On the final day of a trade show, business really starts to wind down, and MTT-S 2004 was no exception. Traffic was extremely light, and exhibitors wrapped up the last of their appointments in the morning, enabling them to wander the show floor for the rest of the day. No longer tethered to their booths, people were free to chat with friends, forage for leftover marketing goodies, and scope their competitors' booths. The entire day had a relaxed, almost casual feel to it.Not so for this editor! Thursday's docket held more appointments than either of the previous two days, and I had to make all my stops by mid-afternoon -- before catching a flight back to Philadelphia. Despite its harried pace, the day bore a number of very interesting and enjoyable visits. Read on for a recap of (and pictures from) my whirlwind tour.I hope to see you next year at MTT-S 2005 in Long Beach!Mimix BroadbandEmployees of Texas-based Mimix Broadband (Houston) really went with the show's regional theme, donning cowboy boots, handing out bandanas, and encouraging attendees to participate in a "trail ride" through the convention center. By assembling all the pieces of a trail map from various booths throughout the exhibition, "riders" could enter to win a number of prizes, including one-year licenses of AWR's Microwave Office and Visual System Simulator.The MMIC supplier's big news at the show was a new 3-chip solution that supplies all the millimeter-wave functionality of competing 10-chip solutions. The integrated design, which combines Mimix' new 35-43 GHz power amplifier with a 37-40 GHz transmitter and a 37-40 GHz receiver, results in a smaller size/footprint and enables cost savings of up to 50%. And with fewer parts and interconnects -- and no tuning -- the solution promises to increase reliability and simplify RF designs.For more information, visit Mimix Broadband's storefront.Sonnet SoftwareShawn Carpenter, VP of sales and marketing for Sonnet Software (North Syracuse, NY), told me that his company was very pleased with the number of booth visitors at this year's show, especially during day one. He also shared some thoughts on the state of the RF/microwave EDA industry."We're excited to see the progress that the industry has made toward interoperability, enabling tools from multiple vendors to be used together within a given design flow," Carpenter said. "This puts the power of choice into the hands of the people best suited to make the decision -- the engineers themselves. Opening the design frameworks enables engineers to use whatever tool they decide is best suited to a particular technology, regardless of the logo that it wears. It also leads to better tools overall and greater success in the design community."The company's booth was a testament to interoperability. On display were existing interfaces between Sonnet and both Agilent ADS and AWR Microwave Office, as well as upcoming integration into the Cadence Virtuoso Suite. Sonnet also announced anticipated links with CAD Design Software and Eagleware's Genesys Suite. (Editor's Note: Both the CAD Design and Eagleware interfaces have since been completed. Click on the company names above for the related stories.) In addition, the company previewed a new broadband SPICE model extractor that will become available in Sonnet Professional Release 10 later this year.For more information, visit Sonnet's storefront.TrilithicTrilithic (Indianapolis) distributed freshly minted copies of its new CD catalog at the show. The 108-page catalog covers the company's complete line of RF and microwave components, including filters, attenuators and related components, switches, and switching and control subsystems. A PDF version of the catalog is available in the RF Globalnet download library.Trilithic also introduced the new DC3VNF Series 50, a microprocessor-controlled, one-octave, precision mechanical notch filter that allows front panel control over the frequency of the notch. Positional information for each frequency is stored in the microprocessor for retrieval during frequency changes. The filter is hand-tuned for optimal performance, and is shock-mounted in an aluminum shell to provide resistance to impact and vibration.For more information, visit Trilithic's storefront.XL MicrowaveXL Microwave (Oakland, CA), a manufacturer of test and measurement instruments, displayed the Model 2261 Analyze-R Test Set at its booth. The 2261 is an affordable, application-specific spectrum monitor/analyzer for applications in the unlicensed ISM and U-NII bands. It has an intuitive interface and provides both frequency and amplitude information across an entire 100 MHz U-NII band. Resolution bandwidth is 1 MHz and the amplitude range spans -100 to -30 dBm.Also showcased at XL's booth was the new CNT-90 timer/counter/analyzer from Pendulum Instruments (the companies entered a strategic alliance back in September 2003). According to Pendulum, the CNT-90 is the fastest timer/counter/analyzer on the market, completing 250k measurements/s to internal memory and 2k/s via GPIB -- fast enough for modulation domain analysis. It also claims the highest resolution available, with 12 digits/s (frequency), 100 ps (time), and 0.001 (phase).For more information, visit www.xlmicrowave.com.AnsoftYear after year, MTT-S continues to be a great show for Ansoft (Pittsburgh), Sherry Hess, VP of marketing, told me. "This year was no exception and in fact was fueled by our recent announcements of Ansoft Designer v2 and our next-generation circuit simulator, Nexxim," Hess said. "Ansoft's own growth toward leveraging electromagnetic accuracy within higher-level circuit and system design is enticing new business."Among the demos conducted at Ansoft's towering booth were:Nexxim, a circuit simulation tool targeting analog/mixed-signal applications, including RFCMOS and GaAs/SiGe RFICs;Ansoft Designer v2.0, which is now integrated with Nexxim for RF/mixed-signal circuit simulation;HFSS v9.2, with a link to Ansoft Designer and Nexxim, enabling 3D electromagnetic co-simulation for RF/mixed-signal circuit simulation; andUMC's Electromagnetic Design Methodology utilizing HFSS to create spirals.
