Articles by Microwave Journal

Last time on this blog, Ted Miracco and I compared and contrasted the recent DAC and IMS shows, and shared some thoughts on why we think DAC seems to be waning while MTT just keeps on going strong. This week I want to continue on with the DAC thought thread and talk a bit more about a fairly major topic at DAC that dominated my experience this year—the Interoperable PDK Libraries Initiative (IPL). This initiative, of which AWR is a founding member, was the subject of both a lunch and a pavilion panel discussion entitled, “Will Interoperable PDKs Fly in a Stodgy Analog World?”

July 27 marked the start of the 42nd Design Automation Conference in San Francisco. For the second year, AWR elected not to exhibit but rather to have a few execs attend for meetings and to “audit” the show if you will. Having just wrapped up a hugely successful and exciting IMS, I thought I’d talk about some of my impressions about the differences between DAC and IMS. Since AWR’s executive VP and long-time DAC/MTT veteran Ted Miracco also attended, I’ve invited him to share this blog with me because he has lots of good thoughts as well.

How ready are you to invest “skin in the game”? Successful companies know that getting to know your customers’ needs, issues, pain points, strengths and weaknesses results in a long term and growing business relationship. Each side demonstrates a willingness to invest time, money and resources into learning more about one another in order to realize the competitive and monetary gains that come as a result of putting your respective “skin in the game”—combining talents and sharing resources, expertise, knowledge.

Well, Sherry’s blog set me off again…..not in the sense that I was jealous of her spur-of-the-moment holiday in the Mediterranean. I was thinking about how ubiquitous smartphones and 3G technology have become. Mind you, I’m not a Luddite and, as an engineer, you would think that because my work enables so much change in other people’s lives that I too would embrace the latest tech trends as an early-adopter. Instead, I prefer to wait for the technology to mature, age a bit like fine wine, so you can separate the “Beta” from the “VHS”. And not that I need a clear winner as I’m perfectly happy with a world of iPhones and Blackberry’s (although, we do need a support group to help SOME people put them down when they are on vacation). But let’s face it: 3G technology is reshaping what we do with mobile technology.

In the RF LDMOS semiconductor business, everything is constantly changing. The applications change, the device requirements change, the customer’s expectations change and of course, the competition changes.

Gosh, what happened to June? IMS came and went and for AWR it was very successful, so I opted to take a spur of the moment vacation to the Mediterranean Sea. On the flight over, I bought Business Week, Time, etc. for "blog" inspiration. Once there, I read the Herald Tribune and my Blackberry for more inspiration. I asked friends for thoughts, ideas, ...anything, but nothing grabbed me. Maybe I need more exciting friends? My vacation came and went, and there I was on the return flight, still thinking....huh, what shall I write about...energy harvesting and scavenging? I am intrigued by that concept but not sure the microwave/RF community shares my passion:-) Open-access and the quagmire of EDA databases offered by vendors...snooze-fest! 3D glasses and my MWJ video interview? But then it hit me, as I was walking through the front door of my home back in Manhattan Beach--I'll write about what I did on my vacation!

Creative destruction. On a flight two weeks ago on American Airlines, I read an article in their May 15th issue of American Way called "Trend Spotter" In it, Marian Salzman listed her Ten trends that are changing everything from consumerism to the business landscape throughout the modern world.

Reading Sherry Hess’s blog got me to thinking about Paul Harvey and “the rest of the story.” For those of you who haven’t lived in the U.S. Heartland or don’t listen to AM radio much anymore, Harvey made a career out of the kind of human interest stories, historical vignettes, or short biographies that are out of fashion today by feeding you an anonymous, out of context story-line only to reveal “the rest of the story” later in the program to make a point, teach you some history, or touch your heart. Sherry’s discussion of productivity makes me think of the rest of the story: the technical side and where some people are on the design “productivity curve”.

I guess not a lot is keeping you all up at night since no one fessed-up. I lose sleep frequently given my type A personality but that’s a whole different thought topic for a separate blog. However, this “all is quiet” response reminded me of another article I read recently in the Harvard Business Review. My favorite passage, which I think describes what’s happening amongst us is this... “This hesitancy to make waves becomes stronger in times of general economic turmoil.”

In the semiconductor business, everyone is constantly revitalizing their portfolio, improving on the capability of their devices to make the next generation of parts significantly better than what is available now. Run faster, jump higher, PF flyers. The semiconductor business model is “innovate or die”. Either you are moving forward and winning or you are not-so-slowly dying. Competition drives the requirement for innovations and the fastest innovators typically have the best products, broadest portfolio base and the largest market share.