David Vye, MWJ Editor | Microwave Journal

David Vye is responsible for Microwave Journal's editorial content, article review and special industry reporting. Prior to joining the Journal, Mr. Vye was a product-marketing manager with Ansoft Corporation, responsible for high frequency circuit/system design tools and technical marketing communications. He previously worked for Raytheon Research Division and Advanced Device Center as a Sr. Design Engineer, responsible for PHEMT, HBT and MESFET characterization and modeling as well as MMIC design and test. David also worked at M/A-COM's Advanced Semiconductor Operations developing automated test systems and active device modeling methods for GaAs FETs. He is a 1984 graduate of the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth, with a concentration in microwave engineering.

CEL introduces MeshConnect Extended Range ZigBee module

October 15, 2009

David Vye

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This week CEL released the new MeshConnect™ Extended Range module, which offers +20 dBm output power, extended the range of operation to over two miles. The power boost also provides more reliable transmission and allows fewer nodes in the network. It is especially useful for open outdoor applications where the nodes are physically far apart, or for indoor use where the nodes have to connect in a noisy RF environment. The Extended Range Module’s outstanding +123.5 dB link budget ensures high quality connections even in such harsh environments. For both the original Module and the new Extended Range Module,...

Introducing xMax®--the world’s first mobile VoIP network

October 5, 2009

David Vye

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This came across my desk and I thought it was worth sharing - Chris Whiteley, director of business development for xG® Technology, will be one of the presenters at the COMPTEL Conference next week in Orlando, Florida. COMPTEL members are entrepreneurial companies building and deploying next-generation networks to provide competitive voice, data, and video services. Whiteley will be on the Monday afternoon panel examining “Emerging Technologies.” He will present information on xMax®--the world’s first mobile VoIP network, which allows consumers to benefit from much lower-cost mobile calls via the Internet. xG Technology developed xMax as an alternative solution that enables...

Is that a cell phone in your pocket....

September 21, 2009

David Vye

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Fertility researcher, John Aitken, is advising men wishing to have children to avoid keeping their active mobile phones below the waist. His research group at the University of Newcastle in Australia has found that human sperm exposed to mobile phone radiation (1.8 GHz) for 16 hours had reduced vitality and motility, two key indices of fertility. Notably, he has also confirmed his own previous study, published in 2005, which showed that RF radiation could lead to DNA damage. In that earlier experiment, he had exposed mice to 900 MHz signals and then looked at the animals' sperm, in contrast to...

Diamond Microwave Devices and Partners Awarded £1.34million to Demonstrate Pulsed PA

August 12, 2009

David Vye

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Diamond Microwave Devices Ltd (DMD) and its partners have won funding worth £1.34M from the Technology Strategy Board, the government-funded body that supports technological innovation in the UK. The investment will help to fund a £3 million project that will see the development of a new, innovative diamond-based high power, high-temperature, microwave transistor and build a demonstrator microwave pulsed power amplifier capable of >100W output power. Dr Richard Lang, general manager of DMD says, “We are delighted to receive this significant backing for our work on the next generation of microwave transistors based on innovative diamond material and device concepts....

40 Years Later: Moon Communications Questioned in Blogsphere

July 21, 2009

David Vye

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In honor of the 40th anniversary of Neil Armstrong's first walk on the moon, I thought I would find a little microwave trivia from the Apollo 11 mission. My search produced the following exchange from an online forum ( www.2012forum.com ). I thought it was worth sharing with all of you. Enjoy! "I have a MA in Communications/Computer Engineering.(IBM Veteran Engineer/Inventor) One thing that I have always questioned in the Moon landings was:In communications there is a thing called Attenuation, weakened signals even when used in radio waves. When an average radio wave travels here on earth, there are many...

The Creative Mind: Engineers, Scientists and Music

July 15, 2009

David Vye

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I'm sitting in a meeting when, looking down at my notepad, I noticed that I had jotted the name of "Tesla" on it some time ago. I forgot why I had to remind myself about Tesla when I last used this pad of paper, but seeing the word made me think of this truly aweful song from the 1980's called "Tesla Girls", which got me thinking about songs with titles that would be relevent to engineers. Not able to let a good mind contest go unchallenged, I began to list any song that referred to engineering or science. This brief...

News from the Near Field Communication (NFC) Forum

July 6, 2009

David Vye

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The NFC Forum is a non-profit industry association just outside of Boston that advances the use of Near Field Communication (NFC) technology. In early June the association introduced its target mark, a stylized letter "N" that enables consumers to easily locate embedded NFC tags. The N-Mark indicates the spot where an NFC device can read an NFC tag to establish a connection. By holding an NFC-enabled device close to the N-Mark, consumers can "pick up" information stored on NFC tags embedded in everyday objects such as posters, bus stop signs, parking permits, street signs, medicines, magazine pages and food packaging....

Remembering "The Dark Side"

June 30, 2009

David Vye

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Years ago, when I was starting my engineering career (at just about the same time as the HP8510 (automatic) Network Analyzer), I worked for M/A-Com's corporate research. My mentor would jot down some ideas he wanted me to pursue, provide a little scientific guidance and then send me to the lab to experiment. Around this time, a lot of research centered around Gallium Arsenide. Distributed circuit designs that had been applied to PCBs and alumina were being adopted for MMIC interconnects and on-chip passive components. Much of my time was spent using the available design software (SuperCompact or Touchstone) and...

Reader's Choice

June 24, 2009

David Vye

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With coverage of the IMS 2009 behind us, now is a good time to take a quick look at what visitors to the Microwave Journal web site have been most interested in (based on page views). Why now? Well, the IMS is a time of heavy activity for both company product releases and a curious industry that wants to know who is doing what. So here's the quick run down of the ten most visited web pages since the third week of May. 1. The IMS 2009 Multimedia section. About 1600 "readers" came to see our video interviews shot from...

An Obsession with Size

June 17, 2009

David Vye

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How Big was this year's IMS? That seems to be the metric that everyone measures the show by. For me, this annual event is almost more than I can handle. Really. Fortunately our staff editors were able to stay on top of all the press releases and keep the online show coverage up to date. As for me, by the last day my head was spinning from all the input and brainstorming and information overload and piling up action items. Not that I'm complaining. I just don't see how bigger could possibly be any better. I already have regrets for...