Trending RF & Microwave News Stories of the Week (28 Sept

NXP Opens New GaN Foundry in Arizona for 5G PA Fabrication

NXP Semiconductors has officially opened its new 150 mm (6-inch) RF Gallium Nitride (GaN) fab in Chandler, Arizona. This highly advanced fab is dedicated to supporting 5G RF power amplifier development in the United States. The new internal factory combines NXP’s expertise as the industry leader in RF power and its high-volume manufacturing know-how, resulting in streamlined innovation that supports the expansion of 5G base stations and advanced communication infrastructure in the industrial, aerospace and defense markets.

The opening ceremony was marked by keynote addresses and remarks by NXP executives plus federal, state, and local government officials, including: Click here to read more.

Despite COVID-19, RF Front-End Market Expected to Show Steady Growth through 2025

Yole and System Plus Consulting have investigated disruptive RF technologies and related markets in depth to point out the latest innovations and underline the business opportunities.

In the 5G’s Impact on RF Front-End and Connectivity for Cellphones report by Yole, their analysts give a detailed analysis of each technology’s strengths and weaknesses and deliver an ecosystem snapshot. This snapshot includes market trends and forecasts, market shares, ecosystem and US/China trade war analysis. The study also points out COVID-19’s impact on the RF front-end and connectivity business. Click here to read more.

Mercury Introduces Adaptive Microwave Tuners for SIGINT and RF Testing Applications

Mercury Systems, a leader in trusted, secure mission-critical technologies for aerospace and defense, has introduced the TAC-3290 family of adaptive microwave tuners that deliver multi-mission operations to a wide range of applications such as signal intelligence (SIGINT) and radio frequency (RF) testing. The compact and rugged design brings fast data processing to tactical operations in harsh environments while the flexible architecture increases digitizer compatibility eliminating complex, expensive system upgrades.

The TAC-3290 tuner is a first-of-its-kind solution that brings reliable broadband RF to users in harsh environments. By replacing racks of application-specific equipment with a flexible solution small enough to fit in a backpack, the TAC-3290 delivers agile RF capabilities to signal capture and processing systems in the field. Click here to read more.

Rohde & Schwarz Offers Precise AESA Radar Testing Solutions

Modern active electronically scanned array (AESA) radars are a strong focal point of the global aerospace and defense industry. The performance of state-of-the-art AESA radar systems depends strongly on the performance of the individual transmit-receive-module (TRM) assembled in the antenna array. Rohde & Schwarz is offering new test and measurement solutions for TRM performance validation, enabling the customer to maximize their radar system capabilities.

Typical TRM test cases can be covered with a single Rohde & Schwarz network analyzer as a turnkey solution, such as the R&S ZNA. If higher performance such as the pulsed noise figure is required, the R&S FSW signal and spectrum analyzer cab be added to the setup. When combined with the integrated calibration routine, this simplifies the setup, ensuring full accuracy and high repeatability. Users benefit from reduced test procedure complexity and a minimized cabling assembly. Click here to read more.

US DoD Evaluating Dynamic Spectrum Sharing Technology for its Own 5G Network

According to a recent Request of Information (RFI), the US Department of Defense (DoD) is looking to explore dynamic spectrum sharing (DSS) technology for the deployment of 5G for military as well as commercial uses within the same frequency bands, along with owning and operating a 5G network.

According to the RFI, published on September 18, DoD is seeking information on innovative solutions and alternative approaches to enable DSS within the Department’s currently allocated spectrum with the goal of accelerating spectrum sharing decisions and 5G deployment. The intent is to ensure the greatest effective and efficient use of the Department of Defense’s spectrum for training, readiness, and lethality. The RFI has asked for information regarding all methods and approaches, and feasibility, to best develop and deploy DSS across a broad range of capabilities and for future understanding of how spectrum may be utilized in both 5G and innovative technologies. Click here to read more.

Movano Develops a Custom RF Sensor for Non-invasive Continuous Glucose Monitor

Movano Inc., a health-focused technology company developing non-invasive solutions to enhance the quality of life for people affected by chronic health conditions, announced a strategic collaboration with GLOBALFOUNDRIES (GF) to advance the commercialization of Movano’s wearable, non-invasive continuous glucose monitor (CGM), which is currently in development. The announcement was made at GF’s annual Global Technology Conference (GTC). Movano’s novel approach to glucose monitoring is based on its patent-pending radio frequency (RF) sensor platform, which is built on GF’s 22FDX (22nm FD-SOI) solution, to enable the creation of high performance and small form-factor sensors that are low-power and cost-effectively manufactured at scale.

The custom RF Sensor enables the tracking of glucose levels non-invasively, continuously and in real-time. Combining the sensors with their novel skin antennas and proprietary algorithms allows them to improve upon cost, accuracy, and size. Click here to read more.

New 60 GHz Radio Technology Penetrates Through Walls to Make Cabling Redundant

Airvine Scientific, a millimeter-wave wireless communication solution provider introduced its patented 60 GHz radio technology that can penetrate through walls to deliver an all-wireless, ultra-high capacity enterprise network backbone. Innovation in 60 GHz wireless realm has so far been underwhelming. This Silicon Valley-based startup claims to have reinvented the category. Airvine’s superfast 60 GHz backbone technology is looking to replace indoor network cabling altogether. As we go up in frequency, signal propagation becomes more of a challenge. This challenge will also be seen with 5G which will use mm-wave frequency bands. A solution to high-frequency indoor propagation will be a game changer for the industry. Airvine claims that the value of its addressable market could exceed USD $10 Billion in over 5 years.

