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:
http://newsletter.designlinenetwork....rT0QTC0EtYM0Ep

07-29-2009

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This issue sponsored by: NXP Semiconductor

RF power that's driving the market. Our LDMOS technology
draws on NXP Semiconductors' heritage of 30 years of
proven product innovation in RF to deliver best in-class
efficiency, power and ruggedness. Many of the world's key innovators
have benefited from our market leading solutions, and now so can you.
Experience high-performance analog. Learn more:
http://newsletter.designlinenetwork....rT0QTC0G1cq0EW

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EDITOR'S NOTE

--Let's get one quick thing out of the way: in last week's newsletter,
we cited an article dealing with hot components allegedly linked
"below", but the article and its link were not there. Several readers
politely pointed this out to me.

Now, we could say we did this as an experiment to see how many people
are actually paying attention, and will even take the time to let us
know. Or we could say this was a mistake, plain and simple. But our
audience is too smart to fall for that first excuse--it looks like
marketing spin--so we'll confess: we goofed! So, the article and link
are below, this time for sure.

--About this week: we have a nice article on dealing with GSM-phone
induced buzz noise. Those phones can source lots of radiated noise to
others, via a non-obvious mechanism. Ironically, the GSM phones
themselves can be very quiet, on their audio side. In fact, the GSM
phone, under good conditions, can be eerily silent to the user, so the
spec allows for "comfort noise insertion", a white-ish noise to be
inserted into the earphone side so the user noise the phone and link
are on, and not turned off.

This week we also look at the design of a low-power wireless sensor
network, of which there are many variations, tailored to the
application, its priorities, and its constraints. We also continue our
excerpting of Chapter 2 of a recently published book on technical
aspects of LTE and 4G.

I can tell you this: the excerpted parts have drawn a lot of page
views (we can see everything on a web site), as they should. Even if
you are not doing LTE/4G design, it's an important topic if you are in
RF and one on which you should try to stay up-to-date. Similarly, our
recent three-part series on the new JEDEC standard for high-speed A/D
and D/A interfaces attracted a lot of traffic. I like to consider
these items as part of the necessary continuing education of
engineers.

And finally, in addition to our regular editor's column, we have
another guest blog (I prefer the term "column" but I have been
overruled) by Leonard Pelletier of Freescale Semiconductor. His blog
is not just another casual and soon-forgotten observation, as too many
such blogs are; instead, he provides some solid technical insight.

And that's it for this week.-

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


TECHNICAL ARTICLES

--Minimize GSM buzz noise in mobile phones-- Understand the source of
GSM buzz and the common techniques you can use to minimize it
http://newsletter.designlinenetwork....rT0QTC0HOAJ0Eo

--Book Excerpt, part 2 of 6: LTE and the Evolution to 4G
Wireless--Design and Measurement Challenges-- Chapter 2 of this
just-published book explores and explains all technical aspects of
3GPP LTE cellular technology

http://newsletter.designlinenetwork....rT0QTC0HOAK0Ep

--How to design a low power wireless sensor network-- Driven by the
demand for "green" technology and better use of power, a new
generation of extreme low power wireless networks is being developed
for use in machine to machine networks. With this in mind, a new
approach towards truly wireless networks is needed.
http://newsletter.designlinenetwork....rT0QTC0HOAL0Eq

--A holistic approach to addressing the hot component issue--The
problem of heat dissipation has developed into a hot button issue
amongst the semiconductor industry in addressing these concerns. This
design article from TI takes a look at some holistic solutions to this
dilemma.
http://newsletter.designlinenetwork....rT0QTC0HOAM0Er

--Design considerations when using programmable integer-N PLL ICs--
Understand how parameters of the PLL divisor loop affect performance

http://newsletter.designlinenetwork....rT0QTC0HMzp0EN

PRODUCTS

--Digital predistortion µModule receiver simplifies base station
design-- Linear Technology has introduced the LTM9003, a wideband
RF-to-digital receiver subsystem that includes a high performance
12-bit, 250Msps analog-to-digital converter (ADC), a bandpass filter,
intermediate frequency (IF) amplifier and a high linearity RF
downconverting mixer.
http://newsletter.designlinenetwork....rT0QTC0HNcY0Ec

