Trending RF & Microwave News Stories this Week (30 April-4 May, 2018)

Phased Array Feed Technology to Broaden Vision for Radio Astronomy

A team of astronomers and engineers have developed a new and improved version of an unconventional radio-astronomy imaging system known as a Phased Array Feed (PAF), to accelerate the pace of discovery and exploration of the cosmos. This remarkable instrument can survey vast swaths of the sky and generate multiple views of astronomical objects with unparalleled efficiency.

Looking nothing like a camera or other traditional imaging technologies – like CCDs in optical telescopes or single receivers in radio telescopes – this new Phased Array Feed design resembles a forest of miniature tree-like antennas evenly arranged on a meter-wide metal plate. When mounted on a single-dish radio telescope, specialized computers and signal processors are able to combine the signals among the antennas to create a virtual multi-pixel camera. Click here to read more.

Laser Frequency Combs Operating at Terahertz Frequencies May be the Future of Wi-Fi

Wi-Fi and cellular data traffic are increasing exponentially but, unless the capacity of wireless links can be increased, all that traffic is bound to lead to unacceptable bottlenecks.

Upcoming 5G networks are a temporary fix but not a long-term solution. For a long-term solution, researchers are exploring terahertz frequencies, the submillimeter wavelengths of the electromagnetic spectrum. Data traveling at terahertz frequencies could move hundreds of times faster than what we have today. Click here to read more.

T-Mobile & Sprint Merger to Accelerate 5G Innovation & Deployment in US

T-Mobile US and Sprint have now announced their definitive merger agreement will be an all-stock transaction at a fixed exchange ratio of 0.10256 T-Mobile shares for each Sprint share or the equivalent of 9.75 Sprint shares for each T-Mobile US share.

Based on closing share prices on April 27, this represents a total implied enterprise value of approximately $59 billion for Sprint and approximately $146 billion for the combined company. The new company will have a strong closing balance sheet and a fully funded business plan with a strong foundation of secured investment grade debt at close. Click here to read more.

Ultra-Low-Power Sigfox IoT Modules with Dual RF Connectivity

STMicroelectronics and Jorjin Technologies, a Taiwan based company established in 1997 to design and supply modules worldwide, have announced the certification of the dual-radio modules that combine Sigfox wireless-network technology with Bluetooth low energy (BLE). Jorjin’s WS211x Sigfox/BLE modules benefit from the leading performance and energy efficiency of ST’s BlueNRG-1 BLE System-on-Chip (SoC) and the S2-LP sub-1GHz RF transceiver. These advantages have enabled Jorjin’s modules to deliver cutting-edge connectivity and great battery lifetime, targeting coin-cell -operated or energy-harvesting IoT applications. Click here to read more.

Keysight Introduces World's First 5G NR-Ready Channel Emulation Solution

Keysight Technologies has unveiled the first 5G New Radio (NR)-ready channel emulation solution. Keysight’s PROPSIM F64 5G Channel Emulation Solution enables chipset, device, and network equipment manufacturers to characterize end-to-end system performance of the latest 4G and 5G base stations and mobile devices by emulating real-world radio conditions in the lab.

5G NR deployments require advanced technologies to achieve higher data rates of up to 20 Gbps. The use of wider signal bandwidths, mmWave frequencies, and Massive MIMO with hybrid beamforming, leads to more effective use of the wireless propagation channel to enable these higher data rates. Consequently, designers need to validate the end-to-end performance of multi-mode devices and base stations under real-world complex 3D fading and interference channel conditions. Click here to read more.

Nuwaves Receives US Navy SBIR Phase I Contract for INTERCOM Program

NuWaves Engineering has been selected for a Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) Phase I award for the INnovative TowEd aRray Cable mOdeM (INTERCOM).

NuWaves Engineering is a premier supplier of RF and Microwave solutions for Department of Defense (DoD), government, and industrial customers. An RF engineering powerhouse, the company offers a broad range of design and engineering services related to the development and sustainment of key communications, telemetry and electronic warfare systems, as well as a complete line of commercially available RF products. Products include wideband frequency converters, high-efficiency and miniature solid-state power amplifiers and bi-directional amplifiers, high intercept low noise amplifiers and miniature RF filters. Click here to read more.

SAGE Millimeter Introduces High Precision Direct Reading Attenuators for V, E and W Bands

Direct reading attenuators are widely used in test labs and production lines to give an absolute attenuation setting for many components, sub-assemblies, and system characterizations. It is a very critical and important test equipment in the industry. The industry only has very limited offerings for waveguide direct reading attenuators, especially in high millimeter-wave frequency bands, such as V, E and W bands.

SAGE Millimeter has introduced both general-purpose and high precision instrument grade direct reading attenuators. While the model number for general-purpose is “-D1”, the high precision instrumentation grade is “-D8”. For example, the model number for the E band general purpose and high precision instrumentation grade attenuators are under the model numbers of STA-60-12-D1 and STA-60-12-D8, respectively. Click here to read more.

Single LTE Cat M1 and NB-IoT Module Covers 16 LTE Bands for Global Coverage

U-blox has announced the commercial launch of its SARA‑R410M‑02B LTE Cat M1 and NB-IoT module with global coverage. It utilizes a multiband RF front-end solution to enable up to sixteen LTE bands within a single hardware version, which vastly simplifies diverse deployments worldwide and provide enormous operational efficiencies. Click here to read more.

GLOBALFOUNDRIES to Deliver Real-Time 4D Imaging Radar for Autonomous Driving

GLOBALFOUNDRIES has announced that Arbe Robotics has selected GF’s 22FDX process for its groundbreaking patented imaging radar that will achieve fully automated system capabilities and enable safer driving experiences for autonomous vehicles.

Arbe Robotics’ radar is the first in the world to show real-time 1 degree resolution and provide the required enhancements for sensors and ADAS technologies. Arbe’s goal is to build a sensing system with high resolution and zero false alarms, so vehicles will be able to make decisions relying exclusively on the data provided by the radar. Leveraging GF’s 22FDX FD-SOI technology, the new chipset is increasing the amount of transmitting and receiving channels on a chip and allowing for better integration to Arbe’s proprietary processor. Click here to read more.

Skyworks Announced Q2 Results - Up 7% Year-over-Year

Skyworks has reported its second fiscal quarter results for the period ending March 30, 2018. The revenue for the second fiscal quarter, was $913.4 million, up 7% year-over-year, exceeding consensus estimates. On a GAAP basis, operating income for the second fiscal quarter of 2018 was $289.4 million with diluted earnings per share of $1.50, up 25 percent year-over-year. On a non-GAAP basis, operating income was $331.1 million with non-GAAP diluted earnings per share of $1.64, up 13 percent year-over-year and $0.04 better than consensus estimates. Click here to read more.