See Page 1 |
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4 | 5 of the June 2019 homepage archives.
Friday 7
Editorial: "The Serviceman's Follies"
"You get what you pay for," is an admonishment
which has been around for a long time, and it applies generally to many situations.
Radio-Craft magazine editor Hugh Gernsback took the occasion of a meeting
with a successful radio repair technician to pen this piece illustrating how it
is not only the consumer who gets hurt by
low-cost hucksters. Gernsback's discussion with a for-real electronics technician
from Ohio serves as a real-world example. A fictitious Serviceman, whom he assigns
the moniker of Mr. G.O. Getter (a play on the vacuum tube term "getter"), suffers
from the bad reputation brought to his electronics service business by price low-ballers
that provide incompetent, low quality work. G.O. Getter contends that capable ...
China Satellite Navigation Conference
Opens in Beijing
"The most recent achievements of the BeiDou
Navigation Satellite System (BDS) will be displayed and discussed during the tenth
China Satellite Navigation Conference that opened
in Beijing Wednesday. The BDS is China's self-developed navigation system and is
compatible with other navigation systems. According to Ran Chengqi, director of
the China Satellite Navigation Office, the construction of the BDS-3 primary system
had been completed and has started to provide global service. In the future, it
will offer new services such as satellite-based augmentation system and international
search and rescue. The navigation signals will be improved globally, Ran said. An
exhibition during the conference ..."
What Do You Really Know About Bypassing?
Lou Frenzel has a useful article on the
Electronic Design entitled, "What Do You Really Know About Bypassing?" Coincidentally, a
couple days ago I posted an article from a vintage Popular Electronics
magazine entitled, "Getting
to Know the Bypass Capacitor." He begins, "The seemingly ubiquitous bypass capacitor
is an important component in design, especially when dealing with high frequencies.
But what's the driving force behind its usage? Just recently, I was eavesdropping
on several engineer acquaintances of mine discussing bypass capacitors. Also known
as decoupling capacitors, these capacitors are everywhere. Some products contain
hundreds of capacitors, many of which are bypass capacitors ...
Investigating Inverters as Part of a
Solar Array
Axiom Test Equipment, an electronic test equipment
rentals and sales company headquartered in North County San Diego, has published
a blog post entitled, "Investigating
Inverters as Part of a Solar Array," which discusses the technical and test
requirements for the subject. Solar power supplies are being used for remote and/or
unmanned communications and data collection and reporting locations across the globe,
and careful attention must be paid to component selection. RF Cafe visitor Joe Cahak
published a great whitepaper entitled, "Solace in Solar," that provides a detailed
look at his personal solar power installation project. Sophisticated test equipment
is required ...
Res-Net Microwave has a complete line of
precision RF & microwave components including attenuators, terminations,
resistors, and diode detectors for commercial, military, and space applications.
Products range from the small flange type to large 2,000 watt connectorized power
attenuators and/or terminations at frequencies up to 26.5 GHz. In-house photo
etch and laser trim capability. Please check out Res-Net Microwave's website to
see how they can help with your current project.
Thursday 6
Radar-Tracking Accuracy Increased
The many
idiosyncrasies of atmospheric phenomena that affect long distance communications
are certainly more well known and understood today than they were in the early days
of radio. Ionization, temperature and pressure gradients, suspended particulate
contamination, and other factors have been extensively studied, measured, and modeled.
Daily and seasonal patterns are somewhat predictable and exploitable for purposes
of general use, but short term variability that affects long distance radar measures
of distance, altitude, and speed requires near instantaneous, pulse by pulse analysis
of atmospheric conditions. Research and development of methods for accommodating
short term variations that skew measurements are an ongoing science. An extreme
example of atmospheric variation ...
Temperature Chamber Choices
John Booher, at TotalTemp Technologies has
posted a blog entitled, "Temperature Chamber Choices." Thermal testing
testing of products can't be ignored. Knowing your product stands up to the harshest
environments it will be exposed to over the life of the product provides proof of
the design and verified quality. With TotalTemp's Temperature Chambers and Thermal
Platforms you can most effectively run thermal tests for burn-in or design / production
verification. Products meant for consumers have to be tested, but it's safe to say,
products going into space need far more rigorous verification. Life tests or inappropriate
tests can go too far, thus shortening the life so it is important to ensure the
proper testing is performed ...
