Microwave Engineering Europe - June 2008 - (Page 10)

10 NEWS By JP Joosting, Microwave Engineering Europe IN BRIEF ST, Ericsson to codevelop analog baseband STMicroelectronics NV and Ericsson Mobile Platforms (EMP) have extended an existing partnership to develop an analog baseband for a high-volume EMP platform. As part of the deal, ST and Ericsson said they will work together to deliver to EMP’s licensees an analog baseband with high performance and quality with lower power consumption and higher cost efﬁciency, based on an alliance of system and silicon competencies. In December 2006, EMP selected ST as the supplier of third-generation digital baseband processors to OEMs that are licensees of the Swedish group’s 3G mobile-phone platform. The manufacturing deal over digital baseband ICs then extended an existing relationship between the two companies over the supply of ASICs for mobile handsets. www.mwee.com/208400472 Four more UWB platforms are certiﬁed by WiMedia Alliance Four additional Ultra-Wideband (UWB) platforms are now certiﬁed by the WiMedia Alliance. Artimi and Tzero with one each, and NEC with two — bringing the total WiMedia Certiﬁed Wireless Platforms to 23. According to Brian O’Rourke, principal analyst for In-Stat. “The availability of platforms from a variety of silicon vendors helps fuel adoption by providing interoperable wireless solutions that support PC and multimedia applications with the same ease-of-use and familiarity as wired USB.” Platform certiﬁcation designates compliance with the internationally standardized WiMedia UWB speciﬁcations. CWPs are rigorously tested at the Physical (PHY) and Medium Access Control (MAC) layers, assuring manufacturers that devices built upon WiMedia CWPs will deliver high-quality performance and easeof-use in a variety of regions. According to the WiMedia Alliance, available WiMedia CWPs have doubled since they were announced in October 2007. Additionally, a growing number of consumer Wireless USB products are currently available in the market from manufacturers such as Belkin, D-Link, Dell, IOGEAR, Lenovo, NEC and Toshiba. Market research suggests these numbers will continue to grow as more CWPs are introduced. www.mwee.com/208400482 Startup implants RFID in operating room A Pittsburg startup has launched what could be one of the ﬁrst RFID systems to debut in an operating room setting. ClearCount Medical Solutions uses RFID to automate the process of tracking surgical sponges. The startup’s Smart Sponge system aims to eliminate the problem of sponges left inside a patient, a mistake that occurs as often as once in every 1,000 surgeries according to some studies. Hospital errors such as infections add an estimated $30.5 billion nationwide to the costs of running the institutions, said another report. ClearCount is one of at least three companies trying to address the problem. One uses bar codes to keep a count of sponges. Another uses the type of resonant-marker technology used to prevent shoplifting in retail stores. Neither technology has the combined capabilities of RFID to keep a count of sponges and track the position and number of any sponges left in a patient. In addition, only RFID can include data programmed by the vendor and the hospital. The system uses 13.56 MHz passive RFID tags with 2 Kbytes programmable memory. The tags which are smaller in diameter but thicker than a dime are purchased from a variety of vendors including NXP and Texas Instruments. www.mwee.com/208400487 MMIC Solutions raises £2.5 million in Round A Module and subsystem startup MMIC Solutions Ltd (Ledbury, England) has raised £2.7 million in a ﬁrst round of VC ﬁnancing to extend its development of receivers and modules for millimeter wave applications. New investor YFM Group and existing investor Scottish Enterprise, investing through the Scottish Venture Fund, joined the round along with the company’s other existing investors, including NESTA (National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts) and AEGF (Advantage Early Stage Growth Fund). The company has previously raised just over £1.5 million in seed funding, and has already developed and commercialized 94 GHz receivers, targeted mainly at millimeter wave security imaging systems. Projects under development are targeting low cost modules for high capacity communications applications that support data rates of 1 Gbit/s and more, and operate in various unlicensed and “light-licensed” bands between 60 and 80 GHz. www.mwee.com/208400488 German OHB to bid for Galileo satellite contract Aerospace company vendor OHB Technology AG (Bremen, Germany) has aired its intention to bid for the assignment of all remaining 26 Galileo navigation satellites. In an interview with Wirtschaftswoche magazine, OHB chairman Marco Fuchs said the company will submit an offer to build all or a part of the satellites. After the entire project has been restructured completely, there is hope that it can be carried using economic criteria, he said. “Now we see a Europe-wide competition that underlies EU procurement law,” he said. The move could become complicated since OHB’s British consortium partner SSTL (Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd.) has been acquired recently by OHB’s mighty competitor EADS Astrium. Nevertheless, Fuchs hopes to continue its cooperation with SSTL. “We hear from SSTL as well as from Astrium that SSTL will remain autonomous and can continue its cooperation with us,” Fuchs said. In the interview, he expressed his belief that the satellite program can keep its schedule to launch operation in 2013 — under the condition that the contract will be awarded during the current year. www.mwee.com/208400490 Microwave Engineering Europe ● June 2008 ● www.mwee.com http://www.mwee.com/208400482 http://www.mwee.com/208400472 http://www.mwee.com/208400487 http://www.mwee.com/208400488 http://www.mwee.com/208400490 http://www.mwee.com

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Microwave Engineering Europe - June 2008 Contents Comment News Cover Feature Designing and Simulating a Wireless LAN Antenna 60GHz: Achieving the Ultimate Wireless Dream New Radar Developments Include HFETs to Challenge DMOS/LDMOS and a 77-GHz CMOS PA for Automotive Applications Testing Raises Concerns Over 802.11-Based High-Speed Bluetooth IP2 & IP3 Design Considerations with Direct Conversion I/Q Demodulator Receiver Products Calendar

Microwave Engineering Europe - June 2008

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