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.

Antenna Design Enables Multi-band iPhone 4

June 16, 2010

Patrick Hindle

2 Comments

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...

Cell Phone Market Forecast by Forward Concepts

June 15, 2010

Patrick Hindle

1 Comment

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...

TriQuint and Avago Supply RF FEMs for New HTC Evo

June 11, 2010

Patrick Hindle

0 Comments

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...

Surprises on the MTTS 2010 IMS Show Floor

June 4, 2010

Patrick Hindle

0 Comments

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?...

MTTS 2010 IMS Attendance Up Over Last Year

May 26, 2010

Patrick Hindle

0 Comments

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?...

MTTS 2010 IMS Exhibition Opens

May 26, 2010

Patrick Hindle

0 Comments

The MTTS 2010 IMS exhibition was very lively as it opened yesterday in Anaheim. The traffic was robust and the was mood upbeat as the industry seems to have shaken off the recession. There seemed to be a wide variety of new amplifiers available with very high linearity and efficiency. The improvements in modeling and matching have resulted in some really nice designs. There were also several suppliers with cellular band LNAs that have less than .5 dB noise figures. The larger component manufacturers seem to be filling out their portfolios to meet a wider variety of needs to...

Raytheon Microwave System to Prevent Frost in Vineyards

May 13, 2010

Patrick Hindle

1 Comment

Although this news item is a few weeks old, I thought it was interesting enough to cover here since I have never seen microwave technology used in the type of application. Raytheon is planning to install a prototype microwave frost protection system at the Vineland Research and Innovation Centre, a Canadian horticulture research center located in Ontario, Canada. Raytheon will install a prototype Tempwave system in the center’s vineyard, prepare it for operation and support initial testing over a four-month period. Raytheon ’s Tempwave radiant heating system offers a more efficient way to warm crops and avoid the adverse effects...

Big M&A Activity as MTTS 2010 IMS Nears

May 12, 2010

Patrick Hindle

0 Comments

The past week has included several big announcements in the microwave industry for Mergers & Acquisitions which I will extend to also include some significant partnerships that were formed. On the mergers front, Aeroflex officially acquired Willtek from Wireless Telecom Group which was previously announced but is now complete. They paid $2.75 M plus assumed some liabilities. Next Comtech Telecommunications acquired CPI International for about $475 M. Fred Kornberg, President and CEO of Comtech said the acquisition is a significant step in their strategy of developing a one-stop shopping approach for RF microwave products. The transition is expected to be...

ABI Handset Market Estimates for 1Q-2010

May 7, 2010

Patrick Hindle

0 Comments

According to ABI Research, handset shipments globally for 1Q-2010 powered ahead to 303 million, up 19% Year-on-Year. This bodes well for 2010 as a whole as shipments could reach 1.3 billion. It is also notable that 3G handset shipments eclipsed 2G handset shipments. The strongest handset shipment growth was seen in the Middle East and Africa (20% YoY ) followed by the Americas, particularly the US (11%). Europe, on the other hand, is languishing with single-digit growth. Nokia ’s market-share stood at 34%. New smartphones such as the N8 are helping the manufacturer to shore up its handset portfolio,...

M/A-COM Merges with Mimix

May 7, 2010

Patrick Hindle

0 Comments

M/A-COM Technology Solutions and Mimix announced yesterday that they had agreed to merge and all products in the Mimix portfolio would reside within the M/A-COM family of products. This is not too surprising as they are both owned by the GaAs Labs/John Ocampo group after they purchased M/A-COM from Cobham in March of 2009. I think this will strengthen both companies as Mimix brings some very good pt. to pt. radio and other MMIC products into the M/A-COM family that complement M/A- COM's existing portfolio. After Tyco Electronics divided M/A-COM up and sold them off several years ago, this gives...