Trending RF & Microwave News Stories of the Week (20 - 24 April, 2020)

FCC Officially Opens up 1,200 MHz of Spectrum in the 6 GHz Band for WiFi 6E

The Federal Communications Commission has finally officially adopted rules that make available 1,200 MHz of spectrum in the 6 GHz band (5.925–7.125 GHz) for unlicensed use. These new rules will usher in Wi-Fi 6E, the next generation of Wi-Fi, and play a major role in the growth of the Internet of Things. Wi-Fi 6E will be over two-and-a-half times faster than the current standard and will offer better performance for American consumers. Opening the 6 GHz band for unlicensed use has increased the amount of spectrum available for Wi-Fi by nearly a factor of five.

The 6 GHz band is currently populated by, among others, microwave services that are used to support utilities, public safety, and wireless backhaul. Unlicensed devices will share this spectrum with incumbent licensed services under rules crafted to protect those licensed services and enable both unlicensed and licensed operations to thrive throughout the band. Click here to read more.

New Energy Harvesting Device Could Convert Wi-Fi Signals into Usable Power

Physicists at MIT have come up with a blueprint for a device they believe would be able to convert ambient terahertz waves into direct current (DC), a form of electricity that powers many household electronics.

Terahertz waves are pervasive in daily lives, and if harnessed, their concentrated power could potentially serve as an alternate energy source. A device that sends out a Wi-Fi signal also emits terahertz waves - electromagnetic waves with a frequency somewhere between microwaves and infrared light. These high-frequency waves, known as “T-rays,” are also produced by almost anything that registers a temperature, including our own bodies and the inanimate objects around us. Click here to read more.

Report Analyzes RF Front-End Modules and Components Used in Over 50 Smartphones

System Plus Consulting and Yole Développement (Yole) have published a report that provides a detailed outlook of the RF front-end industry. They carried out this analysis by tearing down more than 50 phones to provide insight on technology data for RF front-end modules and components used in various smartphones. This report, titled RF Front-End Module Comparison 2020 – Volume 1, provides information on at least twenty FEM and several components found in the Apple iPhone 11 Pro, Samsung Galaxy Note10+, OnePlus 7 Pro 5G and 17 other smartphones from 2019.

According to the analysis done by System Plus, Vendors such has Qorvo, Murata Qualcomm, Infineon Technologies, NXP and Wisol are the main players in this segment with Qorvo being the leader followed by Murata and Qualcomm. The Front end components consists of Antenna Tuners, Discrete Filers, LNAs, LNA/Switch modules etc. Click here to read more.

ON Semiconductor Introduces New Chipsets for 6 GHz Wi-Fi Applications

ON Semiconductor is now sampling its new family of chipsets that support the 6 GHz spectrum band of Wi-Fi 6E. The QCS-AX2 Chipset has been optimized for high-throughput Wi-Fi applications, such as access points, gateways, and mesh networking solutions for dense environments and underserved areas. It has a flexible architecture to maximize usage of the 6 GHz band.

The QCS-AX2 Series is built on an integrated baseband and RF architecture that supports key Wi-Fi 6E features, such as orthogonal frequency-division multiple access (OFDMA), advanced MU-MIMO (Multi-User, Multi-Input, Multi-Output), and 160 MHz channel support for faster speeds, and SmartScan channel selection for maximum band utilization. The new product portfolio includes the following: Click here to read more.

NXP Supplies Murata with RF Front-end ICs for Wi-Fi 6 Modules

NXP Semiconductors has announced a collaboration with Murata, to develop RF front end modules for Wi-Fi 6 standards. Together, the companies are delivering a solution that can reduce design times, improve time-to-market and save board space in next generation Wi-Fi 6 implementations. The solution combines NXP’s front-end ICs (FEIC) and Murata’s integration expertise to deliver small, ultra-compact RF modules for Wi-Fi 6.

The NXP FEIC is tightly packed in a chip scale package (CSP) suitable for module integration and can support various 5G smartphones and portable computing devices. Additionally, it enables high performance 2x2 multiple input multiple output (MIMO) functionality. Click here to read more.

Smartphone Bluetooth Signals Can Help with COVID-19 Contact Tracing

In a recent breakthrough aimed at curbing the growth of the COVID-19 epidemic, a team led by MIT researchers and experts from many institutions is developing a system that augments “manual” contact tracing of Covid-19 affected individuals by public health officials, while preserving their privacy. The system relies on short-range Bluetooth signals emitted from people’s smartphones. These signals represent random strings of numbers, likened to “chirps” that other nearby smartphones can remember hearing.

Lets assume someone has been diagnosed as COVID-19 positive. Health officials begin contact tracing to contain infections, asking them to identify people with whom they have been in close contact. The obvious people that come to mind are their family and coworkers. But what about the woman ahead of them in line last week at the pharmacy, or the man bagging their groceries? Or any of the other strangers they may have come close to in the past 14 days? Click here to read more.

