Articles by Patrick Hindle

I recently came across this very nice microwave toolbox for Android mobile devices that Faust Nijhuis developed (posted on our LinkedIn Community ). He has created a free lite version with a few useful calculators and a 1.99 euro version that has 6 calculators and 2 converters for the full toolbox. Below are a couple of sample screen shots from his web site. MW calculator lite is the lite and free version of the microwave tool box with the following tools: PI and T attenuator calculator Reflectometer calculator Mismatch error limits calculator MW calculator is a microwave tool box with...

There is no association between risk of early childhood cancers and a mother’s exposure to a mobile phone base station during pregnancy, concludes a new study published on bmj .com last week. This is the first study to look at phone masts in Britain as a whole and is the largest of its kind. Use of mobile phones has increased markedly in recent years and questions have been raised about possible health effects, including brain and other cancers, especially after prolonged use. Surveys also indicate high levels of public concern about the potential risks of living near mobile phone masts....

This ADI news release came out today and it is a very interesting piece of science so I have to share it here: Buried two kilometers under solid ice on one of the coldest continents on Earth, Analog Devices’ (ADI) data converters and amplifiers are helping scientists at the South Pole build the world’s largest telescope to search for the smallest subatomic particles known to humankind. The innovative “underground” telescope project is called IceCube and uses a cubic kilometer of pure, ultra-translucent ice at the South Pole as a telescopic “window” or particle detector to search the universe for its...

I blogged about the iPhone 4 and its revolutionary new antenna design a little of a week ago and how it might be the future for antenna design for handsets. But I was concerned about how touching the antenna in different ways would affect its performance and how they designed for that. Well, I guess the answer was they did not completely take that into account and now have reception issues with the iPhone 4. Various reports last week highlighted this issue including a user's e-mail directly to Steve Jobs in which he responded to the user saying well, if...

According to the Boston Globe today, shares of Anadigics jumped ahead of regular trading Thursday after a Stifel Nicolaus analyst upgraded the stock, saying the company's earnings are likely to beat expectations in the second half of the year. Stifel Nicolaus analyst Patrick Newton raised the company to "Buy" from "Hold" and gave it a price target of $5.50. Newton said he expects the company to be taking a bigger share of the market as the year goes on. He said that should help the company's earnings outstrip Wall Street forecasts in the near term. Further out, the company's quarterly...

It is not often that RF technology is one of the leading features mentioned in the release of a new phone even though it is the the enabling technology for wireless devices, but one of the main features mentioned in the iPhone 4 announcement was the external antenna design. Apple cleverly uses the stainless steel band around the phone as a the antenna for GSM, UMTS, WiFi, GPS and Bluetooth (there are spaces separating the multiple antennas around the phone - photo via intomobile.com). This is an amazing example of maximizing the antenna size (for better performance) and minimizing the...

Forward Concepts has published an in-depth study of the worldwide cellphone market and the associated ecosystem of subscribers, operators and technologies. Some of the key findings from the study are: Worldwide unit cellphone shipments fell by 0.5% in 2009, as the entire electronics market was muted by global economic conditions. They are forecasting a much healthier 11% growth in 2010 to 1.4 billion units. Unit growth varies markedly by region, with China's market forecast to grow by 23% in 2010, while Western Europe's will grow by a more sedate 4%. India will lead in subscriber growth this year, growing...

Earlier this week I saw that iFixit.com had already performed a teardown on the new HTC Evo 4G phone. It shows the RF device winners to be TriQuint and Avago for the RF front end modules which is significant as this is expected to be a hot phone that can compete with the iPhone (although the new iPhone is set to release soon). The TriQunt device is a TQM613029 (outlined in green - image from iFixit.com) CDMA PA-duplexer module that integrates a single-ended transmit filter, duplexer, high efficiency PA die, RF power coupler, matching and built in voltage regulator functionality...

You never know what type of products or companies you will run into at the IMS show. I came across Phillip Jobson who has developed the "pocket radar." It is a palm sized speed radar unit that provide accurate real-time speed measurements of moving objects using 24 GHz radar. It is suitable for things like baseball, racing soccer, tennis, track, etc. It is accurate to +/- 1 mph and measures speeds from 7 to 375 mph. It sells for about $200. What did you see at the show that was unique or surprising?...

The MTTS 2010 IMS saw more than 9,500 participants according to preliminary numbers from the IEEE. Here is a summary of the stats to date: - The exhibit floor showcased a total of 556 companies & 892 booths representing 40 countries - Technical registration numbers totaled 2,793 participants - Exhibit-only registration numbers indicate 2,687 participants - A total of 858 technical papers were submitted at this year’s conference, representing countries from around the world The exhibition seems very lively and positive according to most people on the floor. What did you think?...