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3 of the July 2018 homepage archives.
Friday 20
 Here is the 46th quiz I have posted from 1960s
and 1970s issues of Electronics World and Popular Electronics
magazines. Most of were created by Robert P. Balin. I like to save these for
Friday afternoons. Guys like me who cut our teeth on analog meters read these
indications like a second language. Even novices usually do a good job on the
meter needles, but reading a mechanical micrometer (#9) might be more of a
challenge, especially if you have never used one before. The same goes for a
dial caliper. Can you read the dials on a mechanical gas or electric meter,
where some spin CW and others spin CCW?...
Fairview Microwave, a leading provider of on-demand
RF and microwave components, has released a new line of 40 GHz designed for bit-error-rate testing, eye diagrams and differential
signals at data rates of 10 Gbps to 28 Gbps. Fairview's new line of skew matched
cables consists of three extremely flexible models that are 100% tested for skew match.
Performance specs include an impressive VSWR of 1.4:1 and 1 ps delay match.
These cable pairs cover two channels with 50 Ohms nominal impedance and a
bandwidth of DC to 40 GHz...
 "Test engineering is a global endeavor.
Electronic devices can be prototyped thousands of miles from where they are
manufactured and ultimately deployed. They must be tested every step of the way.
But electrical engineers worlds apart may store test results in different
places, which can complicate tasks like debugging glitches and correlating
results with test conditions. Santa Clara, California-based startup Gradient One
is trying to simplify many of the mundane tasks weighing down test engineering
as hardware becomes more complicated. The company has developed a cloud platform
for test automation, storage and analysis and other tasks that traditionally
have been handled at the test bench..."
 This feature appeared at the end of a larger article
titled, "RF Induction Heating." A notable difference between the type of induction heating
in the other article and the type described here is that rather than directly heating
a metallic substance to be treated (melted, bent, tempered, etc.), a "susceptor"
(graphite crucible) is used to absorb the field and heat up to melt by conduction (via
a quartz liner) the silicon material within. Pure silicon cannot absorb the RF energy
sufficiently to be heated directly. Interestingly, if you go to the Wikipedia susceptor
page, it has an image of Hot Pockets, which are wrapped in a type of susceptor
that produces a crispy exterior while heating the interior. As you are probably
aware...
 "The defense department's research wing is
pouring $1.5B into projects that could radically alter how electronics are made.
The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is launching a huge expansion
of its Electronics Resurgence Initiative, boosting the program to US $1.5B over
five years. And while some of the research efforts will be just what you've come
to expect from the agency that brought you disposable drones, self-driving cars,
and cameras that can see around corners, a lot of this new money is going toward
ideas that could fundamentally change how chips are designed. If it all works
out, the effect could be..."
Thursday 19
is pleased to announce a new partnership
with 3D imaging sensor company Vayyar Imaging to offer with broad applicability for students and university
programs spanning topics in electromagnetic theory, RF / microwave engineering, RF systems,
and radar technology. The first project kit, UVNA-63 includes all the elements students
need to build a fully functioning vector network analyzer, develop S-Parameter algorithms,
and perform real-time measurements of 2-port RF devices. The kit comprises Vayyar's
high-performance transceiver chip..."
 Hint: It's not, as is often claimed, in honor of
Jack
Kilby (he designed the first commercial IC). Last night while reading
an article on T, RS, andJK flip-flop RTL (resistor-transistor
logic) ICs, I tried to recall the origin of the "JK" designation. An Internet search
turned up lots of claims of Jack Kirby, but fortunately
Sourav Bhattacharya
posted the true origin in a piece on the Quora website. The origin predates the fame
of Jack Kilby, and is remarkably uninteresting. This is another case of a
fake story being perpetuated merely because it seems reasonable. I saved a copy
of Mr. Bhattacharya's post in case it one day disappears...
