The 6th annual China International Conference & Exhibition on Microwave and Antenna (IME/China) is the largest exhibition and conference dedicated to microwave technology in China. With nearly 100 exhibitors from both the China and international communities, this event is an excellent platform for technical exchanges, business cooperation and trade promotion between global Microwave and Antenna products & technology suppliers and Chinese customers. Held every year at the Shanghai Everbright Convention & Exhibition Center, IME/China is a must-attend event for design engineers, technical managers and purchasing executives in China. As a media partner, Microwave Journal and Microwave Journal China were on hand to report on exhibitor activity and the show in general, which by all accounts showed year-over-year growth in the number of exhibitors and attendees.
Agilent Technologies
In mid-October, Agilent Technologies’ Beijing office announced the 67 GHz PNA-X nonlinear vector network analyzer and new 67-GHz phase reference calibration standards, in time for both to be showcased last month at the European Microwave Week in Manchester UK. Attendees at IME 2011 got their first hands-on look at the new extended frequency VNA. With this hardware, designers not only in up to 67 GHz frequency easily and accurately complete component characterization and modeling, but also to measure the X-parameters, resulting in very high frequency and wide range of linear and nonlinear accurately model the characteristics of components.
Company representatives showed their China customers how Agilent’s NVNA and Advanced Design System software can be combined into a single measurement and design simulation environment to characterize nonlinear devices with the most in-depth analysis. Users can measure X NVNA parameters. X-parameters are deterministic nonlinear high-frequency design a new category of network parameters can be used to characterize components of the linear and nonlinear characteristics.
The new 67-GHz NVNA enable engineers in a very wide frequency bandwidth for high-frequency non-linear measurement. The industry's first 67-GHz phase reference calibration standards used in combination with NVNA, can up to 67 GHz frequency range for accurate non-linear measurement, the measurement results traceable to the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Standard . Phase reference calibrations using the known range of frequencies traceable to NIST, the phase relationship between the generated 10 MHz ~ 67 GHz comb-wave signal, the NVNA calibration, NVNA it can be in up to 67 GHz frequency range of measurement devices nonlinearity. This feature can be achieved in up to 67 GHz frequency range to accurately measure and predict harmonic behavior.
AWR Corp.
AWR conducted a workshop titled "Microwave Circuit Compaction - an Effective and Interactive Solution from AWR" on Wednesday, Nov. 2. This session by AWR's regional director of sales for South Asia, Francis Leong focused on the company's unique ACE™ (Automated Circuit Extraction) technology for fast and accurate simulation of coupling effects in microwave circuits. Within the exhibition, AWR was demonstrating its latest 2011 software platform, including Microwave Office™ high-frequency microwave/RF circuit design software, AXIEM® 3D planar electromagnetic (EM) analysis software, and Visual System Simulator™ (VSS), radar and communication system simulation software. Demonstrating capabilities that were also highlighted at last month’s EuMW in Manchester UK, company representatives introduced the Chinese audience to new capabilities in the company’s third-party integration including AWR Connected™ for CapeSym SYMMIC for electrical-thermal MMIC co-simulation and AWR Connected for Antenna Magus for antennas synthesis through to simulation.
Emerson Network Power
According to Marcom Manager, Mary Benetti, Emerson Network Power was very pleased with the traffic in their booth at IME. This was their first time exhibiting at this show and the company made a bold statement with a large booth in the center of the exhibition. The effort seemed to pay off with high booth traffic and some good customer face-to-face interactions. The company’s coax connector products or “connectivity solutions” seemed to be connecting with attendees, especially their Semflex line of precision microwave cables and Johnson line of SMP blind-mate connectors. This micro-miniature, slide-on/snap-on interconnect system aid’s in the design of high-density packaging as well as axial and radial misalignment challenges while the Semflex cables offer low loss, low VSWR, high power, temperature, flexibility and phase stability.
Gigalane
Gigalane develops world-class high quality products of the RF connectors, microwave connectors, precision adapters, flexible cable assembly, microwave cable assembly, microwave components and RF components through continuous research and development. The company’s products are used in commercial, personal and military communication systems as well as test and measurement equipment, transportation and automation.
Insulated Wire
US manufacturer, Insulated Wire (IW) made the trip to Shanghai for the IME show. This well known company designs and manufacturers RF microwave cables, microwave cable assemblies, and wire manufacturer that supplies global markets with coaxial microwave cable and high power microwave cable assemblies as well as multi-conductor wire and cable, high temperature PTFE hookup wire and dielectric cores. IW also has a wide variety of RF connectors and adapters to compliment its product line. Other cable products that IW manufactures are triaxial microwave cable, twisted pair and bundled assemblies. You can find IW products being widely used in radar systems, telecommunication systems, satellite, and missile systems.
