RF & Microwave

The U.S. National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), which is responsible for space-based intelligence, has awarded six study contracts around commercial radio frequency (RF) remote sensing. The six companies involved are Aurora Insight, HawkEye 360, Kleos Space, PredaSAR, Spire Global, and Umbra Lab. The organisation – an agency of the U.S. Department of Defense, which develops and operates America’s spy satellites – ...

Filtronic has announced an E-band transceiver for carrier-grade 5G back-haul, mid-haul and front-haul, together known as xHaul. Called Morpheus X2 and designed to work at 71 – 76GHz and 81 – 86GHz, it offers +23dBm linear transmit power, 3dB higher than the company’s earlier Morpheus II product, from the same 90 x 80mm footprint. “This higher power level enables longer ...

Move-X is aiming at tracking applications that need meter-level accuracy and a long-range battery-powered wireless connection with a module that is physically compatible with Arduino’s 63mm long MKR boards. Called Cicerone, it is built around u-blox’ MAXM10S GNSS (sat nav) receiver module and Move-X’ MAMWLE LoRa transceiver module, which has a Semtech SX126x inside. “This combination allows for synergy between ...

Astronode S is an RF module from satellite operator Astrocast, intended to be built into land or sea-based battery-powered IoT devices. It is based on an architecture developed by French research lab CEA-Leti, and an IC co-developed with Astrocast to optimise its link budget and power consumption to suit a particular Astrocast’s ground-to-satellite protocol – which offers a variable user ...

In a flurry of announcements alongside its developer converence, Silicon Labs has revealed a chip set for metropolitan Wi-Sun radio, a low-power IC for battery-powered Wi-Fi 6 links and a hardware-software development kit for Amazon Sidewalk. Wi-Sun For Wi-Sun (which is wireless smart utility network), and proprietary sub-GHz protocols, in cities and other built-up environments, it announced an RF microcontroller ...

Eindhoven-based Altum RF has created a 400W S-band power amplifier microwave IC (MMIC) with a 50-55% PAE (power added efficiency). Operating between 2.8 and 3.3GHz, it was developed with Netherlands research organisation TNO, which has been working on phased-array high power amplifier research for more that 30 years, according to Altum, and Taiwan’s Win Semiconductors, on whose NP45-11 50V 0.45μm RF ...

Johanson Technology had announced surface-mount filters to help Wi-Fi 5, Wi-Fi 6E and Wi-Fi 7 co-exist. 5500BP44A0700 (right) comes in a 4.5 x 3.2mm 1812 package and passes 5.1 to 5.8GHz while offering 50dB attenuation to the 6GHz Wi-Fi band. It can handle 3W (CW) and operates over -40 to +85°C 6100BP14A1995 is a 6.1GHz band pass filter in a ...

Pickering Electronics has announced miniature coaxial reed relays for use up to 3GHz, with the company emphasising low insertion loss (-3dB at 3.16GHz right). Called series 113RF, single-in-line through-hole relays have a 12.5 x 3.7mm footprint and are 6.6 or 8.9mm tall. Pin pitch is 2mm. The single 1 Form A (normally-open) contact can switching up to 10W and 500mA, ...

RangeAnt has created a family of 700MHz to 3GHz antennas, designed primarily for cellular, IoT and GNSS applications. “They feature free-space efficiency of between 80 and 90% and a VSWR below 2:1 across the operating bands,” according to the company. “The high efficiency delivers greater range for available transmitter power, or a lower transmitter power can be used for a ...

Apex TG.66 from Taoglas is a hinged monopole antenna designed to cover all global 5G and 4G frequencies between 600MHz and 6GHz. “Despite its miniature size, the TG.66 has omnidirectional radiation patterns and provides stable gain across the hemisphere,” according to distributor Anglia, which is stocking the part. “The antenna packs a punch for its size, with efficiencies above 45% ...