Looking back at 2014, a few key technologies were prevalent in the news. 5G research and prototyping took off as investment in this area has quickly expanded with support from industry and academia. This happened at the same time as the 4G rollout gathered steam, especially in the Chinese market where demand for components has been strong. CMOS continued to advance in the RF marketplace by showing off single chip RF fronts ends for 4G handsets and integrated mmWave AESA chips with up to 16 elements. Although CMOS has taken more market share in the RF marketplace along with GaN, GaAs still has a major presence in our industry due to its flexibility and already established manufacturing infrastructure. As the focus for more efficient amplifiers continued, envelope tracking came into the mainstream as a MIPI standard.
As Apple and Samsung released wearable technologies in the form of connected watches and other devices and at the same time connected vehicles started to hit the market, the Internet of Things has been revived as a fast growing (but often over-hyped) trend. There are a lot of forecasts out there but ABI Research thinks the installed base of active wireless connected devices will exceed 16 billion in 2014 and is forecast to be 40.9 billion by 2020. On the vehicle side, IHS Automotive predicts the number of cars connected to the Internet worldwide will grow to 152 million in 2020 from 23 million in 2013.
The design of these devices presents many challenges so our December cover feature will look at low power design techniques for wearable technologies with an additional article about mesh networking for industrial applications. ABI Research expects the installed base for 802.15.4-enabled devices to increase almost fivefold over the next five years, rising from just under 425 million today to over 2.1 billion in 2019 but expects IPv6-enabled alternative 802.15.4 technologies to take a significant market share of 35 percent by 2019. There is no doubt that 5G and IoT are two areas that will demand significant coverage from Microwave Journal in 2015.
To kick off the 2015, the January Radar and Antenna issue will feature a cover story about microwave omnidirectional cloaking using a metamaterial made from fractal traces. This article will show that a relatively simple structure that can be use to hide large objects over a broad bandwidth. There are also a couple of radar related articles including a single chip 77 GHz automotive radar design and another on real-time radar target generation. In addition, part III of the Metamaterial Mobius Resonator series that has generated a record number of online comments will be included.
In our February High Frequency Components/Boards/Systems issue, we will feature a new selective plating process for PCBs that enables smaller line widths, is lower cost and more environmental friendly than traditional PCB plate and etch processes. This technology could enable higher performance PCBs for microwave applications and is being licensed to several companies. An app note on filter modeling on PCBs will also be in this issue.
Our March Test and Measurement issue will have a lead story about the impact of Moore’s Law on the test industry along with future trends in test/measurement. Keeping with the theme, a second article will look at synthetic instrumentation for SDR and CR test/measurement. With the March issue, we will also have our annual Cable and Connectors supplement covering the latest technology and products in that market sector including a TDR measurement article.
Contact us about editorial or advertising opportunities for next year and "Be Seen in 2015". Best wishes and happy holidays!