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RF Globalnet is pleased to welcome Dr. James C. Rautio, founder of Sonnet Software and recognized James Clerk Maxwell historian, as a guest columnist. His columns reflect upon his vast knowledge and industry experience in the fields of microwave circuitry and electromagnetic software development.

How To Get Your Paper Published At IMS — Part I
“It’s just an Old Boy’s Club,” my host firmly told me. We were talking about getting papers accepted to the IMS (International Microwave Symposium). After several rejections, he no longer submitted papers to IMS. This is a real shame because IMS is the premier RF/microwave conference in the world. His perception was that the IMS TPRC (Technical Paper Review Committee), consisting of more than 250 of the world’s leading RF/microwave researchers, gave favored status to its own members. Read the article.

The IMS MTT 60th Anniversary Logo — The Back Story
When I was a boy growing up on a remote farm in the 1960s in the southern tier of New York state, the winters were cold, the nights were long, and the snow was deep. Beyond the necessities of life, we had no spare cash, but I traveled the world anyway. Sometimes, it was by means of a hobby I picked up from my father, ham radio, using “homebrew” radios. Read the article.

So Just How Much Faster Are Computers Today?
I purchased my first computer, an Apple ][+, in 1983. I paid US$2,000 for it. At the time, it was a high-end PC (the term personal computer was just then coming into use) with two 5.25” floppy drives, a 6502 microprocessor, and 48 kBytes of RAM. There was no hard drive. Read the article.

One Dielectric Constant Is Not Enough
Electromagnetic analysis should converge to the exact answer as the mesh is made finer, but so many times it does not quite make it. Why? One reason is that using a single value for the dielectric constant — that of an "isotropic" dielectric — is wrong. Two numbers work better. Read the article.

Metal Roughness Is Weird
In 2008, I started working with Dr. Allen F. Horn, III, Associate Research Fellow of Rogers Corporation, on metal surface roughness. He was obtaining incredibly weird results measuring substrate dielectric constants by means of various microstrip and stripline transmission lines. Read the article.

The Fellowship
I presented the student paper awards at the IEEE Radio and Wireless Symposium, January 16 to 19, 2011, in Phoenix, AZ. In each of four areas, I handed out a full university copy of Sonnet, plus personal copies of Sonnet to all of the first- and second-place paper authors. It was a lot of software to a lot of bright young engineers. I felt it was important to do ... because of the fellowship. Read the article.

About the Author
James C. Rautio started his life on a farm and might still be there but for amateur radio. His father had a pre-World War II “rig” and James was intensely curious. That curiosity drove James to become the first from his family to attend college. In 1978, after James received a BSEE from Cornell University, he began his career at General Electric Space Systems. While at GE, James completed a MS in systems engineering from the University of Pennsylvania. In 1982, he transferred to GE Electronics Laboratory in Syracuse, NY, where he designed monolithic GaAs microwave integrated circuits. James continued his education at Syracuse University where he completed a Ph.D. in electrical engineering.

After earning his Ph.D., James worked for several years as a visiting professor at Syracuse University and at Cornell University, while continuing to develop the software started during his Ph. D. research. In 1983, while still working and continuing his education, he established Sonnet Software.

In 1988, James took Sonnet full time and after one year, Sonnet made its first major sale, became incorporated, and hired its first employee. The following decade was devoted to promoting the acceptance of numerical electromagnetics in the high frequency design cycle. In 1995, Sonnet was listed on the Inc. 500 list of the fastest growing privately held U.S. companies, the first microwave software company ever to be so listed.

Dr. Rautio was elected a Fellow of the IEEE in 2000. The following year, he received The Microwave Application Award from The IEEE Microwave Theory and Techniques Society (MTT-S) “For Development of Widely-Used Full-Wave Electromagnetic Solution Software for the Computation of Printed Circuit Characteristics.” Today, James continues to share his passion for his work by giving back to the electrical engineering community as an adjunct professor at Syracuse University while continuing his role as president of Sonnet Software, Inc.

James also shares his wealth of knowledge and pays tribute to James Clerk Maxwell by traveling across the globe as a Maxwell historian, presenting on the life of the famed physicist, and puts philanthropic efforts towards the Glenlair Restoration Project, the charity to help rebuild the childhood home of scientist James Clerk Maxwell.

About Sonnet Software
Sonnet Software Inc., founded by Dr. Rautio, is a private company, dedicated completely to the development of commercial EM software. The company provides a full line of Electromagnetic (EM) EDA software products optimal for high-frequency analysis. Sonnet's suites of high-frequency EM Software are aimed at today's demanding design challenges involving predominantly planar (3D planar) circuits and antennas. Learn more at www.sonnetsoftware.com.