 If you are interested in the ingenious machines
and methods manufacturing engineers dream up for quickly and reliably producing parts
and assemblies in large volumes, then you will definitely appreciate this article on
RF induction heating. This process of course only works with metallic
objects, unlike microwave type heating schemes that work with liquids. Induction
heating requires the generated electric, magnetic, or RF field to invoke
electrical currents within the metals to increase its temperature. Ohm's law
applies here. Have you ever used a torch to heat a metal bolt, wire, car fender,
etc., and noticed how it usually discolors the surface and might even produce a
crusty oxide layer? An extreme temperature rise as is required for soldering,
brazing...
 Anatech Electronics, Inc.
offers the industry's largest portfolio of high-performance standard and
customized RF and microwave filters and filter-related products for military,
commercial, aerospace and defense, and industrial applications up to 40 GHz.
Anatech has introduced three new filter designs: a 1090/60 MHz cavity bandpass
filter with N-type connectors, a 150/10 MHz cavity bandstop filter with SMA
connectors, and a 2250/100 MHz user-tunable bandpass filter with SMA
connectors...
 Kendall Castor-Perry has posted Part 2 of
"The Chronicles of GND"
on the Electronic Design website. "The Filter Wizard's latest installment of
'The Front End' looks at how the ancestral 'split-supply' PCB layouts have
mostly ceded to 'single-supply' configurations, and the GND implications that
often ensue. When I get a printed-circuit-board (PCB) layout back for review,
there are a few things I look for first. I can usually get a feeling for what
kind of board designer has been at work, too, specifically if s/he is (or s/he
thinks s/he is) a 'digital' designer, an 'RF' designer, or a 'power' designer.
You might..."
 "The
IEEE MTT-S 2018 International Microwave Symposium
(IMS), took place in Philadelphia this year from 10-15 of June. The event marked
an attendance of over 8,400 attendees. IMS, the annual conference and exhibition
of the IEEE Microwave Theory and Techniques Society (MTT-S), is the premier
international meeting for technologists involved in all aspects of microwave
theory and practice. The six-day event, held at the Pennsylvania Convention
Center, drew 4,500 attendees to the technical program and the exhibition
featured over 625 exhibiting companies. IMS attendees comprised RF designers,
researchers, developers, and academics..."
Wednesday 18
 "Researchers at ETH Zurich in Switzerland claim
the fastest quaternary-base
double heterojunction bipolar transistor (DHBT) reported to date
with maximum oscillation greater than the cut-off frequency, grown by metal-organic chemical
vapor deposition (MOCVD). The quaternary base consisted of graded gallium indium arsenide
antimonide (GaInAsSb). Adding indium to GaAsSb improves electron transport properties
such as mobility and sheet resistance. GaAsSb's conduction band has two types of valley
- one at zero wavevector (the Γ point) and one in the 'L' directions of the crystal structure.
In GaAsSb, the L-valley is close..."
 In 1967, when this parody was published in
Popular Electronics, the Iron Curtain of Communist Russia and the Union of Soviet
Socialist Republic (USSR) was still firmly in place. Constructing faux
Russian-sounding words was common at the time. All a comedian needed to do to have
their audiences rolling in the aisles was to append "ski," "ovitch" or "skov" to the
end of any word, or add lots of "z"s and "k"s in the middle of words. Tim Conway and
Harvey Korman did many hilarious skits on the 1970s' Carol Burnett show where
they feigned speaking in German, Japanese, and Russian tongues. Nowadays...
RF
Cafe's continued existence depends on companies like ERZIA providing support. ERZIA produces
microwave and mm-wave modular amplifiers
and integrated assemblies operating from Low frequencies up to 100 GHz. Their
catalogue of standard amplifier modules comprises more than 100 different
models, having also a high capacity of customization for amplifiers and
integrated assemblies. Some of products have space heritage and are used in
aerospace, commercial, military and scientific systems, having a wide range of
final applications...
 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...
World leading microwave engineering company Flann
Microwave is supplying vital components to the U.S. space agency NASA for a major spaceflight
mission making the first-ever global survey of Earth's surface water. The multinational (SWOT) satellite, planned to launch in 2021, is being jointly
developed and managed by NASA, the French Space Agency (CNES), and the Canadian Space
Agency, with contributions from the United Kingdom Space Agency. It is UK-based Flann's
first project for NASA and has seen engineers working closely with their
counterparts at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL)...
