WIRELESS TECHNOLOGIESWIRELESS TECHNOLOGIES

tooth® technology, GPS, WLAN and multime-dia capability that will be included in handsetsand allows us to develop the RF solutions ourcustomers will need.MWJ: How have evolving requirements of thecommunications sector affected your productmix/plans?JN: Cell phones are evolving into wirelesshandheld computing devices that incorporatea variety of complex components. Handsetmanufacturers are looking to their key RFsuppliers to solve this complexity and providemore complete systems solutions to acceler-ate handsets to market. Once suppliers of PAMMICs, today we supply highly integrated PAmodules that incorporate advanced function-ality such as power control, switch technologyand other passive components. As they incor-porate more features such as cameras, webbrowsing, FM tuners and streaming video, abig challenge is extending battery life. Wenow include DC-to-DC converters for powermanagement in our modules to extend batterylife. As RFMD evolves into a provider of sys-tems solutions, we are increasing the numberof systems and signal processing engineerson our staff.MWJ: What new technologies do you foreseeimpacting your product lines?

The editors of Microwave Journaland the Americas and Internationalissues of Telecommunications inter-

viewed key figures in their markets con-cerning the interaction between suppli-ers and users of equipment for wirelesscommunications. Their comments arepresented below. Because of space limi-tations, some answers have been edited.

Jerry D. NealExecutive VP and Co-FounderRF Micro Devices

MWJ: As a supplier to thewireless systems market,what information wouldyou like to see from the sys-tems providers?JN: Working closely withour customers and sharinginformation is key toRFMD’s success. Throughclose collaboration with

handset manufacturers, we gain valuable in-sight into their plans for future handset de-signs, which enables us to anticipate the fea-tures that will differentiate future products.This helps to determine form factors and thetypes of additional functionality such as Blue-

WirelessTechnologies –

Viewpoints from Two Markets andTwo Continents

Reprinted with permission of MICROWAVE JOURNAL® from the November 2005 issue.©2005 Horizon House Publications, Inc.

JN: We continue to optimize ourproven GaAs HBT process and weare adopting new technologies, in-cluding lithium tantalite, pHEMT, in-dium gallium phosphide and customsilicon processes. We’re using lithi-um tantalite to build SAW filters,which handset manufacturers previ-ously purchased from other suppli-ers. We are incorporating these fil-ters into our modules, which pro-vides our customers with a morecomplete solution, reducing their de-sign time and streamlining their sup-ply chains. We are also incorporatingswitches into our products and aredeveloping new pHEMT processtechnology. We’re also working withsilicon for our transceiver products,Bluetooth® solutions and even our PAproducts. More specifically, we’reworking with CMOS and silicon ger-manium, since as we move furtherinto the digital arena and signal pro-cessing, the need for silicon tech-nologies will increase.MWJ: Is there a significant differencebetween domestic and overseas mar-kets?JN: Fundamentally, the domesticand overseas markets share somesimilarities. No matter the marketor the geographic location, semi-conductor manufacturers must beagile and have the ability to adaptand anticipate the needs of al lhandset markets. As a global sup-plier, we have established officesand operations all over the world tosupport our customers. Today, over80 percent of RFMD’s businesscomes from overseas. As the cellphone market continues to evolve,one of the biggest near-termgrowth drivers is providing compo-nents for low cost handsets de-signed for the emerging low tiermarkets for developing nations,such as China, India, Bangladesh,Indonesia and the Philippines.MWJ: How much of your communi-cations products and solutions havedual usage for military and commer-cial applications?JN: RFMD is primarily focused onhigh volume, commercial products.Very few of our products are suit-able for military use. Some of ourtechnologies, however, are applica-ble to military applications. For in-stance, while the military has used

GPS technology for years, we be-lieve there may be a need for lowcost GPS military applications inthe future. Also our work in galliumnitride (GaN) technology may havethe most immediate applicationbecause it has potential broad uses in radar and other imagingtechnology.

Charles A. McCauleyVice President and General ManagerRenaissance Electronics Corp.