Milmega
MILMEGA, designers and manufacturers of high power microwave and RF amplifiers was showcasing several new additions to their amplifier product lineup, extending the company’s power capabilities of its existing products and focusing on solutions that help keep EMC test labs up and running during high-volume production. Recently the company introduced a 175W model for those laboratories which utilize custom EMC antennae and therefore require less amplifier power; 500W and 1000W models for those EMC laboratories who are specializing in automotive component testing. Based on GaN transistor technology, MILMEGA amplifiers are built using hybrid modules and combiners for scalability and easy maintenance. Demoing their new 1000W, 80 to 1000MHz amplifier, this rack mounted unit has been designed specifically to maximize asset usability in the EMC market, each 250W section being capable of independent operation outside the main 1000W chassis housing.
RelComm Technologies
RelComm Technologies showed off their line of application specific RF coaxial relay products for high volume commercial telecommunications infrastructure, military communications as well as test and measurement instrumentation. The company’s products operate from DC to 40 GHz. The company which is located in Salisbury, Maryland, has recently expanded their product offering to over thirty-five (35) line items of standard building block RF Coaxial Relays. IME attendees were able to directly meet company representatives from the Maryland facility who were at the show to discuss the company’s expanded product offering including: 1P1T, 1P2T, 1P4T up to 1P10T, failsafe and latching options from PCB mount to SMA and N connectorized devices.
Richardson RFPD
Richardson RFPD was provided representation for their RF suppliers doing business in China including M/A-Com Technology Solutions, TriQuint Semiconductor, and Freescale Semiconductor to name a few. Richardson RFPD, Inc., an Arrow Electronics Company, is a global leader in the RF and wireless communications, power conversion and renewable energy markets. Richardson RFPD’s worldwide design centers and technical sales team provide support for all aspects of customers’ go-to-market strategy, from prototype to production while the company’s relationships with the industry’s top component suppliers enable them to meet the engineering needs of each customer.
Rohde & Schwarz
Earlier this year at the Sino-Germany Economic and Technology Cooperation Forum in Berlin, China Mobile Research Institute, the R&D division of China Mobile, and Rohde & Schwarz announced the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for collaborating on the research of TD-LTE testing technology and test-system development. The MoU highlights the cooperation on joint research in TD-LTE testing technology and test instrument development to speed up the global roll-out of TD-LTE technology. TD-LTE, the TDD (time-division duplex) version of the LTE standard, enables high-speed mobile Internet access. With such tight relationships into the China market, it is no surprise that Rohde & Schwarz had such a large presence at IME 2011 with a major booth space centrally located on the exhibition floor. From personal observation, R&S had a steady stream of booth traffic from attendees.
The company has recently been touting its R&S FSW signal and spectrum analyzer with state-of-the-art RF performance and analysis bandwidth. It comes in three models that cover the frequency ranges from 2 Hz to 8 GHz, 13 GHz and 26.5 GHz. The analyzer outperforms all other high-end instruments on the market, with phase noise values that are up to 10 dB lower. Multiple measurements and different applications can be displayed in parallel on the screen. Further outstanding features are the large demodulation bandwidth of 160 MHz and the multistandard radio analysis function. This unique combination makes it possible to analyze multiple mobile radio and wireless standards simultaneously on different frequencies.
Tektronix
We met with Ronald Dung, Senior Marketing Manager and Claudia Chen, Marcom Specialist from Tektronix. The company has a strong reputation in China, especially for their digital oscilloscopes and signal analyzers. The company’s TDS1000B and TDS2000B Series digital storage oscilloscopes offer superior performance, unmatched ease-of-use and affordability in an ultra lightweight, portable package making this a very popular product in China. The TDS1000B and TDS2000B scopes have up to 200 MHz bandwidth and 2 GS/s maximum sample rate, no other color digital storage oscilloscope offers as much bandwidth and sample rate for the price. The TDS1000B and TDS2000B Series oscilloscopes provide accurate real-time acquisition up to their full bandwidth, advanced triggers to isolate signals of interest, and 11 standard automatic measurements on all models. The company is also marketing their new MDO4000 in China among its portfolio of products.
TIMES Microwave
High performance coaxial cable manufacturer, Times Microwave was attending IME 2011 and had excellent foot traffic at their booth. We met with Cherry Xu, Marketing Specialist, in between customer visits, to talk about their China operations (the Times Microwave office is located in Shanghai). TMS is committed to continuous improvement with respect to ISO-9001-2000 and AS9100 Quality Standards, which results in cable solutions for the demanding requirements of airborne electronic warfare systems and has led the way in the development of low smoke cables for shipboard applications and is now yielding high performance cables to meet the needs of the wireless communications market.
In Summary
Next year's IME event promises to be even larger with many exhibitors planning on returning and increasing their booth sizes. Th exhibition managers are planning to move the exhibition into a larger venue in the Everbright Center next year in order to keep up with the anticipated growth. For China based companies, international companies with China operations and international companies without a China presence yet, IME is showing all the signs of a trade show on the rise.