 "If you want to remain at the top of your game,
trade show
attendance should be part of every engineer's strategy for growth and continuing
education. In this age, you can find out everything you want to know about
anything with just a few keystrokes. There are processes, materials, components,
and modules for which you can get nearly instantaneous data of all types
(pricing, availability, specification, reviews, etc.) via simple online
searches. The problem is you have to know what you are searching for. The
Internet is a true wonder for researching when you know what you are looking
for. But what if something is missing..."
Tuesday 17
 Mac's staff service technician, Barney, asked
a great question when he mentioned that Pittsburgh radio station KDKA made the country's
first commercial broadcast in 1920: "Who
was listening?" It is a reasonable question since prior to the beginning on
commercial radio broadcasts there would have been no reason for there to have
been a lot of people to own a radio for receiving commercial broadcasts. The
answer, of course, is that there were plenty of multi-band radios in homes and
businesses for listening in on shortwave broadcast from around the world - a
very popular pastime in the era. Just as today we are bombarded with admonitions
to not stare at computer monitors or cellphone screens for too long lest we
suffer near-sightedness or worse, radio listeners of yore who used headsets were
told, "Youths of this generation will never have as protruding ears as some of
their older brothers." I suppose...
 Beginning on page 22 of the June 2018 issue of
High Frequency Electronics (HFE). "A Non-Linear Analysis of the Saturated MOSFET," by Dr. Alfred
Grayzel. "Abstract: The maximum power and the maximum efficiency at the maximum
power have been derived for the MOSFET; when the MOSFET is in saturation over
the entire cycle, using the square law theory. Results are presented for the
following three cases: the gate voltage is a sinusoid, a half sinusoid and a
square wave. Results using the square law theory and bulk-charge theory for
analysis of the MOSFET are compared..."
/
 ZipRecruiter is a relative newcomer to the online job search world.
It began in 2010 as a "kitchen table project" by the founders literally in the kitchen
of co-founder Ian Siegel. I hear their radio ads frequently. You might have seen ZipRecruiter
ads on TV, but I almost never watch TV. The BBB gives ZipRecruiter an A+ rating. If you
scan through the user gripes, they appear to be mainly from hiring companies who did
not read and/or adhere to the policy for cancellation of the service. Job seeker complaints
tend to focus on dissatisfaction with hiring company practices, which you will find with
any job posting service. For comparison, Monster gets a D- rating, and CareerBuilder
rates an A+. Having no personal experience with ZipRecruiter, I can neither endorse nor
condemn them. Marketing Intern Amanda Drury sent me an e-mail asking...
 I recently created a new reference page titled
"Resistivity (ρ) & Conductivity
(σ) of Metals, Alloys, Rocks, and Soils." Values for materials are pulled from my
copy of Reference Data for Radio Engineers, Sams Publishing. Resistivity, also
referred to as specific resistance, is dependent on the nature of the material as well
as its volume definition (shape and size). Resistivity is expressed in units that are
the product of resistance and length; e.g., Ω·cm. As an example of calculating a volume's
resistance, consider the drawing to the left. Assume 12 AWG copper wire with a resistivity
of 1.72x10-6 Ω·cm, a cross-sectional area...
 ConductRF is offering standard
D38999 RF coaxial cable assembly
configurations with RF Contacts including; BMA to 20 GHz SMPM to 60 GHz Size
#8 to 18 GHz Size #12 Mil-Spec. Size #16 Mil-Spec. Cable choice include Low Loss
Flexible and standard RG styles. Custom marking and also ruggedization coverings including
Nomex weave available...
 "Electrical circuits are constantly being scaled
down and extended with specific functions. A new method now allows
electrical contact to be established with simple molecules on a conventional
silicon chip. The technique promises to bring advances in sensor technology and medicine,
as reported in the journal Nature by chemists from the University of Basel and researchers
from IBM Research - Zurich in Rüschlikon. To further develop semiconductor
technology, the field of molecular electronics is seeking to manufacture circuit
components from individual molecules instead of silicon. Because of their unique
electronic properties, molecules are suited to applications..."
