Here’s a summary of last week’s industry-related news that I found interesting and worth passing along.

Companies and Products

Ericsson reported Q2 financial results, which were fairly ugly: revenue of SEK 49.9 billion (approximately $6 billion) declined 8 percent from the prior year’s quarter and was down 13 percent when adjusted for foreign exchange differences. Revenue from all geographic regions was down. Operating margin was a meager 1 percent — negative including restructuring costs. Ericsson said cost reduction efforts will be accelerated to hasten the company’s turnaround. View the slides from the earnings call here.

Globalfoundries CEO Sanjay Jha was interviewed by DigiTimes and discussed Globalfoundries' process roadmap and China strategy. Jha said their 7 nm node should reach volume production in 2018. He also said their new Chengdu fab will initially run 0.18, 0.13 and 0.11 µm nodes, transferred from Singapore. Once those are fully running, Globalfoundries will transfer the 22 nm FD-SOI process.

Keysight Technologies announced two executive management changes that were effective immediately: Satish Dhanasekaran was appointed president of the Communications Solutions business, and Marie Hattar was named Chief Marketing Officer, a newly created role at Keysight. Dhanasekaran replacies Mike Gasparian, who is retiring.

Lockheed Martin, the U.S. DoD's largest defense contractor, reported Q2 financial results: Revenue was $12.7 billion, 9.6 percent above the prior year’s quarter. Net income was $3.23 per share, up 5 percent year-over-year, and backlog at the end of the quarter was $92 billion. The company forecasts a strong defense market, including F-35 sales. Previously, the DoD announced plans to purchase 2,456 F-35s.

Mercury Systems received a $10.5 million order for RF seekers that will be integrated in an undisclosed precision guided munitions program. Deliveries are scheduled over the next several quarters.

Pasternack released waveguide phase shifters that operate from 18 to 110 GHz (WR42 to WR10 bands) and provide 0 to 180 degree phase shift. A micrometer control provides precision and repeatable phase settings. Maximum insertion loss is 1 dB.

SemiGen purchased the former Micrometrics/Metelics fabrication facility in Londonderry, New Hampshire and will relocate operations from Manchester, New Hampshire. The $2.5 million upgrade includes more than 20,000 square feet of lab and cleanroom space and much of the equipment that MicroMetrics/Metelics used for their RF diode business.

Skyworks posted another excellent quarter, with revenue of $901 million, 20 percent growth from the prior year’s quarter and 6 percent above the prior quarter. Both mobile (73 percent of revenue) and broad markets (27 percent of revenue) were strong.

Markets and Technology

Technology — The Indian government is reviewing a $467 million proposal to establish a GaN foundry at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc).

Researchers demonstrated a sub-micron optical “nanoantenna” imprinted on an optical waveguide. Using plasmonics to direct light, the nanoantenna could be a key building block for photonics ICs, assuming the fabrication process can be compatible with high volume CMOS processes.

Cellular/IoT — While AT&T and Verizon chose the Cat-M1 flavor of cellular IoT, T-Mobile has chosen NB-IoT and announced plans to deploy IoT broadly in Las Vegas.

Is there enough 5 GHz spectrum to keep everyone happy? Zahid Ghadialy, author of The 3G4G Blog, is having second thoughts about the effectiveness of LTE-U and LAA, which tap into the 5 GHz Wi-Fi spectrum to increase download data rates.

5G — Technologists and consumers are excited about 5G, while operators and investors are cautious, wondering if there’s a business case that will generate sufficient ROI.

Beamforming is one of the technologies seen as key to achieving the spectral efficiency needed for the advertised 5G data rates. IEEE Spectrum published this short tutorial — with a video and no math.

Broadband — AT&T ostensibly joined the day of action to defend net neutrality on July 12; actually, they asked customers to support the FCC's proposed rollback, which argues for “light touch” regulation.

If you're frustrated by the superficial and hyperbolic net neutrality debate, read this in depth critique of both sides of the divide by industry analyst Dean Bubley. He provides his own recommendations for ensuring the sanctity of the net.

Autonomous Driving — Carmageddon is Coming is a visionary and provocative view of how ride sharing and autonomous vehicles will change society. Holy forecast, Batman!

Economy — China's economy remains strong, as the country reported 6.9 percent annualized GDP growth in Q2. Steel production set a record, and coal demand was strong. That's not necessarily good news.

It’s been a surprisingly slow recovery, taking 17 years for the S&P IT index to break through the record set in 2000. That was a tech bubble.

Last Word The search for extraterrestrial intelligence moves from passive listening to calling out, “Hello. Is anyone listening?” What if the reply doesn’t come for 50,000 years? Will anyone remember? Listen to the fascinating interview with Douglas Vakoch, the founder of Messaging Extraterrestrial Intelligence (METI), and learn how our “hello” is phrased. Start at 6:44.

Have a good week. I will be off the internet all week and look forward to catching up on what's been going on the following week.