|
 "Demand for radiation-hardened electronics for space
applications continues to grow, with opportunities in traditional
rad-hard spacecraft, as well as for radiation-tolerant small satellites,
industry experts say. Electronic component suppliers for space applications find themselves
serving two distinctly different market segments today, say company officials this week at
the IEEE Nuclear and Space Radiation Effects Conference in New Orleans. The first rad-hard
market segment is the traditional QML-V, in which ..."
 For some inexplicable reason, it seems that most of
the articles I read dealing with antenna and feedline efficiencies do not address the
receive side of the equation. Yes, transmit power is expensive and there is a legitimate
reason to reduce losses when converting power amplifier output to in-the-air power, especially
for DX operations. However, it doesn't do much good to launch the full permissible 1,500 watts
PEP and make a contact on the other side of the world if your system cannot receive a reply
because of the excessive line loss and/or mismatch loss between your antenna and your receiver.
Antennas and feedlines are reciprocal elements so if ...
 "The Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG) has released
a standard for
Bluetooth mesh networking. The mesh capability is based on Bluetooth Low
Energy (LE) and utilizes the PHY and link layer for Bluetooth 4.x. So supporting it on existing
hardware will typically be a matter of providing a suitable protocol stack and application
support. For example, Silicon Labs' Bluetooth mesh stack builds on the existing Bluetooth
link layer ..."
 No list of engineering
job hunting and career issues is complete without an article on LinkedIn, so the obligatory
bit of advice from one source is included. There is also a collection of recommendations gathered
from the standard 'experts' (at least in their opinions) in
the art of professional career enhancement counselors. I have to admit to being glad of now
residing outside the realm of job hunting and its requisite machinations. After being self-employed
for over a decade, it is hard to imagine needing to craft a resume and cover letter, or go
on another interview. But, for those who do, happy hunting! ...
 "Researchers from nanoelectronics research institute
IMEC (Leuven, Belgium) have shown how to optimize
field effect transistors based on 2D materials high performance logic
beyond the 10nm node. The researchers worked with scientists from KU Leuven in Belgium and
the University of Pisa in Italy and also presented guidelines on how to select 2D materials
in a paper in Nature Scientific Reports. The benefit of 2D materials, such as graphene, is
that they physically constrain electrons in the plane of the material while creating enhanced
mobility in that plane ..."
 "The
semiconductor content of electronics systems is forecast to be 28.1% in
2017 breaking the previous record of 25.9% set in 2010, according to IC Insights. This is
because while electronic system market growth will be just 2% to take the market to $1.49T
the global semiconductor market is expected to surge by 15% in 2017 to $419.1B. IC Insights
forecasts that the total semiconductor market will exceed $500B in 2021. The growth in
global unit shipments of cellphones (0%), automobiles (2%), and PCs (-2%) forecast to be weak
in 2017 ..."
 Please take a few moments and vote in this new poll.
Thanks for your participation. - Kirt B.
 One of the first things a knowledgeable restorer of
vintage electronic gear does prior to plugging in a newly acquired piece of hardware is to
replace all of the original
paper capacitors. Those things notoriously lose the internally contained smoke that makes
them work soon after power is applied. Episodes of conflagration often ensue. According to
Mac McGregor, the typical shelf life of a paper capacitor (and some mica and ceramics back
in the day) is about five years. In that time the insulation resistance can drop from 5000 MΩ
to less than 2 MΩ. Ohm's Law quickly reveals that with used across ...
 Many moons ago (early-mid 1980s),
I did quite a bit of microcircuit assembly and wire bonding in an engineering prototype lab
at Westinghouse. It was a unique and valuable experience. When this app note notice showed
up in a recent edition of NASA tech Briefs, I though it would be good to let you know about.
