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3 of the May 2018 homepage
archives.
Thursday 10
 I like the opening line to this 1965 article
on using silicon diodes, "You can stack' em up to get all the power supply voltage
you need, but you have to know how to dress 'em up." The basic rules of solid state
diode implementation have not changed much since they first began gaining widespread
usage. Observing peak inverse voltage (PIV), forward and leakage current, and power
dissipation rating limits were and still are the primary concerns for diodes. Moving
to higher frequencies, particularly in communications applications, requires attention
to junction capacitance, self-generated noise, and forward and reverse recovery
times. Physical size and ruggedness, temperature and humidity, and even shielding
from cosmic rays can also need careful consideration...
 "The
West Coast's premier space event returns to California for three days of knowledge
sharing and networking alongside the largest supply chain exhibition of its kind,
May 22 - 24, 2018. With capabilities ranging from cryogenics, laser systems, materials,
nanotechnology, imaging, environmental test, motion simulation, magnetics, capacitors,
spacewire, NDT and connectors through electroforming, engineering services, precision
machining, 3D printers, ground systems, mission management and reconnaissance satellites,
Space Tech Expo 2018 will
bring a multitude of networking opportunities..."
 An ad for a self-paced course titled, "Ultimate All-Level Excel Bootcamp" appeared on the Interesting
Engineering website. It is on sale for $35 (normally $249). Claims the presenters:
"Manipulate data like a pro with 4 courses (69 hours of content!) for the business-minded."
I would say it applies to the science- and engineering-minded as well. Although
you won't need such skills to use sophisticated spreadsheets like RF Cafe's
Wireless System Designer, it will help you to be capable of creating
such sophistication...
 "A group of scientists from the U.S., Singapore,
and China have discovered a candidate material with potential to extend the limits
of
Moore's Law. The research team, which worked primarily in Berkeley
Lab's Molecular Foundry in association with the Department of Energy, has found
a new way to add more computing power to microchips. Moore's Law is a constant companion
to those working in microchip manufacturing. Simply put, Moore's Law states that
the number of transistors per square inch on integrated circuits will double every
year. This has..."
Wednesday 9
 Tune in on May 22 at 1:00 pm EDT to
Rohde & Schwarz's free
Introduction to RF Receiver Design and learn everything you need
to know to get started designing RF receivers. During this one-hour interactive
session, you will learn RF Basics: Communications systems & where receivers
fit in, free space path loss equations, What is modulation and why use it?, How
to design an RF receiver, Time domain RF modulation, Input noise, Noise floor, Noise
in a bandwidth, Noise figure, Mixer spurious signal, Cascaded analysis & more...
 Credit for being the first to accomplish
any notable feat, whether in sports, medicine, science, aviation, etc., is constantly
being challenged. Some contestations are worthy of consideration based on documented
facts, while others can be readily dismissed as crockery. Gustave Whitehead, per
anti-Wright Brothers zealots, made the first powered airplane flight. The Vikings
landed in America centuries prior to Columbus - supposedly. Many stories have been
written claiming that Dr. Mahlon Loomis, a dentist, beat Guglielmo Marconi in the
wireless communications race by using a system of kites that took on a charge from
overhead clouds. A keying device opened and closed a conductive path to ground for
effecting the Morse code...
 Demystifying Radio Frequency Interference:
Causes and Techniques for Reduction, by Donald J. Arndt, explores common sources
of interference, how to correctly identify the source, and how to reduce or eliminate
such interference. A solid knowledge of the causes of RF interference and techniques
for mitigation is vital for RF & wireless professionals. WiFi and WiMax interference
limitation techniques are highlighted along with cutting-edge technical approaches
to interference reduction. Discusses how to negotiate with other users to achieve
mutual and reciprocal reductions in levels of interference...
 Antonio Negrini, of
SDI Fabsurplus.com, wrote
asking to have SDI added to my Used Equipment vendors page. SDI, located in Boerne,
TX, was established in 1998, and has now built up an international buyer / seller
network of sales agents and offices. Our technical focus is semiconductor FAB front-end,
particularly wafer and reticle QC, photolithography, coating, developing and deposition
equipment. Properly and efficiently purchase, use and re-use semiconductor manufacturing
equipment, flat panel display manufacturing equipment and solar cell and module
manufacturing equipment...
 "Three companies have received positions
on a six-year, $24M contract to study techniques and technologies for the Air Force
to improve the branch's two-way time
frequency transfer systems. Rockwell Collins, Microsemi Frequency
and Time Corp., and Raytheon's BBN Technologies business will share in the Joint
Multi-INT Precision Reference program. They were the lone bidders for the contract
run by the Air Force Research Laboratory, the Defense Department said in its Tuesday
contracts digest. JMPR participants will focus on accuracy..."