Monday 16
 Microwave Journal's Technical Education Webinar
Series will present a free webinar titled, "MACOM's Technology Advantage Enables Mainstream 5G Cost Structures, Energy
Efficiency, Range, and Form Factors," on July 31, 2018, at 11:00 am EDT. Presented
by: Michael Ziehl, VP and GM for RF Power and Basestations, MACOM. Abstract:
Deploying 5G networks requires breakthroughs in energy efficiency, superior
quality of service and increased subscriber coverage. To meet these stringent
requirements, while delivering a reliable solution at commercially viable cost
structures, demands true innovation. To date, discussions around 5G have been
abundant, but limited information is available on the technology advancements
required to make...
 Numeric and to a lesser extent alphabetic displays
were complicated and therefore expensive prior to the introduction of LEDs.
Display component designers
went to a lot of trouble to provide users with easily recognizable characters
that did not require difficult interpretation to understand. No matter how
competent you get at reading a binary number display, quickly understanding a
number large than about 32 (5 bits) requires a display consisting of Arabic
numerals (or whatever your usual numeral style is). For some reason I can read
Roman numbers up to 4999 almost as easily as Arabic numbers, which is most handy
for determining copyright years; e.g., 2018 is MMXVIII. But, I digress. Nixie
tubes, which have a stack of shaped...
 A new reference page on
superconductivity
has been added to RF Cafe. Values for many superconductive materials are pulled from
my copy of Reference Data for Radio Engineers, Sams Publishing. Use of superconducting
materials in electrical machinery and transmission lines would mean significant savings
in power generation requirements because all supplied power would be converted to useful
work. At this point in time there have been test cases of nitrogen-cooled superconducting
cables for commercial AC power transmission, but the cost benefit is negative. As of
2015, the highest temperature superconductor compound was mercury barium calcium copper
oxide (HgBa2Ca2Cu3O8) at around
133 K...
  Copper Mountain Technologies develops innovative
and robust RF test and measurement solutions for engineers all over the world. Copper
Mountain's extensive line of unique form factor
Vector Network Analyzers
include an RF measurement module and a software application which runs on any
Windows PC, laptop or tablet, connecting to the measurement hardware via USB
interface. The result is a lower cost, faster, more effective test process that
fits into the modern workspace in lab, production, field and secure testing
environments...
 "The Belgian research institute expects a prototype
in standard 28-nm technology to be ready by the end of 2018. At the recent IMS in Philadelphia,
Imec announced development of what it says is the world's first
CMOS 140-GHz radar-on-chip system with integrated antennas in standard
28-nm technology. 'With our prototype radar, we have demonstrated all critical specs
for radar technology in 28-nm standard CMOS technology,' said Wim Van Thillo, program
director at Imec. 'We are well advanced in incorporating multiple antenna paths
in our most recent generation solution, which will enable a fine angular
resolution of 1.5 cm in a complete MIMO radar..."
Sunday 15
 At least 10 clues with an asterisk (*)
in this
technology-themed crossword puzzle are pulled from this past week's (7/9 -
7/13) "Tech Industry Headlines" column on the RF Cafe homepage. For the sake of
all the avid cruciverbalists amongst us, each week I create a new
technology-themed crossword puzzle using only words from my custom-created
related list to engineering, science, mathematics, chemistry, physics,
astronomy, etc. You will never find among the words names of politicians,
mountain ranges, exotic foods or plants, movie stars, or anything of the sort.
You might, however, see someone or something in the exclusion list who or that
is directly related to this puzzle's theme, such as Hedy Lamar or the Bikini
Atoll, respectively. Enjoy!...
Friday 13
 Robert Radford's (not to be confused with Robert
Redford) "Electromaze"
is a unique - and weird - sort of word puzzle that first appeared in the April 1966 issue
of Popular Electronics magazine. Some people were confused about the
strategy, believing that all the white spaces needed to be filled in. They do
not. Just because a letter might have an empty square adjacent to it does not
imply that another letter must fill it. You will probably want to print out the
maze grid and find an old guy who should still have a pencil stowed away
somewhere you can borrow to use for filling in the boxes...
