FPGA Central

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RF DesignLine Newsletter
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The RF DesignLine Newsletter is delivered to you
free of charge from the staff of RF DesignLine.
To view the RF DesignLine visit:
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07-08-2009

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This issue sponsored by: Elsevier

Newnes Press is a portfolio of practical books for engineers,
developers, and designers that make things happen. Newnes offers
timeless fundamentals mixed with cutting-edge techniques and hot
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Click here to become a Newnes Press member & start saving today!
http://newsletter.designlinenetwork....rT0QTC0HLPM0En
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EDITOR'S NOTE

--I've long had mixed feelings about RFID and inventory control. No,
not for privacy reasons, but mostly because the proponents of RFID did
the usual emerging-technology mind-trick of trying to say that
whatever your problem is, this new technology will be the solution.
That's not the case, of course; new technologies usually solve one
class or sub-group of problems, but they can't and won’t do it all.

Just the same, I saw a news item that American Apparel is using a
low-power RFID system from Avery Dennison to achieve 99% inventory
accuracy. You can see the release video and links to some related
material at
http://newsletter.designlinenetwork....rT0QTC0HMLE0Ec
Of course, such press releases often have some marketing hype and
excessive claims in them (I'm shocked, just shocked!), but it is still
interesting application story. And I also found out, through this
release, that Avery Dennison now makes more than just paper labels,
tags, and other mundane yet essential office supplies.

No doubt, RFID will be useful in some situation, such as wireless
scanning of badges at tradeshows, some inventory control, hospital
situations, and more. But let's face it: no one is going to put an
RFID tag on every item in the grocery story in the near future. The
cost of printing a bar code on that can of soup or cereal box is zero,
and that's a tough price to beat. But items such as the paper-thin
RFID tags (see item below) will move the boundary between "maybe makes
sense" and "no way".

--On to this week's items: the main item of interest, and it's a big
one, is the first two parts of an excellent three-part series on the
new JEDEC standard for interfacing of high-speed ADCs and DACs with
FPGAs and DSPs. The standard, which is already supported by some iCs,
results in savings in power, real estate, PCB traces, and reduction of
EMI. If you are doing nay high-speed converter work, especially if it
is multichannel, this article is worth your time.

We also have some product and news items, including a look at a new
all-silicon analog/digital TV tuner IC with impressive specs and
price. There's also (yet another) retrofit kit for turning your
standard car into a hybrid version, and some brief but knowledge
insight about likely enablers (or gating items, depending on your
perspective) for transistor-level scaling. And while I realize that
scaling itself is not as big an issue for most RF ICs as it is for
digital, processing-oriented ICs, it will still have an impact, it
always does.

And that's it for this week.

Bill Schweber, Site Editor, RF DesignLine
bschweber (AT) techinsights (DOT) com

TECHNICAL ARTICLES

--Tutorial: the new JEDEC interface standard for data converters, Part
1 of 3-- Understand the design implications of JESD204A for high-speed
analog/digital and digital/analog converters
http://newsletter.designlinenetwork....rT0QTC0HMLF0Ed

--Tutorial: the new JEDEC interface standard for data converters, Part
2 of 3-- Understand the design implications of JESD204A for high-speed
ADCs and DACs
http://newsletter.designlinenetwork....rT0QTC0HMLG0Ee

--Wirelessly Monitoring Temperature in Multiple Rooms for an Energy
Efficient Home-- Ultra-low-power microcontrollers (MCUs) are helping
to reduce overall energy consumption while also creating a cost
effective solution for wireless applications.
http://newsletter.designlinenetwork....rT0QTC0HMLH0Ef

--Power detection and control for mobile handsets, (Part 3 of 3):
Power control feedback-- Understand the various biasing methods and
tradeoffs in GSM/EDGE mobile unit PA stages
http://newsletter.designlinenetwork....rT0QTC0HKkQ0EJ

--Do RF-based remote controls make "cents"?-- Infrared (IR)-based
remote controls are facing a challenge from the increased features and
functions of RF-based controls, including RF4CE and Zigbee.
http://newsletter.designlinenetwork....rT0QTC0HLrv0E3

PRODUCTS

--TV tuner IC captures analog, digital standards, features LNA and
tracking filters for superior performance-- Silicon Labs CMOS Si217
has low-IF architecture, minimizes external passives, reduces BOM,
increases in-field performance consistency

http://newsletter.designlinenetwork....rT0QTC0HMLI0Eg

--Downconverting mixer debuts for WCS, LTE, WiMAX, and MMDS base
stations-- Maxim Integrated Products' fully integrated, 2000MHz to
3900MHz downconverting mixer features an on-chip LO buffer.
http://newsletter.designlinenetwork....rT0QTC0HLry0E6

--Murata's ultra-thin RFID modules target paper tags-- Murata has
increased the applicability of its tiny RFID modules by significantly
reducing the thickness, making the Magicstrap range suitable for paper
label inlays for mainstream retail applications.
http://newsletter.designlinenetwork....rT0QTC0HMLJ0Eh

--NXP claims data converters are first to support JEDEC JESD204A
serial interface-- NXP has started to sample high-speed data
converters featuring the new JEDEC JESD204A serial interface standard
to lead customers.
http://newsletter.designlinenetwork....rT0QTC0HLGw0EM

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NEWS

--Five enablers for future chip scaling -- Here are some of the
proposed options for transistor-level scaling.
http://newsletter.designlinenetwork....rT0QTC0HMLK0Ei

--Retrofit kit said to transform cars into hybrids-- A former IBM
electrical engineer has designed a retrofit kit that he claims can
transform existing automobiles into hybrids by placing an electric
motor inside each wheel, thereby doubling gas mileage.
http://newsletter.designlinenetwork....rT0QTC0HMLL0Ej