MWJ: As a suppli-er to the wirelesssystems market,what informationwould you like tosee from the sys-tems providers?CM: We would en-courage the sys-tems providers to

share sufficient information to allowus to understand both the technicalobjective as well as the market condi-tions, in order to provide an econom-ical solution in a timely manner. Thissharing of information needs to bereciprocal. We as a supplier must bewilling to share our capabilities andwork with the customer in order tofind the optimal solution. MWJ: How have evolving require-ments of the communications sectoraffected your product mix/plans?CM: As more companies arebranching out to new and differenttechnologies, integrating systemshas become more difficult and im-portant. We have seen everythingfrom making products that can beused simultaneously for CDMA,TDMA and MSM, to productswhich are capable of handling the800, 900, 1800 and 1900 MHz spec-trums. The telecommunicationsmarket is trying to find new ways tosave both space and money, whilebeing able to use every availabletechnology and every kilohertz ofbandwidth at their disposal. Thebandwidth driver for 3G, 4G, dataand video will be the most preva-lent of demands.MWJ: What new technologies do you foresee impacting your productlines?CM: The two most significant arenano-switching and cryogenic re-

ception. Also, we foresee new tech-nologies and revolutionary uses foroptical technologies that will indi-rectly affect our company.MWJ: Is there a significant differencebetween domestic and overseas mar-kets?CM: There is and there isn’t. Eventhough the actual technologies anddeployment are very different, theend goal of all the companies is verysimilar. While a device may not func-tion in another market, a similarproduct would be required in almostevery market. All the markets are al-ways concerned with coverage, ca-pacity and economics.MWJ: How much of your communi-cations products and solutions havedual usage for military and commer-cial markets?CM: Many of our applications havedual usage. While quite often thefrequency ranges will overlap formilitary and commercial applica-tions, both have uses for high power(transmit) and low power (receive)functions. The major difference be-tween the two applications is thatmilitary customers usually have theperformance specifications as theirprimary concern while commercialcustomers usually have price andeconomics as their main focus. Ourprimary methodology, in order tooptimize engineering productivity, isto design units that fit both marketplaces.

Bill FlerchingerStrategic Product Planning ManagerAgilent Wireless Division

MWJ: As a suppli-er to the wirelesssystems market,what informationwould you like tosee from the sys-tems providers?BF: The two pri-mary areas of in-formation from

systems providers relate to their inter-connectivity and emerging wirelesstechnology needs. In the case of inter-connectivity we need to understand re-quirements for physical connections(like GP-IB, LAN, USB, etc.) as well asthe software interconnectivity (drivers,OS, etc.), both today and in the future.

WIRELESS TECHNOLOGIES

Understanding what new wire-less technologies are needed andwhen they will be deployed is essen-tial. The acceleration of digital wire-less technologies continues at an un-precedented rate for broadbandwireless access, wireless data ac-cess, high mobility cellular, special-ized mobile radio and military appli-cations. There is literally no segmentof the wireless market that is notmoving to new digital access tech-nologies or to 2nd, 3rd and even 4th

generation technologies. Agilent hasor is developing new test solutionsto support this evolution. We haveengineers serving on all the majorstandards boards and committees tohelp us ensure that our customersdesigns and products meet thosestandards.MWJ: How have evolving require-ments of the communications sectoraffected your product mix/plans?BF: We have a comprehensive set oftest solutions for every stage of thewireless device life cycles and foreach major digital communicationtechnology. We continue to build onvery early successful products andextend those solutions to evolvingtechnology and customer needs. Thishas helped the industry, since mostof our products can be upgraded tonew capabilities. These include pow-er supplies, oscilloscopes, logic ana-lyzers, signal generators, vector sig-nal analyzers, spectrum analyzers,network analyzers and one-boxtesters. We are also driven to designfor future needs. Specifically, to ac-commodate higher data rates, in-creasing system bandwidths andhigher frequency ranges by takingadvantage of the latest technologyavailable to provide industry leadingtest solutions for the next generationof systems.MWJ: What new technologies do you foresee impacting your productlines?BF: The evolution of existing highmobility cellular standards likeGPRS, EGPRS, cdma2000, 1xEV DOrelease 0 and W-CDMA will contin-ue. We continue to enhance ourproducts for these technologies. Ad-ditionally, there are several newtechnologies that will have new fo-cus in the coming year. These in-clude HSDPA, HSUPA, 1xEV DO re-

lease A, TD-SCDMA, Flash OFDMand others. Broadband wireless ac-cess and wireless data access tech-nologies like Bluetooth®, UWB (Ultra-wideband 802.15.3a), WLAN(802.11x), WiMax (802.16) and Zig-Bee® (802.15.4) will continue to keepour attention.

