RAWCON 2004: Notes (And Pictures) From The Vendor Exhibit

By Jim Pomager
Senior Editor

While it is known for its strong technical program, RAWCON 2004 (Atlanta, September 19-22) also featured a small exhibit of vendors in the wireless system and component design space. The exhibition was held on the lower level of the Omni Hotel at CNN Center, while the technical presentations took place in meeting rooms upstairs. Hoping to generate some crossover traffic, conference organizers situated the 19 booths between the escalators and the area where meals were served and poster sessions were held.

The results were mixed. According to most exhibitors, Monday night's welcome reception generated the most booth traffic, with a number of quality leads developed. Tuesday's marathon exhibition (7 a.m. to 7 p.m.), on the other hand, was not nearly as busy. Attendees wandered among the booths during meals but deserted the hall as soon as the technical sessions began. A number of exhibitors expressed disappointment with the turnout, looking forward to January 2006, when RAWCON would become part of the much larger MTT Wireless conference and exhibition. (For more on MTT Wireless, see "MTT-S To Launch New Wireless Technology Conference And Exhibition".)

For a roving Web site editor, however, the quiet show floor proved ideal, giving me the opportunity to talk to almost every exhibitor. Following is an account of the products I saw, the people I met, and the news I heard at the RAWCON 2004 vendor exhibit, organized alphabetically by company name.

Agilent Technology highlighted its Connected Solutions -- the integration of Agilent Advanced Design System (ADS) software and Agilent instrumentation. The combination of simulation and measurement enables the sharing of signals, measurements, algorithms, and data in both directions between the two domains. Pictured above are (from left to right) Keefe Bohannan, applications engineer, EEsof EDA; Jeff Murphy, application engineer, RF/Microwave; and Chris Mueth, business development manager, EEsof EDA.

For more information, visit Agilent's storefront.

David Vye, product marketing manager, Ansoft Designer, gave me an update on the company's "Partners in Design" technical workshops, which kicked off on September 21 in Shanghai, China. The "road show" emphasizes the collaborative design of components, circuits, and systems using Ansoft simulation tools, and featured a keynote address on UWB radio design. The road show will continue on through Asia, North America, and Europe over the next six weeks. Manning Ansoft's RAWCON booth (above) were Bob Helsby (left), director of business development -- government, military and education, and Tony Donisi, senior applications engineer.

For more information, visit Ansoft's storefront.

Applied Wave Research (AWR) provided demos of its entire suite of software products at the RAWCON exhibition. I spoke with Jerry Gebhard, director of sales - central and southeast region, who told me that AWR is preparing to ship 2004 product line (including Analog Office, Microwave Office, and Visual System Simulator) in the next few months. Above, Gebhard (left) enjoys a light moment with Bill Clausen of Technical Systems Integrators.

For more information, visit AWR's storefront.

CAP Wireless had a range of products on display at its booth. Of note was a prototype 2-20 GHz, 10-Watt (max) solid-state ultrabroadband power amplifier (PA) that incorporates 16 individual MMICs. Mark Lampenfeld (above), executive VP, informed me CAP is already developing the next generation of the device (15-20 Watts). CAP also showed a series of PAs, including the CPM0220-2S, a 2-20 GHz, 21 dBm module for surface mount applications.

For more information, visit www.capwireless.com.

Ted Rankin (above), VP of sales and marketing, was on hand to represent Commercial Microwave Technology (CMT). The seven-year-old privately owned company supplies 400 MHz to 40 GHz filters, duplexers, and multiplexers for wireless, commercial, and military applications. Rankin said he was looking forward to increased exhibition attendance at MTT Wireless in 2006.

For more information, visit www.cmtfilters.com.

CST, a developer of 3D EM simulation software, had a busy September leading up to RAWCON... and it wasn't finished yet! The week prior to RAWCON, CST participated in a series of high-speed interconnect modeling seminars on the U.S. East Coast; the week after, it would hold its European User Group Meeting in Darmstadt, Germany. In between, Natalia Lebedeva (above), marketing coordinator, stands by CST's booth at RAWCON.

For more information, visit CST's storefront.

