Satellite systems design house EADS Astrium has deployed a software system for measuring antenna radio frequencies that uses OpenViz data visualisation software from Advanced Visual Systems. The system, known as EADS Astrium Advanced Antenna Measurement Software (AAMS), allows fully automated testing of antenna systems installed in ground vehicles, aircraft, unmanned aerial vehicles, missiles and satellites. OpenViz data visualisation software presents AAMS test results on interactive graphs that quickly expose irregularities and allow test personnel to fully comprehend a broad range of sophisticated data inputs.
Meaco has designed LPRS’s wireless modules into its environmental monitoring systems for protecting antiquities in museums, art galleries, castles, libraries and stately homes around the UK. These devices monitor temperature and humidity as well as lux and UV and are used in a variety of applications. LPRS is supplying Meaco with the Circuit Design CDP-TX05M-R transmitter and CDP-RX03BS-R receiver modules for Meaco’s monitoring systems, which are used as far afield as Osborne House on the Isle of Wight and Edinburgh Castle.
Cavium, Continuous Computing and Picochip unveiled the industry's first demonstration of an LTE small cell operating in an end-to-end system with commercially available user equipment (UE) and core network equipment. The demo took place at Femtocells World Summit in London last week. The demo shows interoperation between the Picochip PC960x LTE small cell solution, incorporating Trillium LTE protocol stack software from Continuous Computing running on a Cavium OCTEON processor, LTE dongles using Cavium's Odyssey 9000 UE chipsets and an LTE evolved packet core (EPC) supplied by a worldwide leader in networking.
RF PLLs in mobile communication chips were typically structured with analogue and digital circuits. Since achieving ultra-fine analogue circuits is highly challenging, there is now a shift to all digital PLLs using time-to-digital converters (TDC). While digitisation reduces circuit size, it also increases phase noise - a degrading displacement in the pulse of an RF signal - due to larger delay in the TDC’s inverter circuits. Cutting phase noise is essential for high speed communication standards, like WiMAX, which require highly accurate signals. There is the concern that current TDC is sensitive to variations in manufacturing processes that impact on their performance. This raises a need for more robust manufacturability.
RF Engines has released what it says is ‘the world’s most flexible ultra-wideband channeliser IP core’. ChannelCore Flex provides the ability to extract from a very wide input signal any number of channels simultaneously in real time. These can be any combination of different bandwidths and sampling rates with any overlap and centre frequencies. Each channel can be individually defined and changed as required so that the system designer can tailor a solution that precisely meets the needs of the application on a single FPGA.
Anritsu’s latest offering is the ME7838A broadband vector network analyser (VNA) that provides single-sweep coverage from 70 kHz to 110 GHz with operation from 40 kHz to 125 GHz, and eliminates the need for large, heavy millimeter wave (mmWave) modules and coax combiners. The ME7838A conducts accurate and efficient broadband device characterisation of active and passive microwave/mmWave devices, including those designed into emerging 60 GHz wireless personal area networks (WPANs), 40 Gbps and higher optical networks, 77 and 94 GHz automotive radar, digital radio links, 94 GHz imaging mmWave radar, and Ka-Band satellite communications. With the ME7838A design, mmWave modules can be mounted close to or directly on the wafer probe, making accurate calibration easy. This advantage, as well as the fact that the ME7838A transitions at 54 GHz, gives the broadband VNA the widest dynamic range in its class – 107 dB at 110 GHz and 92 dB at 125 GHz.
Fluke Networks has introduced the OptiView XG, a network analysis tablet that the company says provides the fastest solutions for network and application problems for both wireless and wired access – anywhere in the network. The tablet expedites network and application problem solving by automating root cause analysis and providing guided troubleshooting to address problem areas.
JFW has introduced a high-power surface-mount UHF switch into its RF switching range. The 50S-1887 SMT is a surface-mount switch that can handle up to 100 Watts (average RF input power) and it’s capable of hot-switching 20 Watts. The switch is designed to operate from 225-400 MHz, but other frequency ranges may be available on request.
IAR Systems is collaborating with Qualcomm Atheros on the AR4100, a highly integrated, WiFi system-in-package (SIP) for microcontroller based design. The new module is based on Qualcomm Atheros’ 802.11b/g/n single-stream Wi-Fi Align technology, enabling long range transmission while minimising energy consumption. IAR Embedded Workbench for ARM was selected as the preferred development tool for this Wi-Fi MCU.
As they have for several years, Intel, Samsung and Toshiba (in that order) remain the world’s top vendors of semiconductors, in a market which is expected to see about 4% growth during 2011. That growth, however, is softer than the robust growth seen in 2010 (though still better than 2009’s dismal performance), according to ABI Research.
