Microwave Journal has released an all new mmWave RF Components Guide. This eBook is a collection of seven articles and white papers written to help you make the best component selections when designing your 5G products, several written by engineering experts here at Knowles. Here’s an overview of what’s included in the eBook.

As radio architectures evolve, the need for filters is also evolving. At the same time, the industry is working to miniaturizes mmWave devices while continually minimizing costs. This means RF designers need filter solutions that offer a smaller footprint while keeping prices manageable.

Planning is in the works for Fifth Generation (5G) communication systems that will enable a hundred-fold increase in user data-rates – and with this increase comes a need for significant increases in bandwidth over what is currently available. Why does bandwidth follow when we ask for an increase in data rates? 

As with everything in 2020, the International Microwave Symposium (IMS) is a bit different this year. We’re gearing up for the live stream event next week, Aug. 4-6, where we’ll participate in the virtual exhibition and give six online MicroApp technical presentations.

DC link capacitors are commonly used in power converters as an intermediary buffer between an input source to an output load that have different instantaneous power, voltages, and frequencies. In electric vehicle (EV) applications, DC link capacitors help offset the effects of inductance in inverters, motor controllers, and battery systems. They also serve as filters that protect EV subsystems from voltage spikes, surges, and electromagnetic interference (EMI).

Recently, Microwave Journal editors Pat Hindle and Gary Lerude sat down with Knowles Precision Devices product line manager Tim Brauner to discuss how our innovative high-performance components are helping RF engineers improve the size, weight, and performance (SWaP) of mmWave designs.

When selecting a filter implementation, one factor that is common across all frequencies is optimizing the size of the filter given the application and the required performance. At mmWave frequencies this can be prove to be a particularly interesting problem, given the change in the physical dimensions of the system as one moves from say 600MHz to 38GHz. 

Over time, the telephone replaced the telegraph, and now cellular and voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) technology are replacing the landline. However, as more communication is done wirelessly and over the Internet, we are becoming more interested in increased bandwidth. This is because bandwidth places a limit on how quickly we can send information through a channel such as an optical fiber or a section of the radio spectrum.

Healthcare professionals and patients rely on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) technology to examine soft tissues and organs in the body to detect a variety of issues, from degenerative diseases to tumors, in a non-invasive manner. To do this, the MRI machine uses a strong magnetic field and computer-generated radio waves to produce cross-sectional images. Thus, the quality of the MRI depends on the uniformity of the magnetic field – even the smallest trace of magnetism inside an MRI scanner can disrupt the field and degrade the quality of an MRI image. 

To choose the right filter for your application, you'll need to evaluate filter type, identify the specific filter technology that best suits your application, and ensure the filter meets your required specifications. This post is designed to serve as a quick reference on the common terms that are used to discuss filter type, technology, and specifications.

To start, there are four key Filter behaviors that sort them into types: Low Pass, High Pass, Band Pass, and Band Stop.