Boston, which was incorporated in 1822, is one of America’s oldest cities. Its sites are quite varied, as they range from historic places like Faneuil Hall and Chinatown to the New England Aquarium. A culturally diverse mix of dining options also has emerged in Boston, although all of New England is known for seafood. From June 7 to the 12, the city’s sites and restaurants will be enjoyed by attendees of this year’s International Microwave Symposium or IMS, which will be located at the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center. For the sixth time in the show’s history, RF and microwave engineers and other industry folks will be convening in Boston to hear the excellent papers chosen by the IEEE Microwave Theory & Techniques Society (MTT-S), see the newest products and technology innovations on the exhibition floor, and catch up with old friends.

As noted by this year’s General Chair and Director of RF Micro Devices’ Boston Design Center, Fred Schindler, this year’s schedule deviates a bit from that of former years. (To download the program book, visit www.ims2009.org.) For example, the IMS Plenary Session will be held Monday evening prior to the reception. Schindler notes that this change will hopefully allow more people to attend the session. This year’s keynote speaker, Nokia Research Center’s Petteri Alinikula, will speak on “Innovating Openly in Wireless.” As the wireless industry transitions from telecommunications toward the convergence of mobility and the Internet, the center believes that open innovation will resolve the resulting interdisciplinary challenges.

Another unique aspect of this year’s show is the free “Exhibit Only” registration offer for Wednesday afternoon. An industry-hosted reception on the exhibit-hall floor will follow. These events will be capped off by the MTT Society Awards Banquet featuring the technologist, educator, and futurist Dr. David Thornburg. This year also features a Historical Exhibit, which will spotlight developments like the first commercial and consumer microwave oven from Raytheon.

The backbone of IMS is the strength of its technical papers and presentations. This year, 868 papers were submitted and 430 were accepted—294 as oral papers and 136 as interactive forum papers. The technical program is complemented by 30 workshops, five short courses, five panel sessions, and one rump session. The technical content is divided into four tracks: Microwave Modeling, Active Components, Passive Components, and Microwave Systems. Adding to these offerings is the Student Paper Competition, which has grown into one of the symposium’s larger events.

Of course, Microwave Week also includes the RFIC Symposium and Automatic RF Techniques Group (ARFTG) Conference. This year’s RFIC Symposium runs from June 7 to 9. At Sunday night’s Plenary Session, the University of Surrey’s Christopher Snowden will discuss “Cost-Effective Semiconductor Technologies for RF and Microwave Applications” while Alien Technology Corp.’s George W. Everhart will examine “Real-World RFID Deployments: What Makes Them Work.” The symposium’s technical program includes 25 oral presentation sessions, an interactive forum, and two lunchtime panel sessions. The 73rd ARFTG Conference will be held on Friday, June 12. To cover the theme of “Practical Applications of Nonlinear Measurements,” the conference includes technical presentations, an interactive forum, and an exhibition. There also will be a joint ARFTG/IMS workshop on Wednesday titled, “Advanced Measurement Techniques, Adapted for Different Memory Effects.”

The IMS Exhibit is the largest RF and microwave exhibition in the world. This year, more than 500 exhibitors will spotlight products and services for wireless communications, radar, RF technologies, high-frequency semiconductors, electromagnetic devices, commercial and military RF, and microwave and millimeter-wave electronics and applications. In the test and measurement sector in particular, many breakthroughs are timed for IMS each year. Darren McCarthy, Technical Marketing Manager of RF Test at Tektronix, notes, “Today’s RF/microwave world is merging the digital computing and traditional analog RF technologies. This integration is presenting engineers with a highly complex environment, necessitating a new generation of RF/ microwave test tools.”

Agilent will spotlight its products and expertise together with that of its partners at “Agilent Avenue.” The firm’s microwave signal generator is sure to garner attention, as it breaks through the 1-W power barrier. With option 521, the PSG E8257D signal generator delivers specified output power ranging from +24 to +28 dBm from 250 MHz to 20 GHz. However, it is usable down to 10 MHz. The generator eliminates the need for additional hardware like amplifiers, couplers, and detectors. With this option, users and units under test are protected from high-power accidents when maximum unleveled output power exceeds 1 W.

