Microwave Engineering Europe - March 2009 - (Page 8) 8 COMMENT SALES OFFICES Low power electronics to take centre stage Even though there is a lot of buzz about emerging technologies such as LTE and WiMAX, short-range 60 GHz and UWB, there runs a common theme at the moment right across the electronics industry, that of low-power. It has been important for awhile in battery operated and miniature devices, but today, low power is assuming a ‘must have’ role over a much larger portion of the industry, even with respect to grid connected equipment. The key driver for low-power in the mobile world is the need to offer more and more features in a small form factor limited by the power density of the available battery technology and the heat dissipation requirements of a small form factor. The mobile industry has faced this problem for a long time and continues to address the issue. However, the religion of power efficiency has come to base stations mainly to cut running costs as well as installation costs (more efficiency means less cooling or heat sinking). Carriers have become huge consumers of electricity, which is relatively expensive, but more importantly, its price is not guaranteed against a future energy shock. Further, emerging technologies such as LTE and WiMAX need to be more efficient just to be economically viable, hence the onslaught of new power amplifiers boasting better efficiency. However, the trend is seen everywhere today. For example, recently at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, the top five handset makers and many leading operators pledged support for an initiative to develop a ‘universal’ charger, with the GSMA set to drive the effort that should see the majority of new phones by 2012 use the ‘one-size-fits-all’ energy efficient charger. Though this initiative could have been carried out years ago, and does not need to take so long to roll out either, it reflects the new ‘green’ political environment we are currently in. In any event, it is about time the ‘charger’ issue of the mobile phone industry was addressed. In wireless sensor networks energy harvesters are getting a lot of press. It is an interesting technology which promises to free us from having to deploy thousands or millions of batteries into sensor networks. The issue here is maintenance and reliability. Though the technology is in its infancy, it holds a lot of promise. The next few years look to be interesting as we develop new techniques for low power electronics and I believe the wireless industry will be at this forefront of this trend. Jean-Pierre Joosting Editor mwee@eetimes.be Mobile:- +32-473-606005 EUROPE Austria - Victoria & Norbert Hufmann Tel +49 911 93 97 64 42 - sales@hufmann.info Belgium - Nadia Liefsoens Tel: +32-11-224 397 - nadia@fivemedia.be France, Spain & Portugal - Geert de Vuyst Tel:+32 2 740 0050 - sales@eetimes.be Germany PLZ 0-3, 60-65, 8-9 - Victoria & Norbert Hufmann Tel: +49 911 93 97 64 42 - sales@hufmann.info Germany PLZ 4-5 - Armin Wezel Tel: +49 9568 897 097 - armin@eurokom-media.de Germany PLZ 66-69, 7 - Helle Pedersen Tel: +49 7131 2040396 - helle.pedersen@t-online.de Israel - Leslie Rose Tel: +972-54-5746990 info@elarco-intl.com Italy - Ferruccio Silvera Tel: +39-02-284 6716 - info@silvera.it The Netherlands - Mary Zaaijer Tel: +31-30-2291 799 - mzb@mzb-mr.demon.nl Scandinavia - Jeff Draycott Mobile: +46-(0)702 067636 - jeff.draycott@comhem.se Switzerland - Monika Ailinger Tel: +41-41-850 4424 - m.ailinger@marcomedia.ch UK & Ireland - Steve Regnier & Tim Anstee Tel: +44-1732-366555 - sales@starmediaservices.co.uk USA US East Coast - Karen Smith-Kernc Tel: +1 717 397 7100 - KarenKCS@aol.con US Central & West Coast - Alan Kernc Tel: +1 717 397 7100 - AlanKCS@aol.com ASIA Mainland China Bejing - Boyu International Advertising Co., Ltd. Tel: (86-10) 6505 9911 - mdong@globalsources.com Guangzhou - Weimei International Advertising Co., Ltd. Tel: (86-20) 3879 1454 (Extension: 105) sfung@globalsources.com Shanghai - Lianchuang International Advertising Co., Ltd. Tel: (86-21) 5306 8968 (Extensiont: 2131) mandypan@globalsources.com Shenzhen - Shenzhen ASM Advertising Co., Ltd. Tel: (86-755) 8828 2518 (Extension: 2518) xiongyh@globalsources.com Hong Kong - Asian Sources Publications Ltd. Tel: (852) 2831 2779 tfan@globalsources.com Malaysia - Promoexport Advertising Consultants Sdn Bhd. Tel: (60 - 3) 5634 8500 dong@globalsources.com Singapore - Export Advertising Consultants (Pte) Ltd. Tel: (65) 6547 2608 perrytan@globalsources.com South Korea - Export Media Ltd. Tel: (82 - 2) 3473 9200 (Extension: 201) rflanders@globalsources.com Taiwan - Asia Pacific Media Co. Ltd. Tel: (886 - 2) 2712 6877 (Extension: 370) ktsai@globalsources.com Japan - E2 Publishing Co Tel: +81-3-3556-3841 - sales@eetimes.jp TECHINSIGHTS A UBM COMPANY Paul Miller Group President Microwave Engineering Europe ● March 2009 ● www.mwee.com http://www.mwee.com
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