Friday 24
Thursday 23
Wednesday 22
Tuesday 21
 Maybe it is because I recently
rebuilt a set of stereo speakers that this article on frequency
crossover circuits
seemed appropriate for posting. Crossovers networks are essentially an audio version
of a an RF multiplexer filter. The speakers were just some cheap jobs from an old
system where one had a split in the 8" bass speaker cone. I wanted to keep the
enclosures since they match the receiver and turntable and replace just the speakers
themselves. The so-called crossover circuit consisted of a series capacitor in one
line of each of the midrange and tweeter speakers. Good quality stereo speakers and a
good crossover circuit would have cost a couple hundred dollars - well beyond my
budget, so I opted for some just-above-low-end car speakers ...
 "Researchers in the U.K. have demonstrated a dry
contact-printing system that enables the transfer of multiple
silicon
nanowires onto flexible large-area substrates to develop high-performance ultra-thin
electronic layers with good control over its electronic properties. This opens up the
opportunity for large-scale use of flexible and bendable electronics including in internet
of things (IoT) and smart city applications. 'Single-crystal silicon is a brittle material,
and the moment you bend it, it cracks,' said professor Ravinder Dahiya, who led the research ..."
 Good luck trying to find a good
ham radio related comic in any magazine today. I am convinced that publisher boards
either discourage or outright prohibit comics these day for fear of hurting some overly
sensitive person's feelings and inviting lawsuits, or worse yet social media flaming
frenzies. Fortunately, I am not afraid and am glad to make these vintage comics available.
You and I, being reasonable people, cannot possibly find anything insulting or denigrating
in any of these five comics, but somebody could. BTW, for the non-ham, a "pink ticket"
from the FCC is a notice of violation, which could be anything from neglecting to announce
your call sign every ten minutes to having a faulty transmitter that is spewing noise
outside your band ...
 Transient Specialists, a leader in EMC rentals
for over 30 years, announces that they will be offering rentals of the
NSG 3150 and CDN 3153. This 15 kV combination wave/surge generator system
by Teseq can be rented together or separately to facilitate testing needs. Transient
Specialists conveniently located in the mid-west offers a variety of EMC test equipment
rentals to accommodate your testing needs. Our rentals include technical support on the
equipment, weekly and monthly rentals, and 2 days each way of transit time free with
each rental. With the experience and equipment Transient Specialists is solution when
testing needs ...
  KR Electronics designs and manufactures
high quality filters for both the commercial and military markets. KR Electronics manufactures
all filter types: lowpass, highpass,
bandpass, bandstop and individually synthesizes filters for special applications. State
of the art computer synthesis, analysis and test methods are used to meet the most challenging
specifications. Please visit their website today to see how they might be of assistance
...
 "Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
(HKUST) and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Ltd have been jointly developing
integrated capacitors for p-type gallium nitride (p-GaN) gate high-frequency power transistors on silicon substrate.
GaN transistors with a p-gate enable enhancement-mode operation where transistors are
in the current-off state with zero gate potential. This reduces power consumption and
allows fail-safe operation. GaN transistors are being developed for high-frequency power
applications with a view to high conversion efficiency and power density. Production
on silicon should reduce manufacturing cost ..."
Monday 20
 If you are a fan of John T. Frye's "Mac's
Service Shop" series of technodramas, then you might also appreciate this short-run stories
by Bob Eldridge titled, "Another
Day in the Shop." Up through maybe the early 1980s, every town had at least one electronics
service shop for taking care of televisions, radios, record players, tape recorders and
players, cameras, computers, and just about anything else that might be fixed at less
cost than buying a replacement unit. In the 1940's through the 1960's, there was often
good money to be made not only with in-shop repair but also with doing house calls for
repair and installation. Electronics magazines of the era were filled with both self-help
and tips for the professionals regarding troubleshooting, use of test equipment, how
to deal with customers, etc. Electronics World even ran for a while a feature
that suggested types and quantities of replacement tubes, capacitors ..."
 For as long as I can remember, having the title
of "engineer" without also holding some sort of 4-or-more-year degree meant that those
who do have the degree considered the
"non-engineer" engineer to be illegitimate. It used to be - and might
still be - that some government contracts (defense, aerospace, etc.) required anyone
listed as an engineer to have at least a 4-year degree. Lou Freznel has a new article
address in the topic. "Jobs are out there to be had, but if you don't have a certain
type of degree, it's very unlikely you'll land one. Lou Frenzel says it's high time to
look beyond that vaunted piece of paper. Is it possible for a person to do actual electronic
engineering work without a college degree? I say yes. It's been done ..."