The Amazing Surface Barrier Transistor
According to the Transistor Museum website,
"The
Philco Surface Barrier Transistor (SBT) was the 'hottest' transistor around
until the late 1950s. This device performed very well at high frequencies and was
used extensively in radio and computer circuits. Hobbyists were delighted to find
such an inexpensive high frequency device... [Edwin] Bohr authored many well-remembered
transistor construction projects in the 1950s/60s." Many of Bohr's construction
articles featuring SBTs were published in Radio Electronics magazine, and
this was one of them from 1957. The manufacturing process is described where jet
streams of an electrolyte were shot at both sides of the germanium crystal to etch
it as required - Neanderthal in nature ...
Rohde & Schwarz 5G NR Tour Resources
This month we ended our
5G
NR Tour visiting over 10 cities across the US and Canada. Below for your reference
are the slides to the different tracks, as well as other resources that you can
request and/or download. If you would like to be one of the first to know when our
5G eBook center is launched, follow the link and complete the form to be added to
our communications list. The 5G New Radio eBook from Rohde & Schwarz describes
all relevant details of the 5G NR technology - the fundamentals and procedures.
More importantly, it takes into account the relevant implementation aspects since
test and measurement equipment is required to develop, manufacture and service 5G
NR products. This eBook ...
Accuracy of 2-Qubit Calculations in
Silicon
"For the first time ever, researchers have
measured the fidelity - that is, the accuracy - of
two-qubit logic operations in silicon, with highly
promising results that will enable scaling up to a full-scale quantum processor.
The research, carried out by Professor Andrew Dzurak's team in UNSW Engineering,
was published in the world-renowned journal Nature. The experiments were performed
by Wister Huang, a final-year PhD student in Electrical Engineering, and Dr Henry
Yang, a senior research fellow at UNSW. 'All quantum computations can be made up
of one-qubit operations and two-qubit operations - they're the central building
blocks of quantum computing,' says Professor Dzurak ..."
D-Day, June 6, 1944 - 75th Anniversary
Time heals
all wounds, as the saying goes. Since the days of gruesome wars, both victor and
loser countries have managed to establish civil relations and forgiveness for past
actions. Some have thrived, as between the U.S. and Japan and Germany, while others
have not. Ultimately, it is the greed for money, quest for power, and/or religious
zeal of a relative few at the top of national offices who cause the problems while
their people pay the price. So, too, do
people of countries that choose to oppose tyranny and free the world's oppressed.
Time also erases memories of those actions of men and women that caused the wars
and attendant suffering and loss. Today, very few people can tell you anything about
D-Day.
Socialism and its many forms are gaining popularity again based on ignorance.
Nazism
= National Socialism. Beware. Listen to President Franklin D. Roosevelt's D-Day
prayer from June 6, 1944.
Centric RF: Attenuators, Adapters, Cable
Assemblies, Power Dividers
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 are available off the shelf. Order today, ship today!
Centric RF is currently looking for vendors to partner with them. Please visit Centric
RF today.
Wednesday 5
ABC's of Transistors
Sylvania was yet another bedrock American
technology innovation company that in the last few decades has been bought by foreign
concerns*, while retaining at least some semblance of its original identity - mostly
for brand loyalty purposes. Along with pioneering lighting products, Sylvania produced
vacuum tubes and semiconductors for use in its line of radios and televisions. Sylvania
engineers published a lot of articles in electronics magazines introducing transistors
and early integrated circuits to laymen, hobbyists, and professionals, some of whom
were fledglings to the field and others who were transitioning tubes types. This
particular article suggests methods for verifying operation of PNP and NPN
bipolar junction transistors (BJTs) and for troubleshooting basic circuits ...
