Trending RF & Microwave News Stories of the Week (26 - 30 Oct, 2020)

AMD to Acquire Xilinx for $35 Billion in a Push for High-Performance Computing Leadership

AMD has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Xilinx in an all-stock transaction valued at $35 billion. The combination will create the industry’s leading high-performance computing company, significantly expanding the breadth of AMD’s product portfolio and customer set across diverse growth markets where Xilinx is an established leader. The transaction is expected to be immediately accretive to AMD margins, EPS and free cash flow generation and deliver industry-leading growth.

The acquisition brings together two industry leaders with complementary product portfolios and customers. AMD will offer the industry’s strongest portfolio of high-performance processor technologies, combining CPUs, GPUs, FPGAs, Adaptive SoCs and deep software expertise to enable leadership computing platforms for cloud, edge and end devices. Together, the combined company will capitalize on opportunities spanning some of the industry’s most important growth segments from the data center to gaming, PCs, communications, automotive, industrial, aerospace and defense. Click here to read more.

Fujikura Introduces High-Performance 5G mmWave Phased Array Antenna Module

Fujikura announced the introduction of their advanced and highly integrated Phased Array Antenna Module (PAAM) for 5G mmWave operating in 3GPP bands n257 (28 GHz), n258 (26 GHz) and n261 (27 GHz). The Fujikura PAAM is a high-performance module targeting indoor and outdoor applications such as 5G mmWave Fixed Wireless Access (FWA), 5G mmWave Mobile Wireless Access (MWA), 5G mmWave wireless backhaul, and other emerging applications.

The Fujikura PAAM is a high-performance phased array antenna module with a novel integrated antenna, and supports concurrent dual polarized beams in both transmission and reception. The PAAM integrates best-in-class mmWave-ICs developed in-house using an industry leading SiGe BiCMOS process. The PAAM features extremely low noise figure (NF) characteristics and enables a large link margin for expanded coverage. Tunable true-time-delay-type phase shifters support precise and independent phase and amplitude control over a wide frequency range. The unique phase shifter not only enables simple beam-steering control which allows accurate beam steering with fine resolution, but also allows calibration-free operation making PAAM installation much easier. The phase shifter also maintains the transmitted or received signals undistorted by providing invariant group delay and unchanged beam direction in a wide frequency range. Click here to read more.

The iPhone 12 Supports 5G Speeds of Up to 4 Gbps, However Challenges Remain

Apple has integrated 5G technology into the newly announced iPhone 12 series. At the launch event, Apple demonstrated a fast speed up to 4 Gbps on the iPhone 12 Pro, even when networks are crowded. The news certainly sends a positive signal to the 5G industry, but many challenges still need to be overcome for 5G to become ubiquitous.

mmWave 5G Expected to Add $150 Billion to India’s GDP from 2025-2040

5G networks offer the potential to transform industrial sectors and deliver significant social and economic benefits in India. To make the most of this opportunity, access to millimeterWave (mmWave) spectrum is key. The importance of how mmWave spectrum for 5G can help transform India is highlighted in a new report from the GSMA entitled “The Impact of mmWave 5G in India.” 

“In order for India to realize socio-economic benefits and foster the adoption of the most technologically advanced 5G use cases, the government should make the spectrum release timeline available to industry stakeholders as soon as possible,” said Manoj Misra, Senior Public Policy Director, GSMA, India. Click here to read more.

Marki Microwave Introduces Low Phase Noise Amplifiers from 10 MHz to 22 GHz

Marki Microwave has introduced new low phase noise amplifiers that operate at frequencies as low as 10 MHz and provide an ideal gain stage to boost the low phase noise tone. The APM-7098 from 100 MHz to 22 GHz and APM-7099 from 10 MHz to 22 GHz feature a very low phase noise of -165 dBc/Hz at 10 kHz and operate on a convenient positive supply.

The low frequency capability and +26 dBm output power from the APM-7099 ensures compatibility and optimal performance from Marki NLTL generator products such as NLTL-6794SM, while both amplifiers are excellent LO drivers for their T3 and MT3 series high linearity mixers. Click here to read more.

Patent Portfolio of SOMOS Will Strengthen STMicroelectronics’ IoT and 5G Market Position

STMicroelectronics recently announced the acquisition of a French fabless company, SOMOS Semiconductor (“SOMOS”), specialized in RF power amplifiers (PA) and RF front-end modules (FEM) based on the mainstream CMOS technology. The acquisition is expected to strengthen STMicroelectronics’ position in terms of IP and know-how, in preparation for the emerging IoT and 5G markets.

As of October 2020, SOMOS owns 39 patents, of which 16 are US patents (Figure 1). In Europe, two pending patent applications published in 2015 and 2018 could add to the 10 patents already granted. Overall, the patent portfolio consists of 8 to 10 patent families (single inventions filed in multiple countries) with at least one granted member, and one patent family with no granted member but a pending patent application in Europe. Click here to read more.

