Here's the industry news that caught my attention during the past week.

Companies and Products

Analog Devices (ADI) introduced four broadband hermetically sealed modules, available as standard products:

• 0.01 to 20 GHz power amplifier,
• 2 to 18 GHz limiting amplifier,
• 0.1 to 40 GHz, 5-bit, 31 dB digital attenuator, and
• 0.1 to 40 GHz SPST switch.

Also, ADI released down-converting receiver and up-converting transmitter ICs developed to simplify point-point radio designs operating in the bands from 6 to 42 GHz. The HMC8100 IF receiver converts RF input signals ranging from 800 MHz to 4 GHz to a single-ended IF signal of 140 MHz. The HMC8200 IF transmitter chip converts the industry standard 300 to 400 MHz IF input to an 800 MHz to 4 GHz single-ended RF signal.

Anokiwave joined the Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions (ATIS) as a voting member. ATIS’ goal is to advance emerging 5G networks.

AT&T announced AirGig, a novel concept to propagate millimeter wave signals along power lines for multi-Gbps backhaul and fixed wireless access services. AT&T plans field trials in 2017.

BAE Systems has demonstrated a reconfigurable IC that will speed the development of custom radio systems. The effort was funded by DARPA's Adaptive RF Technologies (ART) program.

How did Broadcom, Qorvo, Skyworks and TDK-EPCOS fare in the new iPhone 7? The Chipworks teardown analysis shows that everyone got something.

Custom MMIC added SP3T and SP5T GaAs MMIC switches to their catalog. The switches cover DC to 18 GHz and are packaged in ROHS compliant, 4x4 mm surface-mount packages.

MACOM released two LNAs: The MAAL-011129 covers 18 to 31.5 GHz and has 2.5 dB noise figure with approximately 23 dB gain. The MAAL-030 covers 2 to 18 GHz and has 1.4 dB noise figure and 20 dB gain. MACOM also announced DC to 22 GHz driver and PA MMICs, targeting test and measurement, EW and other broadband applications. The PA provides 33 dBm saturated output power and 31 dBm P_1db.

ON Semiconductor finally completed their acquisition of Fairchild, after receiving clearance from the Ministry of Commerce in China. The $2.4 billion deal was first announced in November 2015.

Mobile filter start-up Resonant secured another development project, this one with a new customer (their fourth). Resonant will design a SAW duplexer.

Skyworks released a family of GPIO-controlled switches for cellular: a SP4T for GSM (SKY13597-684LF) and SP2T (SKY13581-676LF), SP3T (SKY13582-676LF) and SP4T (SKY13626-685LF) for LTE. Anticipating additional spectrum, Skyworks designed the LTE switches to operate to 3.8 GHz.

Markets and Technology

5G — The Small Cell Forum added 18 members and elected a new board, chaired by David Orloff of AT&T. The forum covened in Rome to discuss a roadmap for the transition to 5G.

Ben Timmons, the senior director for business development of Qualcomm Europe, sought to dampen “some fairly grand statements" about a 2018-2019 launch of 5G, citing the complexity of the system.

Broadband — The Nashville Metro Council approved a proposal to streamline deploying the fiber needed to launch Google Fiber in the city. Because the new law will allow a third party to move existing lines on the poles, the incumbents — AT&T and Comcast — are expected to sue. AT&T sued to block a similar proposal in Louisville, Kentucky.

Autonomous Driving — The U.S. Government announced guidelines for autonomous vehicles and proposed to invest $4 billion in R&D over the next 10 years.

Tesla has used computer vision as the main sensor for its Autopilot system. Following a crash and fatality in May, attributed to the failure of the vision system, Tesla has updated its software to treat the radar as an “equal” sensor. The New York Times published an informative discussion of the state of computer vision and the implications for self-driving vehicles.

John Zimmer, co-founder of ride-sharing service Lyft, shared his vision for a world transformed by autonomous driving vehicles.

Finally, an interesting story about the ultimate road trip, enabled, perhaps even inspired, by mobile technology. Isn’t this why we do what we do?

If you come across news that you think is worth including in the weekly report, please send it to me at glerude@mwjournal.com. Your feedback about content is always welcome.