Tuesday 8
 "Facebook may soon join SpaceX and OneWeb
in the rush to deliver Internet from orbit. A filing with the Federal Communications
Commission (FCC) last week revealed details of a multi-million dollar
experimental satellite from a stealthy company called PointView
Tech LLC. The satellite, named Athena, will deliver data 10 times faster than SpaceX's
Starlink Internet satellites, the first of which launched in February. However,
PointView appears to exist only on paper. In fact, the tiny company seems to be
a new subsidiary of Facebook, formed last year to keep secret the social media giant's..."
 Anatech Electronics 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 two new filter
designs: a 1159.5 MHz cavity bandpass filter with N-type connectors, a 9100 MHz
cavity bandpass filter with SMA connectors, and also a 7/16 DIN coaxial connector
with male clamp, Teflon insulation, silver pin, nickel plated body...
 Although not entirely necessary to enjoy
this story, it occurs to me that many people reading it might not know how to compare
the size of a "man cookie" to a 45 rpm record - or for that matter even know
what a record is (other than a unit of database storage). A 45 rpm record (single)
is 7 inches in diameter, as opposed to a 33-1/3 rpm (LP 'long playing'
album) which is 12 inches. Now you can get past the opening paragraph and glean
the advice offered by electronic repair shop owner Mac McGregor regarding seeking
out
repair services. It applies to automobiles as well as electronics.
The really interesting point I found, however, was his quoting of a 1970 statistic
claiming that by 1980 the U.S. would employ more service employees than manufacturing...
 Centric
RF is a company offering from stock various
RF and Microwave coaxial components,
including attenuators, adapters, cable assemblies, terminations, power dividers,
and more. We believe in offering high performance parts from stock at a reasonable
cost. Frequency ranges of 0-110 GHz at power levels from 0.5-500 watts. Order
today, ship today! Centric RF is currently looking for vendors to partner with them.
Please visit Centric RF today...
 "Researchers have successfully
3D-printed electronics directly onto human skin using a technique
that paves the way for novel applications - not only in wearable electronic technology
but also in medicine. A team from the University of Minnesota printed electronics
on a person's hand for the first time using a portable, low-cost printer that they
customized for this purpose, they said. Researchers at the University of Minnesota
have developed a technique to print electronics directly onto human skin. One of
the key innovations of the technique is that the printer uses computer vision to
track and...
Monday 7
Coilcraft introduces a line of the industry's highest "Q"
surface mount inductors
in the 0402DC (1005) package size. Features include • Exceptionally high Q - up
to 160 at 2.4 GHz! • 26 standard inductance values from 3.0 to 120 nH
• 73 additional values available upon request, including 0.1 increments from
2.8 nH to 10 nH • Wirewound construction for extremely high self resonance
- up to 16 GHz. Free samples available...
 This article in a 1966 issue of Popular
Electronics presents a surprising and almost counterintuitive result when measuring
the radiation pattern of a CB-type antenna mounted at various points on a car. If
you were asked to make a rough sketch of the
radiation pattern when the antenna is mounted in the center of
the roof, center of the trunk, and on each of the front and rear and left and right
fenders, would yours look like those in the article (assuming an all-metal car)?
Today, there are many electromagnetic radiation pattern simulators available to
help predict antenna performance in just about any scenario imaginable. Design
verification is then usually performed either in actual operational conditions,
in anechoic chambers, in TEM cells, or on outdoor test sites. Being able to
accomplish the initial simulation using highly refined software algorithms can
save huge amounts of money and time, just as with circuit simulation and PCB /
enclosure layout...
KP Performance Antennas, a manufacturer of wireless internet service
provider (WISP) antennas, appoints two industry veterans, Michael Inverso and Mike
Hoprich, to lead the company's sales initiatives throughout North America and abroad.
Mr. Michael (Mike) Inverso joins KP as the new Director of Sales. Mike brings over
20 years of experience in the RF/Microwave communications industry and the global
WISP market. His experience includes...
 "Cheap, flexible and sustainable
plastic semiconductors will soon be a reality thanks to a breakthrough
by chemists at the University of Waterloo. Professor Derek Schipper and his team
at Waterloo have developed a way to make conjugated polymers, plastics that conduct
electricity like metals, using a simple dehydration reaction the only byproduct
of which is water. 'Nature has been using this reaction for billions of years and
industry more than a hundred,' said Schipper, a professor of Chemistry..."
