Covering topics from the historical to the development of technology for the future the first meeting of the ARMMS RF & Microwave Society in 2015, sponsored by e2v and held in Oxford, UK was a sell-out. Alongside the conference the gathering of 89 engineers, academics and business people from across the industry were treated to a full commercial exhibition of 20 table top displays.

These included the latest in test equipment and components from some of the largest companies in the sector to small and medium sized businesses. Meeting up with suppliers and customers as well as the general networking opportunities has always been a strong element in the success of the Society meetings, with a focus being the conference dinner on the first evening.

Mehmet Karaaslan of e2v was the Technical Coordinator of the conference. In the historical bracket Mark Walden’s paper on Automotive Radar asked the question – was the earliest radar a ship detection system from Germany in 1904? Technology from the helix TWT to the latest advances in MMIC mixer design was also covered.

Highlighting the development of new technology, the Steve Evans-Pughe Memorial Prize for the best paper, sponsored by NI/AWR, was awarded to Sema Dumanli of Toshiba Research Europe for her paper on the Challenges of Wearable Antenna Design and the second place went to Chris Marki of Marki Microwave for his paper, A Paradigm Shift in MMIC Mixers Using Novel Schottky Diode Technology. He also won the honorary title for the furthest travelled speaker, having flown from Morgan Hill, California.

Digits are creeping higher in frequency and have an established place amongst the conference themes; Andrew Glascott-Jones of e2v, presented a paper on direct conversion to X-band using 4.5 GS/s SiGe DACs, whilst Jonathan Riley of Slipstream, described the use of FPGAs in direct synthesis of S-band waveforms. Howard Venning of Aspen brought the upcoming ‘Physical Agents’ Directive to the attention of the delegates; pointing out that whilst the EMF monitoring requirements will no doubt be a burden on many companies there are opportunities for the industry.

University participation was again high with papers from the universities of Manchester, Sabanci (Istanbul), and Nottingham. ARMMS provides sponsorships for up to two engineers, (aged 28 and under), who are presenting papers. This covers all conferences fees and a contribution towards travel costs. At the spring conference the Young Engineers awards were presented to Colin Viegas of Manchester University and Joseph Williams of Filtronic Broadband.

Bookings for the November conference in Cambridge can be made on the website from 1 May 2015.