Airvine’s ‘WaveTunnel’ creates an ultra-high capacity backbone (for example to connect Wi-Fi APs) that blasts through walls. The network can be reconfigured in hours and sometimes in minutes. Airvine technology not only replaces or adds to existing enterprise cabling infrastructure but offers a range of other big benefits such as faster speeds, fast reconfigurations, and all of this at a cost much lower than for example deploying fiber infrastructure. Click here to read more.

5G Technology to Drive Growth in the RF Integrated Passive Devices Market

The market for custom RF Integrated Passive Devices (IPD) featured in RF modules is showing strong growth, especially for future 5G applications. Integrated passive devices include filters for the various frequency bands and lumped-elements circuits used for applications such as impedance matching. This market is expected to see a CAGR of 8.2% from 2019 to 2025, surpassing US $360 Million in 2025.

The IPD market is composed of four major component types: Off-the-shelf IPDs, Custom RF IPDs, Embedded IPDs and other IPDs. Another large-value market is off-the-shelf IPD used for EMI shielding in stringent applications or for basic RF operations like baluns or filtering. This market will represent US $195 million in 2025, with a 3.15% CAGR from 2019 to 2025. Click here to read more.

DARPA Researchers Test New Capabilities of Autonomous Air and Ground Vehicles

DARPA OFFensive Swarm-Enabled Tactics (OFFSET) researchers recently tested swarms of autonomous air and ground vehicles at the Leschi Town Combined Arms Collective Training Facility (CACTF), located at Joint Base Lewis-McChord (JBLM) in Washington. The Leschi Town field experiment is the fourth of six planned experiments for the OFFSET program, which seeks to develop large-scale teams of collaborative autonomous systems capable of supporting ground forces operating in urban environments.

Two Swarm Systems Integrators – Northrop Grumman Mission Systems and Raytheon BBN Technologies – are creating swarm system architectures, advanced interfaces, and virtual and physical swarm testbeds for OFFSET. The Swarm System Integrators tested their autonomous platforms – comprising of ground vehicles, multirotor and fixed-wing aircraft – in a multi-stage, interactive scenario to locate and secure multiple simulated items of interest relevant to the urban operational scenario. Click here to read more.

ZTE Completes Industry's First OTA Performance Test for mmWave Base Stations

ZTE Corporation, an international provider of telecommunications, enterprise and consumer technology solutions for the Mobile Internet, claims to have completed the world's first-millimetre wave (mmWave) over-the-air (OTA) performance test for 5G. This was an end-to-end test based on a multi-probe darkroom test system pioneered by China Academy of Information and Communications Technology (CAICT) and China Mobile Research Institute. ZTE's mmWave base station system was used to fully verify the test specifications of the mmWave OTA system, and also achieved excellent end-to-end performance using different complex wireless channels, marking a major step forward in the commercial use of 5G mmWave systems.

Jointly conducted by CAICT and ZTE, the 26 GHz mmWave base station test has verified the basic performance items in NSA networks. The test items at different NLOS (non-line-of-sight)/LOS (line-of-sight) channel models include access performance, user peak rate, fixed bit rate test, AMC (Adaptive Modulation and Coding) test, high-speed performance test, and beam management test. Click here to read more.

Microchip Introduces High-Speed ADCs for High-Frequency, High-Temperature Applications

System designers have limited options for small, robust, feature-rich high-speed ADCs for extended-temperature operation. To fill this gap, Microchip Technology has announced the company’s second pipelined ADC offering and combining 80 MSPS in a choice of 12, 14 and 16-bit resolutions, integrated digital features, and qualification to a higher temperature range, including Automotive Electronics Council (AEC) Q100.

These new ADCs meet a growing customer demand for robust devices that can be used in high-temperature applications and offer integrated digital processing functions that simplify design and reduce overall development costs. Microchip’s MCP37Dx1-80 ADCs enable a wide variety of aerospace and defense, industrial and automotive systems that require a high level of reliability. Click here to read more.

Low-Loss Materials for 5G to Become a $110 Million Market by 2031

The fifth-generation (5G) of telecommunication technology, is more than a faster mobile experience to stream movies. It enables a universal connection between devices from automotive to remote robots. As profitable business models and killer applications start to emerge, 5G will become one of the fastest growing markets, with a market size of over $720 Billion in 2030 and will contribute to a $2 Trillion annual connectivity boost to global GDP.

The most revolutionary aspect of a 5G network relies on the high frequency 5G technologies, i.e., mmWave 5G, which utilize spectrum from 26 GHz up to 40 GHz. The high-frequency signals result in significant transmission loss, require higher power and more efficient power supply and generate more heat. The transmission loss is a pain point for the antennas design and radio frequency (RF) integrated circuits (ICs) for 5G applications. For low frequency 5G, i.e., sub-6 GHz 5G, due to the high data transfer speed, reducing transmission loss is also desirable. Click here to read more.

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Trending RF & Microwave News Stories of the Week (28 Sept - 2 Oct, 2020)