Pat Hindle, MWJ Editor | Microwave Journal

Pat Hindle is responsible for editorial content, article review and special industry reporting for Microwave Journal magazine and its web site in addition to social media and special digital projects. Prior to joining the Journal, Mr. Hindle held various technical and marketing positions throughout New England, including Marketing Communications Manager at M/A-COM (Tyco Electronics), Product/QA Manager at Alpha Industries (Skyworks), Program Manager at Raytheon and Project Manager/Quality Engineer at MIT. Mr. Hindle graduated from Northeastern University - Graduate School of Business Administration and holds a BS degree from Cornell University in Materials Science Engineering.

Qi Wireless Power Charging Standard Released

August 6, 2010

Patrick Hindle

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The Qi low power standard, was finalized at the end of last month by the Wireless Power Consortium. The standard calls for delivering up to 5 Watts into wireless power receivers. The goal is for the standard to be interoperable between chargers and gadgets from different makers. This would be a big step forward if they are able to accomplish this as many wireless applications are slow to the market or fail without standardization. The Qi low power specifications consist of 3 documents: Part 1, Interface Definition. This document defines the interface for contactless power transfer between a power transmitter...

IEEE EMC 2010 in Fort Lauderdale

July 28, 2010

Patrick Hindle

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We are at the IEEE International Symposium on Electromagnetic Compatibility in Ft. Lauderdale , FL and finished our first day of attending the exhibition. Over 2000 attendees are on site with over 150 exhibitors at the Ft. Lauderdale Convention Center. The primary RF and microwave modeling, design, test/measurement and component companies that offer EMC / EMI solutions are here. The theme of the 2010 Symposium is "Systems Engineering" and the emphasis is preventing or catching EMC issues early in design with proper modeling and early testing. The technical program is designed cover everything from EMC fundamentals to advanced numerical...

Update on the iPhone 4 Antenna Issue

July 22, 2010

Patrick Hindle

2 Comments

By now most everyone has heard about the iPhone 4 antenna problems. Holding it in certain areas can either bridge the gap between two of the antennas embedded into the outside frame causing them to not work properly or covering the lower part of the phone can attenuate the signal resulting in poor reception. There is no software that can fix this physical problem although Apple was pushing this as a solution by reprogramming the sensitivity of the signal strength indicator (number of bars displayed). There were numerous complaints and now there are lawsuits against Apple that they shipped a...

A Legal Right to Broadband!

July 13, 2010

Patrick Hindle

1 Comment

At the beginning of this month, everyone in Finland has been given the legal right to broadband service making it equivalent to a utility available to most everyone in developed countries. The Finnish law means that from 1 July all telecommunications companies will be obliged to provide all residents with broadband lines that can run at a minimum 1 Mbps speed and has vowed to connect everyone to a 100 Mbps connection by 2015. It is believed up to 96% of the population are already online and that only about 4,000 homes still need connecting to comply with the law...

RF/Microwave Calculator and Converter Apps

July 7, 2010

Patrick Hindle

4 Comments

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...

No link between Mobile Phone Base Stations and Early Childhood Cancers

July 1, 2010

Patrick Hindle

1 Comment

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....

ADI Data Converters Buried Under South Pole Ice Cap

June 30, 2010

Patrick Hindle

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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...

iPhone 4 Antenna Design NOT So Revolutionary

June 28, 2010

Patrick Hindle

1 Comment

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...

GaN and Si Based Technologies Invading GaAs Territory

June 23, 2010

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Our June cover story takes a look at the state of GaAs foundries, their market outlook and how GaN and Si based technologies are impeding on their market share in several applications. SiGe is active in highly integrated mmWave application areas such as automotive radar and high frequency backhaul. Si CMOS designs for handset front ends are starting to find traction in some lower end cellular handsets (Javelin, Skyworks/Axiom, Blue Sand Technolgies, RFAxis, etc). And GaN is taking over some of the very high power niches in commercial and military applications. Read the full cover story here . Since writing...

Anadigics Stock Price Jumps as Trading Opens

June 17, 2010

Patrick Hindle

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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...