 Hiring
managers and interviewers take note: This free download titled "8 Tips from 350 Million
Job Posts" contains what the hiring data says about improving your next job ad. "Reaching
out to the right candidates but can't get them through the door? Using these 8 writing
tips will help you fill roles faster, with more qualified people. Check out the report
from Textio..."
 "A group of researchers and students at MIT have
developed an intelligent radar-like technology that makes it possible to
see through walls to track people as they move around, a development
that could prove useful for monitoring the elderly or sick as well as for other applications
- but that also raises privacy concerns. Tests show that the technology, known as RF-Pose,
can reveal whether someone is walking, sitting, standing or even waving - and can identify
individuals from a known group with a success rate of 83%. Its developers say it could
prove useful for law enforcement, search and rescue, and - perhaps most ..."
 Werbel Microwave, a designer and manufacturer
of RF and microwave power couplers, dividers, terminations, and DAS equipment, introduces
model
WMPD03-2-18-S is
a wide-band, "true" 3-way splitter/combiner that covers 2-18 GHz in a size
measuring 4.46×246×0.38 inches. The unit ships with stainless steel SMA female
connectors. Features: Provides a "true" 3-way split over the continuous band,
which saves about 1.2 dB insertion loss versus using a 4-way splitter with one
output terminated. When every tenth of a dB counts, look to Werbel Microwave...
 The ubiquitous presence and usage since the 1970s
of microwave ovens has made most people aware of the ability of
radio frequency (RF) energy to heat substances containing water. Both
animate and inanimate objects are included. In 1960, when this article was
written, the effort had really just begun to inform the general public about the
potential hazards of RF energy depending on its combination of wavelength
(frequency) and power. The good news about RF radiation versus beta radiation
due to radioactive decay is that the former is not potentially cancer-causing.
The latter is termed "ionizing radiation" because it has the ability to knock
electrons off their attending atoms, and can cause cancer. Extremely short
electromagnetic (EM) wavelengths above the ultraviolet can also ionize atoms,
but that is well above the EM spectrum region considered to be RF...
 "Diamonds are prized for their purity, but their
flaws might hold the key to a new type of highly secure communications. Princeton University
researchers are using diamonds to help create a communication network that relies on
a property of subatomic particles known as their
quantum state.
Researchers believe such quantum information networks would be extremely secure
and could also allow new quantum computers to work together to complete problems
that are currently unsolvable. But scientists currently designing these networks
face several challenges, including how to preserve fragile quantum information
over long distances. Now, researchers have arrived..."
Thursday 12
 As one who has been dealing with using and
recharging batteries - both individual cells and wired packs - for about five decades,
I have used many varieties of chargers and battery chemistries. As you probably know,
there are two basic types of cells: primary and secondary. Based on their construction
and chemistry, the former are not designed to be recharged while the latter are. Primary
cells include zinc-carbon and standard alkaline. Secondary cells include nickel-cadmium
(NiCd), nickel-metal-hydride (NiMH), and lithium polymer (Li-Po). Rechargeable
batteries can have their discharge cycle reversed by running an externally
supplied current through the cell in the opposite direction. Of course there are
optimal conditions by which that current must be fed...
 A full-featured RF system cascade parameter
and frequency planner that includes filters and mixers for a mere $45.
RF Cascade Workbook 2018 is the next phase in the evolution of RF Cafe's long-running
series, RF Cascade Workbook. 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...
 According to Wikipedia, The Navy's USS Compass
Island was one of two ships, the other being USS Observation Island, converted and classified
as navigational research test vessels under the Polaris Missile system budget. As reported
here, the newfangled
radio sextant tracks the position of the sun or moon to provide location
accuracy much better than the best traditional compass. Remember that in 1959
there was no satellite navigation, and in the middle of the ocean land-based
transmitters were useless as radio bearing references. Inertial navigation
systems could not hold their calibrations in the harsh physical environment of
stormy seas. This radio sextant system is fine as long as the sun and/or moon is
high enough in the sky to have antenna pointing access to one or...
