Here's a recap of recent industry news that caught my attention. Last week was another week of earnings calls, often accompanied by a few nuggets of information.

Companies and Products

Akoustis Technologies reported successful fabrication of the first single crystal BAW filter, designed for the 2.7 GHz cellular band and measuring < 1 dB loss. Akoustis claims single crystal piezoelectric material provides better performance than current BAW filters.

In its recent earnings release, Apple reported that revenue from greater China fell 33 percent from the prior year's quarter. Doug Young assessed the headwinds Apple is facing in China, important since Apple's tide floats the boats of the wireless semiconductor industry.

EPCOS, an RF components manufacturer and subsidiary of TDK, will acquire Tronics for approximately €49 million ($54 million). Tronics enables EPCOS to enter the market for inertial sensors, leveraging Tronic's MEMS technology.

Fairview Microwave introduced a family of coaxial, PIN diode switches. The 23 SPDT switches span bands from 10 MHz to 67 GHz and are available in absorptive and reflective configurations. Insertion loss is as low as 1.1 dB, isolation up to 80 dB and switching speed as low as 50 ns.

Huawei and Vodafone are field testing 4 x 4 MIMO, eight transmit and receive (8T8R) and multi-user beam forming to improve 4G network capacity in high density urban environments. They call it 4.5G, a step on the way to 5G.

IDT reported Q1 fiscal 2017 revenue of $192 million, up 19 percent from the prior year's quarter and 1 percent above the prior quarter. The communications segment contributed 41 percent of total revenue, with the revenue from RF products setting a record — "tickling" $10 million per quarter.

Mission Microwave received a Phase II SBIR award to develop a 70 W, 30 to 31 GHz solid-state power amplifier with >35 percent efficiency.

National Instruments (NI) released the LabVIEW MIMO Application Framework. Paired with software defined radio (SDR) hardware, the application framework provides a reconfigurable, parameterized physical layer in LabVIEW source code that enables researchers to build MIMO and massive MIMO prototypes — up to 128 MIMO.

Qorvo reported Q1 fiscal 2017 revenue of $699 million, a jump of 15 percent sequentially and 4 percent above last years's quarter. Gross margin declined from "higher than expected costs" for a low band PA duplexer and low initial yields on a quadplexer for China. Non-GAAP margin was 48.2 percent, down from 51.5 percent in the prior year's quarter. The company expects strong demand in fiscal Q2, guiding approximately 20 percent growth.

During Qorvo's earnings call, CEO Bob Bruggeworth provided insight into the company's infrastructure segment, including recent GaN design wins.

With Steve Buhaly's retirement as Qorvo CFO and the new CFO based in Greensboro, North Carolina, the Portland, Oregon press noted that Hillsboro is no longer a headquarters. However the site will be the manufacturing center for Qorvo's GaAs MMICs.

Resonant secured three new designs with an unnamed "tier one" customer, designs for "complex" duplexers that will be manufactured with wafer level packaging. Resonant now has five design agreements with this same customer. If the designs are successful and enter production, Resonant will earn royalties on duplexer shipments.

Skyworks acquired the remaining portion of their SAW filter JV with Panasonic, paying $76.5 million for the remaining 34 percent. Except for BAW filters, the company now has all RF technology in house for mobile applications.

WIN Semiconductors reported July revenue of NTD 1,229 million ($39 million), up 36 percent year-over-year and 1% sequentially. Year-to-date revenue was NTD 8,076 million ($256 million), up 18 percent year-over-year. The results signify strong demand from the cellular and Wi-Fi markets.

Markets and Technology

5G — Keysight and NI, both heavily engaged in 5G development, are among the companies supporting the recently announced Platforms for Advanced Wireless Research (PAWR). PAWR is a public-private partnership aimed at helping commercialize early R&D on next-generation wireless technologies.

Verizon is planning to use 5G for "last mile" connections, to replace slow DSL connections and avoid the cost of laying FTTH. Verizon's planned acquisition of XO Communications will provide access to 28 GHz spectrum for the fixed wireless service. RCR Wireless article.

Autonomous Driving — An expensive lab setup using equipment from Keysight and Virginia Diodes successfully jammed a stationary Tesla radar, making the detected object disappear. Although far from a real world scenario, it's a cautionary tale. Wired article.

A simple traffic scenario, seen daily, is a surprisingly complicated decision for autonomous vehicles.

Defense — The War College podcast recently explored information warfare and cybersecurity, coincidental with the WikiLeaks publication of emails hacked from the Democratic National Committee. One message worth hearing: the IoT will add to our vulnerability.

Mobile Life — Mobile technology is changing our lives, including renting a car. Mobile apps even enable you to rent your own car, becoming a "hyper local" car rental agency.

If you come across news that you think is worth including in the weekly report, please send it to me at glerude@mwjournal.com. Your feedback is always welcome.