One of the areas that I see havinga significant impact on the industry isthe “converging wireless device.”This is the personal electronic devicethat everyone will carry with them,which is a cell phone with multiplehigh mobility technologies plus otherfeatures like GPS, Bluetooth®, WLAN,FM stereo, digital multimedia (DVB-H or DMB) receivers, etc. It hastremendous time-to-market and costpressures and will continue to be anopportunity to efficiently integrate,validate and verify the capabilitiesboth in development and productionenvironments.MWJ: Is there a significant differencebetween domestic and overseas mar-kets?BF: There are many differences be-tween domestic and overseas mar-kets. However, with the globaliza-tion that has taken place over thelast decade, the differences are be-coming less and less. Still there areunique needs in the wireless marketaround the globe. Examples includelanguage localization, customer usemodels and differences like Christ-mas or Lunar holidays that drivecustomer buying patterns. Thereare also emerging technologies thatare geographically focused. For ex-ample, the Chinese TD-SCDMA 3Gcellular standard, DMB (DigitalMultimedia Broadcast) currentlybeing deployed in Korea and Japan,MediaFLO initially US only andDVB-H being trailed in Europe.With our strong global support, de-livered locally, we can better meetthe unique needs of our customersno matter where they are in theworld.MWJ: How much of your communi-cations products and solutions havedual usage for military and commer-cial applications?BF: Many of Agilent’s design, verifi-cation and test products see dual us-age. In some instances it is the sameproduct but with different softwareor hardware configurations. In other

instances the products are specifical-ly targeted to specific market seg-ments. We have test solutions forboth.

THE TCS PERSPECTIVE

Vanu BoseFounder and CEOVanu Inc.

TCS: As a wirelesssystems builder,what would youlike to see from thecomponent andsubsystem indus-tries/segments?VB: We see fivekey subsystems ina software radio

system: the antenna, power amplifi-cation, RF up/down conversion, A/Dand D/A conversion and the process-ing engine.

We would like to see more com-moditization of components throughthe use of standardized interfaces.The antenna/PA interface is fairlywell standardized at this point, as isthe RF/PA interface. The RF-digitalinterface is just evolving. There aretwo competing industry standardiza-tion efforts, OBSAI and CPRI, butneither one is flexible enough to sup-port multiple standards and incorpo-rate the necessary control and man-agement interfaces to integrate withinfrastructure equipment from multi-ple vendors. An open RF-digital in-terface with sufficient flexibility andcontrol is essential for reducing thecost of wireless infrastructuresystems.

Another feature that would pro-vide significant benefit in the RF sec-tion would be tunable narrowband RFfilters, perhaps based on MEMS tech-nology or some other new technology.This would significantly increase theperformance, capacity and interfer-ence rejection of infrastructure sys-tems. The A/D and D/A technologyhas made significant progress in thelast ten years, in particular in the spu-rious free dynamic range of highspeed A/D converters and the func-tionality of digital up/down convert-ers. While they are available frommultiple vendors, they will need to in-corporate the open digital-RF inter-face in order to drive volumes up and

