RF & Microwave

RF and mmWave communications are rapidly advancing towards harnessing the potential of ultra-high frequencies, reaching 300GHz and beyond, says Tudor Williams. This journey, while filled with promise, is laden with challenges regarding designing and manufacturing at 300GHz and there is a need for innovation to make this a reality. As we step further into the era of the IoT and ...

As electronic content in vehicles continues to rise, designers must find solutions for reliability under intense heat, advises Daren McClearnon. Heat kills semiconductors and automotive environments are notorious for their extreme heat. Accurately predicting RF chip reliability is complicated and costly for design teams using only traditional methods of physical prototyping and measurements. An underperforming design can trigger board layout ...

Silicon Labs is aiming at battery-free harvested energy applications with xG22E, a family of wireless microcontrollers covering Bluetooth Low Energy, 802.15.4 or proprietary 2.4 GHz links. “As Silicon Labs’ most energy-efficient SoCs to date, all three will enable IoT device makers to build wireless devices for battery-optimised and battery-free devices that can harvest energy from external sources in their environments ...

Ceva has introduced a multi-radio intellectual property package for IoT IC designers that combines Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.4 and 802.15.4 modems with a 2.4GHz transceiver aimed at TSMC’s 22nm process. Called Links100 (diagram right), it is the first of a series of IP products (diagram below) that will also include transceivers for Wi-Fi 7 with MLO (multi-link operation), and UWB ...

Samtec has created a line of RF connectors that mount to the edge of PCB by bolting rather than soldering. They measure only 9.5mm from side-to-side where they sit on the PCB and are under 8mm from top to bottom (see photo) “These connectors are commonly used in a lab setting for high-frequency test and measurement and evaluation boards,” according ...

Alif Semiconductor has put an Arm Ethos-U55 neural processor alongside a Bluetooth Low Energy radio in a microcontroller for AI and machine learning workloads – all in a tine WLCSP package. It is called Balletto. “Balletto gives manufacturers the opportunity to implement AI/ML functions such as speech recognition, adaptive noise cancellation, vocal targeting and beam forming in true wireless stereo ...

NXP has finally revealed the wireless versions of its MCX microcontrollers, first announced in mid-2022. “Featuring the industry’s first MCU with Bluetooth Channel Sounding, NXP’s MCX W series enables edge devices with secure multi-protocol wireless for Matter, Thread, Zigbee and Bluetooth Low Energy,” according to the company, which explained: “Bluetooth Channel Sounding standard improves the accuracy and security of distance ...

The diverse challenges facing 5 distinct product segments. When it comes to electronics, most designs will involve multiple semiconductor devices. With this point in mind, Rochester Electronics’ goal is not to offer a single solution for an obsolete device, but instead provide a range of solutions covering the many mature devices likely found in designs. For example, finding a solution ...

u-blox has announced four stamp-sized wireless MCU modules that can run user code and support Bluetooth LE 5.4, Thread, Matter and PSA Certified Level 3 security. ALMA-B10x versions are built around Nordic Semiconductor’s nRF54H20 wireless microcontrollers and have dual 320MHz Arm Cortex-M33 cores, dual 320MHz RISC-V cores, plus 2Mbyte of non-volatile memory and 1Mbyte ram. They also support NFC-A. NORA-B20x ...

This year is the time for ultra-wideband to rise and shine, says Jean-Christophe Doucet. Ultra-wideband (UWB) was once considered a niche, but intriguing alternative to incumbent presence detection and tracking technologies, including radio frequency identification, localisation trackers and infrared sensors. Despite its advantages, the industry overlooked UWB until recently. Experts now project that UWB implementation will grow significantly. They estimate ...