 "In August 2017, London's first hybrid black cabs
hit the streets ahead of new legislation that came into effect this year, requiring all
new cabs to be 'zero emissions capable.' The TX can operate for around 70 miles on battery
power alone, with a petrol range extender allowing it to clock up around 400 miles before
refueling. But London's very first electric cabs actually came into service exactly 120
years earlier. 'Mr W H Preece inaugurated a service of electrical cabs which are to ply
for hire in the streets of London in competition with the ordinary hackney carriages,'
wrote The Engineer in August 1897 ..."
 Rohde & Schwarz USA (R&S USA) is now offering
this free "Key Characteristics of Signal Generators and Modulation Methods: Pocket
Guide." Register for this pocket guide to receive fundamental information on analog
and digital modulation methods. The Pocket Guide is available as a spiral bound hard
copy (no PDF for download at this time). The guide also provides important signal generator
specifications and parameters that should be considered when choosing a signal generator.
This is another in a series of Pocket Guides being offered by R&S. The "RF Component
Pocket Guide," introduced earlier this year, is still available. Rohde & Schwarz
also has a downloadable PDF file titled, "Modulation and Signal Generation with R&S®
Signal Generators Educational Note Products" ...
 "The Defense Department - and possibly any iteration
of a 'Space Force' - could benefit from having commercial satellite providers host its
sensors and communications payloads, according to the Government Accountability Office.
In a July 30 report submitted to Congress, GAO endorsed the Defense Department's use
of commercially hosted military payloads a way to save money and recommended it consolidate
the current decentralized program data. DOD has used three commercially hosted payloads
with another three planned or underway through 2022. In a letter to House Armed Services
Committee, GAO auditors ..."
  Innovative Power Products (IPP) has over 30 years
of experience designing & manufacturing RF & microwave passive components. Their
high power, broadband couplers,
combiners, resistors, baluns, terminations and attenuators are fabricated using the
latest materials and design tools available, resulting in unrivaled product performance.
Applications in military, medical, industrial and commercial markets. Take a couple minutes
to visit their website and see how IPP can help you today ...
 "At Black Hat conference in Las Vegas, researcher
says theoretical threat to ships, planes and military is 'no longer theoretical.' The
satellite communications that ships, planes and the military use to connect to the internet
are vulnerable to hackers that, in the worst-case scenario, could carry out 'cyber-physical
attacks,' turning
satellite antennas into weapons that operate, essentially, like microwave
ovens. According to research presented at the Black Hat information security conference
in Las Vegas, a number of popular satellite communication systems are vulnerable to the
attacks ..."
Friday 17
 Dang, I swapped two answers and scored an 80%.
Haste makes waste, as the saying goes. Don't rush through this 1967 Popular Electronics
"Electronic
Angle Quiz" like I did and you'll probably ace it with the greatest of ease - especially
if you have been in the electronics realm at least since the 1980s. Generation X'ers
can have a two-question handicap (might never have seen real-life example of drawing
"A" or "E") and Millennials (might never have seen drawing "A," "B," "D," or "H") get
a four-question handicap ...
With more than 780 custom-built symbols, this
has got to be the most comprehensive set of
Visio Stencils
available for RF, analog, and digital system and schematic drawings! Every object has
been built from scratch to fit proportionally on the provided A- and B-size drawing page
templates (you can use your own page if preferred). Components
are provided for equipment racks (EIA and ETSI) and test
equipment, system block diagrams and conceptual drawings, and for schematics
...
 Messrs. Ben Thomas and Scott Vasquez, both with
Qorvo (formerly RFMD), write about "Evolving 5G Landscape Creates New RF Challenges," in the July 2018
issue of Microwaves & RF magazine. A bevy of new technology -
beam steering, massive MIMO, high linearity, etc. - has been and/or is in the process
of being invented in order to accommodate extreme performance specifications. Phones,
base stations, and small cells must all interact in concert for the 5G scheme to work.
