Top Stories of the Week - 27 Nov, 2015

Toshiba Launches New SOI Process Optimized for RF Switches

Toshiba’s Semiconductor & Storage Products Company has announced the development of TaRF8, a next generation SOI (Silicon on Insulator) process optimized for RF switch applications. This TarfSOI™ (Toshiba advanced RF SOI) process can develop switches with extreamly low insertion losses.

An SP12T RFIC switch has been developed on this process. The transmit switch IC has an integrated RF Frontend controller for mobile applications making it ideal for the 3GPP GSM, UMTS, W-CDMA, LTE and LTE-Advanced standards. This new switch will start in January 2016.read more

Researchers at UCSB to Investigate an Emerging Approach to Wireless Connectivity

The funny memes and other video clips shared over the internet may provide endless hours of fun time, but this shared multimedia content is putting pressure on conventional wireless networks. They are producing a huge demand for wireless capacity that cannot be satisfied by simply increasing the existing spectrum.

According to industry projections that are widely quoted, mobile broadband data demand will grow by a thousandfold between 2010 and 2020. We are in the middle of this period, and wireless carriers and equipment providers are scrambling to come up with solutions.read more

Rice University Wins $2.4M to Study Massive MIMO Technology

Rice University researchers have won $2.4 million from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to conduct the most extensive experimental research yet of wireless technology that uses 100 or more antennas per base station to send tightly focused beams of data to each user, even as they move. The research at Rice’s campus in Houston will help the wireless industry determine whether and how to include the many-antenna technology - known in industry parlance as “massive multi-user, multi-input multi-output,” or massive MU-MIMO — in upcoming 5G wireless standards.read more

Antenna Innovation Enables Testing of Low Cross-Polar Antennas

Accurate testing of low cross-polar antennas in Compact Antenna Test Ranges (CATR) requires a quiet zone with high polarization purity. In the testing of electrically large antennas fitted to large platforms this requirement is often the main motivation to choose the more complex and thus expensive compensated dual reflector CATR as opposed to the simpler and cheaper single reflector CATR.read more

NXP's RF Power Business (Ampleon) Cleared for Launch

NXP Semiconductors has announced that the company has received clearance on the proposed transaction of the sale of its RF Power business to JAC Capital from the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS). The divesture of the RF Power business is a condition for NXP’s merger with Freescale Semiconductor. The new company will be called Ampleon.read more

Low Cost VNA Solution to Test E-Band Microwave Components

Anritsu has introduced an E-band option for its ShockLine™ MS46500B series of 2 and 4 Port performance Vector Network Analyzers (VNAs) that addresses the market need to lower cost-of-test for E-band components. With the option installed, the MS46500B series can reduce production costs and more efficiently verify the performance of high-frequency passive components, such as antennas, filters, and duplexers, during manufacturing.read more

Skyworks Announces Termination of Merger Agreement with PMC-Sierra

Skyworks Solutions has announced that it decided not to modify its amended and restated merger agreement with PMC-Sierra, Inc, which was entered into on October 29, 2015. Today PMC terminated the amended and restated merger agreement and, as a result, Skyworks is entitled to an $88.5 million termination fee from PMC. Skyworks had offered to acquire for PMC-Sierra for $10.50 per share in an all-cash transaction valued at approximately $2 billion. After this, Microsemi offered $2.4 Billion for the PMC-Sierra. Both these offeres were being evalauted by the PMC-Sierra Board of directors. On the 16th of November PMC-Sierra Reiterated its commitement to Skyworks, however things seem to have not worked out.read more

Ultra-thin, Tunable, Broadband Microwave Absorber to Advance Radar Cloaking

Microwave absorbers are materials that can effectively absorb incident microwave energy to make objects invisible to radars. These are therefore commonly used for aircraft cloaking and warship stealth applications. Recently, as radar detection devices have been improved to detect the near-meter microwave length regime, scientists are working on high-performance absorbers that can cloak objects in the equivalent ultra-high frequency regime (from 300 MHz to 2 GHz). onventional absorbers for the ultra-high regime are usually thick, heavy or have narrow absorption bandwidth, making them unsuitable for stealth missions.read more

Next Generation GSM-R Mobile Communications Tester Launched

Cobham Wireless has launched a new mobile tester designed to test railway GSM-R communications systems. Railway network operators and suppliers of GSM-R radios and modems need to be able to validate the correct operation of GSM-R radios, both in the laboratory and in the field. The Cobham Wireless 2201R is designed to connect directly to GSM-R device types including high-powered Class 2 radios, and is a replacement for the previous-generation 4202R tester. read more

u-blox Introduces 3D Automotive Dead Reckoning for Urban Navigation

u‑blox has introduced its next‑generation semiconductor technology dedicated to advanced in‑dash navigation, emergency call (i.e. eCall / ERA‑GLONASS), usage‑based insurance (UBI), road‑pricing, and stolen vehicle recovery systems.

3‑Dimensional Automotive Dead Reckoning (“3D ADR”) aids traditional GPS/GNSS navigation via intelligent algorithms based on distance, direction and elevation changes made during satellite signal interruption.read more