Trending RF & Microwave News Stories this Week (21 - 25 May, 2018)

MACOM to Showcase its RF & Microwave Portfolio at IMS 2018

MACOM will showcase its leading GaN-on-Silicon (GaN-on-Si) portfolio, Lightwave Antennas, and other high-performance MMIC and diode products at IEEE’s International Microwave Symposium (IMS) 2018, in Philadelphia, from 12th - 14th June. MACOM’s booth (#1125) will feature new product solutions optimized for 5G connectivity, wireless basestations, radar, test and measurement, industrial, scientific and medical RF applications. Click here to read more.

Keysight Wins Frost & Sullivan Award for Global RF Test and Measurement Market Leadership

Frost & Sullivan has awarded Keysight with the 2018 Global Market Leadership Award for capturing 27.8% of the total market revenue in 2017. The company has been particularly dominant in the traditional instrumentation segment, with 34.5% of the revenue, and has become a leading participant in the modular instrumentation segment, with 24.7% market share.

Keysight Technologies ascended to the top because of its diverse and deep product portfolio. The company's RF test equipment and software-integrated solutions address the challenges created by new, increasingly complex technologies. These solutions find application in every phase of the customer's workflow because they cover all types of instruments, including signal generators, spectrum and signal analyzers, network analyzers and emulation, and context instruments (power meters and electronic counters) in different form factors. Click here to read more.

Apple Asks FCC to Keep 95 to 3,000 GHz Spectrum Unlicensed for Future Innovations

Apple has asked the U.S. Federal Communication Commission to keep the unlicensed 95 to 3,000 GHz band for future innovations and other possible purposes. The company said that the FCC should not place any restrictive regulations, band plans, or predictions about future uses of the bands that could dictate outcomes and limit innovation at these frequencies.

The Commission recently said that this spectrum is a largely blank slate upon which bold new technologies can be written and proposed a “multi-platform approach” to foster the development of new technologies. Click here to view more.

TMD USA to Exhibit Ka-band Power Amplifier Modules and Instruments at IMS 2018

At IMS 2018, TMD Technologies will be featuring its advanced TWT-based and solid-state microwave power modules (MPMs) for radar and EW defence & homeland security systems and EMC & scientific laboratory applications. They will also be showcasing a new intelligent instrumentation amplifier. The new PTX8807 TWT based, Ka band compact MPM features simplified integration for high performance EW and radar systems and provides an output power of up to 200 W over a 30 to 40 GHz frequency range. The amplifier module consists of a high-power Ka band helix TWT and switched mode power supply. It forms a single ‘drop-in’ unit without the need for high voltage connections, thereby eliminating any associated reliability problems. Click here to read more.

Gowanda Acquires Magnetic Components Provider, HiSonic

The Gowanda Components Group (GCG) has acquired Kansas based magnetic and electrical components solutions provider, HiSonic. The acquisition will expand GCG’s RF and microwave passive magnetic components offerings.

HiSonic’s designs, technologies and customers complement those within Gowanda's own Magnetics Division. The synergy in capabilities and applications will thus enable GCG to offer a broader range of innovative inductor and transformer solutions to design engineers in commercial, medical, microwave, military, space and other markets around the world. The terms of the deal were not disclosed but GCG has stated that HiSonic’s operations will remain in Olathe, Kansas. With this acquisition GCG now has five other production facilities located within the United States. Click here to read more.

Yageo to Acquire Pulse Electronics for $740 Million

Yageo Corporation has announced the acquisition of Pulse Electronics, an American based electronic component manufacturers best know for their antenna and wireless products. Pulse Electronics will be acquired through Yageo's subsidiary Pluto Merger Corporation for $740 Million. In 2017, Pulse’s consolidated revenue was about over $400 Million with an operating margin of about $43 Million USD. Click here to read more.

Anokiwave Introduces Intelligent Gain Block ICs for SATCOM, Radar and 5G Applications

Anokiwave has released a set of two new ICs in a family of multi-function microwave and millimeter-wave Silicon ICs, offering complete transmit/receive functionality with active gain and phase control. The new IC family, also called “Intelligent Gain Blocks” (IGB), offer versatile RF blocks that can be used in wide range of applications including SATCOM, RADAR, 5G communications, and sensing. Click here to read more.

AVX to Exhibit its Portfolio of Microwave & RF Solutions at IMS 2018

At the upcoming International Microwave Symposium (IMS 2018), AVX Corporation will showcase the latest high-performance microwave and RF solutions from their companies -AVX, Ethertronics and American Technical Ceramics. This year, IMS 2018 will take place at the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia June 10 - 15. Click here to read more.

Cadence and NI to Simplify Next-Generation Semiconductor and RF Development

Cadence Design Systems and National Instruments will be collaborating to improve the overall semiconductor development and test process of next-generation wireless, automotive and mobile integrated circuits (ICs) and modules. To meet customer needs for a streamlined and comprehensive solution, Cadence and NI have pursued projects that integrate key design tool technologies into a common user environment to improve the design, analysis and testing of analog, RF and digital ICs and system-in-package (SiP) modules spanning from pre-silicon design to volume production test. To further enhance RF development, Cadence has also launched the new Virtuoso RF Solution, which enables RF engineers to design, implement and analyze entire RF modules and RFICs from within the Virtuoso custom IC design platform. Click here to read more.

Fractus Antennas to Provide Custom Antenna Designs in 24 Hours

Fractus Antennas has launched a new Wireless Fast Track Service, through which they can design an antenna for mobile/IoT devices based on a user's requirement, in less than 24 hours.

To top it off, they are offering this service free of charge. The design will include an off-the-shelf and tiny Virtual Antenna component specially selected for the user's application and a customized matching network specifically designed by the Fractus Antenna Engineering Team. Click here to read more. 

12-bit ADC for Aerospace and Defense Applications up to 7 GHz

Analog Devices has introduced a radio frequency (RF) analog-to-digital converter (ADC) that delivers industry leading speed and bandwidth. The new AD9213 features higher parametric performance, greater Nyquist bandwidth, and RF sampling capabilities at higher analog input frequencies than conventional RF ADCs, allowing for the digitization of RF signals up to 7 GHz. The AD9213 enables the next generation of software defined systems in aerospace and defense, instrumentation and communications, driving greater system integration, lower costs, reduced power consumption, and decreased size, weight, and power (SWaP). Click here to read more.

New Ka Band Phase Shifters Simplify Autonomous Vehicle and 5G System Designs

At Space Tech Expo 2018, Arralis has launched a new series of high-frequency analog phase shifter MMIC products that allow more than 360 degrees of analog phase variation with a low insertion loss in the Ka Band. The new products LE-KA1360306, LE-KA1360307, LE-KA1360308 and LE-KA1360303 cover two satellite Ka bands, 17 to 21 GHz and 25.5 to 32.5 GHz.

These products are ideal to track fast moving low earth orbit satellites because it is analog and has continuous phase variation, a great advantage over conventional digital phase shifters. The extended frequency range of the upper band chips are also suitable for the proposed mm-Wave 5G band and will be ideal for beam steering base stations. In addition, the added benefit of simplified assembly is possible as these chips are available with an integrated power amplifier. Click here to read more.