Eagleware, located only 20 miles from downtown Atlanta, rotated booth labor regularly over the course of the exhibition. When I stopped by the booth, it was R&D engineer Dan Savio's turn (see picture above). He informed me that the SPECTRASYS full spectral-domain system simulator was drawing the most attention during the show. CEO Todd Cutler also participated in RAWCON 2004, representing Eagleware in a panel discussion on CAD software for wireless technology Tuesday night.

For more information, visit Eagleware's storefront.

Sylvan Thompson, engineering supervisor for Interad, had a significantly longer drive to RAWCON (10 hours!). He showed me Interad's newest unit, the Model 3100 modular HF receiver system featuring phase coherence, no local oscillators, high dynamic range, and a Firewire output. In the picture above, Thompson (right) and John Visotsky of V-TEK Associates stand behind Interad's display of antennas and systems.

For more information, visit www.interadlimited.com.

M/A-COM's booth featured information on an array of products applicable to wireless system designers, including extensions of the company's wireless LAN switch and SiGe PA lines. In addition, company representatives presented a paper on M/A-COM's new Digital Transmitter Technology (DTx), which will enable engineers to eliminate 50% of the conventional transmitter components in their wireless device designs. (Look for it to become available in the next 12 months.) Above, M/A-COM's regional sales manager for the U.S. southern region, Tom Lockard, holds down the fort.

For more information, visit M/A-COM's storefront.

OrderOne Networks, a start-up founded by David Davies and Chris Davies, claims to have overcome a major limitation of current mesh networking techniques -- the ability to scale more than a few hundred to a thousand nodes. OrderOne's organizing principle, demonstrated publicly for the first time at RAWCON 2004 (see picture above), enables scaling to tens of thousands of nodes and beyond. The company hopes to license their patent-pending method to device manufacturers for both commercial and military applications.

For more information, visit www.orderonenetworks.com.

According to Ralf Flor (above left), application engineer, and Frank Dunn (above right), account manager, Rohde & Schwarz was at RAWCON to spread the word that the company now sells its test and measurement products directly in North America. (R&S severed its distribution ties with Tektronix on June 1, 2004.) Products on display at the R&S booth included the NRP Series power meters, the FSH Series handheld spectrum analyzer, and the SMU200A vector signal generator.

For more information, visit www.rohde-schwarz.com.

Satimo, a developer of antenna measurement systems, used RAWCON as the starting point for its fall trade show schedule. Sales engineer Per Noren (above) informed me that the company would hit RAWCON, Antenna Systems, and ATMA during a five-week period. He also gave me an overview of the company's newest offering, STARLAB, a compact, flexible, low-cost antenna test station for rapid testing of small antennas and wireless terminals.

For more information, visit www.satimo.com.

It was my pleasure to have an impromptu lunch Tuesday with a group from Sonnet Software that included Dr. James Rautio (president), Jean Rautio (CFO), and Shawn Carpenter (VP of marketing and sales). During the meal, Dr. Rautio informed me that the MTT-S recently named him Distinguished Microwave Lecturer. For the next 3 years, he will travel internationally in this capacity, speaking about the life and research of James Clerk Maxwell. Look for him at an MTT-S chapter near you! Above, the Rautios and Carpenter pose in the Sonnet booth.

For more information, visit Sonnet's storefront.

Scott Cave (above), region sales manager - southeast region, Tektronix, brought me up to speed on the company's RSA Series real-time spectrum analyzers. Designers can use these instruments to capture and store a span of RF frequencies at the same time, then simultaneously view and analyze the signal in time-correlated frequency, time, and modulation domains. The RSA Series spectrum analyzers have applications in analog and digital modulation signal analysis, device/system design, RFID characterization, general-purpose digital modulation signal analysis, and more.

For more information, visit Tektronix' storefront.

Zeland Software showcased IE3D 10.2, the latest iteration of its full-wave, method-of-moments-based 3D electromagnetic (EM) simulator. IE3D 10.2 features an Ultra-fast Adaptive Optimizer, which employs global and local optimizer and other advanced technologies to achieve optimum results in the fewest possible EM simulations. The new release also integrates the ADIX into MGRID with improved IE3D, DFX, ACIS, and GERBER bi-directional conversion. Dr. Jian X. Zheng, president, is pictured in the Zeland booth, above.

For more information, visit Zeland's storefront.

For more information on RAWCON 2004, see ""RAWCON 2004 Sets Attendance, Presentation, Exhibit Records".