RF & Microwave

The stakes have never been higher for reliable and efficient communications for military use, says Meir Bartur, of Optical Zonu. In an era where technological advancements such as automation are transforming every aspect of military operations, reliable and efficient communications have become paramount. When the Pentagon received $7.5bn in 2021 to fund unmanned systems across the US Air Force, Army ...

To address the stringent requirements of the latest microwave and mmWave testing, Siglent has increased the addressable frequency range of its RF signal generators to 40GHz. The SSG6000A has a wide frequency range of 100kHz-40GHz, even at high output power levels, claimed the company. It can act as a local oscillator and clock source, but is also an analogue signal ...

Intelsat has completed its C-band frequency clearing process for which it will receive nearly $3.7 billion in payment from the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC). The commission had set deadline stages to clear the spectrum, but had also offered landmark incentive payments to satellite operators. These were to clear the mid-range (3.7 – 3.82 GHz) of the frequency (3.4 – ...

Component distributor Richardson RFPD has prepared a couple of documents on the options available for designers of RF amplifiers. Rather than in-depth, they are a useful introduction to the different possibilities of discrete RF transistors, impedance-matched FETs (IMFETs), and integrated circuit RF amplifiers (MMICs), with component examples picked multiple manufactures whose products it stocks. The papers are: Discrete transistor, IMFET ...

Panasonic has announced a demo kit for Wirepas mesh networking, builts around its PAN1780 Bluetooth 5 LE module, with has a Nordic Semi’s nRF52840 radio IC and an antenna. IoT software company Symbiotech, which already has Wirepas Mesh products, has provided the kit’s software, and Panasonic earlier teamed up with Wirepas to get the mesh network stack onto its module. ...

Bluetooth Low Energy Audio is finally available in IoT devices. Dr Nick Wood, of Insight SiP, explains why it has taken more than two years from SIG revision to realisation. In early December 2020 the Bluetooth SIG (Special Interest Group) released revision 5.2 of Bluetooth. One of the key upgrades was the addition of BLE Audio (Bluetooth Low Energy Audio). ...

HawkEye 360, the space-based RF data and analytics specialist has announced it has closed $58 million in new Series D-1 funding. The Herndon, Virginia-based company says it will be used to develop expand its analytics systems that support high-value defense missions. It plans to invest in AI “to better extract value” from the large amount of RF data being collected ...

Würth Elektronik introduced N type 50Ω cable and PCB connectors to MIL-STD-348. PCB jacks are available in straight and angled through-hole versions, or as four-hole flanged panel connectors with round post or solder cup. Cable-end versions (pictured right) are available loose for field assembly, or pre-assembled onto cables (including N-type to SMA adaptors, picture below), and there are coax bulkhead ...

Novocomms, the UK antenna design specialist, is expanding its operations in Birmingham following a successful “multi-million pound” funding round. Specifically, the company is set to hire additional engineers and salespeople, move to new offices and create 100 jobs by September 2025. Up to 30 of these roles are expected to be created in the next six months, it says. The ...

Nordic Semiconductor is aiming at cellulat IoT with a system-in-package which puts an RF front-end and a power chip alongside its nRF91 modem and CPU chip. Called nRF9161, it is a globally pre-certified IC “that makes it possible to select either cellular IoT connectivity using the secure cellular infrastructure or use DECT NR+ to realise private 5G networking”, according to ...