challenge is that at mmWave frequencies, radar applications such as gesture recognition
and autonomous vehicles utilize different planar antennas
..."
See RF Cafe's Event Calendar.
"A new app can give you the answers
to your math homework and even explain how to solve it just by taking a picture. Called Socratic, the
free app uses artificial intelligence to determine what information you need, and returns 'explainers'
and videos to give you step-by-step help. The firm says it’s like having a 'digital tutor in your pocket,'
generating answers from a community of teachers and students. Socratic doesn’t just work with math.
The tutor app can also help with questions in science, history
..."
The
TTRM1083
GaAs amplifier operates at a frequency range of 1300 MHz to 2700 MHz and has a power output of 5
Watts, while still maintaining a compact form factor of 3.25" x 2" x 0.993". This unit also features
internal protection against over/under voltage and excessive temperature conditions, which coupled with
its rugged construction, ensure fault-free operation in even the most extreme environments. This class
A GaAs ...
"Scientists at DESY have set up the world's most precise 'metronome'
for a kilometre-wide network. The timing system synchronizes a 4.7-kilometer-long laser-microwave network
with
950 attoseconds precision. An attosecond is a quintillionth of a second, or a millionth
of a millionth of a millionth of a second. Such installations can provide the beat for recording ultrafast
X-ray snapshots of dynamic processes in the world of molecules and atoms. The German-US team around
leading DESY scientist Prof. Franz X. Kärtner from the Center for Free-Electron
..."
If
your son or daughter, or anyone else you know is considering pursuing a career in engineering, then
this 4th edition of a classic might be a good gift. "Since Studying Engineering: A Road Map to a Rewarding Career exploded onto the market
in 1995, it has become the best selling Introduction to Engineering textbook of all time. Adopted by
over 300 U.S. institutions, and reaching more than 150,000 students, the book has made major inroads
into the 'sink or swim' paradigm of engineering education. Armed with the book
..."
Monday 23
Anatech Electronics manufactures and supplies RF and microwave
filters for military and commercial communication systems, providing standard and custom RF
filters, and RF products. Standard RF filter and cable assembly products
are published in their website database. Custom RF filters designs are used when a standard cannot be
found, or the requirements dictate a custom approach. Please take a moment to visit Anatech's website
to see how they might be able to assist with your current project
...
Cold cathode tubes are distinguished from hot cathode tubes in
that they do not use a separate heated element in order to generate free electrons (thermionic heating).
Rather, a 'starter' type process is used to initiate the electron generation and then a cascade multiplication
keeps the process running. Although this article reports on a
cold cathode oscillator vacuum tube - designed by none other than television pioneer Philo Farnsworth
- some more familiar examples are neon and fluorescent bulbs and even the veritable Nixie
...
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. Topics include careers, manufacturing, engineering, management, meetings and travel. Note:
I earn a few pennies (literally) when you download one of these
...
"Vishay Intertechnology
announced a commercial version of its popular Automotive Grade IHLE series of low-profile, high current
inductors featuring integrated e-shields for EMI reduction. Available in the 2525, 3232, and 4040 case
sizes, the Vishay Dale IHLE-2525CD-51, IHLE-3232DD-51, and IHLE-4040DD-51 contain the electric field
associated with EMI in a tin-plated copper integrated shield, providing up to -20 dB of electric field
reduction at 1 cm (above the center of the inductor
..."
Safe-Com Wireless is seeking
a contract RF Technician with several years experience in RF testing and circuit card trouble-shooting.
The position requires specific experience and knowledge in working with spectrum / network analyzers
,signal generators, RF amplifiers, RF frequencies up to 1 GHz, and soldering / surface mount components.
Experience with fiber optics is a plus. Safe-Com Wireless is located in Holmdel, New Jersey
...
"The onboard atomic clocks that drive the satellite-navigation
signals on Europe's Galileo
network have been failing at an alarming rate. Across the 18 satellites now in orbit, nine clocks have
stopped operating. Three are traditional rubidium devices; six are the more precise hydrogen maser instruments
that were designed to give Galileo superior performance to the American GPS network. Galileo was declared
up and running in December. However, it is still short of the number of satellites
..."
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 week's puzzle with an asterisk (*) are directly
from Friday's "High Tech
News" column on the RF Cafe homepage. You will never be asked the name of a movie star unless he/she
was involved in a technical endeavor (e.g., Hedy Lamar)
...
Friday 20
everything RF announces a newly implemented search filter
for finding a spectrum
analyzer with the features you need. Selectable parameters include manufacturer, type, price, frequency
range, resolution bandwidth, etc. everything RF provides the only searchable product database
for the RF & microwave industry, and currently lists 191,634 products from over 875 companies in
229 categories ...
Popular Electronics magazine ran their "Transistor
Topics" column for many years, and this is the third in the series. Unfortunately, I do not yet
have the previous two editions, but someday... Transistors were a relatively new phenomenon at the beginning
of 1956, so there was a lot to learn and a lot of people to teach about them. It might have been easier
to make converts of dedicated tube users if the JFET had been commercialized before the BJT, since the
JFET (voltage on the gate controls current flow) acts more
...
"5G cellular could have a bigger economic
impact than expected, according to an IHS study sponsored by Qualcomm. The report comes at a time when
carriers are racing to test 5G prototype products and standards are still in development. 5G could enable
as much as $12.3 trillion in goods and services in 2035 when its full effects are realized, the
5G Economy report
said. By that time, companies developing 5G products and services could generate $3.5 trillion in revenue
and 22 million jobs. The so-called 5G
..."
You know it's
a new world when lighting companies are hiring RF engineers to design and qualify wireless 'personal
lighting' products. In the EMC & Wireless Connectivity lab, you will
contribute to the Internet-Of-Things
strategy of
Philips Lighting; e.g., by co-creating the next generation of the Philips HUE lamps.
You will support multiple departments of Philips Lighting to efficiently test and design the wireless
connectivity part of their products and systems
...
EDI CON USA 2017, an event that brings together
engineers working on high-frequency analog and high-speed digital designs, will take place at the Hynes
Convention Center, September 11-13 in Boston, MA. The event management team is pleased to announce this
year's conference chairs: Thomas Cameron, CTO for the Communications Business Unit at Analog Devices
Inc. will serve as the chair for the high-frequency subject areas, and Istvan Novak, Senior Principal
Engineer at Oracle, will serve as the chair for the high-speed digital areas of the conference
...
"H.R. 555 - a new 'Amateur Radio Parity Act' bill - has been introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives.
The bill’s language is identical to that of the 2015 measure, H.R. 1301, which passed in the House late
last summer but failed in the waning days of the US Senate to gain the necessary support. As with H.R.
1301, the new measure introduced on January 13 in the 115th Congress was sponsored by Rep. Adam Kinzinger
(R-IL), with initial co-sponsorship by Rep. Joe Courtney (D-CT) and Rep. Greg Walden, W7EQI (R-OR).
Walden now
..."