One of the biggest innovations being deployed for satellite communications systems is flat panel beamsteering arrays that will replace mechanically steered dish type systems. These beam steering arrays are low profile and lighter that previous systems. The main problem has been getting the cost down. We saw many companies at Satellite 2021 that are battling for this market using several different approaches.

There has been a lot of activity recently around next generation radar sensors for automotive applications. These newer “4D radar” units determine an object's location in range, azimuth, elevation, and relative speed to provide detailed information about the driving environment as earlier automotive radar systems only captured speed and azimuth. These new radar sensors provide better resolution than previous versions which is where Lidar excels. Here are some of the latest developments in this area.

The IEEE MTT-S International Microwave Symposium (IMS) took place in-person in Atlanta, Georgia from 6-9 June followed by a virtual version two weeks later. The in-person technical program and exhibition were shortened due to the limited number of attendees, with the total attendance near 1500 with about 200 exhibiting companies.

While last year was the year of virtual events, this year is the year of hybrid events as we work our way out of COVID-19 quarantines and back into in-person events. See what is in store for the rest of the year.

NI is making major investments in 6G research - see how they are going it.

Qorvo® announced last week that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted emergency use authorization for the Qorvo Omnia™ SARS-CoV-2 Antigen Test and that it was awarded a $24.4 million contract with the National Institutes of Health (NIH) through the Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostics initiative. Learn about this new technology.

MWC Shanghai 2021 took place this week using a Hybrid event format so was the first in-person trade show for the industry this year. They expected about 200 exhibitors and about 20,000 visitors, about a third or the normal amount, so it will be interesting to see the actual counts when they are reported.

As soon as the iPhone 12/12 Pro were released, IFIXIT did a live video of the teardown to see which chips and components made it into the US version phone. Find out which RF modules that were identified in the teardown.