--TI digs deeper into femtocells opportunity-- Texas Instruments is
upping the stakes in supplying developers of both residential and
enterprise femtocells with a range of DSPs specifically targeted at
the emerging 3G access point market.
http://newsletter.designlinenetwork....rT0QTC0HMLM0Ek

--WiMax group calls for patent pool--
The Open Patent Alliance has issued a call for patents in an effort to
set up a WiMax patent pool, and Via Licensing Corp. will act as
administrator of the pool.
http://newsletter.designlinenetwork....rT0QTC0HMLN0El

--Graphene's electrically tunable bandgap leapfrogs silicon--
Electrically tunable bandgaps could enable graphene--two-dimensional
monolayers of carbon--to leapfrog silicon, according to researchers at
the University of California at Berkeley.
http://newsletter.designlinenetwork....rT0QTC0HLGz0EP

--'Stickies' show way to stretchable electronics-- A study of how
stickers peel from windows could lead to a new way to precisely
control the fabrication of stretchable electronics.
http://newsletter.designlinenetwork....rT0QTC0HLG10EC

--Terahertz SiGe imager sees through clothes-- A silicon germanium
image chip designed in a UCSD lab operates in the terahertz range to
provide X-ray-like imaging using safe, naturally occurring millimeter
wavelengths. The chip can be produced using inexpensive silicon chip
processing techniques, its developers said at the IEEE RFIC Symposium.
http://newsletter.designlinenetwork....rT0QTC0HKkZ0ES

VIEWPOINT

--What's the status of software-defined radio?-- We keep hearing that
SDR is coming soon to widespread applications, but where does it
really stand?
http://newsletter.designlinenetwork....rT0QTC0HMLO0Em

--Home networking battle continues: one person's view-- Wireless,
wired, or power line: which one has the edge in the home?
http://newsletter.designlinenetwork....rT0QTC0HLr10Et

--Go ahead, be trigger happy!--
The instrument is certainly important, but so is its trigger
http://newsletter.designlinenetwork....rT0QTC0HLG40EF

MOST POPULAR ARTICLES OF THE WEEK

--10 companies in trouble--
EE Times has assembled a list of 10 companies (or more) that seem in
particular danger of continuing to spill red ink, being acquired,
seeking bankruptcy protection or just not being around in current form
a year from now.
http://newsletter.designlinenetwork....rT0QTC0HKkh0Eg

--Tutorial: the new JEDEC interface standard for data converters, Part
2 of 3-- Understand the design implications of JESD204A for high-speed
ADCs and DACs
http://newsletter.designlinenetwork....rT0QTC0HMLG0Ee

--Tutorial: the new JEDEC interface standard for data converters, Part
1 of 3-- Understand the design implications of JESD204A for high-speed
analog/digital and digital/analog converters
http://newsletter.designlinenetwork....rT0QTC0HMLF0Ed

--TV tuner IC captures analog, digital standards, features LNA and
tracking filters for superior performance-- Silicon Labs CMOS Si217
has low-IF architecture, minimizes external passives, reduces BOM,
increases in-field performance consistency

http://newsletter.designlinenetwork....rT0QTC0HMLI0Eg

--Five enablers for future chip scaling -- Here are some of the
proposed options for transistor-level scaling.
http://newsletter.designlinenetwork....rT0QTC0HMLK0Ei

AROUND THE WEB
Some interesting technical articles recently seen in other
publications:
--Solid-state power amplifiers are rapidly replacing electronic tube
amplifiers, such as magnetron and traveling-wave tube-based
amplifiers:
"Development Report of Power FETs for Solid-state Power Amplifiers
from GaAs to GaN Devices,"
http://newsletter.designlinenetwork....rT0QTC0HMLP0En
Microwave Journal, May 2009
--Introducing the concept of surface waves and high-frequency,
low-loss propagation along the surface of a single-conductor or
high-impedance coaxial line:
"Sending Surface Waves Along Coaxial Cables, Part 1,"
http://newsletter.designlinenetwork....rT0QTC0HMLQ0Eo
Microwaves & RF, May 2009
--Presentation of a microstrip patch antenna with both frequency and
polarization reconfigurabilities: "A Reconfigurable Microstrip Antenna
with Frequency and Polarization Diversities,"
http://newsletter.designlinenetwork....rT0QTC0HMLR0Ep
Microwave Journal, May 2009
--The use of finite-difference-time-domain (FDTD) electromagnetic (EM)
software can predict specific absorption rate (SAR) levels for
cellular telephone antennas under different conditions:
"Hit Minimum SAR With EM Software,"
http://newsletter.designlinenetwork....rT0QTC0HMLS0Eq
Microwaves & RF, May 2009

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ NOW HIRING ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Electronics Group Now Hiring 07-06-2009

Boeing seeking Embedded Software Engineer 5 in Huntington Beach, CA
http://newsletter.designlinenetwork....rT0QTC0HKod0Eg

SEL seeking Lead DSP Engineer in Pullman, WA
http://newsletter.designlinenetwork....rT0QTC0HLi70Eq

SEL seeking Power Systems Instructor in Pullman, WA
http://newsletter.designlinenetwork....rT0QTC0HLi80Er

Rutland Regional Medical seeking Server Engineer in Rutland, VT
http://newsletter.designlinenetwork....rT0QTC0HLjA0E2

Osram Sylvania seeking Mechanical Design Engineer in Danvers, MA
http://newsletter.designlinenetwork....rT0QTC0HLvS0EX

For more great jobs, career-related news, features and services,
please visit TechInsights EETimesCareers.
http://newsletter.designlinenetwork....rT0QTC0EfwY0E2
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