IGaN Achieves Low-Conduction Loss with GaN-on-Si Epiwafer for RF Applications

In recent years, there has been a growing demand for GaN-based products stemming from the increased adoption of GaN power and RF devices in a variety of applications. From a military, defense, aerospace, and next-generation telecommunication, particularly with 5G network, GaN-based materials’ wide-bandgap offers remarkable breakdown electric field and high drift velocity suited for the fabrication of high power and high-frequency devices.

In terms of applications, III-nitride materials, i.e. GaN, are generally heteroepitaxial grown on a substrate. Among various substrate materials, the silicon substrate is widely selected for the growth of epitaxial stack comprising III-nitride materials due to the lower substrate cost and flexible scalability on the substrate size. From a material property viewpoint, differences such as thermal expansion coefficient and lattice constant between III-nitride materials and silicon substrate can pose technological challenges, i.e. crack, defect, wafer bow, and crystal quality for practical applications. Click here to read more.

Würth Elektronik Offering Companies Free Matching Service for its Chip Antennas

Würth Elektronik have started offering a free matching service to developers that want to use their WE-MCA Series of chip antennas. WE-MCA are compact SMT-mountable multilayer ceramic chip antennas available in numerous single and dual band versions. The antennas provide a space-saving solution for GSM-900, WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS/GNSS, ZigBee or 4G/LTE enabled devices and facilitate compact designs for IoT and smart home applications.

The trend towards miniaturization of wireless communication devices is reducing PCB size and increasing component density. The demands placed on RF front-end design are growing, as an antenna is a function of its surroundings and gets influenced by almost everything like rubber, plastic, metal, human body etc. The performance of the applications also depends on the placement of the antenna on the PCB and effective impedance matching. Würth Elektronik advises on the layout and selection of suitable inductors and capacitors to eliminate disturbing influences from the surrounding environment. Click here to read more.

Consumer Adoption to Drive Expansion of the Radar Technology Market

Yole and its partner System Plus Consulting have been studying the radar industry and are now providing an in-depth understanding of the market evolution and technical disruption through a wide collection of RF electronics reports. Both companies worked together to point out the evolution of radar technology for industrial and automotive applications in a relevant article published: Radar sensing, serving more use cases than you think.

“Consumer is the newest market segment in the radar industry,” according to Cédric Malaquin, Technology & Market Analyst, RF electronics at Yole Développement. Market opportunities in this segment are huge. They will be driven by consumer adoption of in-air motion sensing devices. So far, a single end system player, Google, is pushing radar-based in-air motion sensing. Google is expecting to face competition from Apple and Amazon in the near future. Click here to read more.

SiTime Launches Silicon MEMS based MHz Resonators for Mobile and IoT Markets

SiTime Corporation, a market leader in MEMS timing products, has now entered the precision resonator market with the introduction of the ApexMEMS™ family of MHz resonators. These new devices are the third generation of SiTime silicon MEMS technology and are available in a variety of MHz frequencies for high volume electronics. Mobile and IoT applications such as Bluetooth hearables and wearables, high-speed connectivity interfaces, asset-tracking, as well as microcontrollers, can take advantage of the 85% space savings, integration, consistent performance, resilience, and reliability that are offered by ApexMEMS resonators.

ApexMEMS resonators were developed to deliver breakthrough system performance and integration as shown by their usage in the SiT9501 oscillator and the Cascade ClockSoC™. Click here to read more.

Akoustis Awarded New DARPA Contract to Further Develop its XBAW Process for RF Filters

Akoustis Technologies, an integrated device manufacturer (IDM) of patented bulk acoustic wave (BAW) high-band RF filters for mobile and other wireless applications, announced that it has been awarded a new, multi-year direct-to-phase 2 (DP2) contract from DARPA to further develop Akoustis’ technology through the development of a Piezo MEMS process design kit (PDK) for the Company’s proprietary and patented XBAW™ process.

The DP2 program of the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) contract will be dedicated to developing a general purpose PDK that will enable BAW and other similar MEMS structures to be designed and fabricated using the Company’s state-of-the-art XBAW™ process. The proposed Piezo MEMS PDK will encompass all aspects of the Company’s process technology ranging from material properties, process rules for stack dimensions, process control monitoring, design rule checking, and example device models. Click here to read more.

Times Microwave Opens New Production Facility in India

Times Microwave Systems has announced the opening of a new production facility in Bangalore, India. The plant features 12,000 sq. ft. of space, tailored to manufacture high-end interconnect solutions for the Space Flight, Defense and Telecommunication sector both for local and global markets. 

The new facility fulfills several strategic objectives: Click here to read more.