Trending RF & Microwave News Stories of the Week (1 - 5 July, 2019)

Signal Hound CEO Talks about their Latest T&M Products

The new SM200B spectrum analyzer offers 160 MHz of instantaneous bandwidth (IBW) calibrated I/Q capture, available through block transfer of a 2-second I/Q buffer over USB 3.0 to the PC. This added 2-seconds of segmented I/Q capture memory, with advanced triggering options such as frequency mask triggering (FMT) plus user-specified pre- and post-trigger satisfies the ever-increasing analysis bandwidth demands of the wireless industry. The SM200B maintains the same dynamic range, phase noise, 1 THz/s sweep speed, and 100 kHz to 20 GHz tuning range that makes the SM200A so popular. Click here to read more.

Meet THOR, The Ultimate Drone-Killing Microwave Weapon

The US Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), showcased its $15 million high-power microwave weapon that can instantaneously kill swarms of enemy drones within minutes. The New Mexico-made weapon, nick-named THOR (Tactical High Power Microwave Operational Responder), was demonstrated live at the Kirkland US Air Force Base where it destroyed a drone with invisible and inaudible electromagnetic waves.

According to Kelly Hammett, the Head of AFRL's Directed Energy Directorate in Albuquerque, with a rise in constant military threats from enemy drones, the AFRL worked on the system with an expedited 18-month timeline so as to ensure that the system was provided to US warfighters as soon as possible and help them protect military bases from multiple-drone attacks.  Click here to read more.

RF GaN Market Will Grow to $2 Billion by 2024

In the few years, we have seen GaN has been significantly adopted by the RF industry because of its higher power output at high frequencies, and its smaller footprint. According to Yole Market Research, the overall GaN RF market is expected to reach US$2 billion by 2024. This will be driven by two main applications: telecom infrastructure and defense. Worldwide investment in telecom infrastructure has remained stable in the past decade, with a recent increase coming from Chinese government efforts. But in this steady market, the trend toward higher frequencies offers a sweet spot for RF GaN power amplifiers used in Remote Radio Head architectures for Sub-6 GHz 5G networks.

These are the findings of Yole's new RF GaN report, RF GaN market: applications, players, technology, and substrates. Yole’s analysts offer a deep understanding of GaN implementation in different market segments. The report delivers an extensive overview of 5G’s impact on the wireless infrastructure and RF FE, and the GaN-based military market, including current market dynamics and future evolution.  Click here to read more.

R&S SMA100B Signal Generator Now Available with Extended Frequency Range Up to 67 GHz

Rohde & Schwarz has extended the frequency range of its analog microwave signal generator, the SMA100B upto 67 GHz. In over-range operation, it even provides signals up to 72 GHz. This signal generator generates signals with very low single side-band phase noise and high output power with extremely low harmonics at the same time.

With the new frequency options, the SMA100B now covers frequency ranges of up to 31.8 GHz, 40 GHz, 50 GHz and 67 GHz. The analog microwave signal generator supports all relevant application fields in the aerospace & defense, wireless communications and semiconductor industries. It is a future proof investment for all microwave applications and an ideal instrument for the characterization of microwave components, devices and systems. Click here to read more.

Qualcomm Announces 16 Design Wins for its Latest IoT Chipset

Qualcomm Technologies has announced design wins from sixteen companies for its next-generation 9205 LTE modem for IoT, which was announced in December of 2018. These design wins will enable a diverse range of Internet of Things (IoT) end products around the world, scaling to encompass thousands of unique eMTC and NB-IoT devices, and will further enrich the IoT with Qualcomm Technologies’ leading connectivity and compute technologies and engineering expertise. 

The 9205 LTE modem is Qualcomm Technologies’ latest purpose-built chipset for the IoT. The modem is unique in bringing together key innovations required to build cellular-enabled IoT products and services in a single chipset, including global multimode LTE category M1 (Cat M1 or eMTC) and NB2 (NB-IoT), as well as 2G/E-GPRS connectivity, application processing, geolocation, hardware-based security, support for cloud services and accompanying developer tools. Furthermore, the Qualcomm 9205 LTE modem is designed to support a wide range of devices, with applications in verticals like asset trackers, health monitors, security systems, smart city sensors, alarm panels, and smart meters, as well as a range of wearable trackers.  Click here to read more.

Nuwaves Develops RF Downconverter for Identification, Friend-or-Foe Applications

NuWaves Engineering has developed a high-efficiency, high-linearity power amplifier and low-spurious down-converter as the result of a Phase II Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) award by the US Army.

The Advanced Radio Frequency (RF) Environment Simulator for Mode 5 and Identification Friend or Foe (IFF) (ADROIT) program has resulted in IFF simulator/stimulator hardware to enhance the Army’s capabilities with regards to combined live, virtual and constructive (LVC) simulations. The hardware includes an enhanced VRG-1000SD from strategic partner ViaSat, which includes software upgrades to increase the number of simultaneous IFF interrogators and transponders in a given simulation (performed by ViaSat), and incorporates a linear RF power amplifier within the VRG-1000 to increase the capabilities to the maximum permissible levels for test equipment. Click here to read more.

