Wireless System Design Update: Antennas: The Black Art Of
Wireless
Wireless System Update e-Newsletter
| February 12, 2008
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Webcast: Leveraging ESL Techniques To Optimize Low-Power
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Feb 13 at 2:00pm EST
Mentor Graphics Jon McDonald, TME, will discuss gains to design
low-power SoC at levels of abstraction above RTL and look at how tools
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commentary |
Antennas: The Black Art Of Wireless By Louis Frenzel, Communications/Test Editor
I have always been amazed by how much difference a good antenna
makes in a wireless application. It became pretty clear to me at an
early age as a ham radio operator that a good antenna is the difference
between making a connection or not. But now, having stated the obvious
let me say that designing a new antenna is just as much art as it is a
science.
As you may have heard, the FCC started auctioning off 62 MHz of
prime spectrum space in the 700 MHz region January 24th. The auction is
a closed affair so it is difficult to know who is bidding on what.
Heralded as the first ever Digital Video Broadcasting from
Satellite
to Handhelds (DVB-SH) receiver, the DIB29098 is also touted as the most
complex and powerful Mobile TV chip to date. Yet another first, it
features Diversity-2 support for dual antennas in one chip.
The RAD-80211-XD-BUS, a wireless Ethernet radio with modular I/O
and
firmware capabilities, promises truly secure communication with control
of up to eight I/O modules. The component can interface up to 64
digital, analog, and pulse I/Os.
Targeting broadband and commercial wireless infrastructure markets,
the joint efforts of Nitronex and Prescient Wireless take form in a 20W
Doherty amplifier employing GaN-on-Si power transistor technology.
Chip Provides Instant/Continuous Location In
Portables
Consuming 1% of the power required by existing GPS devices, the
Airwave-1 chip for portable products continuously tracks user location
and can provide instant location updates. Allegedly the only technology
capable of delivering instant and continuous positioning information to
battery-powered products, the chip consumes 1 mA while tracking.
Forecasting unique media-rich mobile phones, smart phones, and
other
portable products the STLC2690 Bluetooth v2.1+EDR with integrated FM
RDS
radio receiver and short-range FM RDS transmitter debuts as the
company's fourth-generation Bluetooth/FM Radio combo. By way of 65-nm
process technology, the system-on-a-chip (SoC) promises to save both
space and costs.
Self-crowned as the smallest, widely tunable transmitter optical
subassembly (TOSA) for the dense wavelength division multiplexing
(DWDM)
transceiver market, the company's latest TOSA promises to bridge the
gap
for tunability and pluggability absent in its previous transceivers.
Can't Get to Mobile World Congress in Barcelona? Check Out
Electronic Design's MWC Site.
Electronic Design's Mobile World Congress Design Hotspot is chock full
of information coming out of the hottest show in the industry for
mobile
devices. We'll keep you up to date with the latest product and
technology news from the show, and coming soon: video interviews from
the show with Editorial Director, Mark David, and Technology Editor,
Lou
Frenzel. CLICK HERE
quick poll |
Last month, Richard Branson unveiled
SpaceShipTwo. If you had a spare $200,000, would you sign up for a
ride?
Sign me up! It would be a dream vacation.
Maybe, but I'd wait to see if the flights are really safe
first.
No way. Space tourism is a waste of money.
Remember to scroll down to the bottom of the page to take the poll.
engineer's resource |
Rev Up Your Interdisciplinary Design
Skills
What happens when a microcontroller turns on a power FET, sending a
current pulse to a motor coil that develops a magnetic field which
turns
the rotor shaft, advancing a timing belt that drives a pair of nip
rolls
suspended on bearings in a web-processing operation on a form, fill,
and
seal machine installed on a potato chip line at a Frito Lay plant in
central California? And how can you be sure that the encoders, prox
sensors, and other feedback devices you plan to use will accurately see
and report every relevant motion, machine state, and process condition?
And will the signals get through the networks fast enough, without
being
corrupted, giving the controllers time to execute their algorithms as
intended?
It's a lot to think about, and it only scratches the surface of
what
many engineers grapple with today. If you happen to be one of them,
then
the place for you -- where you can find answers and meet others with
similar concerns -- is Mechatronic-Design.com.
Backed by some of engineering's top information sources including
Machine Design, Electronic Design, Motion System
Design, and Power Electronics, Mechatronic-Design.comis the interdisciplinary
engineer's desktop, toolbox, library, and lifeline in one easily
accessible place.
Voice Over WLAN: The Complete Guide By
Michael F. Finneran
This book is a detailed look at the digital voice over Wi-Fi
movement. As you may know, there is growing interest in making phone
calls over an enterprise LAN by using 802.11 phones. These can be
desktop phones to replace the traditional POTS and PBX phones or actual
Wi-Fi handset phones.