WIRELESS TECHNOLOGIES

costs down in the future. The process-ing platform portion of the supplychain is in the best shape, with a widevariety of processing platforms avail-able from FPGA to DSPs to GPPs.TCS: How have evolving require-ments of the communications sectoraffected your product mix/plans?VB: A major goal of a software radiosystem is to increase the pace ofchange in wireless systems by re-placing fork lift upgrades with soft-ware downloads. We view changingrequirements as a good thing, andsomething that our technology canhelp to address.TCS: What new technologies do youforesee impacting your product line?VB: RF MEMS technology, in theform of tunable high-Q RF filters, hasthe potential to impact both the per-formance and cost of the system.Also, improvement in MCPA technol-ogy to improve efficiency and loweroverall system cost will be important.TCS: Is there a significant differencein the requirements of local and out-side (N. America) markets?VB: Large established internationalmarkets such as Europe have similarrequirements as the US Tier I market.However, international requirementsfor new network builds in emergingcountries such as India and Africaare very different. Certainly cost is adriving factor in these markets, espe-cially since many of the areas havelow population density. In some waysthese requirements are similar to rur-al America, but more extreme interms of cost sensitivity. Other re-quirements that differ are environ-mental factors and the quality andavailability of infrastructure servicessuch as power and telecom. Power isoften unreliable, and regulation offrequency and voltage is not as tight.Telecom services are often unavail-able in many areas where coverage isdesired, and a cell phone is often thefirst phone that people in these areashave ever had. The lack of telecominfrastructure requires creativity inbackhaul solutions, including unli-censed and licensed wireless as wellas satellite. TCS: How much of communicationsproducts and solutions have dual us-age as in commercial and military?VB: As the military moves more to-wards leveraging commercial off-

the-shelf (COTS) technologies, moreand more commercial communica-tion products will find use in militaryapplications. For example, we recent-ly announced that we successfullycompleted and demonstrated a pro-totype mobile GSM cellular base sta-tion with satellite backhaul for se-cure, rapid, field deployable applica-tions for the military. We wereawarded the development contractfrom the US Army CommunicationsElectronics Command Research, De-velopment and Engineering Center(CERDEC).

The prototype extended the ca-pabilities of our commercial basestation to address the mobility andencryption required to support dis-mounted soldiers on the battlefield.The Anywave Base Station, built oncommercially available hardware,speeds development and deploy-ment times to the field for the mili-tary and speeds time to market forcommercial deployments. The smallform factor and remote manage-ment capabilities will enable appli-cation to a number of new marketopportunities for secure, mobilecommunications.

Adrian Nemcek President, Networks BusinessMotorola Inc.

TCS: As a wirelesssystems builder,what would youlike to see from thecomponent andsubsystem indus-tries/segments?AN: As the gen-eral purpose com-puting and tele-

communications industries continueto align on technologies, telecommu-nications network infrastructure isbeing based increasingly on COTSand Free Open Source Software(FOSS) components. In many cases,we don’t see these aspects of ourproducts to be points of differentia-tion for our customers. We do seeprudent leverage of this area to offeradvantages in time to market andeconomies of scale. We would like forsuppliers into the COTS and FOSSenvironment to continually evolvetheir solutions to include carriergrade standards. Further, we would

like for more standardization bodiesto drive standards and profiles in thisarea. This applies to platform andboard level standards such as ATCAas well as software component stan-dards such as Carrier Grade Linux(CGL) and Service Availability Forum(SAF). In particular, we would like tosee the industry move up on the foodchain with increased standardizationto facilitate a greater ecosystem ofCarrier Grade network managementsolutions.TCS: How have evolving require-ments of the communications sectoraffected your product mix/plans?AN: The telecommunications sectoris rapidly moving down a path ofconvergence. Integration across In-ternet, wireless and wireline technol-ogy is driving greater demandamong end users and operators fordelivery of new innovative voice, dataand video services at faster speedsand lower costs.

Motorola is meeting these de-mands by making investments inthe access technologies that arecrucial today and will continue togain momentum in the future —DSL, fiber, WiMAX, cellular, cable.We foresee carriers will continuethe rapid adoption of IMS to pro-vide a common session control andservice/application foundationacross these networks.

We are committed to deliveringseamless mobility solutions thatleverage IP-based technologies andallow operators to deliver com-pelling, new end-user services acrossa converged services network. Mo-torola’s Networks portfolio continuesto leverage our heritage in cellularand core networks, as well as our fo-cus on next generation network solu-tions and services such as “push-to”technology, enhanced multimediamessaging, wireless broadband andWiMAX, MVNO capabilities and oth-er service delivery platforms.

The rapid growth of these newtechnologies, increasing complexityof networks and the competitivepressures to have networks operat-ing at peak performance has also ledmany operators to enlist Motorola’sexperience in providing managedservices.

