Articles by Microwave Journal Staff

One oft-cited maxim in the communications world states that standardization is the enemy of innovation: its premise is that once something is standardized there is, by definition, no room to alter or improve it and hence no remaining freedom in which to innovate. Indeed, this is frequently cited as...

In 2006, it appeared that the market launch of ultra-wideband (UWB) was imminent. Several factors conspired to delay that, but ABI Research now expects UWB to see very strong growth starting in 2008, finding its first success in laptops and computer peripherals and eventually in mobile handsets. Forecasts indicate...

From a mobile operator perspective, mobile WiMAX or 802.16e provides more of a service complement than a competitive threat, reports In-Stat. The mobile standard for WiMAX has been the subject of debate since its inception, the high-tech market research firm says. Mobile operators and vendors have disputed how this...

Industry News The IEEE International Reliability Physics Symposium’s (IRPS) 46 th annual conference will feature new technical sessions and invited papers on the latest microelectronic reliability issues. This year’s IRPS takes place from April 27 through May 1, 2008, at the Hyatt Regency Phoenix at Civic Plaza in Phoenix,...

Test and Measurement Catalog Agilent Technologies’ Interactive Test & Measurement Catalog 2008/09 is now available online. The new interactive catalog has enhanced features, including the ability to send an e-mail to a colleague that links to a specific page within the catalog. Users can bookmark pages for ease of...

Phase-locked Crystal Oscillator The PLXO-Series phase-locked crystal oscillators from EM Research are now available with significantly improved performance and smaller size. With the option of a surface-mount or connectorized package, PLXO offers several outputs: sine 7 dBm, 10 dBm, CMOS and PECL. The new smaller-sized surface-mount package (0.9 x...

RF and Microwave Transistor Oscillator Design Andrei Grebennikov John Wiley & Sons Ltd. • 456 pages; $150 ISBN: 978-0-470-02535-2 The main objective of this book is to present all relevant information necessary for RF and microwave transistor oscillator design, including well-known and new theoretical approaches and practical circuit schematics...

Presently, most handsets with integrated GPS are smartphones or high-end feature phones, with wholesale price in the range of $250 to $500. However, chipset manufacturers now have solutions in place that will permit the integration of GPS in handsets at lower costs, and provide significant improvements in terms of...

ZigBee, the formal network, security, application-framework and application-profile layer overlay on top of the 802.15.4 PHY (physical) and MAC (media-access-control) layers used in low-power wireless mesh networks, continues to evolve with its potential still unclear, reports In-Stat. Currently, ZigBee technology targets building automation, industrial, medical, home automation, asset management,...

Noting that the semiconductor industry has been experiencing relatively balanced growth over the past few years, market research firm In-Stat expects that this will continue over the next five years. Although there will be some variation in growth rates among the end-use segments in terms of semiconductor consumption, these...