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. "SinceStudying
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. StandardRF 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
..."
