 Friday 13 Thursday 12 Wednesday 11 Tuesday 10 Monday 9  RF technology has been a large part of new and upgraded aircraft development not just for studies of radio and radar performance, but also for remote control (R/C) of small- and full-scale prototype models. R/C began life as bulky vacuum tube systems with transmitters that needed to sit on the ground with a hand-held command box. Airborne systems carried lead-acid batteries for power*. Frequencies in the U.S. were in the 27 MHz Citizens Band, and then moved into 53 MHz (Ham band), 72 MHz (airborne only), and 75 MHz (ground only) bands. All modern R/C systems operate in the 2.4 GHz ISM band using spread spectrum modulation (FHSS and DSSS). Having been a builder and flyer of R/C models since the 1970s, I have read many articles about the role played by modelers over the years in modeling magazines and more general purpose magazines like this one in a 1974 issue of Popular Mechanics. Prior to the availability of super-powerful computers and sophisticated fluid dynamics simulation programs ...
 "Egypt's Ministry of Interior (MOI) plans to identify millions of vehicles as they travel on the country's roads, using an RFID solution from Go+, with hardware and software provided in cooperation with Wireless Dynamics. The system, which will be implemented across approximately 10 million of the country's vehicles throughout the next five years, consists of passive UHF RFID stickers attached to each car's windshield, as well as tags on headlamps that respond to interrogation from readers installed above roadways, even at high speeds. The nation of Egypt faces a growing challenge related to traffic and the management of all cars operating on its roadways ..."
 PCB Directory is the largest directory of Printed Circuit Board (PCB) Manufacturers, Assembly houses, and Design Services on the Internet. We have listed the leading printed circuit board manufacturers around the world and made them searchable by their capabilities - Number of laminates used, Board thicknesses supported, Number of layers supported, Types of substrates (FR-4, Rogers, flexible, rigid), Geographical location (U.S., China), kinds of services (manufacturing, fabrication, assembly, prototype), and more. Fast turn-around on quotations for PCB fabrication and assembly.
 Leo Esaki invented the tunnel diode (aka the Esaki diode) in 1957 while working at Sony (Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo at the time). Tunnel diodes have a very narrow, heavily doped p−n junction only around 10 nm (100 Å) wide that exhibits a broken bandgap, where conduction band electrons on the n-side are approximately aligned with valence band holes on the p-side and thereby facilitate the quantum mechanical tunneling process after which the diode is named. A negative differential resistance in part of their operating range makes them useful for high frequency oscillators. This article in a 1960 edition of Popular Electronics introduces the device's characteristics and potential uses. Interestingly, if you want to buy a tunnel diode today, you will likely have to find old stock on on eBay or Amazon since I could not find anyone who sells new stock (Digi-Key, Newark, Mouser ...
 Teledyne e2v HiRel today announced the availability of a new RF power limiter, the 2.5 GHz, 100 W TDLM025100. The limiter is a monolithic integrated circuit based on a Silicon-on-Insulator (SOI) technology that is ideal for use in high reliability aerospace and defense applications. This new integrated device provides customers with a more reliable and robust power protection solution compared to the traditional industry alternative, discrete GaAs PIN diode circuits with multiple external components. The power limiter delivers low insertion loss and high linearity under non-limiting power levels and extremely fast response time in a limiting event, ensuring protection of sensitive circuitry ...