Through a converged servicesnetwork, operators can integrate

WIRELESS TECHNOLOGIES

multiple access technologies such ascellular, WiFi and broadband tech-nologies, while offering their cus-tomers a consistent service experi-ence across all the environments costeffectively. Users now can have a sin-gle device and a single serviceprovider for all their communicationsneeds, with the ability to personalizeservices. Additionally, users can ex-perience a diverse portfolio of appli-cations seamlessly whenever theyneed them and wherever they are atan affordable price. TCS: What new technologies do youforesee impacting your product line?AN: IP-based networks (internal andend-to-end voice over IP and real-time); Media over IP (wireless and wireline)IP Multi-media Subsystem;Peer-to-Peer applications;Mesh technologies for wireless;Increased penetration of fixedinterfaces to residences (DSL, fiberand cable);Ever increasing performance ofwireless broadband standards(WiMAX, 3GPP HSUPA, 3GPP2HSDPA);Security;Content management;Intelligence/capability in theedge/consumer device.

IMS and IP-based technologieswill have a huge impact on Motoro-la’s products and solutions as well asthe industry as a whole.• IMS is designed to support bothwireless and wireline networks and isindependent of the access technolo-gy. IMS will enable a rapid deploy-ment of IP-based services across anetwork unlike the slow rollout ofservices tied to a legacy circuit-basedswitch.• Motorola has developed an IP-based architecture for its CDMARAN product line to provide a num-ber of benefits such as enhancedconnectivity options out to the cellsites, greater system capacities andenhanced services. • An all IP-based architecture CarrierAccess Points (CAP) is being devel-oped first for the Motorola wi4802.16e systems. Peer-to-peer con-nectivity at the RF sites eliminates therequirement for expensive base sitecontrollers or radio network con-trollers. The CAP architecture sup-

ports the movement to an IMS core,which is a key enabler for seamlessmobility services.

The demand for wireless broad-band continues to drive the market.• Motorola’s unlicensed spectrumCanopy product line has enjoyedthree years of solid substantialgrowth providing broadband dataand VOIP services to homes andsmall businesses. As WiMAXemerges, the 802.16e licensed spec-trum systems will deliver these samefixed based services and even morewith full mobility for voice andbroadband data services. Motorola ishelping to drive these solutions with-in the industry with our MOTO wi4solutions.

3G wireless technologies will alsocontinue to gain momentum world-wide.• On the UMTS front, the new stan-dards incorporating HSDPA andHSUPA will enable a more cost-effec-tive, high-speed data service andVoIP service.TCS: Is there a significant differencein the requirements of local and out-side markets (assuming you mean do-mestic and international)?AN: Yes and no: We’re operating in aglobal market. Users’ increased de-mand for broadband, new servicesand seamless mobility is occurringacross the globe and Motorola has aportfolio of solutions geared to spe-cific operator environments whetherthey are wireless, wireline, incum-bent, Greenfield, serving either met-ropolitan or rural areas.1) Operators are looking to maketheir bundle sticky (basically provid-ing FMC across as many devices inas many environments as possible).The idea is to make it more attractiveto consumers to purchase a bundlerather than individual services. Thisis a developed market perspectiveand the drive is for compelling serv-ices/features that span the accesstechnologies and devices.2) In emerging markets, the focus ison cost (Opex and Capex) and themost efficient means to deploy basictelecommunications services to largepopulations with low ARPU.TCS: How much of communicationsproducts and solutions have dual usage as in commercial and mili-tary?

AN: We often see successful commu-nications technologies developed inone domain gain adoption in the oth-er. Both CDMA and mesh technolo-gies were originally developed formilitary applications. From there,CDMA became a foundational tech-nology in the growth of the world’scommercial cellular service. Motoro-la’s mesh technology enjoys widecommercial deployment providing arobust, scalable solution that reducesbackhaul costs and enables peer-to-peer networking.

Increasingly, we are seeing themilitary adopt commercial technolo-gies or slight extension on commer-cial technologies. This is true of com-mon basic components (computing,protocols, etc.) as well as the basic RFtechnologies and standards. Costsand efficiencies will continue to drivethis trend. Further, government orga-nizations are looking to leveragepublic carrier networks in their solu-tions of the future and to find ways toallow their disparate networks to in-teroperate.