For more information, visit Ansoft's storefront.Sirenza MicrodevicesDuring the show, Sirenza (Broomfield, CO) announced an expansion to its signal source product line with new VCOs in targeted frequency bands. The new, low phase noise oscillators operate at 3.5, 4.5, 5.5, 9, and 10 GHz, and were developed for aerospace, defense, homeland security, and microwave radio applications.On display at the Sirenza booth was the company's SGB gain blocks, a family of low-cost, high-performance SiGe HBT MMIC amplifiers in Darlington configurations with active bias networks. The blocks are designed to run directly from a 5v supply, eliminating the need for a drop resistor.For more information, visit Sirenza's storefront.Maury MicrowaveMaury Microwave (Ontario, CA), a manufacturer of microwave components and instruments, had perhaps the most attention-grabbing booth, its backdrop awash with vivid colors and Japanese animation-style illustrations. The booth itself was as busy as its artwork, active even on the final day of the exhibition. Maury representatives were almost constantly engaged with attendees, answering technical questions and conducting demos.Maury's newest offering was Smarthub, a USB-based tuner controller for mechanical and solid state tuners and components. The system enables you to configure noise parameters and load measurements based on the type of application and/or devices you are measuring. Smarthub is compatible with ATN noise and load-pull systems and also supports current mechanical tuners, allowing you to utilize existing hardware.Also on display were Maury's 1.85 mm VNA calibration kits for making error-corrected measurements on devices from DC to 70 GHz. Each kit contains a range of calibration standards, user-specified VNA software, and a set of adapters.For more information, visit www.maurymw.com.Sophia WirelessBruce Carpenter, VP of sales and marketing, shared some exciting test results for a 38-GHz micro-machined filter currently being developed by Sophia (Chantilly, VA). In trials conducted by the company and a third-party test facility, the filter demonstrated a record insertion loss of approximately 1.5 dB, some 5 dB better than the previous mark. And Sophia thinks it can improve upon that number -- the goal is to achieve 18 dB return loss across the passband. The company expects this new technology to be commercially available early in 2005.Sophia also showed off its MPC4-0618 solid-state power amplifier, a 6-18 GHz X/Ku-band SSPA with 25 (to 100) W of saturated power. The SSPA consists of power modules combined and integrated into aluminum housing for use in microwave systems or lab-based, high-performance applications.For more information, visit Sophia's storefront.Applied Wave ResearchAWR's (El Segundo, CA) booth was buzzing with demos of the company's two newest software releases, Visual System Simulator (VSS) 2004 and Analog Office 2004. New features of VSS include: support for Linux, RF budget analysis for calculating cascaded performance of the RF link, and PLL simulation blocks for interactive investigation of the dynamics of frequency synthesizers and frequency and phase modulators. The 2004 release of Analog Office also provides Linux support, and adds: an extension of the AWR Intelligent Net (iNet) technology to handle arbitrary layout geometries, automatic and "on the fly" connectivity extraction in layout, support for Verilog-A analog behavioral language, among other enhancements. (In related news, Analog Office was recently selected by Ashvattha Semiconductor for RFIC design and by Finisar for high-speed optical transceiver design.)AWR also previewed the 2004 edition of its flagship product, Microwave Office. Upgrades to this release will include: 3D graphs, 10X speed improvement in nonlinear/phase noise analysis, interface to Zeland's IE3D and MEM Research's EM3DS simulators, and EM optimization through layout integration.For more information, visit AWR's storefront.M/A-COMM/A-COM (Lowell, MA) launched a number of new products during the show, the most notable of which was a new family of non-magnetic, high-power PIN diodes for MRI circuits and test equipment. Manufactured using a proprietary plating process, the MA4P7400 Series diodes employ full faced anode and cathode contacts to lower the effective electrical and thermal resistance, providing outstanding RF peak and average power handling.Other new products from M/A-COM included: the MASYML0007, a low phase noise, phase-locked oscillator for high reliability applications such as communications terminals, surveillance radar exciters, airborne transponders, and fire control radar; the MASWSS0065, a low-voltage, high-linearity power GaAs switch for handset and other RF applications; and the MA4SPS552, a compact addition to SURMOUNT packageless PIN diode family, intended for use in handsets, WLAN products, instrumentation, and military control applications between 0.5 GHz and 26 GHz.For more information, visit M/A-COM's storefront.MicianEM CAD software supplier Mician (Bremen, Germany) demoed µWave Wizard, its synthesis and optimization tool for rectangular and circular waveguide networks. The tool combines the mode-matching technique with combline filters for high accuracy and blazing speed. (According to the company, µWave Wizard is at least 10 times faster than a 3D solver, depending on the structure involved.) It is particularly suited for the simulation and optimization of passive waveguide components, including antennas.As mentioned in Part 1 of this article, Mician also announced a partnership with CST that will give CST DESIGN STUDIO users optional access to a subset of µWave Wizard's fully parametric mode-matching components.For more information, visit www.mician.com.Click here to read Part 1 and Part 2.
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