NASA Will Soon Use GPS Technology to Navigate in Space

GPS (Global Positioning System) - the satellite-based navigation system which has been helping an estimated four billion people locate themselves on Earth, could soon be found being used in space. NASA is now looking to use the navigation system to pilot in and around the lunar orbit during future ARTEMIS missions. A team at NASA is developing a special receiver that would be able to pick up location signals provided by the 24 to 32 operational GPS satellites. The navigation system is operated by the U.S. military about 12,550 miles above Earth’s surface, and can be used by anyone with a GPS receiver.

NASA’s ARTEMIS program is an ongoing crewed spaceflight program carried out by NASA, U.S. commercial spaceflight companies, and international partners such as ESA with the goal of landing the first woman and the next man on the lunar surface by 2024. Artemis would be the first step towards the long-term goal of establishing a sustainable presence on the Moon, laying the foundation for private companies to build a lunar economy, and eventually sending humans to Mars. Click here to read more.

JETCOOL Wins Next Top Startup Award for its New Cooling Approach

At the 2019 IEEE International Microwave Symposium (IMS) in June, JETCOOL Technologies unveiled their new approach to cooling computer processors and other electronics and won the title of Next Top Startup. Their technology could change the way the world cools the electronics powering aerospace, electric vehicles, and AI data centers.

The technology, known as microconvective cooling, uses small fluid jets that can be built within the electronic device. The result is ten times better cooling than today's state-of-the-art, which is welcome news to overclocking enthusiasts and high-power semiconductor companies alike. Click here to read more.

Global Wi-Fi Chipset Market Will Grow to $21.4 Billion by 2024

Leading market research expert, ResearchAndMarkets.com, has released a new report on the global Wi-Fi chipset market for the period 2019-2024. According to the report, the Wi-Fi chipset market was worth USD 17.2 Billion till 2018 and is now expected to reach USD 21.4 Billion by 2024, exhibiting a CAGR of 3.7% during 2019-2024.

Wi-Fi technology uses wireless transmitters and chipsets to send information to mobile devices for wireless networking. These chipsets access Wi-Fi hotspots to enable the users to access networked services without the requirement of standard cables. Since the per-unit cost of a chip is usually low, these chips are mostly used in routers, computer laptops and cellular phones, and can also be used in computers or workstations in a local area network (LAN). With the growing applications of the Internet of Things (IoT), these chipsets are now also being incorporated in home appliances like air-conditioners, water heaters, washing machines and televisions. Click here to read more.

Dialog Releases Ultra-Low Power Wi-Fi SoC to Accelerate IoT Adoption

Dialog Semiconductor has released a new Wi-Fi SoC targeted at battery-powered IoT devices such as smart door locks, video monitoring systems, smart thermostats, and wireless sensors enabling direct connectivity to Wi-Fi networks, with a battery life of greater than one year. The FC9000 is Dialog’s first Wi-Fi SoC to be released since the closing of the acquisition of Silicon Motion’s  Mobile Communications product line on May 31, 2019.

Previously, devices running on Zigbee, ZWave or Bluetooth standards needed to be paired with an expensive and cumbersome gateway or smartphone to enable connectivity to the cloud, adding complexity and unnecessary costs for IoT adoption. The introduction of the FC9000 overcomes these issues as we move towards a Wi-Fi ubiquitous world. Click here to read more.

CEA-Leti & Radiall to Develop Ultra-Low Profile E-Band Antennas for 5G Networks

Announced during Leti Innovation Days in Grenoble, the common lab will develop low profile, millimeter-wave antenna solutions for backhaul/fronthaul applications.

5G networks require high-speed, point-to-point communication at millimeter-wave frequencies. The explosive increase in ultra-dense 5G infrastructure systems required to accommodate high-speed mobile data traffic and Internet of Things data is fueling a demand for low-cost, robust and reliable RF subsystems. These include compact and reconfigurable antennas that can be integrated on urban buildings and street furniture with minimal deployment cost.  Click here to read more.

World First 450 MHz LTE Cat-M/NB-IoT Chipset

Altair Semiconductor’s ALT1250 dual mode CAT-M/NB-IoT chipset can now operate in the 450 MHz spectrum. Altair announced that the chipset is now powering the Asiatelco LM66 IoT module, which provides LTE connectivity for a range of devices, and has been developed to provide agricultural solutions for large-scale farming in Brazil.

Operating in the 450 MHz LTE spectrum and utilizing Ericsson’s LTE eNBs, Altair’s cellular IoT chipset enables agricultural companies using smart sensors and connected tractors applications to optimize farming practices. The solution uses location tracking, driver behavior monitoring, and fuel consumption optimization. Click here to read more.