Custom MMIC Secures Raytheon's Top Supplier
Honors
Custom MMIC, a leading designer and manufacturer
of high performance monolithic microwave integrated circuits (MMICs) is honored
to be the only semiconductor MMIC supplier to receive
Raytheon's Five Star Supplier Excellence Award
for 2018 performance. This is the third consecutive year Custom MMIC has been named
a Top Supplier by Raytheon. Raytheon's Integrated Defense Systems (IDS) recognizes
the importance of cultivating, maintaining and nurturing strong business relationships
with their supplier network to ensure mission readiness and success. An integral
part of this program is the IDS Supplier Excellence Awards ...
Electronics Crossword Puzzle, April 1967 QST
QST, the monthly publication of
the American Radio Relay League (ARRL), occasionally ran a
crossword puzzle with an electronics theme. This one appeared in the April 1967
edition. Unlike the weekly RF Cafe crossword puzzles, this one does have a few words
that are not strictly technology and science themed. However, many of the clues
and words require some familiarity with Ham radio subjects and lingo ...
Keysight Launches New Phase Noise
Test System
Keysight Technologies today introduced a
new phase noise measurement system for "power users," which enables them to
optimize and prove performance of new designs, meet operational requirements, as
well as remain on schedule and on budget. Phase noise is an unwanted phase modulation
noise that emerges in nearly all radio frequency and microwave devices including
oscillators, mixers, dividers, multipliers and amplifiers. Power users, including
professionals responsible for developing high-performance aerospace and defense
applications as well as cutting-edge device characterization for 5G and other wireless
communication ...
Pushing High Frequency Transistor
Performance Above 700 GHz
"Researchers based in South Korea and Japan
claim record cut-off frequency performance for high-electron-mobility transistors
(HEMTs) with channels constructed from indium gallium arsenide (InGaAs) quantum
wells in indium aluminium arsenide (InAlAs) barriers. The team from Kyungpook National
University and University of Ulsan in South Korea and NTT Device Technology Laboratories
in Japan state: 'To the best of our knowledge, this is the first demonstration of
both fT and fmax in excess of
700 GHz on any transistor on any material system.' The researchers
see such devices as potentially contributing to the 'terahertz' (300-3000 GHz) radio-frequency
(RF) electromagnetic (EM) sector, where the wavelength is in the sub-millimeter
range ..."
Since 1961, MECA
Electronics has designed and manufactured an extensive line of
RF & microwave components for in-building, satellite, radar,
radio, telemetry, mobile radio, aviation & ATC. Attenuators, directional &
hybrid couplers, isolators & circulators, power dividers & combiners, loads,
DC blocks, bias-Ts and adapters & cables. MECA has long been the 'backbone'
of high performance wired and air-interfaced networks such as in-building applications,
satellite communications, radar, radio communications, telemetry applications, mobile
radio, aviation & air traffic communications.
Tuesday 4
Bell Telephone Laboratories Waveguide Isolators
This full-page advertisement by Bell Telephone
Laboratories in the June 1956 issue of Radio & television News seems to imply
that their Dr. S. Weisbaum and/or his contemporaries was/were the original
developer/s of the
waveguide isolator. If so, it would be no surprise since Bell Labs was responsible
for many technology innovations during its history - RF, microwaves, telephony,
switching, transmission lines, test and measurement, and much more. Other information
available on the Internet assigns credit to Bell Labs in the same timeframe. From
the ad: "This isolator is a slab of ferrite which is mounted inside the waveguide,
and is kept magnetized by a permanent magnet strapped to the outside. The magnetized
ferrite ..."
Teledyne Defense & Space RF/MW
Solutions at IMS
Teledyne Defense Electronics (TDE) will be
featuring a comprehensive mix of the most advanced
RF & Microwave products and capabilities next week at the annual International
Microwave Symposium 2019 in Boston in Booth 1124. Eight
separate Teledyne brands currently offer a wide variety of RF/MW solutions to leading
companies and government agencies worldwide. These TDE brands together serve global
customers in markets spanning Airborne, Electronic Warfare, Missiles, Space, Radar,
Test and Measurement, and Satellite Communications. Participating Teledyne companies
at Booth 1124 will include Teledyne e2v Semiconductors, Teledyne e2v RF Power -
Defence, Teledyne Labtech ...
