These news items caught my eye last week:

Companies and Products

Analog Devices released two GaN PAs covering 2 to 6 GHz. The HMC7748 delivers 25 W saturated output power and has 60 dB small-signal gain. The HMC7885 provides 32 W saturated power with 21 dB small-signal gain and is assembled in a hermetic flange-mount package for high-reliability applications.

Cambridge Broadband launched a point-to-multipoint system for fixed wireless access in the 31 GHz band, an underutilized band in the U.S. The system supports up to 1.2 Gbps data rates.

GigPeak shareholders tendered more than 80 percent of the company’s shares, clearing the way for IDT’s acquisition. GigPeak will be a subsidiary of IDT.

MACOM released three AlGaAs PIN switches:

• MASW-011094 high power, terminated SPDT, covering 24 to 37 GHz
• MASW-011087 high power, reflective, symmetrical SP4T, covering 18 to 35 GHz
• MASW-011029 75 to 100 GHz SP3T, with integrated bias circuits.

Mercury Systems acquired Delta Microwave for $40.5 million. Mercury was attracted by Delta's growth and position on F-35, Paveway, MALD and Rivet Joint, as well as Delta’s capability with GaN PAs. Delta’s revenue for the 2016 fiscal year was approximately $12.8 million.

Pasternack released six, I/Q MMIC mixers covering RF/LO bands from 4 to 38 GHz and with IF bandwidth from DC to 4.5 GHz. The mixers integrate a pair of double-balanced mixer cells fabricated with a GaAs MESFET process, a 90° hybrid and a 0° splitter/combiner.

Raytheon received a $10 million contract modification to continue the GaN upgrade to the AN/TPY-2 X-Band, ballistic missile defense radar.

Skyworks annouced that 17 of their devices were designed in the Sierra Wireless AirPrime machine-to-machine (M2M) wireless modules. Also, Skyworks released an LNA for satellite navigation systems. The SKY65623-682LF covers 1559 to 1606 MHz, has 0.85 dB noise figure, 16.5 dB gain and only draws 1 mA.

Southwest Antennas released 2x2 and 4x4 MIMO antennas for the 2.2 to 2.5 and 4.4 to 5.0 GHz bands. The antennas have 12 dBi gain and 120° horizontal beamwidth.

Teledyne Technologies completed the acquisition of U.K.-based e2v for £627 million, approximately $789 million. e2v develops high reliability semiconductors and board-level products for aerospace, space and communications applications.

A strong March raised WIN Semiconductors’ Q1 revenue to NT$3,271 million, approximately $107 million. Revenue increased 1.9 percent from Q4, yet was down 0.5 percent from Q1 2016.

Markets and Technology

Cellular — Comcast announced it will offer its own cellular service, branded Xfinity Mobile. Comcast will tap Verizon's LTE network as well as using their own wireless hotspots. The offering completes a long-discussed quad-play move.

As it reshapes its business model, Verizon is reorganizing into three segments: media and telematics, customer and product operations and networks and technology. To lead the latter, Verizon hired former Ericsson CEO Hans Vestberg.

5G — Watch a simplified tutorial on full duplex technology — transmitting and receiving at the same time on the same frequency. Full duplex is one of the architecture options being explored for 5G.

IoT — Verizon is the first U.S. carrier to launch a nationwide LTE-M IoT network. LTE-M supports a battery life of several years and up to 1 Mbps data rates on both the downlink and uplink.

Strategy Analytics warned that claims the IoT market will exceed $1 trillion are hyped. They estimate the market will grow to $300 billion in 2025, from $120 billion in 2015.

Broadband — President Trump signed the bill repealing ISP privacy rules, and a White House spokesperson called net neutrality an “overreach.”

Here’s another industry voice saying that despite the shift to wireless, we need more fiber for backhaul. Otherwise the EM waves will never make it to the cloud.

Tim Berners-Lee, one of the founders of the worldwide web, is intent on decentralizing it and giving you control of your own data, rather than being captive to a few large players (e.g., Amazon, Google. Microsoft). Berners-Lee was recently awarded the Turing Award by the Association for Computing Machinery.

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