As the RF/microwave industry looks forward to a revitalized 2022 International Microwave Symposium (IMS), Analog Devices, Inc. (ADI) prepares to do its own part in educating current and future high frequency engineers with its own mini-program of MicroApps, workshops and demonstrations at its exhibition booth #3050. These are casual but highly informative sessions often no longer than 15 minutes long, addressing device, circuit and system levels, including recommended test methods.
The 2022 IMS is set for the Colorado Convention Center from June 19 to 24, 2022, with the exhibition taking place from June 21 to 23. ADI provides four in-booth 15-minute long MicroApps presentations preparing circuit and system designers for the increasing frequencies of communications and radar applications with their increasing data rates. During the opening morning of the IMS exhibition, ADI Product Application Engineer Kudret Unal presents the first MicroApp on Tuesday, June 21, from 11:15 am to 11:30 am, “Is it Difficult to Synchronize Fractional PLLs? Not Anymore.” Anyone concerned with minimizing jitter in PLL arrays, such as in 5G wireless networks, will find this time well spent.
During the next day, ADI Product Applications Engineer Kieran Barrett shows how integrating four narrow frequency bands in a single package can reduce phase noise compared to trying to cover the full frequency range in a single wide frequency band. His MicroApp, “Fast Switching, High Performance PLL and Quadband VCO Frequency Synthesizer,” features a unique quadband IC with integrated active filtering for phase-critical applications. It is scheduled for Wednesday, June 22, from 12:45 pm to 1:00 pm.
Later that day, ADI Product Applications Engineer Eric Carty addresses designers faced with high-speed switching needs, with a quarter-hour lesson on how high-level integration can yield a single-pole, double-throw switch capable of frequency coverage from DC to 34 GHz and data rates to 64 Gb/s. The MicroApp, “DC to 64 Gb/s Micro Relay with Integrated Driver, A Simplified Solution to Increase Productivity,” highlights switching circuitry based on MEMS and CMOS technology and with integrated driver circuitry. It is scheduled for Wednesday, June 22, from 4:45 pm to 5:00 pm. For the final MicroApp, Kudret Unal returns Thursday morning, June 23, from 10:45 am to 11:00 am with “Need Sub-10 fs RMS Jitter Signal Generation Translation Loops” on the challenges of minimizing jitter in frequency translation loops for test/measurement, communications and other applications, even when striving for jitter levels as low as 10 fs.
Along with these information packed MicroApps, ADI is bringing a strong collection of keynote presentations and workshops to the 2022 IMS. The keynote, by Systems Application Manager Mike Jones, “Calibrating RF/Microwave Front Ends in Multichannel Receiver and Transmitter Systems,” is scheduled for Thursday morning, June 23, from 8:00 am to 8:20 am. It provides experimental results on the use of hard digital-signal-processing blocks, analog-to-digital converters and digital-to-analog converters integrated within a single IC and how such integration can simplify transmit/receive system layouts. By reducing the number of soft function blocks traditionally implemented by field-programmable gates arrays, system efficiency can be increased, and channel-to-channel amplitude and phase calibration simplified.
Workshops include shorter lessons as well as half- and full-day sessions. Prior to the opening of the IMS exhibition hall, on Monday June 20 from 3:35 pm to 4:25 pm, ADI vice-president, aerospace and defense, Bryan Goldstein shares insights in the development of an RF/microwave transmit/receive system from concept to production in an “RF Boot Camp.” The short course explains how the electrical and mechanical requirements are established for each component based on meeting performance and environmental requirements and how several types of packaging, such as miniature SMT packages, can play a role in the final design and production. Additional ADI workshops at the 2022 IMS cover phased arrays for satellite communications systems, development of phased-array systems for communications and radar, and the development of mmWave frequency up/down-converters.
Don’t Miss Demos
ADI’s demonstrations are on-going at booth #3050 at the 2022 IMS exhibition and often illustrate practical implementations of concepts presented in MicroApps or workshops, such as synchronized fractional PLLs and quadband VCO synthesizers. ADI’s demonstrations explore various technical areas, including aerospace, communications, instrumentation and RF power. Visitors to the booth can learn about optimizing RF signal power, about beamforming at X-Band frequencies, implementing mmWave radios for 5G small cells, and using narrowband and wideband signals from 30 MHz to 6 GHz in frequency-agile, software-defined radios.
Of special interest to those with test duties will be ADI’s demonstration of a PC/software-based vector network analyzer (VNA) at IMS Exhibition booth #3050. It is a modular unit a fraction of the size and cost of traditional VNAs and a top frequency of 20 GHz. From details about IC technologies to optimum methods for testing those ICs, advice and guidance will be available at the ADI booth whether informally or as part of scheduled events. It may be just one stop on the show floor, but it offers the potential for a wide range of educational opportunities in analog, digital and mixed-signal devices, circuits and systems.