The industry hype has been huge. Say the authors, "5G is approaching rapidly, with the
first deployments expected in 2019. Initially, mobile operators are targeting specific
applications where they see considerable potential demand and opportunity. However, 5G
will expand the global uses of wireless communications. A second wave of applications
in 2020 and beyond will include automotive communications ..."
 Once World War II and the Korean War were
through consuming a large percentage of the world's material and labor resources, technology
focus shifted largely toward inventing and manufacturing consumer goods. It was a period
similar to the Roaring Twenties, after World War I where innovation and high employment
fueled good times for a lot of the population. Creature comforts like indoor plumbing,
refrigerators, electric toasters and can openers, radio, affordable automobiles, were
appearing in the majority of homes. Unfortunately, not all countries enjoyed the upturn
during those eras, usually because of continued war and/or oppressive Communist / Socialist
/ Marxist regimes.
Israel did not formally become a country again until 1948, having been ruled ...
 Since
2003, Bittele Electronics has consistently provided low-volume, electronic contract manufacturing
(ECM) and turnkey PCB assembly services. It specializes in board level turnkey
PCB assembly
for design engineers needing low volume or prototype multi-layer printed circuit boards.
Free Passive Components: Bittele Electronics is taking
one further step in its commitment of offering the best service to clients of its PCB
assembly business. Bittele is now offering common passive components to its clients FREE
of Charge ...
 "The physical structure of
liquid metal is altered by incorporating a conductive nano- or micro-nickel
filler. Liquid metal printing is integral to the flexible electronics field. Additive
manufacturing enables fast fabrication of intricate designs and circuitry. The field
features a range of products including electrically conductive textiles; bendable displays;
sensors for torque, pressure, and other types of strain; wearable sensor suits, such
as those used in the development of video games; antennae; and biomedical sensors. Soft
robots, flexible computer screens, and other stretchable electronic devices also can
be created ..."
Thursday 16
 "Discovery may herald high-performance computer
hard disks where lack of friction enables greater data storage. It has long been known
that layered solid materials, particularly graphite, can act as lubricants. A joint project
between Tel Aviv and Tsinghua Universities has now found that the interface between graphite
and a two-dimensional material, hexagonal boron nitride, exhibits a property known as
superlubricity where friction between two surfaces virtually disappears
altogether. 'Superlubricity is a highly intriguing physical phenomenon, a state of practically
zero or ultra-low friction between two contacting surfaces,' said Prof Oded Hod ..."
   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
...
 pSemi Corporation (formerly Peregrine Semiconductor),
introduces the world’s first monolithic, silicon-on-insulator (SOI) Wi-Fi front-end module
(FEM)—the PE561221. Ideal for Wi-Fi home gateways, routers and set-top boxes,
this high-performance module uses a smart bias circuit to deliver a high linearity signal
and excellent long-packet error vector magnitude (EVM) performance. The PE561221 combines
the intelligent integration capabilities of pSemi's SOI technology and Murata’s expertise
in Wi-Fi connectivity solutions and advanced packaging. This 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi FEM integrates
a low-noise amplifier (LNA), a power amplifier (PA) and two RF switches ...
 Maybe at one time I knew this, but the claim by
Fairchild Semiconductor in this 1965 Electronics magazine advertisement took
me by surprise. They claim to have invented the
dual-inline-package (DIP) format. According to Wikipedia, a trio of chaps - Don Forbes,
Rex Rice and Bryant Rogers - all Fairchild engineers, developed the DIP package in 1964,
a year prior to the ad. Previously, a round can designated TO# (Transistor Outline) with
# (number) leads around the perimeter was used for integrated circuits, but as the I/O
pin count increased, that form factor became unwieldy. An extensive search for a patent
on the DIP, assigned to Fairchild and/or the three inventors, did not turn up anything ...
 "Researchers in the U.S. have developed a way to
manipulate and mix droplets of fluids by having them surf on
acoustic
waves in oil. The group, from Duke University in North Carolina, claims that the
technology could form the basis of a reusable and programmable biomedical chip for applications
ranging from diagnostics to laboratory-based research. So-called lab-on-a-chip systems
have played an increasingly important role in the biomedical and pharmaceutical sectors,
but because these devices rely on solid surfaces their application has been hindered
by problems related to surface absorption ..."
