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The 77th Automatic RF Techniques Group (ARFTG) Microwave Measurement Conference is being held at the Baltimore Hilton on Friday, June 10th, 2011. The conference will include technical presentations, an interactive forum and an exhibition; all to give you ample opportunity to interact with your colleagues in the RF and microwave measurement and test community. The conference theme is “Design and Measurement of Microwave Systems” with papers focusing on linear and nonlinear measurement systems, on-wafer methods and uncertainty analysis, and broadband and mm-wave techniques.
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The conference will open with an invited talk on modular measurement systems by Jin Bains, R&D HW Director of RF Products at National Instruments. This talk will consider the increasing adoption of chassis-based instrumentation (PXI, LXI, and, to a certain extent USB) with an integrated software platform. While that structure is discussed most often in the sense of manufacturing applications, it may also apply to more flexibility-oriented R&D environments. The audience is intended to be those interested in an area of recent change/development in the RF/microwave measurement area.
One of the major progressions in RF/microwave test recently has been the ability to make fast, flexible and accurate measurements using SW-based modular test products. This is a trend that has gained momentum and is continuing to accelerate. It can be very difficult to solve the ever-changing needs of the wireless industry with traditional test products that are often expensive, fairly large and usually rigid. Advances in RF technologies and processes have enabled the development of smaller form-factor, lower cost modular products to match the performance and features of more traditional test products. Modular systems can take full advantage of multi-core processors and leverage the latest FPGA technologies to allow for the greatest measurement flexibility and timing control. The expandability of modular systems allows for synchronized, phase-coherent measurements on systems comprising multiple sources or receivers.
The Nonlinear Vector Network Analyzer (NVNA) Users’ Forum, an informal discussion group devoted to sharing information and issues related to instrumentation utilized in vector large-signal analysis of microwave circuits and systems that contain nonlinear elements, will be meeting Thursday evening. Attendees of the conference are invited to attend.
Also, be sure to check out the three joint ARFTG/IMS workshops: “WMC: Practical Compression, IMD, Load Pull and Behavioral Modeling Measurements”; “WMD: Laboratory Class: Wafer-level S-parameter Calibration Techniques”; and “WFC: The Design Flow of Microwave Power Amplifiers: Challenges and Future Trends.”
An important part of all ARFTG conferences is the opportunity to interact with colleagues, experts and vendors in the RF and microwave test and measurement community. Starting with the continental breakfast in the exhibition area, continuing through the two interactive forum sessions, the exhibition and luncheon, there will be ample opportunity for discussion with others facing similar challenges.
Full details of the technical program are available at: www.arftg.org/conferences/arftg77/77th_ARFTG_Technical_Agenda.pdf.
ARFTG Conference registration is available through the IMS website at: www.ims2011.org.