Willkommen in München, for the 10th European Microwave Week, which is just a week away. To mark its first decade Europe’s premier RF and microwave event will celebrate the industry’s camaraderie, endeavour and achievements, while focussing on the efforts needed to further technological and commercial development and take the industry forward. The Week is benefiting from the globalisation of the RF and microwave industry with the US, Asia and Eastern European states having an increasingly significant presence and influence on both the conference content and participation in the European Microwave Exhibition.
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Not only has the geographical reach of EuMW expanded since Munich last played host in 2003 but so too have the conferences. Since the addition of EuRAD in 2004 there are now four distinct, yet complimentary conferences — the 37th European Microwave Conference (EuMC), 8 - 12 October, the European Microwave Integrated Circuits Conference (EuMIC 2007), formerly GAAS®, 8 - 10 October, the 10th European Conference on Wireless Technology (ECWT 2007), 8 - 10 October, and the European Radar Conference (EuRAD 2007), 10 - 12 October. Papers on the latest innovations, panel sessions and addresses by invited speakers have been carefully selected to stimulate interest and debate.
As testament to how far the event has progressed over the last decade, this year, for the third year running, there were more than 1000 paper submissions, enabling the Technical Program Committees to fashion a high-level program, with 464 oral papers and 155 poster presentations, complemented by a wide range of workshops and short courses.
In all aspects the aim of EuMW is to provide high quality to the 4000 plus attendees — comprising delegates, exhibitors and visitors — that are expected to attend. As an international showcase for leading manufacturers in the RF, microwave, integrated circuit, wireless and radar industries, the Week provides an invaluable platform for the presentation and introduction of the latest technological developments and a forum for discussing the latest trends and exchanging scientific and technical information.
That is particularly true of the European Microwave Exhibition, 9 – 11 October, which has established itself as the premier RF and microwave trade show in Europe. This year has seen continued expansion with the exhibition attracting more than 270 exhibitors from around the world including North America, a significant Asian contingent and increased participation from Eastern Europe. Over the three days, visitors will be able to discover products launched onto the international stage for the very first time, discuss specific areas of interest with development engineers and find the right products for their particular needs.
The official European Microwave Week opening ceremony on Tuesday morning is open to all conference delegates and exhibition visitors, while the Agilent sponsored EuMW Welcome Reception, later that evening, continues to be a highlight of the week, providing good food, drink and the opportunity for academia and industry to network, debate and socialise. Other social events have been organised throughout the week to enable visitors to savour and experience the sights of Munich.
The 10th European Microwave Week promises to commemorate and celebrate the past, while looking forward and heralding the future. Hopefully you can join us in Munich to discover just how far EuMW and the RF and microwaves industry have advanced over the last decade and its prospects for the next ten years. This Online Show Daily will keep you up to date with all of the activity as the week unfolds.
An Industry-wide Perspective
Heinrich Wolfgang’s microwave industry overview
RF and microwave engineers in universities, research organizations and industry continually endeavour to implement new initiatives and develop technology. Annually, in Europe, there is the opportunity to gauge the strength and depth of those efforts when European Microwave Week showcases the very latest activities in both the academic and the industrial world.
For three years now the number of paper submissions to EuMW has exceeded the 1000 mark, with a wide international representation. This year, after the host country, Germany, the most paper submissions are from France, closely followed by South Korea and the US, with the UK, Italy and Japan making significant contributions as well. This broad distribution demonstrates the globalisation of our field and the importance of embracing new ideas, technological development and market innovation from all quarters.
As well as quantity there must be excellence and EuMW 2007 has striven to offer high-quality and stimulating papers, covering the complete field of wireless technology, microwaves and radar, with a good balance between academic and industrial contributions. The conferences always give an indication of which are the popular areas of research as well as which are the burning issues in industry, while the interest in the European Microwave Exhibition is a measure of the economic situation. This year it has attracted more exhibitors and takes up more square metreage than ever before, which supports the observation that the European microwave industry has continued to consolidate and is now on a stable economical upturn.
Trends
What are the key factors that are fuelling this upturn? What is clear is that the hot topics in research in Europe mirror those worldwide. Interestingly, power amplifiers and the corresponding linearization techniques continue to be most popular in terms of paper submissions. Besides this, work on Silicon-based circuits, particularly CMOS, continues to grow. Finally, tuneable components and multiband devices should be mentioned, which are being developed for different fields of application, particularly with regards to the need for reconfigurable components, which enable multi-standard and multi-band wireless systems.