Today we also see public safetyemployees and the military use cellu-lar communications as a backup andsupplement to their dedicated andprivately managed communicationsystems. The ongoing developmentof broadband data systems will pro-vide an alternative service for voiceand data for these groups while IMSsystems being developed will pro-vide IP connectivity between privateand public systems to enable newcoverage and service solutions forvoice and data.

THE EUROPEAN PERSPECTIVEThe dynamic of the European

wireless technologies market haschanged dramatically since theheight of the telecoms/Internetboom. Following the sell off of 3Glicenses for large sums, the reali-ty of the implementation of thistechnology has not matched orig-inal expectations and other com-petitive technologies have cometo the fore. There is the continuedemergence of WLAN, while morelong-term effort is being put intothe development of new tech-nologies such as ultra-wideband(UWB) systems and WiMAX. In

WIRELESS TECHNOLOGIES

the telecommunications sectorEurope is facing competitionfrom the Far East with the emer-gence of low end products. Con-versely though, the increased de-mand from developing countriesfor low cost products is a poten-tial market that could be exploit-ed. The wireless telecommunica-tions market is international andthus, communication standardsmust offer the potential of ubiqui-tous coverage worldwide. In thedefence sector, however, there ismore of a tendency for sourcingfrom European suppliers, partic-ularly in reaction to US exportregulation.

Jean-Luc EtienneGeneral ManagerChelton Telecom &Microwave/SalesFrance

MWJ: As a suppli-er to the wirelesssystems market,what informationwould you like tosee from the sys-tems providers?J -LE: This verydemanding mar-ket has forced

many suppliers to define their ap-proach in order to cope effectively.For example, delivery times are oftenshorter than the manufacturing cycletime, especially for components likeours. Consequently, Chelton Telecom& Microwave has established a strat-egy of working closely with its cus-tomers to understand their require-ments and to respond to their needfor flexibility. Also, market forecast-ing needs to be accurate to limit fi-nancial risks and to create a respon-sive supply chain. We realise that theunpredictability of the market canmake forecasting difficult but weneed as much information aboutbusiness development as possible tocater for sudden variations in pre-dicted forecasts.

Also, as technology is becomingmore and more complex, systemproviders often look to high endcompanies like CTM that have thefacility to satisfy these complexspecifications and that have the ca-pability to respond to integrated so-

lutions such as modules or sub-sys-tems. Through our divisional setupand with easy access to researchand development, we can meetthese requirements and are encour-aging system providers to openlydiscuss and exchange ideas abouttheir technical needs with our engi-neers.MWJ: How have evolving require-ments of the communications sectoraffected your product mix/plans?J-LE: For a long time, cost reductionhas been a major driving force in thetelecom business and in the goodtimes when demand was increasingthis could be accepted. But now,when there is no increase in volumewe can no longer make savingsthrough better negotiations with thesupplier or organise production bet-ter and must find alternative meanssuch as cheaper technical solutions.Also, due to systems improvements,we have to be ready to accept tighterspecifications to satisfy the trend forcomponent development without anyadditional cost.

Meanwhile, Asian competitors areemerging with low end products. It isvery difficult to compete with thesecompanies, even with low cost, offshore manufacturing plants, as ouroverheads are at the western Euro-pean level! Thus, our strategy, in thewireless market, is to concentrate onlow cost, high end technology prod-ucts. In this context, the ability ofR&D to innovate is fundamental inorder to present road maps for com-petitive and effective products. Toachieve success, our plans includepartnerships with suppliers to devel-op new materials and with universi-ties to extend our R&D vision andcapabilities.MWJ: What new technologies do you foresee impacting your productlines?J-LE: In the telecom field, time is asensitive parameter, as the end cus-tomer needs to respond to its mar-keting plan to cover the increasingdemands of subscribers. Therefore,great effort has gone into our R&Dto produce SMD version isolators inorder to follow the trend for pickand place automated systems. Thesecond important factor is the pro-duction of low cost products andhopefully this technology also leads

to achieving parallel low profile, lowweight solutions, that will satisfy ourcustomers.