 In this article, author Kevin Murphy addresses
RF transmitter power not from a power amplifier (PA) optimization perspective but from
the standpoint of the DC power supply connection. Not all
battery compartment contacts
are created equal, to paraphrase part of the Declaration of Independence. A poor
connection can significantly affect RF power output. Says Mr. Murphy,
"Consideration of peak power requirements via careful design and battery
selection can dramatically increase battery runtime and, ultimately, customer
satisfaction. Most electronic devices exhibit a pulsing behavior, where peak
power is much higher than standby power. This includes mobile..."
 "Folding and cutting thin metal films could enable
microchip-based 3-D optical devices.
Nanokirigami has taken off as a field of research in the last few
years; the approach is based on the ancient arts of origami (making 3-D shapes by folding
paper) and kirigami (which allows cutting as well as folding) but applied to flat materials
at the nanoscale, measured in billionths of a meter. Now, researchers at MIT and in China
have for the first time applied this approach to the creation of nanodevices to
manipulate light, potentially opening up new possibilities for research and,
ultimately..."
Wednesday 11
 The
RCA Nuvistor was a godsend to hardline vacuum tube lovers who were steadfast members
of the Never Transistor movement of the 1950s and 1960s. It would
hopefully be the miracle invention to obviate the need for replacing tubes with
transistors. Of course everyone knew that vacuum tubes would forever be needed
for medium and high power applications. Solid state semiconductors could never
replace cathode ray tubes (CRTs) for displays or thyratrons for over-the-horizon
and commercial broadcast transmitter amplifiers, so why bother with transistors
at all? OK, maybe the emotion wasn't that severe, but if you read enough
articles from vintage magazines of the tube-to-transistor transition era, you
will know that there was...
 "Saildrone is
a Californian company which designs and manufactures wind and solar powered autonomous
surface vehicles, called
Saildrones, designed to monitor the ocean for months on end. The
hard wind design emerged from a decade-long pursuit of the land speed record – company
founder Richard Jenkins ultimately achieved 126.2mph in 2009, having started his Windjet
Project in 1999 while studying mechanical engineering at Imperial College. Using wind
power for propulsion, a Saildrone fleet travels at 3-5kts, with each drone
collecting high-resolution data either by holding station or following a survey
pattern. The drones sail autonomously..."
 You might know that America's first communications
satellite, Pioneer I, failed to obtain a proper orbit due to component failure.
However, according to author Jordan McQuay, "[The] first use of a satellite as a
radio relay station occurred accidentally during the one-day flight of
Pioneer I in October 1958. The electronics payload included a command receiver,
which was supposed to trigger a reverse rocket and thus propel the vehicle
further into space. Although the rocket failed to function on command, the
command signals were instantaneously rebroadcast by the data transmitter aboard
the Pioneer I. These command signals were heard half-way around the world!" That
was two years before Echo I, a reflective sphere designed to be a passive radio
relay platform, was put into orbit in 1960...
Many Thanks to Anatech Electronics for Long-Time Support!
 Anatech Electronics (AEI) 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 our
website database for ease of procurement. Custom RF filters designs are used when a standard
cannot be found, or the requirements dictate a custom approach. Please visit Anatech
today to see how they can help your project succeed!
 Whether
you are hiring a college grad
or are a college grad looking to be hired, this could provide some valuable
insight into current day practices and expectations. "The college recruiting
game has changed. Today's innovative companies aren't just meeting students on
campus. They're making offers there. If you're not engaging students in the way
they expect before you get to campus, the top talent will be gone by the time
you arrive. In this Playbook, you'll learn how to: Identify and close the top
graduate talent before your competitors even arrive on campus, Cast a wider net
and consider students from more colleges than ever before..."
 "Elisa said it is already selling 5G subscriptions
for the recently launched service With the advent of a new generation of network technologies
come the inevitable battles over 'firsts' - and Finnish mobile telephony operator Elisa
has now claimed to be the first operator in the world to begin commercial use of a
5G network, complete with subscription sales in Finland. Middle
East telecom group Ooredoo, however, claimed last month that it was the first
with a commercial 5G network, with a launch of what it claimed to be first the
world's first live 5G network..."
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