Wednesday 15
 Color television was a big hit with homeowners
and was adopted fairly rapidly in the 1960s even considering the relatively high cost
and low number of network color broadcasts in the beginning years. The enthusiasm underwent
a severe reduction when word got out that large doses of
x−rays were streaming out of the front of the CRT for sets that did not take precautions
to prevent it (which was the majority of sets initially). The major cause was extremely
high voltages applied between the electron gun and phosphorescent raster grid - in the
neighborhood of 35 kV or more - when the high voltage regulator circuit malfunctioned.
Note that even when everything was working properly ...
 Pasternack, a leading provider of RF, microwave
and millimeter wave products, has unveiled a new line of
SPDT high-power PIN diode RF switches that offer desirable performance for transmit
and receive signal routing applications. Typical applications can involve use in radar
systems, EW applications, base station infrastructure, repeaters, military/microwave
radios, public safety/land mobile radios, UHF/VHF radios, and test and measurement applications.
Pasternack's new line of SPDT high-power PIN diode switches consists of 7 different models
that offer excellent power handling and isolation with broadband performance and fast
switching speed. Ideal for transmit and receive applications, these solid state PIN diode
switches ...
 Believe it or not, there was a time when the Internet
did not exist and getting quality information could be difficult. Offices, cubicles,
laboratories, company technical libraries, even hallways, were piled high with reference
books, magazines, component books, applications notes, datasheets, white papers, and
every other form of information that might be useful.
Watkins-Johnson Tech-Notes were particularly notable for their practical
design and application content. Thanks to Mr. Larry Jugler for providing these three
new Watkins-Johnson Tech-Notes for adding to my collection of PDF files:
-
Competitive Receiver Technologies
-
RF Signal Processing Before the Receiver
-
Software Design of Microprocessor-Controlled Receivers
 This news tidbit appeared in a 1953 issue of
Radio-Electronics along with an editorial by Hugo Gernsback titled "Transistor
Transition." RCA had just developed its first
fully solid state - except for the cathode ray tube (CRT) - television. Note that
at the time the CRT was still often referred to as a kinescope. In fact, the word "kinescope"
was coined and trademarked by RCA, so they had a vested interest in perpetuating its
usage. Jerry Herzog, shown in the photo, was one of the engineers responsible for the
design and construction of the television ...
  SF Circuits' specialty is in the complex, advanced
technology of
PCB fabrication and assembly, producing high quality multi-layered
PCBs from elaborate layouts. With them, you receive unparalleled technical expertise
at competitive prices as well as the most progressive solutions available. Their customers
request PCB production that is outside the capabilities of normal circuit board providers.
Please take a moment to visit San Francisco Circuits today ...
 "ABI Research estimates the smart home segment
could potentially be worth in the region of $11.2B by 2022, but the diversification question
still remains for the telcos. The smart home is a concept which has been on the horizon
for some time, we've been debating the merits of talking fridges for years, but until
recently it has perhaps been little more than a gimmick. The advantages of the expensive
upgrades were limited, and in all honesty, there seem like little point in connecting
your toilet to the internet. That said, during the last 12-18 months applications and
services have started to appear to make the prospect genuinely interesting..."
Tuesday 14
  Alliance
Test sells used / refurbished
test equipment, we offer short- and long-term rentals. They also offer repair, maintenance
and calibration. Prices discounted up to 80% off list price. Agilent/HP, Tektronix, Anritsu,
Fluke, R&S and other major brands. A global organization with ability to source hard
to find equipment through our network of suppliers. Please visit Allied Test Equipment
today to see how they can help your project ...
 Hugo Gernsback was well-known not just for his
technical prowess, but for an uncanny ability to predict future developments in electronics,
transportation, and production methods. Barely three years had passed since Messrs. Bardeen,
Shockley, and Brattain, announced their invention of the transistor when this editorial
titled, "Transistor
Transition" appeared in Radio-Electronics magazine. Gernsback mentions the
concept of "appliqued circuits" (i.e., printed circuits) and "roll-up display" transistor
picture tubes (i.e., flexible displays), and "pocket radios" that can be held up to the
ear. Production prices for transistors at the time were about $8 apiece, which is the
inflation-adjusted equivalent of $76 in 2018. At that price point, who could blame the
pro-tube, never-transistor crowd from denying the possibility of transistors ever replacing
tubes ...
