January - February2009
Retlif Testing Laboratories celebrates its 30th anniversity by completing a $1 million expansion in Ronkonkoma, New York. See story below.
RETLIF Celebrates 30th Anniversary
Retlif Testing Laboratories, one of the country's leading privately held testing organizations, is proudly celebrating its 30th anniversary. Providing electromagnetic interference and environmental simulation testing and engineering services, Retlif maintains three full-service accredited laboratories in Ronkonkoma, New York; Goffstown, New Hampshire and Harleysville, Pennsylvania; a regional sales and engineering office in Charlotte, North Carolina; and a regulatory compliance office in Arlington, Virginia.
Commenting on the anniversary, President and CEO Walter A. Poggi stated, "Both Marilyn and I are truly appreciative and grateful for the efforts of both our fine staff and the support of our customers that has allowed us to achieve this milestone."
Retlif recently completed a $1 million expansion of its Ronkonkoma headquarters and has a year-long series of activities also being planned to mark the occasion, including open houses at laboratory facilities, customer appreciation lunches and a golf outing.
ETS-Lindgren and Agilent Add Tech Tours in India
Based upon the success of the recent Tech Tours™ held in Bangalore and Chennai, India, ETS-Lindgren of Cedar Park, Texas and Agilent Technologies of Santa Clara, California have added three new cities in India to the Tech Tour schedule for this year. Included are Delhi, Pune and Hyderabad ‚ all coming in June, 2009.
Tech Tour is a practical training and lecture series for professional engineers in the RF, EMC and Wireless industries. The goal of each Tour is to impart practical, useful information that results in better measurements and improved efficiency.
Interactive in nature, Tech Tour encourages attendees to ask questions, see demonstrations and network with speakers and fellow professionals ‚ all in an open atmosphere. A bound copy of the presentations are provided for future reference along with a CD of both ETS-Lindgren and Agilent Technologies brochures and application notes.
There is no cost to attend the Tech Tours, but advance registration is required.
Experts Win IEC's 2008 Lord Kelvin Awards
Heirman
Donald N. Heirman and Scott K. Jameson have received the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) Lord Kelvin Award for their contributions to electrotechnical standardization.
Heirman is an expert in electromagnetic compatibility and has served as chairman of the IEC Special International Committee on Radio Interference (CISPR) as well as a member of the IEC Advisory Committee on Electromagnetic Compatibility (ACEC). He runs his own telecom-munications and IT consultancy, and is also associate director of the University of Oklahoma's Center for the Study of Wireless EMC.
For more than 20 years, Heirman has played a major role in EMC standardization worldwide. In 1999, he facilitated the first IEC EMC standardization workshop in the U.S. In 2002, his drive led to the issuance of the first international standard on uncertainty in EMC measurements.
Jameson
Jameson has been a key figure in ISO/IEC JTC 1 (the joint technical committee for information technology of the IEC and the International Organization for Standardization), serving as its chairman since 2001. He is responsible for consortia and standards activities as director of standards strategy in the strategy and technology office of Hewlett-Packard's software business.
ISO/IEC JTC 1 was created in the 1980s by the IEC and ISO to provide a single, comprehensive committee to address international IT standardization. Under Jameson's leadership, the committee has become globally recognized as the forum of choice for formal standardization of information and communication technologies.
Harris Receives Order from Estonia
Harris Corp. of Rochester, New York, has been awarded two orders for tactical radio equipment totaling over $5 million from the Estonian Ministry of Defense. The orders include the new Falcon III RF-7800M-MP multiband high-capacity data radio as well as other Harris high-performance tactical communications systems.
Planned for use primarily in vehicle-based applications, the RF-7800M-MP radio will provide Estonian forces to achieve a highly mobile tactical network on the frontlines with high bandwidth connectivity to the military's larger network-centric backbone.
"The Estonian Land Forces require modern communications for homeland defense and international operations." said Lieutenant Colonel Artur Suzik. "The RF-7800M-MP provides the high speed, secure networking required to function effectively in these demanding environments."
The RF-7800M-MP provides secure voice and high-speed networked data services at on-air rates up to 5Mbps over an extended frequency range of 30MHz to 2GHz &emdash; a significant increase over competing products.
Peking University Selects Cascade Microtech
Peking University in China has selected Cascade Microtech's Summit™ 11000 Series probe station for its Institute of Microelectronics RF Measurement Lab. The system, built by the Beaverton, Oregon firm, was chosen for its ability to provide the precision and versatility needed for the advanced semiconductor processes and aggressively scaled devices in development at Peking University.
