Trending RF & Microwave News Stories of the Week (18

Lockheed Martin to Transform the Way Satellites are Designed, Built and Delivered

Lockheed Martin wants to change this, with new architecture that will let users add capability and assign new missions with a software push, just like adding an app on a smartphone. This new tech, called SmartSat, is a software-defined satellite architecture that will boost capability for payloads on several pioneering nanosats ready for launch this year.

Imagine a new type of satellite that acts more like a smartphone. Add a SmartSat app to your satellite in-orbit, and you've changed the mission. They are the first to deploy this groundbreaking technology on multiple missions. SmartSat will give their customers unparalleled resiliency and flexibility for changing mission needs and technology, and it unlocks even greater processing power in space. Click here to read more.

AI Better Detects Radar Signals to Enable Spectrum Sharing

In a new paper, NIST researchers demonstrate that deep learning algorithms - a form of artificial intelligence - that are significantly better than a commonly used, less sophisticated method for detecting when offshore radars are operating. Improved radar detection would enable commercial users to know when they must yield the so-called 3.5 GHz Band.

In 2015, the FCC adopted rules for the Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS) to permit commercial LTE (long-term evolution) wireless equipment vendors and service providers to use the 3.5 GHz Band when not needed for radar operations. Click here to read more.

FCC Opens up Spectrum above 95 GHz

The FCC has adopted new rules to encourage the development of new communications technologies and expedite the deployment of new services in the spectrum above 95 GHz. This spectrum has long been considered the outermost horizon of the usable spectrum range, but rapid advancements in radio technology have made these bands especially ripe for new development.

There are substantial opportunities for innovation at these frequencies, especially for data-intensive high-bandwidth applications as well as imaging and sensing operations. Prior to this decision, the Commission had no rules for authorizing communications above 95 GHz, other than by amateur operators or through experiments of limited duration and scope. Click here to read more.

Cree Sells its Lighting Business to Focus More on RF and Power

Cree has announced that they will be selling their Lighting Products business unit (“Cree Lighting”), which includes the LED lighting fixtures, lamps, and corporate lighting solutions business for commercial, industrial and consumer applications, to IDEAL INDUSTRIES, INC. for approximately $310 million.

The announcements builds on Cree’s strategy, announced in February 2018, to create a more focused, powerhouse semiconductor company, providing growth capital for Wolfspeed, its core Power and RF business, and equips Cree with additional resources to expand its semiconductor operations. The deal also enables Cree Lighting to gain additional global focus, channel support and investment as it becomes a growth engine for the IDEAL team. Click here to read more.

Industry's First Wafer-level Heterogeneous Integration of GaAs on Silicon for RF FEM Manufacturing

EV Group (EVG), a supplier of wafer bonding and lithography equipment, has partnered with Ningbo Semiconductor International Corporation (NSI), a specialty semiconductor foundry based in Ningbo, China, for the development of industry's first process technology platform for wafer-level heterogeneous integration of gallium arsenide (GaAs) on silicon for use in RF front-end module (FEM) manufacturing. This marks an important milestone in the development of next-generation, high-performance, ultra-compact RF front-end chipsets that are needed for 4G and 5G smartphones and other handsets.

As part of this strategic collaborative effort, EVG provided NSI with its leading temporary bonding/debonding (TB/DB), permanent bonding, mask alignment lithography, and related special metrology equipment and process expertise, which NSI leveraged together with its proprietary Micro Wafer-Level System Integration (uWLSI) technology platform to produce the innovative RF FEM products for a leading RF front-end devices and system solution provider. NSI is a joint venture subsidiary of Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (SMIC) with China IC Investment Fund, Ningbo Economic Development Zone Industrial Investment Company, Ltd. and other IC investment funds. Click here to read more.

5G mm-Wave Radio Unit Shipments to Cross 600,000 through 2025

The world has a massive appetite for mobile data, especially in crowded cities. Operators are going to have to find ways to satisfy this need for data. According to a new report from Mobile Experts operators will look towards using new networks that operate at frequencies from 24 to 39 GHz (mm-Wave). Adding capacity is the primary reason that mobile operators are investing in mm-wave. According to the recently published 5G Business Case, a few key operators will need mm-wave bands to keep up with data demand, so despite technical challenges, the investment in this technology will surge forward quickly.

The new report from Mobile Experts Answers key questions facing the mm-wave segment: Click here to read more.

AGC Builds Anechoic Chambers to Develop Automotive On-glass Antennas

AGC has constructed anechoic chambers in Gosselies (Belgium) for the development of automotive on-glass antennas. With the completion of their R&D facility, AGC has established a tri-polar R&D framework for automotive on-glass antennas in Japan, the United States, and Europe for the first time in the glass industry.

In the near future, where driverless cars will be a reality. Each car will be equipped with devices such as cameras, LiDARs, and sensors. Cars will need to be both connected to each other and have communicative functionality that delivers V2X, connecting cars to all other things. In these circumstances, automotive glass is playing an increasingly important role as an antenna/gateway for radio wave transmission and reception. Click here to read more.

New Satcom Solution for Helicopters Improves Communication Jitters Due to Rotor Blades

Cobham Aerospace Communications and Inmarsat, have announced the release of a new helicopter SATCOM solution for Cobham AVIATOR SP systems. The new SB-Helo X-Stream system will improve communications through helicopter rotor blades by reducing packet loss by up to 40%.

There are currently very few solutions in the market that help to transmit data such as video imagery to a satellite network in the same way as is possible from fixed wing aircrafts. This is due to the interference caused by the rotors above helicopters, which leads to intermittent, jittery data streams and distorted video at the receiving station. Click here to read more.

New Regulation Mandates Galileo Capability in All Smartphones Sold in the EU

A recently published regulation mandates Galileo capability for all smartphones sold in the European Union market from 17 March 2022, so that they can support the transfer of caller location information from GNSS (at least Galileo) in the event of 112 emergency calls (E112).

A large majority of phone calls to the 112 emergency number are placed from mobile phones. These calls already support the sending of location information to emergency services. However, this information is not based on GNSS. Click here to read more.

Next-Generation Optical Antennas to Control Light Instead of Radio Waves

Antennas today are used to convert radio waves into electrical signal and vice versa. Scientists at the University of Notre Dame, are working towards creating Optical Antennas, that enable engineers to control how light interacts with materials and can localize light to subwavelength dimensions for use with many of today’s nanoscale devices.

Anthony J. Hoffman, associate professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering, has been focusing his efforts on next-generation materials, technologies, and devices for infrared light. Most often associated with night vision, infrared light has many uses in optical sensing and detection. Click here to read more.

Akoustis Ships 3.6 GHz Filter Samples to First CBRS Customer

Akoustis has shipped 3.6 GHz filter samples to its first Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS) customer, against an order announced in August of 2018.

Akoustis previously announced the receipt of a purchase order whereby the Company committed to develop and deliver 3.6 GHz CBRS filters to the customer by the end of March 2019. With this successful delivery to the customer, the Akoustis expects to receive commercial orders for qualified products later in 2019, which aligns with the current roll-out schedule for CBRS infrastructure, which is expected by the industry to begin in the September quarter of 2019. Furthermore, the development of this 3.6 GHz CBRS filter is synergistic with the Company’s development of filters for 5G New Radio (NR) frequency bands residing higher in the radio frequency (RF) spectrum compared to 4G LTE. Click here to read more.

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Trending RF & Microwave News Stories of the Week (18 - 22 Mar, 2019)