Mician views the MTT-S IMS as a great platform for bringing together not only suppliers and design engineers but also academia and researchers. The event addresses a large industrial market and is well attended, offering excellent opportunities for all participants to exchange ideas and present solutions. This year we will be presenting version 6.6 of our ÌWave Wizard software tool to the public for the first time and the show offers the unique opportunity for us to gain informed feedback.
And, since North America is one of the strongest markets for our products and the MTT-S IMS is the largest event in the industry, it is a must for us to attend. We do not want to miss the opportunity to meet with key players from industry, academia and the press. Although the event is attended by many delegates and visitors from the United States, it also draws a lot of attendees from other countries and is one of the most important shows worldwide for us.
The exhibition has become more professional over the years. When we exhibited for the first time the influence of computers and the Internet was not as advanced as it is today. The development cycles of new products have been shortened significantly and the latest innovations are even more impressive. Also, the preparation of the entire exhibition has become much easier. Today it is possible to make almost every arrangement or booking via the Internet, materials for ads in magazines or show guides do not have to be sent by post and even the information provided to attendees on the events homepage can be updated frequently. Cyber Cafes or WLAN connections make it easy to get access to the net and one can check e-mails even if one is far away from home. In general this makes planning as well as attending the show itself very convenient for both exhibitors and attendees. However, an improvement would be to have sponsored free WLAN Internet access for all exhibitors and attendees within the exhibition hall.
In general, the Internet has a great influence on the development of the global marketplace, with research for information becoming much easier for both engineers and developers. Online demonstrations are possible and providing information has become very simple, with companies’ latest news and/or products accessible to a huge audience immediately. Especially for a software company like Mician it is a big advantage that customers can register on our homepage and once registration has been submitted we can send out an e-mail with a demo file of our tool by return. In this regard the Internet provides a conduit for getting closer to the global marketplace. One could even say that the Internet has become another global marketplace. Nevertheless, it is still vitally important for us to keep personal contact with our customers.
The evolution in design tools has been enormous and from our point of view design tools will become even more powerful in the future. Due to the continuous enhancements concerning hardware, software tools will become more powerful too. With the increase in computation power the demands from customers for more powerful software has increased and will continue to do so in the future. In that regard we always try to be one step ahead of customers’ requirements in order to be able to deliver state-of-the-art software tools.
An example of this approach is the 6.6 version of our ÌWave Wizard EM-software tool that will take pride of place on Booth 1045. For this release a set of new elements has been developed for the radiation library that use the body of revolution (BOR) symmetry of circular waveguide horn antennas to full capacity. The elements coincide with the specifications for various horn profiles, like vertically and axially corrugated horns, profiled smooth wall, ring loaded and Potter horn profiles. This eases the setup of the entire horn geometry since the process is now carried out automatically inside the element and accelerates the computation for multi-mode and tracking mode applications due to utilization of the BOR symmetry with the Mode-Matching method. A brief overview of the new features of the ÌWave Wizard will also be presented at the Microwave Application Seminars on Thursday, June 19.
Looking to the future, the challenge for an industry that is constantly innovating is to keep up the momentum. As for the MTT-S IMS itself, the key challenge is to strengthen the event as the premier event for the RF and microwave industry in 2009 and beyond. With regards to Mician, the MTT-S IMS 2009 will be special because the last time the event was held in Boston was the first time we exhibited and we are looking forward to returning to the scene of a milestone in the successful story of Mician and the ÌWave Wizard.