Looking back, 2020 was a year full of big changes regarding how RF spectrum is allocated in the US. Led by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), multiple portions of the spectrum ranging from the C band to the V band were either opened to new uses and/or auctioned to new users throughout the year. These changes are driving a variety of new opportunities for wireless device manufacturers and broadband and cellular carriers, which is resulting in a range of exciting new challenges for RF technology vendors to help solve. 

One of the things all technical disciplines excel at is creating terminology that can trip up those who are not accustomed to speaking the language every day. Take the title of this article for example. These three words sound similar and are definitely inter-related, but they are not inter-changeable.

While 2020 has presented its fair share of challenges, it has also given us a chance to innovate on how we can help customers address some of the biggest issues they face – from addressing bandwidth and quality constraints to delivering new filtering and capacitor technologies. So, as the year comes to an end, we hope you have a little time to relax and re-read some of your favorite blog posts or maybe catch-up on some of the best content you may have missed. We hope these posts will bring you some holiday cheer, or at least provide some ideas and insights to use for a successful 2021.

In our last article about electric vehicles (EV), we talked about using DC link capacitors as an intermediary buffer in power converters. Today’s topic covers another useful power module component – the snubber capacitor. Snubbers are energy-absorbing circuits used to protect electronics from voltage spikes and transients caused by turning a switch from the On to Off state. Opening a switch intrinsically induces a high voltage across the device, and the snubber provides an alternate flow path for the excess energy to be absorbed by the snubber capacitor and dissipated by a resister or other load.

At any given time, there are a multitude of signals at a variety of frequencies streaming all around us. Each device that relies on receiving the proper RF signals such as televisions, radios, radars, medical devices, and cell phones, requires some level of filtering. While all filters have the same basic job – remove unwanted or out-of-band signals – the specific job requirements of each filter vary depending on the RF architecture used and the needs of the final device.

Frequencies in the mmWave spectrum play a key role in 5G communications. RF technology that was developed around existing mmWave applications has evolved to encompass the needs of 5G wireless access and components for such systems need to be selected for performance and cost. Commercial systems are subject to intense price pressure, making both the purchase cost and the implementation cost of a component important factors in selecting devices for a new design. Another key consideration is likely size constraints and the need to preserve valuable board space.

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.