Extending Power and Dynamic Range in E-Band Backhaul Test Sets
According to Ericsson’s 2022 Mobility Report, global mobile data traffic is expected to grow by a factor of 4 to 325 Exabytes total per month or 46 GB per smartphone on average by 2028, excluding Fixed Wireless Access usage.1 Network operators’ ability to support this rapid growth in consumption hinges on the speed and capacity of the backhaul systems connecting base stations to the core networks. Accordingly, the market for cellular backhaul equipment is projected to grow by 12.6% CAGR from 17.85B to 32.29B USD between 2020 and 2025. Looking more narrowly at E-Band systems still in nascent stages of development, that growth rate jumps to 22.3% (534M to 1.46B over the same period).1
LTCC Filter Innovations Enable Next Generation Aircraft Internet Links
For all the headlines and personal anecdotes lamenting how commercial air travel isn’t what it used to be, there are some clear benefits enabled by recent advances in technology we might be taking for granted. One of these is in-flight internet service. Whether domestic or international, most flights now offer internet service via satellite, allowing passengers to remain connected for personal and business use throughout the majority of their journey.
For most aircraft in service today, the satellite up/downlink connection is achieved with a mechanically steerable antenna mounted to the top of the fuselage. The antenna has a limited range of motion to maintain connection with the satellite while compensating for the movements of the aircraft during normal flight operation. These mechanical systems are now giving way to electronically steerable systems using phased array antennas to deliver more reliable connectivity with lower costs of operation and maintenance for the carriers.
Understanding RF/Microwave Push-Pull Amplifier Design
Remarkably, the concept of the push-pull connection spans three centuries. William W. Dean of the Bell Telephone Company of Missouri first described the push-pull-connected telephone transmitter in Patent No. 549,477, dated November 5, 1895.1 Next, Sir John Ambrose Fleming invented the first vacuum tube in 19042 and while Lee De Forest added the grid to Fleming’s “valve” in 1906, calling it the “audion,” it was Fritz Lowenstein in his April 24, 1912 patent application who first discovered that applying a negative bias to the grid of De Forest’s tube turned it into an audio amplifier.
Optimizing Transistor Stages for Different Operating Bandwidths
Since their invention by John Bardeen, Walter Brattain and William Shockley at Bell Labs in 1947, transistors have become a defining (if not the defining) feature of the contemporary technology landscape. Electric vehicles can have over 5 billion transistors in a given build, and today’s smartphones more than 10 billion! While their most common and familiar uses reside in the digital world, transistors are an essential element in RF circuits and systems, and while often integrated into more complex, multi-function devices, the simple transistor is still an essential tool in the designer’s toolkit.
New Space applications
Undoubtedly, the space industry is one of the strongest innovation drivers today.
In the past, space applications helped making our lives on earth better with applications that resulted from Space technologies such as:
Airbag
ABS
Satnav – GPS
Baby formula
…
Israel’s astronauts in Space
Ilan Ramon was born in 1954 in Ramat-Gan, Israel. His father Eliezer fled Germany in 1935 and his mother Tonya survived the Auschwitz extermination camp. Ilan’s parents immigrated to Israel after the second world war, in 1949. Ilan grew up in the town of Beer Sheba (south of Israel) and graduated from high school in 1972. In 1972, Ilan graduated with a B.Sc. degree in electronics and computer engineering from the Tel Aviv University.
Space IL – The Israeli Moon landing mission
The adventure began in 2011 with SpaceIL as the dream of three Israeli entrepreneurs: Yariv Bash, Kfir Damari, and Yehonatan Weintraub, and swiftly grew into a national project with numerous funders, collaborators, employees, and volunteers. Harvey Kaylie, the founder of Mini-Circuits (Z”L), became aware of this project and was one of the first to support this unique and historic endeavor aiming at strengthening the high-tech sector, promote education and see Mini-Circuits’ name literally reach the moon.
Exploring the Fundamentals of Thin-Film Filter Technology in RF & Microwave Applications
Finding the right filter for frequency ranges above the 3 GHz range is a perennial challenge for RF system engineers. Designers are typically looking for repeatable performance at production volume and a small, surface-mount form factor robust enough to withstand reflow onto their existing printed wiring board (PWB). Lumped element filters utilizing discrete wire-wound inductors and chip capacitors meet these criteria handily for passbands below about 3 GHz, but frequency response becomes more sensitive to variations in the physical structure of the device and temperature at higher frequencies, rendering this approach impractical.
The Israeli Space Industry
Israel has a lengthy history of accomplishment in space, including technological advancement, applications, and competitive products. The Space Program began in the 1980s, when Israel was the ninth country in the world to successfully launch and position satellites in space. This was an extraordinary achievement for a country of less than 4 million inhabitants at the time.
The primary goal was and continues to be to build a comprehensive infrastructure for space research. Due to security concerns and a lack of resources, Israel has primarily focused on miniaturizing technologies and developing small, light satellites with high resolution, remote sensing, and communication capabilities. Israel is regarded as a world leader in this industry: a small country with a significant technological advantage. The primary activities of Israel’s space industry include satellite development, production, and operation, as well as the selling of communication services and remote sensing.
The Global Space Industry
Space has fascinated and perplexed humans since the beginning of time. Evidence stretches back to prehistory, and space and stars can be found in religions, mythology, cosmology, and astrology. Our basic existence is dependent on the stars, moon, and sun, and our calendars, days, seasons, and so on are all related to them and their cycle. From the period when people thought the earth was flat to now, especially in the last half-century, space exploration has made great advances forward, with some even talking about making humanity multi-planetary.
