Microwave Engineering Europe - September 2008 - (Page 10)

10 NEWS By JP Joosting, Microwave Engineering Europe IN BRIEF Italian ﬁrm selects DiBcom’s technology for in-car TV receiver Italy-based MTC Multiconn s.r.l. has announced it will integrate DiBcom’s diversity 4 MCR (Maximum Ratio Combining) technology, with 4 integrated antennas, in its in-car digital TV receivers. Multiconn (Varese, Italy) claims it is the ﬁrst to demonstrate a ready-to-install in-car receiver using DiBcom’s technology. Individual antennas attached to four opposite car windows are connected to DiBcom’s DIB7070-M chips that integrate a VHF-UHF tuner along with a DVB-T/H demodulator, indicated the French mobile TV chip specialist. Multiconn said its in-car receiver features an automatic background scan thanks to 2 additional DIB7070-M chips. Besides, the Diversity Auto Scan (DAS) technology, developed by Multiconn, is said to automatically locate and maintain the strongest TV signal found in the area. www.mwee.com/210500149 Tool targets metamaterial based wireless designs A British government backed project has led to the release of RF design tools for antennas and phase shifters that use metamaterials. Vector Fields (Oxford, England) a subsidiary of ERA Technology, is planning to market the technology, which came out of the AMULET (Advanced Materials for Ubiquitous Leadingedge Electromagnetic Technologies) project that also includes Queen Mary University of London, the National Physical Laboratory. The three year project is backed by £1.9 million from the Government’s Technology Strategy Board. The company suggests the simulation software will decrease the bill of materials (BOM) and size of wireless products such as antennas, ﬁlters and phase shifters. Vector Fields says metamaterials can provide a means to enhance the performance and size of wireless components — for example, by making antennas multi-functional, and reducing the size and cost of front-end ﬁltering. The £3.4 million AMULET project is researching artiﬁcial materials and their application in the design and manufacture of next generation broadband, multifunctional, adaptive and conformal antennas for aerospace systems. Vector Fields’ Concerto design tool is the ﬁrst commercial tool from the project. It addresses one of the main problems with this category of simulation software, namely efﬁciency and speed. www.mwee.com/210500169 GaAs device market grew 17 percent in 2007 — North American providers dominate The GaAs device market was worth $3.6 billion in 2007, up 17 percent from 2006, according to market research consulting ﬁrm Strategy Analytics. The top three GaAs chip vendors — RF Micro Devices Inc. (RFMD), Skyworks Solutions Inc. and TriQuint Semiconductor Inc. — accounted for 50 percent of the market in 2007, Strategy Analytics (Boston) said. “TriQuint has continued to grow from strength to strength in 2008, while both Skyworks and RFMD have successfully implemented strategies to target a broader range of markets,” said Asif Anwar, director of Strategy Analytics’ GaAs service, in a statement. “The market leaders are in a strong position to strengthen their leadership in 2008 and 2009 if they can maintain a strong mix of high volume and specialty market capabilities.” Other North American companies, including Avago Technologies Inc. and M/A-COM Inc., accounted for seven out of the top ten GaAs device manufacturers on a global basis. www.mwee.com/210500170 Percello femtocell baseband to use Ceva DSP core Percello, the Israeli start-up focusing on baseband chips for the growing femtocell market, has licensed the CEVA-TeakLite-III DSP core for the development of its next generation femtocell baseband chipsets. “When selecting a DSP for our next-generation of cost-effective femtocell processors, the CEVATeakLite-III DSP emerged as the optimal solution, providing the ideal feature set and power/performance balance for our requirements,” said Shlomo Gadot, CEO of Percello (Hertzliya, Israel). Femtocells are poised to have a tremendous impact on the provision of wireless voice and data services in the next few years and Percello is ideally positioned to address this demand with their advanced wireless infrastructure processors, commented Gideon Wertheizer, CEO of CEVA. www.mwee.com/210300517 Skyworks secures 5-Year contract with Lockheed Martin for Aegis Weapon System Skyworks Solutions has signed a ﬁve-year, multimillion dollar contract with Lockheed Martin to supply high-precision technical ceramic toroids and inserts for the Aegis Weapon System. This contract win reﬂects the company’s increasing diversiﬁcation into adjacent markets within its Linear Products business. Skyworks is a multi-year winner of the Program Executive Ofﬁce Integrated Warfare Systems (PEO IWS) Excellence Award, which is the highest U.S. Navy honor given to a civilian company. The Aegis naval weapon system is the seabased component of the US Ballistic Missile Defense System. The radar and missile package is seamlessly integrated with its own commandand-control system that is capable of countering any existing and emerging threats to naval battle groups, as well as striking inland targets. In addition, Aegis is based on the powerful and robust tactical phased array radar, SPY-1. Ceramic toroids and inserts are critical functional elements in phased-array radar applications. They are used to electronically steer the radar beam on aircraft carriers, ﬁghter planes and in terrestrial environments. www.mwee.com/210102190 Microwave Engineering Europe ● September 2008 ● www.mwee.com 010_MWEE.indd 10 5/09/08 11:26:36 http://www.mwee.com/210500169 http://www.mwee.com/210500149 http://www.mwee.com/210500170 http://www.mwee.com/210300517 http://www.mwee.com/210102190 http://www.mwee.com

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Microwave Engineering Europe - September 2008 News Contents Comment Cover Feature: Uncovering Test and Measurement’s Role in Advancing LTE and Mobile WiMAX WiMax: WiMax and LTE Need to Address Issues of Backhaul, Cost and Efficiency for Successful Deployment WiMax: Manufacturing Communications Technology Products in India Test and Measurement Mobile Platforms Evolve to Meet Future Demands Products Calendar

Microwave Engineering Europe - September 2008

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