Industry News

A Thorough RF and Microwave Circuit Design Method to Streamline the RFIC Development Process

Radio-frequency (RF) circuit design has become more complicated as today’s products and technologies have evolved, while at the same time the required design cycle times have been reduced. This presents problems for designers using traditional RF and microwave design techniques, which utilize similar procedures whether done with simulation software...
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An E-/D-mode pHEMT Process for High Performance Switch and Amplifier Components Utilizing Multi-level High Density Interconnects

A robust pseudomorphic high electron mobility transistor (pHEMT) process offering enhancement- and depletion-mode GaAs/AlGaAs/InGaAs transistors possessing 0.5-μm gate lengths with a double recess layout is presented and discussed. The E-mode devi...
Mobile telecommunication devices continue to add functionality and complexity particularly in regards to the trend of integrating more wireless bands such as GSM, E-GSM, CDMA, W-CDMA, DCS and PCS. This trend has increased the complexity of the transmit/receive and diversity antenna switch components resulting in a migration away from...
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Miniature W-band Low Noise Amplifiers

Traditionally products operating at millimeter-wave (mm-wave) frequencies could only be fabricated using waveguide technology, which restricted their application to low volume scientific applications such as radiometers and plasma diagnostics. Waveguide components suffer the disadvantages of high manufacturing complexity, large volume and high cost when dimensions become small at frequencies...
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WIN and Global to Merge

Global Communication Technology Corp. (GCT), the Taiwan-based GaAs MMIC foundry service provider, will merge with one of its major competitors, WIN Semiconductors Corp. (WIN). The shareholders meetings of the two companies met separately to approve the definitive merger agreement and confirm an equity swap at a 1:1.6 ratio (1.6...
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Around the Circuit

Industry News Smiths Group announced the acquisition of TRAK Communications Inc. for $111.5 M (GBP 63m) from Veritas of New York. TRAK will form part of Smiths Interconnect, a supplier of application specific electronics for military and commercial markets. The acquisition is the fifth Smiths has announced since presenting...
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Europe Sows Seeds for CMOS Technology Evolution

To keep Europe at the forefront of semiconductor technology, the European Commission will seed-fund an integrated project called NANOCMOS. The project aims to pioneer the necessary changes in materials, processes, device architectures and interconnections to keep pushing the limits of semiconductor performance and density. Participants in the project will...
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Bluetooth Testing BITEs Into Mainland China Market

Centro de Tecnología de las Comunicaciones (CETECOM), Spain, a provider of wireless test solutions, has been chosen by the State Radio Monitoring Centre (SRMC) to supply Bluetooth conformance test solutions, BITE, in Beijing, China, thus offering Bluetooth Qualification Testing services to Chinese manufacturers. As part of the contract, CETECOM...
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Business Insight for the Wireless LAN

Wireless local area networking (WLAN) is growing in popularity among US companies. In January 2004, In-Stat/MDR conducted a survey of network administrators who are knowledgeable and personally involved in their organization’s purchase and use of LAN equipment and services. Currently, the vast majority of surveyed companies use a wired...
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