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As the academic year starts anew and students head back to school, the Journal hopes to “school” its readers with an engaging array of topics that will impact future technology and the microwave industry itself. The editorial themes for the last three months of 2013 will explore one of our industry’s largest markets, one of our industry’s largest product sectors and the emerging applications representing the latest opportunities to apply microwave technology.
October
The U.S. government by way of the Department of Defense is one of the largest customers for a number of microwave companies, either directly or through prime contractors. Therefore, we focus our October editorial theme on government electronics and the programs that will ultimately impact our industry. Concern over future U.S. government spending policies known as sequestration began just about a year ago as congressional budget battles failed to produce a compromise between the political parties and across-the-board spending cuts were set to go into effect automatically in early 2013. Six months later, the Journal takes a look at the state of sequestration, how companies have been affected and what certain companies are doing to compensate for shifts in the market and strengthen their business.
November
Our editorial theme for November covers passive and control components. This includes filters, switches, couplers, diplexers, resonators and such. As system integrators look for ways to improve electrical performance such as linearity or efficiency and mechanical concerns such size, weight or robustness, the technology behind passive components continues to evolve to meet changing requirements. Our November issue targets engineers developing all the passive components found in radio front ends, base stations, radar systems and other RF/microwave frequency equipment. In this year’s November issue, we will feature a cover story from Dr. Ulrich Rohde and Ajay Poddar of Synergy Microwave concerning an extremely unique resonator technology that could offer substantial performance advantages for future RF/microwave sources. We believe our engineering readers will find this exclusive cover feature quite enjoyable.
Also in November, we feature our Mobile Communications supplement, which is a preview of technology to be highlighted at Mobile World Congress in 2014. As the global mobile market evolves to support internet access to the most remote regions of the world, support M2M communications and increase data bandwidths to our mobile devices, automobiles, and Google glasses, opportunities will continue to emerge for the underlying microwave infrastructure. In our mobile communication supplement, we look at the RFICs and test solutions that will support this brave new world.
December
Our final issue of the year looks at industrial, scientific and medical applications for microwave technology. As companies look offshore for new markets, we like to present new applications that utilize high-frequency electronics and may represent future markets in the U.S. and abroad. In past years, we have looked at the use of microwaves in medical applications from microwave emblation, MRI and wireless monitoring to industrial applications such as telematics, smart grid control and monitoring via wireless sensor networks. This year, Dr. Abdullah Eroglua of Purdue University will discuss the technology and market behind the use of microwave technology for industrial processing from biodiesel fuels and pharmaceuticals, to composite materials for aerospace applications and food processing. Our December issue offers a little bit of everything for everybody, just in times for the holidays.
January
Looking ahead to 2014, look for our Radar and Antenna issue in January, Dr. Guerci, author of our 2011 January cover feature on Cognitive Radar and featured speaker at the IDGA conference, will author our cover feature on Next Generation Smart Antennas. Dr. Guerci’s 2011 feature was extremely popular among readers and we expect the same interest (and shelf life) with his latest offering.