News

Greenerwave, the Paris-based satcoms specialist, has won a €10 million contract to help provide French armed forces with satellite connectivity. It is part of a wider contract from the French Defence Procurement Agency (Direction Générale de l’Armement – DGA). This is led by Airbus Defence and Space and also involves the satellite operator Eutelsat OneWeb. Greenerwave will play a role ...

Filtronic is aiming at satellite up-links with a 500W V-band linear RF amplifier. Called Prometheus, it was unveiled at the International Microwave Symposium this week. I combines gallium nitride (GaN) semiconductor with the company’s Cerus 32 solid-state power amplifiers. Bandwidth is 5.2GHz from 47.2 to 52.4GHz range, and typical saturated output power is 57dBm (500W) after a typical gain of 70dB. ...

University of British Columbia researchers are aiming at long-distance entangled quantum networks with a coherent microwave-to-optical photon converter, that can theoretically be fabricated on a silicon wafer. Such a network would have fibre optic long-distance communication, possibly many km long, connecting microwave qubits. “The technology could serve as a translator for quantum computers, enabling them to talk to each other ...

BLM15VM is an automotive ferrite beads inductor intended to block frequencies around 5.9GHz. Announced by Murata, it is particularly intended for 5G vehicle-to-everything (5G-V2X) applications. “In recent years, the use of high-frequency wireless communication in the automotive sector has increased.,” according to the company. “It is primarily used for content distribution for navigation, audio and other infotainment systems. Improving sensitivity ...

X-Fab has improved 25V isolation for better SPAD integration in its 180nm XH018 fab process. 4×3 SPAD arrays: Original Isomos1 and new Isomos2 (right) SPADs – single-photon avalanche diodes – are used as optical receivers in lidar, 3D imaging, depth sensing and quantum communication. The improved isolation module, called Isomos2, improves pixel density and fill factor. “In a typical 4×3 ...

Bob Tsao (pictured), founder and former CEO of Taiwan’s first chip company, UMC, has taken to the hustings in Taiwan to campaign for the removal of 37 members of the Yuan – the country’s legislative body. The 37 are all members of the pro-Beijing party – the KMT. Tsao told the Nikkei that the KMT is a Trojan horse bent ...

TI is building seven fabs in the US at a cost of $60 billion, says the company.  Four fabs costing $46 billion are either underway or planned at TI’s Texas fab sites in Sherman  (pictured) and Richardson which is being expanded. They are Fabs SM1 and SM2 (already underway) and SM3 and SM4 which are to be built later at ...

Infineon has brought out three product families to address the New Space market. NewSpace refers to the commercialisation of space exploration by private companies and startups, often with less governmental oversight than traditional space program es. Driven by the rising demand for global connectivity (direct-to-cell), NewSpace initiatives aim to combine LEO satellite constellations with IoT. These missions typically rely on ...

BAE Systems is working with NMITE (the New Model Institute for Technology and Engineering) to help bridge the UK’s engineering skills gap. The Hereford-based institute has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with BAE Systems’ Digital Intelligence division. It is the latest of ten new partners for the NMITE within the last year. Industry-ready An industry partner for NMITE means “actively ...

Microchip has created a 78ps-resolution 20bit PWM timer block for a series of MCUs for GaN and SiC based dc-dc converters. There are 16 of them to implement 16 power rails, plus eight 16bit 1.25ns PWMs. The family, dsPIC33AK512MPS512, combines these PWMs with five of the company’s recent 12Bit 40Msample/s ADCs and backs them up with a 200MHz 32bit processing ...