The Summit 11000 Series' MicroChamberŽ chuck enclosure ensures moisture-free, light-tight EMI-protected measurements. In addition, the university relies on the industry-standard Infinity Probes and WinCal XE™ software to deliver advanced RF measurement accuracy and productivity through guided system setup, automatic calibration and validation.
"We chose the Cascade Microtech Series because the solution has been proven through technical evaluation, and is known for its capability to measure low leakage devices in a controlled environment," says Dr. Junhua Liu of the Institute of Microelectronics at Peking University in Beijing.
Schaffner Holding AG Approves Proposals
Schaffner Holding AG's 13th annual general meeting approved all of the proposals put forward by the board of directors. In particular it agreed to the board's proposal to pay out CHF3.50 per registered share in the form of a reduction in par value. The meeting approved several amendments to the Articles of Association which primarily had become necessary based on the revised provisions of the Swiss company and accounting legislation which came into effect on January 1, 2008.
The company also elected Herbert Baechler, 1950, Swiss, Ph.D. in EE, Federal Institute of Technology, Zurich, as a member of the board of directors. Baechler is responsible for innovation management at ARfinanz Holding AG and senior technical advisor at Sonova/Phonak, both in Staefa. He served from 2002 to 2008 as chief technology officer. From 1981 to 2002 he held a number of management positions with Sonova/Phonak.
In other news, Schaffner EMC and electronics components distributor Digi-Key Corp. have entered into a global agreement for the distribution of Schaffner's full line of EMC and power quality products, such as chokes, filters, pulse transformers, and feedthrough components. Schaffner products, now available on Digi-Key's websites, will be featured in future print catalogs.
NASA Uses Plated Textiles for Test Chamber
NASA has used Shieldex plated textiles in the construction of an EMI/RFI portable shielded enclosure in a class 1000 clean room at NASA's Jet Proposition Laboratory in Pasadena, California. It is the first U.S.-based clean room-acceptable shielded enclosure, and is now in service to test and run diagnostics on the Mars Science Laboratory rover and other spacecraft.
The test chamber has a volume of 9,375 square feet, with an inside dimension of 25 x 25 square x 16 feet high, designed to give performance of 85dB from 30MHz to 1GHz average.
Made from plated textiles, including Shieldex PF35230CR which can be cleaned to meet the requirement of a class 1000 clean room, it is designed to have no sloughing or particle release.The tent also has a fire-inhibiting outer layer Shieldex RTF151FRCR.This product design for clean room use also addresses the issues of out-gassing, particle content and safety concerns.
The inside of the EMI/RFI enclosure is specially designed with clean room ESD curtains to further add to the safety of the test components and personnel inside.
Surface Throws an Electromagnetic Curve Ball
Six scientists have built a sophisticated metamaterial that literally bends electromagnetic waves, according to a new paper published in Science. Ruopeng Liu and Chunlin Li, researchers in David R. Smith's lab at Duke University along with three other colleagues assembled more than 10,000 specially designed pieces to form a mat 20 inches long and four inches wide. The yellow pad sucked microwaves in and spit them out &emdash; with a curve.
To test their new invention, researchers first beamed microwaves at a flat, mirrored surface. The waves behaved as they should, bouncing off at a predictable angle. Next they shot it at a bump in a mirrored surface. The microwaves bounced and scattered, carefully obeying the laws of physics. Then the scientists laid their yellow mat over the bump. And the wave ignored the bump &emdash; or so it seemed. After reflecting off the curved surface, the radiation veered downward and continued along a flat surface-trajectory. The mat had cloaked the bump.
Liu and Li's new metamaterial masks not one tiny slice of the microwave spectrum but a relatively large swath of it, from 13 to 16GHz. Liu and Li built off the results of Smith's 2006 paper to create the new cloak, but this time used more powerful algorithm to help them fabricate the metamaterial. The formula dictated where each of the over 10,000 pieces in the structure should be placed to achieve the desired effect.
Leader Tech Completes Phase II Expansion
Leader Tech of Tampa, Florida has completed its Phase II, Global EMI Shielding Technology Center expansion. Since the grand opening announcement in May of 2008, the company has benefited from a notable increase in demand for its board-level EMI shielding products. The most recent expansion includes the addition of three domestic sales representatives, a new regional sales engineer and a dedicated 45-press manufacturing line.