WAMICON 2020 Event Postponed to December 2020

After studying and evaluating the recent Covid-19 implications, WAMICON organizers have decided to postpone the WAMICON 2020 event from April 15–17, 2020 to December 1–3, 2020. The conference location will remain in Clearwater Beach, Florida, USA.

The 21st annual IEEE Wireless and Microwave Technology Conference (WAMICON 2020) will address up-to-date multidisciplinary research needs and interdisciplinary aspects of wireless and RF technology. The central theme of event will be "Wireless Devices and Systems Making Mad Connections from Space to the 5G IoE." Submissions are welcomed on all aspects of related technologies, including antennas, passive and active circuits, communication theory, and system concepts. Click here to read more.

4D Imaging Sensor Solutions Based on RF Technology Help Detect COVID-19 Symptoms

Vayyar, the world leader in 4D radar imaging, has announced that its innovative sensor technology is being used by the Israeli government to fight the spread of COVID-19. Vayyar's intelligent sensors provide touchless, remote and confidential monitoring to detect and monitor vital signs that can indicate early-stage COVID-19 symptoms. The data, including pulse, heart rate variability and respiratory rate, are all measured remotely, without the need for touch.

Vayyar's intelligent sensors can be placed in homes, hospitals, factories, airports, public transport, borders and more to provide real-time data, and by minimizing the need for face-to-face contact, reduce the risk of exposure for both medical and non-medical personnel. Click here to read more.

Innovative Ultra-Wideband Dual Microwave Upconverter for Electronic Warfare Applications

Mercury Systems has launched the SpectrumSeries RFM3103s ultra-wideband dual upconverter for the emerging Sensor Open Systems Architecture (SOSA) technical standard for demanding Electronic Warfare (EW) environments. By creating a common architecture that streamlines system integration, the rugged, compact upconverter pioneers system interoperability and upgradeability, supporting an increased and more diverse range of unmanned systems on various platforms including ground, airborne, and subsurface.

The new purpose-built dual upconverter meets the rigorous demands of military and commercial customers. It is the first in a new series of RF solutions that enable users to better mitigate electronic threats with the rapid deployment of innovative and secure technology. Click here to read more.

Cubic Using Wide-band Multi-frequency Antenna Technology for NASA’s Snow Measurement System

Cubic Corporation, a provider of integrated solutions for transportation and defense C4ISR, has used Nuvotronics' (a company they acquired in 2019) advanced multi-frequency antenna technology to enable the successful validation of NASA Goddard Space Flight Center’s (NASA-GSFC) Snow Water Equivalent Synthetic Aperture Radar and Radiometer (SWESARR).

Operating within Cubic’s Cubic Mission Solutions (CMS) business division, Nuvotronics provides advanced multi-frequency antenna technology to enable NASA’s next-generation snow measurement system to operate over six frequency bands from a single antenna aperture. Click here to read more.

Norsat Introduces Airline Checkable Ka-Band Satellite Terminal

Norsat International Inc., a provider of unique and customized communication solutions for remote and challenging applications, has introduced a new satellite antenna in its WAYFARER Series of portable and easy-to-deploy commercial terminals. The new 1.2-meter auto-pointing fly-away antenna (“WFA120KA”) is a fast-deploying, easy-to-use, and compact VSAT terminal that is airline checkable. It is the first Ka-band satellite terminal in the WAYFARER series and ideal for communications in remote enterprise, energy, emergency, and media applications.

Key features of the WFA120KA 1.2m Ka-band Auto Fly-Away: Click here to read more.

The 3D Smith Chart Tool is Now Free for All Students

The 3D Smith Chart tool, meant to help understand and use both the 2D Smith chart and the 3D Smith chart, has now been made available free of cost for all undergraduate, masters and PhD students. The improved tool now enables, full 3D visualization, intuitive user interface, easy installation as well as state of the art concepts. Click here to learn more about the 3D Smith Chart.

The Smith chart is fundamental tool used by RF engineers to assist in solving problems with transmission lines and matching circuits. Since its invention in the early to mid 20th Century the Smith Chart has been a 2D tool that can be printed out on paper and used to display multiple parameters like impedances, admittances, reflection coefficients etc.  Click here to read more.

Narda STS Introduces an Open Platform High Performance Real-Time Spectrum Analyzer

Narda Safety Test Solutions has announced the upgrade of its SignalShark open platform. The SignalShark® Series are Real-Time Remote Analyzers for the Detection, Analysis, Classification and Localization of RF Signals between 8 kHz and 8 GHz. By integrating a powerful computer with the Windows 10 operating system, the RF testing specialists have decided to get rid of the system limitations of this measuring instrument. In contrast with the closed systems, the flexibility of the SignalShark’s open platform provides test technicians and systems integrators with almost unlimited possibilities. That is because the software for most applications runs exclusively on Windows computers – and therefore runs on the SignalShark, too. One of the unique features of this high performance instrument is this on-board computer.

Almost Unlimited in Scope Click here to read more.