The European Microwave Week in Paris, Oct. 2-6, afforded microwave engineers and manufacturers the opportunity to experience three conferences and an exhibition.

Article Tools

• 

More than 158 exhibitors displayed and demonstrated their products and services in the CNIT, La Defense. CMP Electronics Group, the organizers of the week, said 4,012 total visitors attended the expo. The conferences included the 30th European Microwave Conference (EuMC), the Gallium Arsenide and other semiconductors Application Symposium (GAAS) and a new European Conference on Wireless Technology (ECWT).

Exhibitors used Microwave Week as a forum to announce new products and company news. RF Micro Devices, Greensboro, NC, announced that it had been invited to become an associate member of the Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG). The SIG will define future Bluetooth standards, according to RF Micro Devices. The company expects to have Bluetooth products available later this year. Associate membership of the SIG is limited to 50 companies and is obtained by invitation from one of the SIG's core promoter groups. 3Com invited RF Micro Devices to join.

One of the biggest product announcements came from Paratek on the second day of the week, with its DRWiN electronically scanning antenna. DRWiN stands for dynamically reconfigurable wireless networks. The antenna is a "low-cost, passive phased array antenna." It electronically scans in one dimension, providing rapid beam hopping to a high-frequency broadband wireless network subscriber base. The focused beam mitigates interference and can increase capacity as much as 70%, according to Somnath Sengupta, Paratek's vice president of sales and marketing. This type of antenna was first developed for military use but is now commercially available through Paratek. The company held continuous product demonstrations in a conference room at CNIT.

Eagleware, Norcross, GA , presented two new products at the show: the S/Filter and Harbec. The S/Filter software designs filters using a direct synthesis approach. Users can arbitrarily place transmission zeros to notch out unwanted frequencies. Direct synthesis takes user input, forms a transfer function from the user's criteria and extracts a schematic from this function.

The Harbec program, first introduced Sept. 1, is a harmonic balance simulator. The program allows designers to specify any number of fundamental tones for analysis and to co-simulate EM, linear and non-linear circuits. The engine also uses artificial intelligence techniques to find and incorporate the best convergence strategy. Harbec is fully integrated into the Genesys environment. Eagleware President Todd Cutler said that Harbec's value was what set it apart from other simulators, with a price tag of about $5,000.

Software programs weren't the only new product announcements made at European Microwave Week. Agilent Technologies, Santa Rosa, CA, introduced a new series of vector network analyzers, the PNA series. According to the company, these analyzers will deliver the highest level of measurement performance ever manufactured by Agilent or its predecessor, Hewlett-Packard. The series incorporates the Windows 2000 operating systems, which links the measurement environment with the PC environment for automation and integration with other applications and tools for automated test. The new instruments combine fast sweep speeds (between six and 35 times faster than the Agilent 8753ES), wider dynamic range, low trace noise, four measurement receivers with direct access and 9GHz frequency coverage.

Anadigics, Warren, NJ, presented an InGaP HBT power amplifier for GSM/DCS and GPRS data-enabled wireless handsets. The amplifier is the first in a new family of 3V indium gallium phosphide devices designed for GSM, TDMA, CDMA and 3G handsets. The AWT6107 delivers dual-band voice operation and integrates all the necessary passive components for full compensation and 50ohm input/output matching. The amplifier reduces the component count, enabling manufacturers to reduce design cycles, simplify testing and improve manufacturing throughput.