The enhanced manufacturing capacity is focused on satisfying new demand for the company's Slot-Lok line of board level shields as well as an increase in custom application volumes. The new custom-designed press department gives customers the flexibility to create near-custom shielding solutions using standardized manufacturing methods. This unique approach significantly reduces product cost and lead times while increasing the customer's design flexibility.
Similar capabilities are being developed for Leader Tech's growing standard and custom precision beryllium copper shielding products.
AR CER2018A Receiver Is Now CISPR-Approved
AR Receiver Systems of Souderton, Pennsylvana, a division of AR, has received CISPR approval for its innovative emissions receiver, model CER2018A which exceeds CISPR 16-1-1 Ed 2.0 Oct 2007.
The CER2018A offers continuous coverage from 9kHz to 18GHz with expandability to 40GHz. It combines state-of-the-art sensitivity, dynamic range, accuracy, and easy operation in a CISPR-compliant instrument. To ensure the highest accuracy, self-calibration is selectable at every frequency scan. It's a complete EMI test solution with programmed-in test formats including: CISPR 11/22, MIL-STD 461/462, ANSI C63, and FCC.
The receiver includes a built-in computer that operates under Microsoft Windows XP. Software is also included plus a 19-inch flat screen monitor, keyboard and mouse.
Electro-Magnetic Launch for Carriers
As the U.S. Navy continues to build its new CVN-21 Gerald R. Ford Class carrier [CVN 78], few technologies are as important to their success as the next-generation Electro-Magnetic Aircraft Launch System (EMALS) catapult. At present, steam is the only option for launching supersonic jet fighters from carrier decks.
EMALS uses an approach analogous to an electro-magnetic rail gun, in order to accelerate the shuttle that holds the aircraft. That approach provides a smoother launch, while offering up to 30% more launch energy potential to cope with heavier fighters. It also has far lower space and maintenance requirements because it dispenses with most of the steam catapult's piping, pumps, motors, control systems, etc.
Weighing more than 80,000 pounds, EMALS motor generator is 13.5 feet long, almost 11 feet wide and almost 7 feet tall. It's designed to deliver up to 60 megajoules of electricity and 60 MW at its peak. In the three seconds it takes to launch a Navy aircraft, that amount of power could handle 12,000 homes. The new Gerald R. Ford Class carriers will require 12 of each.
Antenna Firm Shows Path to Wideband Metamaterials
At a recent conference, researchers at Fractal Antenna Systems, Inc. of Waltham, Massachusetts disclosed the approach to making metamaterials work over wide bandwidths. Metamaterials, close-packed grids of conducting resonators, offer the unusual ability of bending light or other electromagnetic waves in the opposite direction of conventional lenses, and other odd properties. It has been speculated that a new field of applied optics will result from their perfected application, and this includes invisibility curtains, cloaks, and super lenses.
Previously, the unusual properties of metamaterials have only worked over a narrow band, or small color range. This limitation makes them impractical for real applications. With the new approach, metamaterials will be able to be designed to work over a broad range of colors or frequencies, with little degradation of the sought out properties.
The firm's approach uses the geometry of self-similar fractals to shape the grid of resonators. The approach also uses a fractal prescription to mesh and interlace the layers.
The firm holds the basic patent to fractal resonators, and has filed a patent application for the wideband metamaterial approach as a whole.
RFMD Transmitter Complies with China Standard
RF Micro Devices, Inc. of Greensboro, North Carolina, a global leader in the design and manufacture of high-performance semiconductor components, released the industry's first fully integrated 5.8GHz transmitter to comply with China's electronic toll collection standard: GB/T 20851.1-2007: Electronic Toll Collection - Dedicated Short Range Communication (DSRC) Part 1: Physical Layer. RFMD's ML5830 is a low-power, amplitude shift key and frequency shift key transmitter operating in the 5.8GHz ISM band. It is designed for electronic toll collection applications, including on board units and road side units .
With the implementation of RFMD's proprietary FastWave™ microcontroller technology, the ML5830 eliminates the cumbersome mass production tuning process necessary with competing solutions.
Alastair Upton, GM of RFMD's broadband and consumer business unit, said, "The ML5830 significantly accelerates time-to-market for original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) while allowing RFMD to participate in a growing market segment for wireless data."