Pat Hindle, MWJ Editor | Microwave Journal

Pat Hindle is responsible for editorial content, article review and special industry reporting for Microwave Journal magazine and its web site in addition to social media and special digital projects. Prior to joining the Journal, Mr. Hindle held various technical and marketing positions throughout New England, including Marketing Communications Manager at M/A-COM (Tyco Electronics), Product/QA Manager at Alpha Industries (Skyworks), Program Manager at Raytheon and Project Manager/Quality Engineer at MIT. Mr. Hindle graduated from Northeastern University - Graduate School of Business Administration and holds a BS degree from Cornell University in Materials Science Engineering.

Moblie World Congress 2009 Kicks Off!

February 18, 2009

Patrick Hindle

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So what's hot this year at Mobile World Congress. It seems a little subdued because of the projections for handsets to decline by about 10% this year but there is always the next big thing coming down the road in technology. There seems to be a fair amount of green technology - mostly solar powered devices, etc. Android has picked up some support from a few applications providers and RFID /payment technologies are taking hold in handsets. WiMAX was hot last year but this is the year of LTE (even as WiMAX is actually rolling out some implementations). With...

SA Predicts Rapid WiMAX Growth in Asia

February 13, 2009

Patrick Hindle

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Strategy Analytics said the predict that consumer WiMAX subscriptions in the developing countries of Asia will grow from a few thousand now to almost 27 million by 2013. Their research predicts that the strongest growth will come outside the major cities of Asia. Subscriptions in villages and small towns are forecast to grow at almost 300% per year, three times the rate of major cities. Government policies aimed at closing the rural-urban “digital divide” are one reason for this rapid growth, but historic lack of broadband alternatives is at least as strong a factor. “Big cities are the obvious place...

Bring RF/microwave Back to CTIA

February 13, 2009

Patrick Hindle

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CTIA WIRELESS 2009 is the largest and most comprehensive US trade show in the wireless industry so it should be a prime trade show for RF/microwave professionals and companies. But many of the smaller RF/microwave component and test companies have left the show because it became so large, expensive and consumer oriented. However, we should take advantage of this situation and attend/exhibit because most of the large OEMs who are our biggest customers are there along with their customers, the consumers and service providers. What better opportunity than to meet with your customers and their customers at the same...

Google Starts "White Spaces" Group

February 12, 2009

Patrick Hindle

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It was recently announced that Google is teaming up with several technology companies, including Comsearch , Dell, HP, Microsoft, Motorola and Neustar , to form a new coalition called the White Spaces Database Group , which will provide and compile into a database technical specifications for devices that will use white space spectrum . White spaces are unused slivers of spectrum in the 700 MHz band that sit between broadcast TV channels. Google and others successfully lobbied the FCC last year to open up that spectrum for unlicensed use so that new wireless devices could access that spectrum. In its...

College Students Chat with Space Station Using Their Radio

February 9, 2009

Patrick Hindle

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Four Toronto college students from The Humber College have accomplished a technological feat by making contact with the International Space Station last week using a radio system they designed and built themselves. It was a scheduled event so they did not just call them out of the blue. The project got off the ground about a year ago as the students looked for a way to apply knowledge gained from their radio communication courses. The first message got no response, but a second attempt reached astronaut Sandra Magnus . They had a 10-minute window to talk to her, during which...

Wireless Charging Coming This Year

February 5, 2009

Patrick Hindle

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While I did not attend CES 2009, one of the hot emerging products was wireless charging. Powermat was there showing off its family of charging mats (using inductive coupling) for mobile devices like cell phones, PDAs , etc. They are very efficient (like 93%) so charging is relatively fast and they should be available soon (maybe Q2 this year). These mats would would cost about $100 so they are reasonably priced for a first to market, high tech product. Fulton is taking a different approach with their wireless charging technology dubbed eCoupled . They are working with large consumer product...

Star Trek Cloaking Device Becoming a Reality?

February 3, 2009

Patrick Hindle

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Metamaterials are a hot subject in microwave technology these days. Much of the work I see is going on with the design of antenna structures or substrate materials, but the researchers at Duke University have designed and tested a microwave cloaking device that can almost completely "hide" a small structure from microwaves. While this is not new news, they have more recent work going on to apply this technology to sound waves. The Duke cloaking device is a structure made up of copper rings and wires patterned on a fiberglass composite. The structure is designed to route the microwaves around...

Pulsed RF Power Devices Expected to Show Solid Growth

January 30, 2009

Patrick Hindle

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So let's get to some good economic news. ABI research is saying that markets for pulsed RF power devices below 4 GHz are expected to show continued solid growth over the next five years despite the current economic turmoil. While the volatility of many global electronics markets is fueled by their association with consumer spending, markets for pulsed RF power devices are supported by quite different priorities. “Many RF power semiconductor manufacturers are on a quest to find markets unrelated to mobile wireless infrastructure,” notes ABI Research director Lance Wilson. “Device prices in wireless infrastructure are falling, and the total...

Some Cuts Announced

January 28, 2009

Patrick Hindle

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As with many other industries, the electronics market is suffering from the downturn and several companies have announced layoffs. STMicroelectronics has outlined a major cost-cutting effort, including a plan to shed 4,500 jobs. In total, STMicroelectronics (Geneva) plans to reduce its costs by over $700 million in 2009. The actions are focused on ''resizing'' the company's manufacturing operations and streamlining expenses. The company - which issued a recent warning about Q4 - also reported sales of $2.276 billion in the fourth quarter of 2008, compared to $2.696 billion in the third period and $2.742 billion in the like period a...

Cellular Growth Expected in 2009

January 22, 2009

Patrick Hindle

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The Strategy Analytics (SA) has posted a new Wireless Network Strategies service report, “US Wireless Market Outlook: 2009 Key Trends,” and predicts that US cellular subscriber growth will remain strong despite the economic situation but growth levels will scale back slightly from 2008. US cellular service revenues will also continue to grow, albeit at a slower growth rate of 3.9%, down from 7.5% in 2008. This is consistent with some surveys I have heard about saying that the technology products people expect to continue to buy are cell phones and HDTVs (those products are part of our everyday life and...