--Digital radio tuner for DAB and FM signals integrates fast RSSI
function-- Designed for consumer and automotive applications,
http://newsletter.designlinenetwork....rT0QTC0HNcZ0Ed

--Balanced low noise amplifiers target cellular infrastructure
applications-- Avago Technologies' ultra-low noise, high linearity
matched pair LNAs are economical, easy to install and supports all
major cellular bandwidths.
http://newsletter.designlinenetwork....rT0QTC0HNca0Ek

--UMTS Band 2 duplexer features tiny footprint-- Designed for use in
UMTS Band 2 handsets, Avago's latest high isolation duplexer is
one-third smaller than previous versions and provides designers with
advanced RF performance.
http://newsletter.designlinenetwork....rT0QTC0HNcb0El

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NEWS

--Quantum Internet heralds networking qubits-- MIT researchers say
they have demonstrated a quantum "herald" pulse that acknowledges the
transfer of quantum bits, a necessary step toward a future network
topology.
http://newsletter.designlinenetwork....rT0QTC0HOAN0Es

--Report: Q2 chip sales up 16% from Q1-- The IC market embarked on the
road to recovery in the second quarter, growing 16 percent compared to
the first quarter, one of the best sequential growth rates in the past
25 years, according to a market research firm.
http://newsletter.designlinenetwork....rT0QTC0HNcd0En

--Report sees WiMax slowdown, LTE concerns-- WiMax networks are facing
a slowdown in revenue and subscriber growth this year, and many
carriers still harbor concerns about whether the rival fourth
generation wireless technology, Long Term Evolution, is ready for
deployment, according to a new report from Maravedis Research.
http://newsletter.designlinenetwork....rT0QTC0HNce0Eo

--Woven optical fibers seek to replace lens-- By combining
semiconductor layers and metal electrodes within optical fibers,
researchers have demonstrated a distributed camera lens that can be
woven into a fabric.
http://newsletter.designlinenetwork....rT0QTC0HNcf0Ep

VIEWPOINT

--What's in your lab? --
The electronics lab and test bench is a very different place than many
places with the same name
http://newsletter.designlinenetwork....rT0QTC0HOAO0Et

--LDMOS knocks bipolars off the radar--
The long-established bipolar discrete device is under serious assault
by LDMOS--and designers benefit
http://newsletter.designlinenetwork....rT0QTC0HOAP0Eu

--Engineering lessons from Apollo, and for the future-- Engineering
lessons from Apollo, and for the future: There are a few broad
takeaway lessons from the success of the Apollo project and the space
program, plus a few severe downsides.
http://newsletter.designlinenetwork....rT0QTC0HOAQ0Ev

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....rT0QTC0HKkh0Ew

--Book Excerpt, part 2 of 6: LTE and the Evolution to 4G
Wireless--Design and Measurement Challenges-- Chapter 2 of this
just-published book explores and explains all technical aspects of
3GPP LTE cellular technology

http://newsletter.designlinenetwork....rT0QTC0HOAK0Ep

--Tutorial: the new JEDEC interface standard for data converters, Part
3 of 3-- Understand the design implications of JESD204A for high-speed
analog/digital and digital/analog converters
http://newsletter.designlinenetwork....rT0QTC0HMzq0EO


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

Electronics Group Now Hiring 07-27-2009

SEL seeking Engineering Supervisor in King of Prussia, PA
http://newsletter.designlinenetwork....rT0QTC0HFFR0Es

Osram Sylvania sekeing PCB Designer in Danvers, MA
http://newsletter.designlinenetwork....rT0QTC0HNvJ0Eg

Mitsubishi Electric Power Products seeking Field Sales Engineer II in
Warrendale, PA
http://newsletter.designlinenetwork....rT0QTC0HNvK0Eh

Time Warner Cable seeking Sr Network Engineer in Herndon, VA
http://newsletter.designlinenetwork....rT0QTC0HNvL0Ei

Kforce seeking HIM Director in Milwaukee, WI
http://newsletter.designlinenetwork....rT0QTC0HNvM0Ej

For more great jobs, career-related news, features and services,
please visit TechInsights EETimesCareers.
http://newsletter.designlinenetwork....rT0QTC0EfwY0EJ
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