 Please welcome
Rohde & Schwarz as RF Cafe's newest Banner Advertiser in a 160x600−px
slot! R&S has been a long-time supporter. Dr. Lothar Rohde and Dr. Hermann
Schwarz founded the company Munich, Germany, in 1933. Per a Wikipedia entry, R&S
received a electronics equipment depot maintenance contract in 1945 from the U.S. Army,
which might be their first presence here in the U.S., providing serious competition to
Hewlett Packard. I found this
Rohde & Schwarz ad in a 1965 issue of Electronics magazine. Rohde &
Schwarz is now a premier player in the communications test equipment realm. Lab benches
and production test stations have taken on a noticeably blue hue thanks to all the R&S
equipment in use ...
 If the December 13, 1965, edition of Electronics
magazine had a theme, it was undoubtedly reporting on the current state of
Japanese technology. The cover photo is a shot of a microwave antennas dominating
Tokyo's skyline. Japanese technology companies worked hard to overcome the largely undeserved
negative connotation that a "Made in Japan" label carried in the day. Do you remember
the scene in the movie "Back to the Future Part III" where Doc, having traveled back
in time from the 1950s, is trying to fix his DeLorean time travel car and discovers a
burnt out circuit and claims, "No wonder this circuit failed, it says made in Japan?"
Marty, who travelled from the 1980s, replied, "What do you mean doc, all the best stuff
is made in Japan." There is no denying the Japanese people succeeded at their goal ...
 Greg Boone was in technical school at Keesler AFB,
MS, during my time there in 1989. We were both AFSC 303x1 radar maintenance techs, although
he began a couple months before I arrived. His service info is now in the
USAF Radar Techs list. Greg
was part of a group of guys, including Jim Flinn
and me, who used to take stashes of firecrackers and bottle rockets to a road construction
site in the Biloxi, Mississippi, area and play "war games" against opposing sides. As
far as I know, none of us ever face any real fire while in the service. At least back
in the era, a commonly repeated saying was that the Air Force is the only branch of service
where the officers are sent into the heat of battle while the enlisted stay safely behind
the lines ...
 Call to action - contact NIST to continue
WWV and WWVH broadcasts. "The National Institute of Standards and
Technology (NIST) FY 2019 budget request includes shutting down NIST radio stations in
Colorado and Hawaii - in other words, WWV and WWVH. Radio amateurs, HF listeners, and
others around the world routinely make use of the time and frequency standard signals,
which also include propagation information. NIST said eliminating funding currently 'supporting
fundamental measurement dissemination' would include putting WWV and WWVH off the air
for a saving of $6.3M. The NIST FY 2019 budget request for efforts related to Fundamental
Measurement, Quantum Science and Measurement Dissemination is $127M ..."
Monday 13
 "The Aerospace Corporation announced a milestone
with the Optical Communications and Sensor Demonstration (OCSD) mission. The laser communication
system, carried by the two low-Earth-orbiting OCSD
CubeSats also known as AeroCube-7B and Aerocube-7C, successfully
transmitted data at a rate of 100 megabits per second which is 50 times greater than
typical communication systems for this size spacecraft. 'This is a significant achievement,
given that high speed laser communications is mostly done from larger satellite systems,'
said Steve Isakowitz, Aerospace president and CEO ..."
 EDI CON USA, the industry event that brings together
RF/microwave and high-speed digital design engineers and system integrators, announces
its plenary keynote speakers -
Ovi Jacob and
Ransom Stephens - for the 2018 conference, which will be held in Santa Clara, CA
October 17 and 18. All pass holders will be eligible to see these talks, each happening
at 11:30AM. On Wednesday, October 17, 2018, Ovi Jacob, Director of Business Development
at Vayyar Imaging, will provide a fascinating glimpse at technology that is changing
the world, and our ability to survive in it. In his talk, "Looking Deeper: Using Radar
to Save Lives and Improve the World" Jacob will address how radar is being used for life-saving
cancer detection, as well as in everyday applications ...
 Electrocution has always been - and always should
be - a hot topic (pun intended) in the realm of electrical and electronics servicing
and usage. Trade and hobby magazines have dedicated many column inches to it over the
years. A lot of people are deathly (there I go with the puns again) afraid of being anywhere
in the proximity of an exposed electrical connection. My father, a newspaper classified
advertising manager, was one of those people. He would cringe when I took the cover off
the fuse panel in the house to work on it. He could barely bring himself to replace a
blown fuse, which was not a completely unjustified fear given the low standards of older
electrical wiring. Those screw-in fuses had a threaded metal perimeter around the bottom
portion with a button connection at the bottom center. Theoretically, that threaded metal
perimeter is at ground potential ...