Reactel has become one of the industry leaders in the design and manufacture of RF and microwave filters, diplexers, and sub-assemblies. They offer the generally known tubular, LC, cavity, and waveguide designs, as well as state of the art high performance suspended substrate models. Through a continuous process of research and development, they have established a full line of filters of filters of all types - lowpass, highpass, bandpass, bandstop, diplexer, and more. Established in 1979. Please contact Reactel today to see how they might help your project. Sunday 8  As with my hundreds of previous engineering and science-themed crossword puzzles, this one for December 8, 2019, contains only clues and terms associated with engineering, science, physical, astronomy, mathematics, chemistry, etc., which I have built up over nearly two decades. Many new words and company names have been added that had not even been created when I started in the year 2002. You will never find a word taxing your knowledge of a numbnut soap opera star or the name of some obscure village in the Andes mountains. You might, however, encounter the name of a movie star like Hedy Lamarr or a geographical location like Tunguska, Russia, for reasons which, if you don't already know, might surprise you ...
|  Transient Specialists specializes in EMC test equipment rentals and carries a complete line of ESD guns, surge immunity test equipment, and EFT generators. Rentals available for military (Mil-Std 461), automotive (ISO 7637), and commercial (IEC 61000-4) EMC testing. Flexible terms, accredited calibrations and technical support on EMC testing equipment offered. Equipment consists of top EMC Test System manufacturers, including Teseq, Thermo Keytek, EM Test and EMC Partner. Contact Transient Specialists today for your ESD / EMC / RFI testing needs.
 When designing a rigid flex PCB, it is important to consider all of the relevant factors that will go into producing the right board for your application. Rigid flex printed circuit boards (PCBs) are hybrid circuit boards that combine the characteristics of hardboards and flexible circuitry, with areas that are rigid for component assembly providing the same density as hard boards, and flexible areas connecting the rigid boards to one another. The design and construction of these circuits include multiple layers of rigid boards and flexible circuits. In our "Rigid Flex PCB Application & Design Guide," we outline what you need to know about: The applications and environments in which rigid flex PCBs excel, How to successfully assemble and install your rigid flex PCB.
 RF Cafe typically receives 8,000-15,000 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 $175/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 ...
 This assortment of custom-designed themes by RF Cafe includes T-Shirts, Mouse Pads, Clocks, Tote Bags, Coffee Mugs and Steins, Purses, Sweatshirts, and Baseball Caps. Choose from amazingly clever "We Are the World's Matchmakers" Smith chart design or the "Engineer's Troubleshooting Flow Chart." My "Matchmaker's" design has been ripped off by other people and used on their products, so please be sure to purchase only official RF Cafe gear. My markup is only a paltry 50¢ per item - Cafe Press gets the rest of your purchase price. These would make excellent gifts for husbands, wives, kids, significant others, and for handing out at company events or as rewards for excellent service. It's a great way to help support RF Cafe. Thanks.
 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 ...
|  "The first satellite built by students in Mexico for launch from the International Space Station is smaller than a shoebox but represents a big step for its builders. The project is part of NASA's CubeSat Launch Initiative, which offers universities, high schools and non-profit organizations the opportunity to fly small satellites. Innovative technology partnerships keep down the cost, providing students a way to obtain hands-on experience developing flight hardware. A multidisciplinary team of students at Universidad Popular Autonoma del Estado de Puebla (UPAEP), in Puebla, Mexico, built the CubeSat for AzTechSat-1. The investigation demonstrates communication within a satellite network in low-Earth orbit ..."
 "Slightly bending semiconductors made of organic materials can roughly double the speed of electricity flowing through them and could benefit next-generation electronics such as sensors and solar cells, according to Rutgers-led research. 'If implemented in electrical circuits, such an enhancement - achieved by very slight bending - would mean a major leap toward realizing next-generation, high-performance organic electronics,' said senior author Vitaly Podzorov, a professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy in the School of Arts and Sciences at Rutgers University - New Brunswick. Semiconductors include materials that conduct electricity and their conductivity can be tuned by different external stimuli, making them essential for all electronics. Organic semiconductors are made of organic molecules (mainly consisting of carbon and hydrogen atoms) ..."
 "If you're not certain as to the differences between nanosats and cubesats, or how these tiny satellites are launched and what they do, then read on. Tiny satellites have made space accessible to a new generation of university students, private companies and even helped cash-strapped government agencies like NASA. Generally known as nano-satellites (nanosats) or cube-satellites (cubesats), this technology has been made possible by the semiconductor driven miniaturization of electronic and electro-mechanical systems. In recognition of the trend, the IEEE has even launched a new journal on, 'Miniaturization for Air and Space Systems (J-MASS).' Mass is a premium consideration when placing anything into space. That's why the names of tiny satellites ..."