"The common failure modes of wire bonds, for instance cratering / peeling, bond wire damage,
trailing wire bond tails, poor adhesion, and missed bond pads, are exacerbated when
wire bonding small MESA chips. There are many variables that need to be
balanced to optimize a wire bond process, and limit the amount of time consuming and costly ...""
|
 Saelig Company has introduced the Pico Technology
PicoVNA 106 Low-Cost Vector Network Analyzer - an economical USB-controlled,
professional-grade 300 kHz to 6 GHz Vector Network Analyzer (VNA) with excellent
performance, portability, and affordability. Despite its small size and low cost, its full-function,
minimal-error, 'Quad RX' four-receiver architecture supports both 8- and 12-term calibration
without the uncorrectable switching errors, delays, and unreliability of traditional three-receiver
designs. The instrument supports convenient calibration methods such as 'enhanced isolation
correction' ...
 "Hot fields in the U.S. include embedded engineering,
control engineering, and robotics. The key word used in describing electrical engineering
job trends this year is 'high,' according to Angela Keller, vice president of recruiting at
the U.S. recruiting firm Randstad Engineering: 'High growth, high salaries, high demand, high
competition among hiring companies.' That competition is benefiting EEs, giving them both
a plethora of choices and better entry-level paychecks. By the end of last year, fresh
electrical engineering graduates in the United States earned salaries
that averaged U.S. $73,078—nearly $5,500 more than the prior year ..."
 Anatech Electronics, a manufacturer of RF and microwave
filters, has published its
July
newsletter. As always, it includes both company news and some tidbits about relevant industry
happenings. In it, Sam Benzacar discusses, among other topics, an apparent demise (or near
demise) of the Commercial-Off-the-Shelf (COTS) component usage philosophy that once was a
keystone in the Department of Defense's cost containment strategy. A telling chart illustrates
the progressive decrease in COTS parts begin designed into defense systems. My guess is the
same type of trend occurred in the aeronautics and space industries ..
 Poor 'ol Marcelo Claure is at the bottom of the heap
with a mere $7.5M for 2016, while Tim Cook received $145M. Google's Sundar Pachai topped the
list with a cool $200M - not being evil pays well. "It's that time of year again when we sift through
an avalanche of regulatory filings to find the highest paid executives. This year, we present
the highest paid execs across pay TV, telecom and wireless as a unified list, since many of
the names are prominent figures in all three industries. These figures are from last year,
but are the most recent available. Click through the above slideshow to see the
25 highest paid executives ..."
 Peregrine Semiconductor, founder of RF SOI (silicon
on insulator) and pioneer of advanced RF solutions, introduces the
UltraCMOS® PE42823,
a high-power receiver protection RF switch. Ideal for wireless infrastructure applications,
this reflective switch is optimized for emerging radio architectures such as massive multiple
input, multiple output (MIMO). The PE42823 delivers excellent single-event peak power handling,
low power consumption and high linearity. Offered in a compact form factor, this high-power
switch features built-in ESD protection—a key benefit for systems that ...
 Before plug-in crystals were widely available for band
selection on radios, LC tank circuits did all the frequency discrimination heavy lifting.
Accordingly, owners often had a selection of
swappable inductors on-hand to enable listening to a variety of shortwave transmissions.
During the time period of this article in a 1935 Short Wave Craft magazine, new 'all wave'
radios were hitting the showroom floors that largely mitigated the need for swapping components
for ...
 BBTLine offers a unique patented
combiner / splitter design that allows
for more compact devices while maintaining low insertion loss, excellent return loss and excellent
amplitude/phase balance. These are not standard Wilkinson-style RF splitters. 2- and
4-way, broadband 0.5 - 6 GHz, low loss (0.7 dB @ 6 GHz), excellent amplitude / θ balance (±0.1
dB, ±1°), surface mount & connectorized. Please visit BBTLine today to see how they can
help your project ...
 "Researchers at Brown University have developed a new
kind of polarizing beam splitter for
terahertz radiation, which could prove useful in imaging and communications
systems. The technique uses stacks of carefully spaced metal plates to make a polarizing beam
splitter, a device that splits a beam of light by its differing polarization states, sending
vertically polarized light in one direction and horizontally polarized light in another. Such
a beam splitter could be useful in a wide variety of systems that make use of terahertz radiation,
from imaging systems to future ..."
|
 -
Archive -
FCC Proposes $120 Million Fine for Spoofing
5G Won't Boost
Cellular Until 2021
Fujitsu Achieves Record Output Density with W-Nand GaN PAs
How Did Radio
Perform in Q2?