For telecommunication satellitesthe ongoing development of newsatellite spacebuses like Alphabushas driven our customers to devel-op high power payloads. Our mar-ket awareness and experience hasled us to undertake concurrent en-gineering, design, testing and qual-ification of high power vacuum so-lutions. In the radar field, more andmore radars are using active anten-na with phased arrays, thus de-creasing the need for waveguides.And, in the context of MMIC gener-alisation, discrete elements, mainlyused for power handling limitation,are emerging. The idea is to inte-grate these discrete elements intomodules, for example combininglimiting diodes with ferrite-basedcomponents.MWJ: Is there a significant differencebetween domestic, European and In-ternational markets?J-LE: Yes, definitely, but it is not sotrue in the telecom field where theplayers tend to be globally based.Ideally CTM aims, “To be a domesticsupplier in each country.” However,operating internationally requires anefficient and reactive worldwide salesand support network. Achieving thistarget is my main mission, havingjust joined the company’s manage-ment team.

In the military and space market,being a domestic supplier still offersa clear advantage, for proximity ofservice, confidentiality and even easi-er communication (speaking thesame language in particular). On theother hand, Europe is being viewedas being more and more domestic.Through the construction of the Eu-ropean defence sector, Europeancustomers are clearly expressingtheir preference for European suppli-ers following the reinforcement ofUS export regulation. This evolutionin the HiRel market is impacting onour strategy to assume a leading po-sition in Europe. MWJ: How much of your communi-cations products and solutions havedual usage for military and commer-cial applications?J-LE: Most of the technologies devel-oped for communications products

WIRELESS TECHNOLOGIES

can be used for military applicationsafter adjustment to be compliant withmilitary operating conditions. This isespecially true for L-band and S-band systems, for which the frequen-cies are not so different from cellularnetwork frequencies. For X-band ap-plications there are also commontypes of products with radio link sys-tems. As an example, our circulatorsare being used for IFF application(1,030 to 1,090 MHz), which was ini-tially developed for GSM BTS (925 to960 MHz).

For military applications quanti-ties are far less than those for com-mercial ones, so the investment forindustrialization is not at the samelevel. Nevertheless, even if prices arehigher in the military market, thetechnology, together with our exper-tise, enables our customers toachieve cost reduction targets alongwith having confidence in using highquality products.

Graham MartinBusiness Development DirectorChipcon, Norway

MWJ: As a suppli-er to the wirelesssystems market,what informationwould you like tosee from the sys-tems providers?GM: We wouldlike to see greatertransparency as to

future frequency requirements, espe-cially when new frequencies orbands are being considered. It wouldalso be interesting to receive feed-back on the requirements of the RFlink (receiver sensitivity, output pow-er, blocking performance, etc.), par-ticularly which trade-offs are accept-able considering that very often asignificant increase in RF link perfor-mance comes at a price, be it cost,power consumption, etc. The systempower budget requirements and therequired or preferred choice of mi-crocontroller and memory technolo-gy are also significant in completesystem on chip solutions.

In wireless mesh networking so-lutions it is important to understandthe different requirements of the in-dividual markets and again whattrade-offs are possible. Many addi-

tional features are possible such asincreased network security, in-creased network speed, faster net-work response times or enhance-ments such as over the air down-load. They often come at anadditional cost (e.g., through in-creased system memory require-ments) though, which may be ac-ceptable to military, industrial orprofessional systems but not to cer-tain consumer applications. Otherhelpful input would include futuremechanical and environmental re-quirements. The reason being thatdue to the design cycle of new RFsystems such decisions usually haveto occur one to two years before weactually start delivering volume pro-duction, so it is important to receivesuch information at a very earlystage.MWJ: How have evolving require-ments of the communications sectoraffected your product mix/plans?GM: The requirements of the com-munications sector has lead us to fo-cus on achieving high RF link relia-bility, low cost, low power and small-er sizes. In particular, the evolvingand rapidly growing deployment ofvarious wireless communicationssystems means that we have to putmore emphasis on ensuring robustreliable wireless communication invery busy environments (interfer-ence). Two-way systems with mes-saging acknowledgment are increas-ing in popularity as well as systemswith (adaptive) frequency hopping orDSSS, along with good receiver sen-sitivity and blocking properties.