Sunday 6
 Each week, for the sake of all avid cruciverbalists
amongst us, I create a new
technology-themed crossword puzzle using only words from my custom-created
lexicon related 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 4
 Mssr. Jose Garcia and Miroslav Karas, of Mini-Circuits,
recently published an article in High Frequency Electronics magazine titled,
"Affordable Solutions for Testing 28 GHz 5G Devices with Your 6 GHz
Lab Instrumentation." Mini-Circuits doesn't make test equipment (yet), but they
do make many of the ancillary components - couplers, attenuators, mixers, power
splitters, etc. - used during testing. You need to test the components themselves
prior to including them in a test setup for a DUT (Device Under Test) in order to
ascertain that the test system is not introducing errors...
 Any day is a good day for Carl and Jerry
stories, Mac's Electronics Service Shop sagas, Hobnobbing with Harbaugh, electronics-themed
comics, electronics quizzes, and other forms of nerd entertainment. Here is another
of Robert P. Balin's great challenges titled, "Diagram Quiz." Most RF Cafe visitors will easily identify eight
or nine of the ten diagrams. Relatively few will be familiar with the Rieke diagram.
The Biasing diagram is a bit misnamed IMHO, and could cause confusion. Bon chance...
 Wow, I can't believe it's been January since I
rounded up engineering career advice stories - for both job seekers and job providers.
Anyone who reads the news knows that the entry of Millennials into the workforce
is providing a whole new challenge due to unique expectations and habits. Adjectives
like "awesome" and verbized words like "onboarding" are required to communicate
effectively in Millennialeze[sic]. The second story is related, but the others apply
to the rest of us ;-)
•
8 Tips for Awesome Onboarding of Millennials
•
A Guide to Managing Multiple Generations in the Workplace
•
Skills Employers Look for in College Graduates
Gowanda Electronics, a designer and manufacturer of precision electronic components
for broadband RF and power applications, announces the introduction of several high
performance RF surface mount inductor
series. Recent advancements in design technology and manufacturing capability delivers
significant improvement – nearly 2x or more – in SRF and current ratings for these
new inductors as compared to traditional molded designs with equivalent inductance.
The first six series will be featured at the 2018 IMS show being held...
 "A team of astronomers and engineers have
developed a new and improved version of an unconventional radio-astronomy imaging
system known as a
Phased Array Feed (PAF), to accelerate the pace of discovery and
exploration of the cosmos. This remarkable instrument can survey vast swaths of
the sky and generate multiple views of astronomical objects with unparalleled efficiency.
Looking nothing like a camera or other traditional imaging technologies..."
Thursday 3
 "Yale physicists have uncovered hints of
a time crystal—a form of matter that "ticks" when exposed to an electromagnetic
pulse—in the last place they expected: a crystal you might find in a child's toy.
The discovery means there are now new puzzles to solve, in terms of how
time
crystals form in the first place. Ordinary crystals such as salt or quartz are
examples of three-dimensional, ordered spatial crystals. Their atoms are arranged
in a repeating system, something scientists have known for a..."
 IEEE ComSoc (Communications Society) has
just made available a free on-demand tutorial titled, "5G and Beyond Wireless Networks: Emerging Concepts and Technologies."
Since the development of 4G LTE standards around 2010, the research communities
both in academia and industry have been brainstorming to predict the use cases and
scenarios around 2020, to determine the corresponding technical requirements, and
to develop the enabling technologies, protocols, and network architectures towards
the next-generation...
 According to this 1972 article in Popular
Electronics, there were as many as 50,000 computers in the world at the time
using
magnetic core memories. Among them was the Apollo Guidance Computer
that was onboard the Apollo 11 Lunar Module that Neil Armstrong used in July
1969 to land on the moon*. Semiconductor memories were being manufactured in 1972,
but believe it or not they were not as fast as the magnetic core memories. Machinery
was not available with enough precision and repeatability to thread the read, write,
sense, and inhibit wires...
NuWaves Engineering, a veteran-owned small business providing advanced radio
frequency (RF) and microwave solutions, announced today that the company has been
selected for a Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) Phase I award for the
INnovative TowEd aRray Cable mOdeM (INTERCOM). The 6-month Phase
I project will involve research and development activities needed to set the design
requirements for a miniature high-bandwidth communications module that will be fully
developed and delivered to the U.S. Navy during Phase II..."
 "Wi-Fi and cellular data traffic are increasing
exponentially but, unless the capacity of wireless links can be increased, all that
traffic is bound to lead to unacceptable bottlenecks. Upcoming 5G networks are a
temporary fix but not a long-term solution. For a long-term solution, researchers
are exploring
terahertz frequencies, the submillimeter wavelengths of the electromagnetic
spectrum. Data traveling at terahertz frequencies could move hundreds of times faster
than what we have today..."
