The 2015 edition of MILCOM ran October 26-28 in Tampa. Unlike 2012, when Hurricane Sandy disrupted the conference, this year's weather — warm and somewhat humid — cooperated with the event.

Co-sponsored by AFCEA and the IEEE Communications Society, MILCOM focuses on military communications and attracts delegates from the military, government, industry and academia. Five program tracks provided forums for papers and panels discussing waveforms and signal processing, networking protocols and performance, cyber security and trusted computing, system perspectives and other selected topics.

Over 130 companies exhibited, reflecting the complete ecosystem serving aerospace and defense (A&D): primes such as BAE Systems and Raytheon, component companies like TransTech and Wolfspeed and distributors such as Richardson RFPD.

Here are a few notes from my observations and conversations on the exhibition floor:

CST was showing the capabilities of their 3D EM software, including various applications that can be simulated. Examples ranged from modeling the field around a mobile phone adjacent to a person's head to the composite antenna beam from a phased array. Of particular interest to MILCOM attendees, CST's software can model complex scenarios involving multiple antennas and structures, such as found on an aircraft or naval vessel. CST recently expanded their portfolio by acquiring CoupleFil, a synthesis tool for designing cross-coupled bandpass filters that was developed by InnoDev GmbH.

Keysight demonstrated design and test solutions for military, satellite and commercial communications. These included wideband and real-time signal generation and analysis, spectrum monitoring and emitter location system management, radio test, MIMO modeling and simulation and handheld solutions for the design and deployment of military communications systems. The FieldFox RF/microwave analyzer, with an extended upper frequency range of 50 GHz, was featured as a useful tool for field work on communication, radar and EW systems.

LPKF promoted their mechanical and laser machining equipment for chemical-free prototyping of printed circuit boards (PCB). A mechanical machining unit was displayed at the show, to demonstrate the basic capability, and company representatives spoke of the other models in the product family. The latest is the D104 ProtoMat, which combines mechanical and UV laser machining in a single unit and has the capability to work with flexible boards.

The Molex RF portfolio comprises coaxial connectors, semi-rigid and flexible cable assemblies and custom interconnect products that span DC to 65 GHz. A broad-based supplier, their A&D focus extends far beyond RF to encompass interconnect solutions for power, data and optical interfaces. The SMPM RF blind-mate connectors were among the RF products featured at MILCOM. With a 3.56 mm pitch, the connectors are 30 percent smaller than the SMP standard, reducing system weight in board-to-board blind-mate applications.

NXP's high power RF group — which will be renamed Ampleon once the business is sold to JAC Capital — exhibited LDMOS and GaN products for avionics, radar and military communications. Their LDMOS devices use the ninth generation process, which operates at 28 V and covers up to 3.5 GHz. Their GaN devices are fabricated on a 0.5 μm, 50 V process. NXP's packaging technology includes ceramic, air-cavity plastic and pallets. Pallets enable a more integrated solution where multiple stages can be combined on a single PCB.

Pole/Zero, a division of the Microwave Products Group of the Dover Company, featured an automatic identification system (AIS) splitter and receiver system. The splitter taps off a path from an existing transceiver, automatically blanks this secondary path during high power transmission and provides bandpass filtering to protect the receiver and mitigate interference. The AIS splitter/receiver is packaged in a rugged DZUS chassis for use in military environments such as avionics, UAVs, ground vehicles and ships.

Rohde & Schwarz offers an extensive range of product solutions for A&D applications, which they were highlighting through presentations and equipment demonstrations. In addition to test and measurement equipment, Rohde & Schwarz builds a broadband transceiver for aircraft communication, the R&S®MR6000A. The unit operates from 30 to 400 MHz and is compatible with military and civilian standards for secure communication. The transceiver is currently flying on the Sikorsky CH-53 helicopter and Tornado combat aircraft and is planned for the A400M transport aircraft. Field trials on UAVs are underway.

Like LPKF, T-Tech builds equipment for quick prototyping of PCBs. Their QCJ5 is a mechanical system that features three-axis motion control with over 3 in of vertical travel, automatic tool change with 12, 24 or 32 positions and automatic depth control using the company's "ContactByTouch" software. The QCJ5 can machine traces as fine as 4 μm and traverse as fast as 150 in/min.

TransTech is a subsidiary of Skyworks that develops ceramic materials and ceramic-based products such as filters and circulators. At the show, they featured a diplexer for the Multi User Objective System (MUOS) radio terminals. In both the transmit (310 MHz) and receive (370 MHz) bands, the diplexer provides 20 MHz minimum bandwidth with 1.5 dB maximum insertion loss, 14 dB minimum return loss and 50 dB isolation between transmit and receive.

In early September, Cree announced that their power and RF business segment was being named Wolfspeed, one step along a path to sell equity in the business through an IPO. The challenge with a name change is advising everyone who missed the press release. That was the primary mission at MILCOM, explaining the new name and answering questions about the future — as well as marketing their GaN products and foundry service. They featured two recent products: a plastic-packaged 75 W broadband GaN HEMT for military communications and a 16 W MMIC for Ku-Band VSAT. Wolfspeed also promoted their GaN foundry service, which has been designated by the U.S. DoD a Category 1A Trusted Foundry with manufacturing readiness level (MRL) 8+.

Peruse photos from the show taken by my colleague Mike Hallman.

Next year's MILCOM, scheduled for November 1-3, will move north to Baltimore.