 RF Cafe typically receives
10,000-15,000 website visits
each weekday and about half that on weekends. RF Cafe is a
favorite of engineers, technicians, hobbyists, and students all over the world. With
more than 7,000 pages in the Google search index, RF Cafe returns in favorable positions
on many types of key searches, both for text and images. New content is added on a daily
basis. Items added on the homepage are broadcast on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter.
Banner advertising begins at $150/month ...
 At VidaRF, the phrase 'Providing Simple Solutions
for Complex Connections' is more than just a slogan – it's a mindset, a mission, and
a driving force behind everything we do. Their pledge is to design and distribute high
performance, cost effective
RF Microwave
products to fit each customer's unique applications. Please visit VidaRF today to
see how their lines of attenuators & terminations, directional couplers, power dividers,
coaxial connectors, and circulator & isolators can be of use to your project. "When
the standard just will not do, VidaRF has the solution for you!"
...
 "Topology is a global aspect of materials, leading
to fundamental new properties for compounds with large relativistic effects. The incorporation
of heavy elements gives rise to non-trivial topological phases of matter, such as topological
insulators, Dirac and
Weyl semimetals. The semimetals are characterized by band-touching
points with linear dispersion, similar to massless relativistic particles in high energy
physics. The interplay of symmetry, relativistic effects and, in magnetic materials,
the magnetic structure, allows for the realization of a wide variety of topological phases
through Berry curvature design. The Berry curvature describes the entanglement ..."
|
|
 "Purdue University
researchers have created a design for FETs which makes them promising candidates for
next generation nanodevices. The re-engineered
Purdue FET can offer better switching behaviour for computers and
devices than traditional FETs, says the university. 'Our technology merges lasers and
transistors,' said Purdue's Tillmann Kubis, 'there is traditionally not a lot of overlap
between these two areas, even though the combination can be powerful with the Internet
of Things and other related fields.' The combination of the quantum ..."
 "Gallium Nitride (GaN) due to its high efficiency
and excellent electric characteristics is being considered for use in space applications.
NASA researchers are currently examining the use of
gallium nitride, a crystal-type semiconductor compound first discovered
in the 1980s, for space applications. Among its many attributes, gallium nitride demonstrates
less electrical resistance than other materials and thus loses only a small proportion
of power as heat. The material can handle 10 times the electrical current of silicon,
enabling smaller, faster, and more efficient devices. In addition, it is tolerant to
a wide range of temperatures, resistant to radiation, an ..."
 "New automated approach could help make STM probe
memory commercially viable. Researchers at the University of Alberta in Canada have developed
a new approach to rewritable data storage technology by using a scanning tunneling microscope
(STM) to remove and replace hydrogen atoms from the surface of a silicon wafer. If this
approach realizes its potential, it could lead to a data storage technology capable of
storing 1,000 times more data than today’s hard drives, up to
138 terabytes per square inch. As a bit of background, Gerd Binnig
and Heinrich Rohrer developed the first STM in 1986 for which they later received the
Nobel Prize in physics ..."
 "A team of researchers has recently published
a study that they believe shows that the widely revered
Wiedemann–Franz law could be flawed. Using super-cooled fermionic
lithium atoms the team appears to have demonstrated that the law breaks down at the quantum
level. This discovery is not just interesting, it could open up new avenues to test novel
applications for the thermoelectric devices of the future. What is the Wiedemann–Franz
law? The Wiedemann–Franz law was first formulated in 1853 and describes the connection
between thermal and electrical conductivity in metals with freely moving electrons ..."
 "Spectrum warfare experts at Mercury Systems in
Andover, Mass., will help the U.S. Air Force find new ways of protecting aircraft and
air crews from sophisticated enemy
integrated air defense systems (IADS) under terms of a $550,132 contract
announced Monday. Officials of the Air Force Research Laboratory at Wright-Patterson
Air Force Base, Ohio, are asking Mercury to find ways of defeating enemy software-defined
weapons and communications in electromagnetically contested and congested environments
as part of the Spectrum Warfare Enduring Challenges (SWEC) program. This project involves
defeating cyber threats to U.S. and allied avionics; using trusted computing approaches
to foil enemy ..."