The company also is expanding its network-analyzer portfolio to 50 GHz with three PNA-X models. The N5245W covers 10 MHz to 50 GHz while the N5244A spans 10 MHz to 43.5 GHz. The N5241A covers 10 MHz to 13.5 GHz. Agilent will introduce its Infiniium 9000 series oscilloscopes as well. These 1-GHz, 2.5-GHz, and 4-GHz MSOs and DSOs offer a wide range of debug and compliance software.

On the software side, Agilent EEsof will be debuting EMPro 2009, which marks the company’s re-entry into threedimensional (3D) electromagnetic (EM) simulation. This intuitive user interface (UI) allows engineers to create 3D parameterized components, add them to the Advanced Design System (ADS) layout, and simulate the combined structure for an accurate prediction of the circuit’s performance. This UI promises to save two hours per simulation, as the tight 3D EM simulation with ADS eliminates the need to re-draw, re-enter material parameters, assign ports, and assign boundary conditions in other tools. EMPro 2009 integrates both time- and frequency-domain 3D EM engines to cover a range of applications. In addition, cross-validation between the frequency- and time-domain solvers provides confidence in the 3D EM simulation.

The company also will be releasing ADS 2009 Update 1, which streamlines the monolithic-microwave-integratedcircuit (MMIC) design flow. The new MMIC layout personality allows oneclick access to common layout functions. The tool also offers integration with industry-standard LVS and DRC tools. This update includes X-parameter model generation from ADS simulations. As a result, MMIC design houses will be able to provide virtual samples to customers before the actual hardware is available. Because specification changes can be easily made in simulation, the company estimates that this capability can cut four months from an engagement sequence.

One of the partners on Agilent Avenue is Maury Microwave, which has teamed with Agilent to develop advanced applications for the PNA-X. Maury will feature live demonstrations of the latest breakthroughs in load-dependent X-parameter measurement, ultra-fast noise parameter measurements, design automation, and nonlinear circuit and power-amplifier (PA) modeling and simulation. Other device characterization solutions on display will include the latest in cascaded tuning techniques and load pull using the Maury High-Gamma Tuner. In addition, the company will spotlight its newest automated device characterization software, ATS version 5.2, which enables complete on-wafer/module/ fixture load-pull and noise solutions.

Focus Microwaves will be at IMS with a variety of precision impedance tuners. The firm’s new multipurpose tuner (MPT) model 1007 covers fundamental and harmonic tuning continuously from 0.7 to 10 GHz. It uses APC-7 connectors and can be fitted with N connectors for enhanced power levels to 100 W. This model can be used either as a wideband single probe, high Gamma two-probe, or three harmonic-three probe impedance tuner at any frequency inside the band. It can be calibrated on any vector network analyzer (VNA) and controlled either by the Load Pull Explorer (LPEx) measurement and graphics software suite or an ActiveX-MPT library. The tuner offers a wide impedance tuning range with tuning accuracy and repeatability of better than 45 dB.

A VNA breakthrough from Anritsu Co. promises to raise performance for markets including aerospace/defense, satellite, commercial microwave communications, materials measurement, and advanced research (Fig. 1). The VectorStar microwave VNA spans 70 kHz to 70 GHz with dynamic range of 103 dB at 67 GHz. The instrument boasts measurement speed of 20 s/point. With a 100-dB dynamic range at 70 GHz, the VNA offers impressive accuracy. The wide dynamic range is complemented by the MS4640A’s receiver, which has a +10-dBm 0.1-dB compression level at 70 GHz. With the new Precision AutoCal for 70 kHz to 40 GHz or 70 GHz calibrations, residual directivity of 42 dB can be achieved at 70 GHz with up to 50 dB at 20 GHz.

Among the applications that will be demonstrated by Rohde & Schwarz will be the company’s digital, analog, and RF test capability for LTE using the R&S FSQ26, R&S SMU200A, and R&S EX-IQ. By working with the same equipment and options, analog, digital, and RF engineers can ensure correlation of results and reduced cost of ownership. In addition, the R&S FSU67 will be used with a NoiseCom test set to provide a unique solution for noisefigure measurements in the 50-to-67-GHz range without external mixers.

Other highlights will include the latest R&S FSUP signal-source-analyzer solution, which offers cross correlation to 50 GHz in a single instrument, amplitudemodulation (AM) noise, and residual phase-noise measurements. Plus, a new patented technique uses a dual carrier approach to measure the group delay of frequency-converting devices when the local oscillator is not available. This option is available for all four-port R&S ZVA/ZVT VNAs.

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