The 6 Biggest Technology Trends From IMS2012
By Paul Kruczkowski, Editor
Like a kid in a candy store or a car buff at an auto show, I couldn’t get enough of the enormous amount of RF and microwave technology on display at IMS2012. This year’s show offered a retrospective look at the history of RF and microwave technology (in celebration of MTT-S’ 60th anniversary), a comprehensive exhibition of today’s best designs, and glimpse of what the future has to offer through the pioneering research presented at the show. As I reflect on my first IMS show as editor of RF Globalnet, I acknowledge that, at times, my grueling schedule had my mind and body on the ropes; however, the engineer in me didn’t want it to end. Following are the top technology trends I observed at IMS2012.
Gallium nitride (GaN) technology took center stage again at IMS2012. No fewer than four sessions were dedicated to presenting the latest research on GaN technology, and semiconductor manufacturers demonstrated the latest devices from their expanding GaN portfolios in the exhibition hall. GaN chips for a variety of applications, frequency bands, and output powers were displayed by M/A-COM, RFMD, Microsemi, NXP, and Freescale, to name a few. GaN should quickly become the dominant technology for high-frequency applications, as the industry continues to develop new methods to improve device linearity in order to take advantage of the wide bandgap and low output capacitance of GaN high electron mobility transistors (HEMTs). Eric Higham of Strategy Analytics told me he estimates the GaN market will reach $180 million by 2015, remaining strong in the military sector and gaining momentum in commercial applications like power electronics, CATV, and wireless infrastructure.
Tunable systems are critical to the success of modern multiband communication. As the number of bands continues to increase, tunable filters, tunable matching networks, and adjustable phase shifters become even more important to future wireless telecom, aerospace, and defense systems. There were many IMS2012 technical sessions dedicated to research on tunable systems, tunable filters, and RF microelectromechanical Systems (MEMS). And on the exhibit floor, Peregrine’s DuNE digitally tunable capacitors (DTCs) and WiSpry’s RF-MEMS antenna tuner are examples of new technologies that address this trend.
Test and measurement companies were strongly represented in technical sessions and on the exhibition floor, as usual. In addition to adding new features, speeding measurement times, and extending measurement capabilities to higher frequencies, several companies also introduced new products for 802.11ac testing. In anticipation of IEEE 802.11ac development later this year, companies like Agilent, Rhode& Schwarz, and National Instruments (among others) introduced new test equipment capable of handling wider RF bandwidth up to 160 MHz, 256 QAM modulation, higher throughput rates, and the EVM requirements of the new wireless local area networks (WLAN) standard.
If you don’t know about Agilent’s X-parameters yet, and you work with nonlinear systems, it may be time to learn more about them, since it appears that they are gaining wider acceptance in the industry. During a press briefing I attended, Agilent announced that they have entered an agreement with ANSYS to support X-parameters . Agilent has already integrated X-parameters into its PNA-X nonlinear vector network analyzer (NVNA) and its SystemVue electronic system-level (ESL) design environment, and touts that X-parameters help engineers overcome challenges resulting from nonlinear impedance differences, harmonic mixing, and nonlinear reflection effects that occur when components are cascaded under large signal operating conditions.
There was a new track in the IMS technical program this year for biomedical applications of RF/microwave technologies, covering sensing, imaging, and wireless healthcare. The papers presented in this field included identifying and diagnosing cancer cells with microwave and millimeter wave sensors, as well as using nanosecond high-voltage pulsed electric fields for electroporation treatment of cancer. Three papers were presented on the use of radar for monitoring vital signs (which I wrote about earlier this year), while other research focused on microwave and magnetic-resonance imaging and wireless healthcare.
Wireless power transmission and power harvesting was another new focus area for the IMS technical program. There has been renewed interest in this technology with the introduction of new low-voltage and low-power-consumption electronics. The initial goal of research is to wirelessly charge the batteries within electronic devices, and eventually to wirelessly power the devices without use of a battery. I spoke with Ke Wu, ISM2012 General Chair, about an IMS paper entitled “Spintronics-Based Devices for Microwave Power Harvesting”, which was co-authored by members of his own research institute, École Polytechnique de Montréal, along with members of Everspin Technologies (Chandler, AX) and the University of Manitoba (Winnipeg, Canada). Their research uses a spin diode in the rectifying circuit — instead of a traditional Schottky diode — that has a high zero-bias resistance (ZBR) for ambient microwave power harvesting (which the paper defines as hundreds of microwatts, without distance limitations if the receiver is inside a RF statistically concentrated area of transceivers, like cell phones or base stations). The paper shows how harvested power can be increased by a factor of 10 at microwatt power levels using this unique technique.
I’m glad I had the opportunity to share my observations from IMS2012 with you. I’m already looking forward to seeing what technologies and trends emerge at IMS2013, which will be held in Seattle from June 2 to 7. I hope the international participation we saw in Montreal carries over to next year and that the record number of paper submissions (1225) at IMS2012 will be broken. (The new three-page paper requirement, along with some great advice from RF Globalnet guest columnist Dr. James C. Rautio on how to get published at IMS, should go a long way to keeping the number of submissions up.) The proposal deadline is September 14, 2012, and the paper submission deadline is December 10, 2012. Until next year’s IMS show arrives, I’ll try to keep you updated on the latest technology developments in the RF and microwave design industry in my regular columns. If you learn of interesting new technologies I should cover, feel free to email me at editor@rfglobalnet.com.
If you saw something at IMS2012 that you think should have made my list of top technology trends, please share your comments below.