Here's the news that caught my attention last week:

Companies and Products

II-VI completed the acquisition of ANADIGICS after a prolonged auction. II-VI bought the company to add fab capacity for VCSELs and did not disclose the future of ANADIGICS' RF products. However, in a press release, II-VI said it has begun evaluating the assets and integration plans with ANADIGICS' management.

BAW filter start-up Akoustis appointed former RFMD executives Jerry Neal and Art Geiss as board co-chairmen. The company also raised $500,000 — led by Neal, CEO Jeff Shealy and director Jeff McMahon — to support product development. Akoustis claims their single crystal piezoelectric material will provide better performance than current BAW filters.

Ampleon is sampling an LDMOS power transistor designed for DVB-T transmitters. Used in an asymmetric Doherty power amplifier, the BLF888E generates 150 W at greater than 50 percent efficiency.

Analog Devices has adopted Keysight's Sys-parameters, releasing a library of RF amplifier models for the Genesys EDA software.

Broadcom Ltd. will exit the mass market, low margin, Wi-Fi chip business, according to sources in Taiwan. It didn't take Avago long following the Broadcom acquisition to begin rationalizing the business to improve profitability. In addition to capturing synergies, resources will likely be refocused on the fiber-optic and server sectors.

Google Fiber is teaming with Huntsville, Ala. to bring their 1 Gbps FTTH service to the city. Huntsville is installing the fiber, which Google will use.

Pasternack introduced cables for VNAs that provide millimeter wave coverage. At 50 GHz, VSWR is 1.3:1 maximum with ±6° phase stability. At 67 GHz, VSWR and phase stability are 1.4:1 and ±8°, respectively.

Peregrine Semiconductor launched the industry's only SPDT switch that meets the linearity performance required for the DOCSIS 3.1 dual-band architecture.

Rhode & Schwarz announced an EMI test receiver with options for 8, 26 or 44 GHz frequency coverage.

Skyworks released a 50 Ω, SP4T SOI switch designed for dual-band Wi-Fi. The switch includes a GPIO interface.

Texas Instruments (TI) added two PLL/VCOs to their catalog, stating the RFICs provide performance that previously could only be achieved using multiple discrete devices. The LMX2582 covers from 20 MHz to 5.5 GHz, and the LMX2592 works to 9.8 GHz. At 1.8 GHz, the open-loop phase noise is -144.5 dBc/Hz at 1 MHz offset.

ZTE advised their U.S. suppliers to apply for export licenses, after the Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) of the U.S. Department of Commerce added ZTE to the so-called entity list. That requires U.S. firms selling to ZTE to apply for export licenses, which BIS said would have "a license review policy of presumption of denial." Young's China Business Blog predicts that ZTE will lose any appeal, as the U.S. government will use ZTE as a model to deter other companies.

Markets and Technology

5G — Ralph de la Vega, the CEO of AT&T's business solutions group, says low latency is as important for 5G as the high data rates we hear so much about. Video interview.

Ericsson produced this video of their 5G testbed, which was demonstrated at last month's Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

Mobile Culture — Approximately 45 percent of 16 to 24-year-olds say mobile phones are the most important device for accessing the Internet. Not PCs. 55 to 64-year-olds prefer desktop PCs. GlobalWebIndex survey.

RF Energy — The RF Energy Alliance completed their first roadmap for low cost, solid-state power amplifiers for cooking applications. The roadmap sets parameters for five PA module generations, with more than 40 characteristics per module. The roadmap is only available to alliance members.

Autonomous Vehicles — Google urged Congress to standardize regulations for self-driving cars by granting federal regulators the authority to set standards. Inconsistent and conflicting approaches by the individual states are slowing adoption.

Space — Microwave Journal editor Pat Hindle attended the recent SATELLITE 2016 conference and filed this recap of the event and exhibition.

Chuck Campbell, a Senior Fellow on the technical staff at Qorvo and a former colleague, will be one of the IEEE's distinguished lecturers. Watch for his presentation — "GaN Power MMICs – Fact and Fiction" — at an MTT-S section meeting near you.

Last Monday was Pi Day (3.1416 rounded), honoring that mysterious number that defines a circle. The Washington Post published a sampling of pi art.

If you see news that you would like covered in this weekly summary, please email me at glerude@mwjournal.com. If it's more convenient to receive these weekly updates via email — adding one more to your inbox — send me your email address.