RF & Microwave Magazine Article Archive - 2021

If you are like me, you spend a lot of time reading articles from technical magazines. Sometimes I read the entire article, but usually I just scan the text for highlights and look at the schematics, block diagrams, and charts / graphs. Often, I want to go back and find an article but cannot recall where I saw it. A Google search will usually eventually reveal a hyperlink to the article, but a lot of times it takes a lot of digging. Since my key interests are not necessarily the same as RF Cafe visitors, an attempt will be made to catalog all of them. If there is a magazine not included here that you would like me to include in the list, please send me an e-mail and I will try to incorporate its articles, too.

Aerospace & Defense | EDN | Electronic Design | High Frequency Electronics | IEEE Spectrum | Microwave Journal | Microwaves & RF | Microwave Product Digest |

Aerospace Defense

EDN

Tales from the Cube

Here's a trip down Memory (640 kB) Lane for those of us around during the early PC days, using MS−DOS. EDN magazine has been running their column "Tales from the Cube" (a take-off of the equally long ago "Tales from the Crypt" TV show) where readers submit sagas of (usually) troubleshooting experiences. Most often the problem is the result of an intermittent event or of human error (pronounced "stupidity"). This is a case of the latter. If you fondly recall the times when 256-color VGA CRT monitors, 3½" floppy disks, 20 MB hard drives, and an i80287 math coprocessor were to die for, when you were deemed a computer expert if you could write batch files, and half your computer's CPU power was not consumed by antivirus programs (no WWW, just Kermit for local net access), then you might like this "The Mysterious MS-DOS Reboot" anecdote by Robert Yankowitz. Enjoy!

What's the Difference Between EMF and Voltage?

Whenever I see John Dunn's name I think of the English poet John Donne, but that's my problem. Mr. Dunn wrote an article for EDN magazine entitled, "What's the Difference Between EMF and Voltage?" He begins: "I once read this very strongly-written essay about the difference between electromotive force (EMF) and voltage. The author seemed like he was on some kind of holy crusade and was intensely determined to set his readers straight on fundamental truths that were NOT to be dismissed by infidels. I read his words, but for all of the vitriol, I didn’t understand him at all. Recently, I decided to take a closer look at the issue. EMF is given in units of joules per coulomb. The frame of reference for this definition is for any device that uses a non-electrical source of energy to impart electrical energy to a unit of charge, which if given the chance, will flow somewhere..."

Electronic Design

Overcome Stray Magnetic Fields with Active Field Compensation

"As the EV market grows, so does demand for robust magnetic field sensors within these vehicles. Stray magnetic fields may diminish the accuracy of these sensors, though, which is where active stray-field compensation comes to the rescue." So begins Frederik Berstecher in his article entitled, Overcome Stray Magnetic Fields with Active Stray-Field Compensation, posted on the Electronic Design website. Continuing, "The electric-vehicle market continues on a serious upswing: Allied Market Research forecasts show it will reach $802.81B by 2027, up from $162.34B in 2019 [can they really estimate to 5 significant digits? - KRB]. Such growth also pushes the need for additional magnetic field sensors within these vehicles for position detection. The sensors are robust enough to withstand a variety of harsh environmental conditions, temperatures, vibrations..."

High Frequency Electronics

Understanding Stability Circles

It has been a while since I saw an article discussing stability circles for amplifier design. Ain Rehman has one posted on the High Frequency Electronics website entitled, "Understanding Stability Circles." Even in the age of computer design and optimization for just about everything, it always help to have a basic understanding of what the result should look like as well as what affects the result. He begins: "Stability circles are a tool, used to examine and analyze the stability of an amplifier (in the case under discussion) using a graphical technique, with the help of a Smith Chart. (Note: A free, demo version of smith chart software is available on the web from Fritz Dellsperger). This monograph presents the stability circle tool for engineers. It is understood that many CAD programs can generate these, but it is always useful to understand the stability circle on an intuitive level as a good engineering practice..."

IEEE Spectrum

Microwaves & RF

Microwave Product Digest