Battery operation and increasedminiaturization are driving size andpower requirements. Therefore,complete RF system on chip solu-tions (radio, microcontroller, memo-ry, peripherals on one IC) are help-ing to decrease size, power con-sumption and costs. In response,Chipcon has recently announced thefourth generation of products tomeet all of these requirements.MWJ: What new technologies do youforesee impacting your product lines?GM: Low power, low cost and robustwireless sensor networking will playa major role in our future productlines based on IEEE 802.15.4 radiostandards and ZigBee. This technolo-gy will be far reaching as it can be

used in multiple applications includ-ing homeland security, home andbuilding automation, health care, as-set management, transportation, etc.Also significant is the utilisation oflow power, low cost, robust RFICs inthe ISM bands, which will replaceolder, simpler technologies such asmost 27/49 MHz solutions and simpleSAW filter solutions.MWJ: Is there a significant differencebetween domestic, European and In-ternational markets?GM: We see no significant differencein geographical requirements otherthan the variations in local frequencyregulations in the sub 1 GHz ISMband. The differences are more in re-lation to market areas — consumer,industrial, automotive, etc.MWJ: How much of your communi-cations products and solutions havedual usage for military and commer-cial applications? GM: All of our communicationsproducts can be used in commercialand military applications, althoughadditional screening/selection wouldbe necessary for certain militaryscenarios.

Wolfgang BoschCTO Filtronic ICS, UK

MWJ: As a suppli-er to the wirelesssystems market,what informationwould you like tosee from the sys-tems providers?WB: I would liketo see better visi-bility of market

trends in system design and solu-tions, particularly in relation to alter-native competing technologies. Thiswould be very helpful when makinginternal technology decisions. Trendsfor new frequency bands and theirdeployment by region and the overalleffect of WiMAX on the cellular roll-out plans are of great interest too. Itwould be useful for our subsystemdesigners to have a closer involve-ment earlier in the system designprocess, thus enabling them to makethe appropriate system trade-offs atan earlier stage. Especially as design-ing to black box customer specifica-tions, electrical and mechanical re-

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quirements is often very challengingand may adversely impact perfor-mance, time to market, cost and man-ufacturability. However, the inclusionof subsystems suppliers earlier in thedesign process would require thesystem providers to reveal some ofthe closely guarded IP in theirsystems. MWJ: How have evolving require-ments of the communications sectoraffected your product mix/plans?WB: In general there is an increas-ing demand for higher data capacitysolutions that require high yieldingtechnologies, innovative designs andan increased level of integration,which has led to newly developedproduct lines matching the complexdemands of emerging standards. Inaddition, the development of newcommunications systems and thegrowth of existing ones, necessitatethe development of equipment thatcaters to several standards. As a re-sult, although similar in function, theproduct mix is characterized byequipment development for a num-

ber of standards. There is also a no-ticeable increase in demand for prod-ucts targeting developing countrieswith a greater price pressure. Thishas driven the product mix towardsequipment at frequency bands suit-able for these regions but at a lowerprice. MWJ: What new technologies do youforesee impacting your product lines?WB: Any new technology that im-pacts on the deployment of the com-munication systems, for which Fil-tronic designs RF equipment, will im-pact our product lines. For example,the deployment of emerging WiMAXand related systems will significantlyaffect our technology mix and ourproducts. Specific technologies thatimpact on Filtronic’s current productportfolio are emerging power semi-conductors, DSP and implementationtechnologies that enable intelligent,highly efficiency and linear poweramplifiers. Another area to watch isroom temperature ‘supercooled’ filtertechnology that would be significantfor our current product line.

MWJ: Is there a significant differencebetween domestic, European and In-ternational markets?WB: As far as our product portfoliois concerned there is little differencebetween these markets and, in orderto be successful, communicationstandards must offer the potential ofubiquitous coverage worldwide. Assuch, equipment developed for thesesystems address a worldwide market. MWJ: How much of your communi-cations products and solutions havedual usage for military and commer-cial applications?WB: Typically our communicationsproducts are customized and aretherefore specific to each applicationand do not find dual usage in militaryand commercial markets. However,the technology, design and manufac-turing techniques and the expertisewe have developed have a high de-gree of transportability and capabili-ties developed for one market oftenfind application in others. ■

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