Wednesday 2
 "As
millimeter-wave radar expands into the mid-range automotive market,
developers are now looking at high-resolution radar for short-range and autonomous-car
applications. With more than 1 million annual road fatalities worldwide, safety
has become a key focus for the whole automotive industry. In Europe, the New Car
Assessment Program (NCAP) is encouraging OEMs to adopt advanced driver-assistance
systems (ADAS) in all new cars by implementing stringent safety requirements. Many
applications..."
 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.
Take a couple minutes to visit their website and see how IPP can help you today...
 As far back as 1966 electronics hobbyists
knew that silicon bathtub caulk was an excellent flexible insulator for electronics.
It originally went by the name "Silastic," which is a portmanteau of "silicone" and "plastic,"
and is a type of RTV (room temperature vulcanizing) compound. It has a typical voltage
withstanding of over 400 V/mil, or 400 kV/inch, which is why it is used
extensively on high voltage connections. Dow Corning, its inventor, still sells
various compounds of Silastic both as an insulator and as a molding compound. I
used it at Westinghouse Electric in the 1980's to seal metal molds for overmolding
towed sonar transducer arrays...
 Axiom Test Equipment is offering Great Deals
on DC power supplies. Major brand names (Keysight, Keithley, Magna-Power, Tektronix)
available for purchase and/or rent. See our specials for May. Contact account manager
Josh Shilts at (760) 806-6600 for a quick rental or sales quote!
San Francisco Circuits announces new
fine-pitch PCB assembly capabilities and services for high density
applications. "Fine pitch" circuits can be defined as circuit boards with a significantly
high number of components per square inch. That is, the components are extremely
close together and the board's design rules are pushing the limits of PCB fabrication
tolerances. These can also be referred to as "high-density PCB assembly." The launch
of these capabilities was in response to increased demand for fine-pitch PCBA at
high volume production and prototype levels...
 "In what has practically turned into an annual
sign of spring, IBM rained layoff notices down on its tech workforce in late March
and again in April. According to waves of anecdotal reports posted online at TheLayoff.com
and Watching IBM, workers in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and
the Netherlands were hit starting March 29 with 90 days' notice. This time, it wasn't
just workers over 50 years old who were targeted (though the bulk of reports did
seem to come from people in that age group); many in their 40s reported getting
notices as well. And a few relatively new hires indicated..."
Tuesday 1
 Atmospheric attenuation in the mm-wave realm
(up to 300 GHz) is significant, and transmitter power is expensive compared to current
cellular spectrum in the hundreds of MHz and single-digit GHz realms. Ever-increasing
bandwidth demands by an ever-increasing number of data consumers is forcing the
move to high frequencies. Mr. Jack Brown, of Microwaves & RF magazine,
addresses other issues in his article titled, "What Role Will Millimeter Waves Play in 5G Wireless Systems?"
 Carleton Phillips was not minimizing his predecessors
when he wrote this 1966 Popular Electronics article marveling at the accomplishments
in "Gay Nineties" (1890's) in spite of their relatively crude resources.
Seven decades had passed since then. A similar article could be written today, five
decades hence, about today's knowledge and technology compared to that of the mid
1960's. For instance, DNA had not yet been sequenced, 3D printing did not exist,
Al Gore had not invented the Internet, MRI machines were not available, there
were no cellphones, PC's were only a dream, booster rockets could not land self-powered
for re-use, TV's used CRT's...
 "Announced at the Berlin Air Show, the GESTRA
and TIRA surveillance radar systems respectively scan large areas of space
to detect objects and debris in low earth orbit, and produce detailed images of
individual objects and measure their trajectories. The two radar systems are part
of a suite of technologies unveiled at the airshow. These are intended to counter
the growing problem of "space junk": defunct satellites, fragments of discarded
launch equipment such as fairings and launch stages, and fragments of micro-meteorites
that orbit in a cloud around the earth at an altitude..."
Planar Monolithic Industries
(PMI) recently introduced four new products in their extensive line of RF and microwave
components. Included are an 8-way power divider for 0.5 to 2 GHz, a SP4T solid
state absorptive switch for 10 to 40 GHz, a SP2T solid state reflective switch
for 3 to 3.5 GHz, and a SP2T solid state reflective switch for 0.5 to 8 GHz.
Contact PMI today for...
 "From time to time I have seen Internet
videos of seemingly impossible gymnastic performances. Sometimes the links to these
videos have been accompanied by a comment by the poster to the effect of 'I could
do this if I wanted, but I choose not to.' This brings a little smile to my face,
but I've been thinking lately that I've been telling myself something similar when
I see some of today's technical literature. The scope of
electrical engineering has been growing continuously through the
years, but so too has the depth of complexity..."
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