Qualcomm SVP: New Spectrum 'Crucial' to 5G Success
DARPA Calls
for Post-Moore's Law Ideas
UK Government Announces £246M 'Faraday Challenge'
Google Maps Adds
the International Space Station
China Unicom Could Look Very Different in Month or Two
 "The Royal Mint Experience in Wales will host 'The Royal
Mint Radio Experience,' July 30 until August 5 at the Royal Mint's new visitor center
in Llantrisant, Wales. School children and members of the public have been invited to enjoy
a fun, informal, and interactive Amateur Radio workshop. According to an announcement from
the Radio Society of Great Britain (RSGB), visitors will get the chance to use the FUNcube-1
CubeSat, launched in 2013 and used by schools and educational groups around the world. 'We're
delighted to be supporting this event which will give visitors to the Royal ..."
 For the sake of avid cruciverbalists amongst us, each
week I create a new
crossword puzzle that has a theme related to engineering, mathematics, chemistry, physics,
and other technical words. Clues in this puzzle with an asterisk (*) are
pulled from this past week's (7/17 - 7/21) "Tech Industry Headlines" column on the RF Cafe
homepage (see the Headline Archives page for help). Enjoy! ...
 "The use of selected Electrical, Electronic, and Electromechanical
(EEE)
commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) components in space applications is slowly
expanding - too slowly - and not free of myths. It is imperative to be aware of the pitfalls
posed by these myths to reach a decision whether to use COTS parts in a specific space mission.
Myth 1: The main drive to use COTS in space is cost savings. The use of COTS in space is not
a paved road to cost savings. In order not to misinterpret the term 'cost savings,' it should
be emphasized that for an EEE component the following applies ..."
 I chuckled out loud when I saw this
comic.
Of course the situation would never really occur (then again, maybe it could...). The artist
is G. Lyons, who does not appear to have made many other appearances in Electronics World
magazine. He might have been a loyal reader who submitted it as a one-time stint at fame ...
 "Samsung Electronics has announced that its wafer fab
at Pyeongtaek, South Korea, has started shipping products and that it will focus on the production
of 64-layer vertical NAND ICs. According to reports Samsung Electronics has earmarked 15.6T
won ($13.5B) over the past two years and coming years to build
out Pyeongtaek's line 1. The company has announced it now plans to spend another 14.4T
won ($12.5B) to expand its
semiconductor production capacity there with a Pyeongtaek line Samsung
also plans to invest 6T won in its Hwaseong, South Korea, site ..."
 This Radio Service Data Sheet for the
RCA-Victor
Model 15U, which appeared in the April 1938 issue of Radio-Craft, is the first
3-page instance I remember seeing in all the vintage electronics magazines. The Model 15U
is a fairly sophisticated outfit, but not that much more so than some other pieces. There
is a nice example of the Model 15U on the RadioMuseum.org website (thumbnail at left). It
appears to be fairly clean, but not yet fully restored. A lot of adjustments needed to be
made during the alignment of both the radio (commercial broadcast and shortwave bands) and
the turntable. The electronics repair ...
 Triad RF Systems announces the availability of their
TTRM1081, an L-Band bi-directional SSPA suitable for high data-rate wireless
links. Applications include UAVs and military mesh networks. Rx noise figure is approximately
1.3 dB and Tx/Rx switching speed is 1 μS. This class AB LDMOS module is designed
for both military and commercial applications. It is capable of supporting any signal type
and modulation format, including but not limited to 3-4G telecom, WLAN, OFDM, DVB, and CW/AM/FM.
The latest device technologies and design methods are employed ...
 "By day,
Claude Shannon labored on top-secret war projects at Bell Labs. By night,
he worked out the details of information theory. Looking back on the last months of 1940,
Claude Shannon was quite open about his desire to avoid the World War II draft: 'Things were
moving fast there, and I could smell the war coming along. And it seemed to me I would be
safer working full-time for the war effort, safer against the draft, which I didn't exactly
fancy. I was a frail man, as I am now.... I was trying to play the game, to the best of my
ability. But not only that, I thought I'd probably contribute ..."
|
Copyright