Getting to Know the Bypass Capacitor
Bypass capacitors play a vitally important
role in electronic circuit design. Many people do not know the proper way for deciding
which capacitor or capacitors is/are needed for effective noise and/or signal bypassing
without either overdoing or underdoing it. Needs change over the years as frequencies
and signal characteristics occupy new realms of the spectrum. A Fourier analysis
of some of today's complicated waveshapes for switching power supplies shows how
sometimes tailored responses to bypassing is required. This article from the January
1962 Popular Electronics does not delve into the intricacies of complex filters,
but it does provide a nice introduction to the need for bypassing and how to stand
a good ...
RCL Microwave Intros 60 GHz High Gain
Antennas
RCL Microwave, in Booth #785
at IMS2019, has introduced a new line of 60 GHz high gain antennas. "Our antennas deliver outstanding
performance at an affordable price. Gain is available between 10 dBi and 20 dBi
and the frequency can be tuned from 10 GHz to 100 GHz with a 10% bandwidth.
Our antennas are available with industry standard RF connectors or PCB Mount Flange
Connectors. Our antennas deliver outstanding performance, in a very compact package
and we deliver antennas at an industry leading price."
Many Thanks to Axiom Test Equipment for
Continued Support!
Axiom Test Equipment
allows you to rent or
buy test equipment,
repair
test equipment, or sell or trade test equipment. They are committed to providing
superior customer service and high quality electronic test equipment. Axiom offers
customers several practical, efficient, and cost effective solutions for their projects'
TE needs and is committed to providing superior customer service and high quality
electronic test equipment. Please check out Axiom Test Equipment today!
Radar for Your Wrist
"Tired of trying to tap icons on small smartwatch
screens? Some day you could just swipe right through the air above them thanks to
miniaturized radar technology and its accompanying
gesture recognition technology in development at imec, the Belgium-based R&D
center. Imec's radar chips operate at around 145 GHz, well above the bands used
for car radar. That high up in the electromagnetic spectrum, the chip can take advantage
of a full 10 gigahertz of bandwidth, which leads to millimeter-scale resolution,
its inventors say. 'Gestures allow a lot of capabilities where screens are becoming
too small for fine movements,' says Kathleen Philips, program director for IoT at
imec ..."
ConductRF: Precision & Standard Grade
RF Cable Assemblies
ConductRF is continually innovating and developing
new and improved solutions for RF Interconnect needs. See the latest
TESTeCON RF
Test Cables for labs. ConductRF makes production and test coax cable assemblies
for amplitude and phased matched VNA applications as well as standard & precision
RF connectors. Over 1,000 solutions for low PIM in-building to choose from in the
iBwave component library. They also provide custom coax solutions for applications
where some standard just won't do. A partnership with Newark assures fast, reliable
access. Please visit ConductRF today to see how they can help your project!
Monday 3
RF Cascade Workbook 2018
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 ...
Anatech Giving Away Samsung
Tablet at IMS 2019
Anatech Electronics will be featuring many
products ranging in frequencies from 10 MHz to 40 GHz at the
IMS2019 in Boston, Booth #282. The products in
our showcase include all type filters, as well as related RF products, such as Bandpass
Filters, Low Pass filters ,High Pass Filters, Band Stop Filters, Duplexers, Power
Dividers, Directional Couplers, Circulators, Isolators and more. Our technical staff
will be there to answer any technical questions you might have and provide guidance
to the type of solutions we can provide. Anatech will also have a Raffle, giving
away a Samsung tablet. Just drop off your business card during the show. Drawing
will be on Thursday, June 6, 2019 at 11 am. Be there!
QuinStar Receives Northrop Grumman
2019 World Class Team Supplier Award
QuinStar Technology, Inc. received
Northrop Grumman's 2019 World Class Team Supplier Award. The award is presented
to small business suppliers that consistently demonstrate outstanding achievements
and support of Northrop Grumman programs. Leo Fong, President and CEO, and Sage
Kuno, Program Manager, attended the Corporate Global Supplier Diversity Programs
Recognition Awards Luncheon held on May 16, 2019 and accepted the award on behalf
of the QuinStar team. "We are both grateful and honored to be selected for this
prestigious award from Northrop Grumman." Please visit us at Booth #327
during IMS 2019 ...
