31 May 2018

France’s ALPHA-RLH bringing RF and microwave cluster delegation to IMS

© Semiconductor Today Magazine / Juno PublishiPicture: Disco’s DAL7440 KABRA laser saw.

ALPHA - Route des Lasers & des Hyperfréquences (ALPHA-RLH), a French technology cluster specializing in photonics, microwave and digital technologies, is attending the IEEE International Microwave Symposium (IMS) for the first time, taking six cluster members to the event in Philadelphia (10–15 June). ALPHA-RLH and Ikalogic, Inoveos, Cisteme, AirMems and XLIM will be present in booth #2051. AMCAD Engineering will exhibit in booth #1231.

Several cluster members are presenting technical papers. Members will also display a selection of technologies that underpin the development of components, subsystems and systems that will become the basis of key products for radar, telecommunications, defense, space and instrumentation applications.

This year’s IMS highlights the contributions of radio-frequency (RF), microwave (MW) and millimeter-wave research, development and products to medicine (diagnosis and treatment), telecommunications (5G, Internet-of-Space) and the Internet of Things (IoT). The cluster supports collaborative innovation projects to increase member activity in these areas.

New product, live demo and technical presentations

AMCAD Engineering (a provider of measurement and modeling solutions for RF and MW circuits and system design) is releasing its VISION software platform, a comprehensive methodology to extract a complete and accurate model that takes into account all observed phenomena. VISION helps to overcome the challenges of RF systems that are designed to operate with wideband-modulated signals (such as 5G and radar) or with a large number of circuits (such as active antennas). A live demo of VISION is planned in addition to IVCAD and IQSTAR demos.

AMCAD will also present three technical papers:

• Track/Title: ‘We2D-2: Investigation of Fast and Slow Charge Trapping Mechanisms of GaN/AlGaN HEMTs Through Pulsed I-V Measurements and the Associated New Trap Model’, 13 June (10:10-10:30am, location: 202AB);
• Title: ‘A Robust and Reliable Behavioral Model of High Power GaN HEMTs for RF Doherty Amplifier Application’, 15 June (11:20-11:40am, location: ARFTG conference, Loews Philadelphia hotel);
• Title: ‘Wideband Test Bench Dedicated to Behavioral Modeling of Non Linear RF Blocks with Frequency Transposition and Memory’, 15 June (11:40am-12:00pm, location: ARFTG conference, Loews Philadelphia hotel).

Innovations on display

Ikalogic (a specialist in test & measurement devices for embedded system diagnostics and debugging) will exhibit IkaScope, the first Wi-Fi connected oscilloscope probe. Designed for quick and easy analog measurements, it enables electronics engineers to work more effectively on the peripheral circuits of microwave systems (microcontrollers, FPGAs and serial communication between integrated circuits). Ikalogic will also display its latest logic analyzers offering in-depth digital signal analysis.

Inoveos (a developer and manufacturer of passive microwave components and systems for military and commercial radar and telecom applications) will exhibit isolators and circulators with unique dual-band and bi-directional capabilities. Inoveos will also present a technical paper in conjunction with XLIM that demonstrates an ultra-high-bandwidth Y-junction circulator using the ‘continuous tracking’ operation: Track/Title: ‘We2E-4: Complete Methodology of Low-Loss Ultra-Wideband Junction Circulator’, 13 June (11–11:20am, location: 203AB).

AirMems (a designer and manufacturer of switches based on RF MEMS technology for defense, space and telecom applications) will engage with potential customers about the complexity of the future RF electronic systems and how to meet zero-power-consumption requirements. A space innovation award winner, AirMems’ switches have been in orbit for the last four years.

Cisteme (a technology transfer center) works in collaboration with the XLIM laboratory at the University of Limoges. At IMS, Cisteme is proposing R&D services for microwave/RF component and system design as well as wireless applications (IoT, 5G). The center is active in antenna systems, wireless networks, autonomous and communicating sensor networks (IoT-related), ultra-wideband communication systems, filtering, amplifier design and optimization, wireless propagation, RF front-end design, electromagnetic characterization of materials and electromagnetic compatibility.

XLIM (the largest microwave and RF research laboratory in France) is a multi-disciplinary research institute of CNRS (the French National Research Center). It has expertise in high-power RF non-linear device modeling and characterization, active and passive microwave circuits, additive manufacturing technologies for microwave and millimeter wave, MEMS and tunable passive devices, CEM, antennas and phase-array antenna systems. XLIM maintains links with industry via six joint laboratories working on innovation programs.

Tags: GaN HEMT

Visit: www.ims2018.org

Visit: www.alpha-rlh.com