"Printed Circuit Boards (PCBs) support the functionality of just about every working electronic device in use today. If you want to make something that does something, PCBs are likely a component of your product design.

First in a series of white papers, PCB Design for Smarties will share our expertise on the subject, helping you move forward to your next project, confident there will be smooth sailing from design through manufacturing."

Today, R&D engineers face challenging time-to-market goals. Extending the product development schedule and delaying the product launch can prove to be extremely costly in terms of opportunity cost and lost market share. Nearly 50 % of products fail EMC compliance the first time.

Experts and major industry bodies have spoken — 5G will arrive faster than many envisioned, and our industry is in the middle of an age of innovation that has not been seen for 25 years. Companies developing systems for millimeter-wave (mmWave) 5G networks are in front of regulating bodies, working to anticipate where the market will move and how to meet the needs of their customers.

Radar test systems are essential in research, development, production and maintenance of radar systems. Most radar tests are expensive to carry out in the field and have a complicated setup and operation. This application note presents a solution for testing the complete radar system by generating any kind of radar echo signals with arbitrary range, Doppler frequency and Radar Cross Section. The Radar Echo Generator makes it possible to perform real time tests on many applications including aerospace & defense and commercial radar systems.

With the evolution of 5G technology, the need for antenna array systems is growing. This increases the demand for efficient power amplifier implementations to support high-density setups. Imagine you could get 60 % more output power, 50 % more bandwith and up to 20 % efficiency gain per amplifier in a MIMO antenna array setup? Would you spend time on rethinking your implementation plans?

Solid-state technologies such as gallium nitride (GaN) are transforming satellite communications (satcom). GaN’s advantages of high RF power, low DC power consumption, high reliability and smaller size (which reduces system weight) are opening new markets and revolutionizing the RF front-end (RFFE) in existing satcom applications.

Since each generation of IoT devices needs to be smaller, more robust, easier to configure and use less power than before, designers and engineers need to know the challenges involved. Download the whitepaper to learn how to navigate these.

Since the advent of Network Synthesis Theory at the turn of the last century, filter designers have been developing ever more sophisticated solutions to translate polynomial transfer functions into working, physical components.

This application note aims to explain test procedures and give recommendations towards characterization of the relevant parameters for active phased array antennas and their passive subsystem, as often used in applications for Mobile Communication and RADAR.

Mechanical integration of microwave components often becomes the last step while addressing manufacturing considerations for system-level designs. In many cases, the electrical design is analyzed, boards built, designs reverified, then mechanical engineers fit everything into the final package. This paper shows how component manufacturers can help solve system-level packaging problems using Airstrip technology.