 BAW is "new technology?" "IoT building blocks include sensors that use quartz crystals. Discrete clocking and quartz crystal devices used to achieve wireless connections can be costly, time-consuming, and complicated to develop, however, and are often susceptible to environmental stress in factory automation or automotive applications. A new technology called bulk acoustic wave (BAW) makes it possible to create simpler, smaller MCU designs while increasing overall performance and lowering costs. BAW can enable the next generation of industrial and telecommunication applications by changing how we approach system designs today. BAW consists of a piezoelectric material sandwiched between two electrodes that converts electrical energy to mechanical-acoustical energy, and vice versa ..."
 "Here are a few tips for developing documentation that decrease the pain for developers and improve the quality of the documentation. Writing documentation is not the most exciting endeavor an engineer can embark on. It's often boring, time consuming, and there are so many more interesting things that could be done. It sometimes amaze me that development projects are documented so poorly - if they are even documented at all. Documentation is meant to help preserve important concepts and information about the development cycle. This information could be used to get up to speed on the product, make decisions about updates and changes, or even to prove that proper procedures ..."
 "The Netherlands-China Low Frequency Explorer (NCLE) is a prototype radio telescope built to record weak radio signals from a period just following the Big Bang, called the Dark Ages. These signals are blocked by the Earth's atmosphere, which is why the telescope was placed on a satellite and brought to a location behind the moon. With this satellite, called QueQiao, the China National Space Administration (CNSA) has been navigating a lunar lander that has been driving around the back of the moon since early 2019. The Netherlands-China Low Frequency Explorer was developed in the Netherlands by Radboud University (Nijmegen), ASTRON (Dwingeloo) and the ISISpace company (Delft) ..."
 "Researchers at the University of Delaware have created a high-electron mobility transistor with record-setting properties, including record low gate leakage current (a measure of current loss), a record high on/off current ratio (the magnitude of the difference of current transmitted between the on state and off state) and a record high current gain cutoff frequency (an indication of how much data can be transmitted with a wide range of frequencies). This transistor could be useful for higher bandwidth wireless communication systems. For a given current, it can handle more voltage and would require less battery life than other devices of its type. Yuping Zeng, an assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering at the University of Delaware and her team of researchers has created a high-electron mobility transistor, a device that amplifies and controls electrical current, using gallium nitride (GaN) with indium aluminum-nitride as the barrier on a silicon substrate. The results were published in the journal Applied Physics Express. "
 "Murata has developed the first multi-layer ceramic capacitor with a maximum capacitance of 0.1 μF. The GRM011R60J104M, measures 0.25 x 0.125 mm and is available in a 0804 footprint. Mass production of this new product is scheduled to begin in 2020. As smartphones supporting 5G become more widespread and devices such as wearable devices become increasingly multi-functional and more compact, the demand for smaller and higher density electronic circuitry is growing. Among the components employed in this circuitry, multi-layer ceramic capacitors are essential for electronic devices and are used for a wide range of applications ..."
 "Using a clever technique that causes unruly crystals of iron selenide to snap into alignment, Rice University physicists have drawn a detailed map that reveals the "rules of the road" for electrons both in normal conditions and in the critical moments just before the material transforms into a superconductor. In a study online this week in the American Physical Society journal Physical Review X (PRX), physicist Ming Yi and colleagues offer up a band structure map for iron selenide, a material that has long puzzled physicists because of its structural simplicity and behavioral complexity. The map, which details the electronic states of the material, is a visual summary of data gathered from measurements of a single crystal of iron selenide as it was cooled to the point of superconductivity ..."
 Not sure how I missed this, but on July 21th,
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