 "A UNSW study published this week resolves key
challenges in creation of
hole-based artificial atoms, with excellent potential for more-stable,
faster, more scalable quantum computing. Artificial atoms in quantum computing The spin
states of electrons confined to semiconductor quantum dots are a promising platform for
quantum computation. Such a device is known as an artificial atom. Using the spin states
of holes instead of electrons could resolve several important challenges regarding coherence
and switching speed. A particle's 'spin' is its intrinsic angular momentum. Defining
holes Electricity is usually thought of as the flow of electrons. However, this is not
always true: in semiconductors, electricity can also be carried by a different type of
particle, called holes ..."
 "Researchers have developed a single-atom transistor,
the world's smallest. This quantum electronics component switches electrical current
by controlled repositioning of a single atom, now also in the solid state in a gel electrolyte.
The single-atom transistor works at room temperature and consumes very little energy,
which opens up entirely new perspectives for information technology. At Karlsruhe Institute
of Technology (KIT), physicist Professor Thomas Schimmel and his team have developed
a single-atom transistor, the world's smallest. This quantum electronics
component switches electrical current by controlled ..."
 "Startup The Elefante Group wants to provide wide
area 5G coverage from 'airships'
located 65,000 feet above earth. The firm, which is working Lockheed Martin on the project,
has asked the U.S. Federal Communications Commission to consider opening up spectrum
in the 22 GHz, 23 GHz, 26 GHz, 70 GHz and 80 GHz bands. And now Facebook, which has itself
dabbled in delivering broadband from airborne delivery systems, is throwing its support
behind the novel concept, according to an Aug. 15 filing with the FCC. A priority for
the social media giant is 'connecting the unconnected and under-connected.' 'As such,
Facebook has supported research and development efforts ..."
 "Researchers at Rutgers University–New Brunswick
have claimed regular Wi-Fi technology can be used to detect hazardous materials in bags
at public places. The team has published a paper stating that their suspicious
Wi-Fi object detection system is easy to set up, reduces security
screening costs and avoids invading privacy such as when screeners open and inspect bags,
backpacks and luggage. Traditional screening typically requires high staffing levels
and costly specialized equipment. This could have a great impact in protecting the public
from dangerous objects, believes Yingying (Jennifer) Chen, study co-author and a professor
in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering in Rutgers ..."
 RF Cafe's raison d'être is and always has been
to provide useful, quality content for engineers, technicians, engineering managers,
students, and hobbyists. Part of that mission is offering to post applicable
job openings. HR department employees and/or managers
of hiring companies are welcome to submit opportunities for posting at no charge (of
course a gratuity will be graciously accepted). 3rd party recruiters and temp agencies
are not included so as to assure a high quality of listings. Please read through the
easy procedure to benefit from RF Cafe's high quality visitors ...
RF Cafe typically receives
810,000-15,000 website visits
each weekday and about half that on weekends. RF Cafe is a
favorite of engineers, technicians, hobbyists, and students all over the world. With
more than 7,000 pages in the Google search index, RF Cafe returns in favorable positions
on many types of key searches, both for text and images. New content is added on a daily
basis, which keeps the major search engines interested enough to spider it multiple times
each day. Items added on the homepage often can be found in a Google search within a
few hours of being posted. I also re-broadcast homepage items on LinkedIn, Facebook,
and Twitter. If you need your company news to be seen, RF Cafe is the place to be.
Banner advertising begins at $150/month ...
RF Cascade Workbook 2018 is the next phase in the evolution of RF Cafe's long-running
series, RF Cascade Workbook. It is a full-featured RF system cascade parameter
and frequency planner that includes filters and mixers for a mere $45. Built in MS
Excel, using RF Cascade Workbook 2018 is a cinch and the format is entirely
customizable. It is significantly easier and faster than using a multi-thousand dollar
simulator when a high level system analysis is all that is needed. An intro video takes
you through the main features ...
With more than 780 custom-built symbols, this
has got to be the most comprehensive set of
Visio Stencils
available for RF, analog, and digital system and schematic drawings! Every object has
been built from scratch to fit proportionally on the provided A- and B-size drawing page
templates (you can use your own page if preferred). Components
are provided for equipment racks (EIA and ETSI) and test
equipment, system block diagrams and conceptual drawings, and for schematics
...
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