Ametek CTS and Transient Specialists strengthen
existing relationships through preferred rental partnership and sole U.S. ESD distributor
status. Ametek CTS, which includes such well-known brands, such as Teseq, EM Test,
Milmega, and IFI team up with Transient Specialists, a rental house specializing
in EMC test equipment. Transient Specialists has the capabilities to meet a variety
of RF amplifier and conducted RF testing systems, making them an ideal preferred
rental partner. These include amplifiers ranging from 10 kHz to 18 GHz
up to 600 watts and many EN/IEC 61000-4-6 solutions ...
Many Thanks to Electro-Photonics
for Their Continued Support
Electro-Photonics is a global supplier of
RF &
Microwave components. Their products include SMT hybrid and directional couplers,
wire bondable passive components, mounting tabs, filters, transmission lines, and
very useful test boards for evaluating components (spiral inductors, single-layer
capacitors). The Electro-Photonics team can support your small R&D design requirements
with RF & Microwave test fixtures and save you valuable design and characterization
time. Please take a moment to visit Electro-Photonics' website and see how your
project might benefit.
Did The Government Just Test The Internet
Kill Switch?
Techies across the Web are asking whether
the U.S. government ran an unannounced test on the
Internet kill switch that was put in place for
emergency purposes yesterday morning, June 2. Per outage status monitors: Google
Cloud is down, Google Compute Engine is down, Gmail is down, Google Drive is down,
Nest is down, YouTube is down, Snapchat is down, Uber is down, nextDNS is down,
Pokemon, Go is down, App Engine is down ...
Please Visit ConductRF in Booth #885
at IMS 2019
ConductRF looks forward to meeting you at
the IMS 2019 show in Boston. Examples and sample will be available at
Booth #885. You will find: Flexible & semi-rigid
phase/temp cables, VNA Test Cables, RF test leads for production & lab use,
High power RF solutions, D38999 cable & harness solutions, VITA 67 productions
and solutions, Custom connectors and cables. See you there!
Rohde & Schwarz develops, produces and
markets
test & measurement, information and communications
technology. Focus is on test and measurement, broadcast and media, cybersecurity,
secure communications, monitoring and network testing. Markets serviced are wireless,
the automotive industry, aerospace and defense, industrial electronics, research
and education, broadcast and media network operations, consumer electronics, cybersecurity
for business and governments, communications and security solutions for critical
infrastructures and the armed forces, reconnaissance equipment for homeland and
external security, and much more.
Sunday 2
Engineering & Science Crossword Puzzle for June 2
This week's crossword puzzle contains the
full name of our
industry's big show in Boston. Since 2000, I have been creating custom engineering-
and science-themed crossword puzzles for the brain-exercising benefit and pleasure
of RF Cafe visitors who are fellow cruciverbalists. The jury is out on whether or
not this type of mental challenge helps keep your gray matter from atrophying in
old age, but it certainly helps maintain your vocabulary and cognitive skills at
all ages. A database of thousands of words has been built up over the years and
contains only clues and terms associated with engineering, science, physical, astronomy,
mathematics, chemistry, etc. You will never find a word taxing your knowledge of
a numbnut soap opera star or the name of some obscure village ...
These archive pages are provided in order to make it easier for you to find items
that you remember seeing on the RF Cafe homepage. Of course probably the easiest
way to find anything on the website is to use the "Search
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About RF Cafe.
RF Cafe began life in 1996 as "RF Tools" in an AOL screen name web space totaling
2 MB. Its primary purpose was to provide me with ready access to commonly needed
formulas and reference material while performing my work as an RF system and circuit
design engineer. The World Wide Web (Internet) was largely an unknown entity at
the time and bandwidth was a scarce commodity. Dial-up modems blazed along at 14.4 kbps
while tying up your telephone line, and a lady's voice announced "You've Got Mail"
when a new message arrived...
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