Conferences

From here you can view more information about our next conference, as well as our past conferences. The meetings are held in the Spring and the Autumn. They run over a two-day period, usually from midday on a Monday through to mid afternoon on a Tuesday. Between 14 and 18 papers on a wide variety of Radio Frequency and Microwave topics are presented at each conference.

  • To register on-line for this conference click here
  • To print out an order form and register by post for this conference click here

The meeting commences at 12:30pm on the Monday with a buffet lunch. The attendance fee is £285, which also includes overnight accommodation on the Monday evening, the conference dinner, breakfast on Tuesday morning and lunch on the Tuesday. A day rate booking is also offered. This excludes overnight accommodation and the conference dinner and costs £185. Day delegates can choose to attend the conference dinner as an optional extra (priced at £25). Companies wishing to exhibit must book at least two delegate places (no other fee applies).

Next Conference: Monday 22nd November to Tuesday 23rd November 2010 at Rockingham Forest Hotel, Corby

The November 2009 meeting will be held at the Rockingham Forest Hotel in Northants. Submissions are invited from prospective authors interested in making a presentation. Please supply a title and a one page abstract to the Technical Coordinator (contact details below).

VENUE

This conference will be held on Monday 22nd November to Tuesday 23rd November 2010 at:

Rockingham Forest Hotel
Rockingham Road
Corby
Northants
NN17 1AE
Tel. 01536 401348
Email. reception@bwrockinghamforest.co.uk
Website. reception@bwrockinghamforest.co.uk

PROGRAMME CO-ORDINATOR

The Programme Co-ordinator is

Keith Clark
Surrey Satellite Technology
Tel. +44 (0)1483 803855
Email. K.Clark@sstl.co.uk

PAPERS

Metrology Issues in THz Spectroscopy, Imaging and Communications

Dr Mira Naftaly, NPL

THz spectroscopy and imaging have gained widespread use in research and are beginning to find niche applications in industry. THz communications pose many technological challenges, yet also promise great advantages for high bit-rate short-distance links. As the field matures, metrology issues and standards are becoming increasingly important. The talk will describe measurement techniques in THz spectroscopy and imaging and related calibration methods for frequency, amplitude, resolution and dynamic range. The standards and protocols demanded by the evolving technologies of THz communications will also be discussed.

Commercial GaN Devices for Switching and Low-Noise Applications

Chris Harris and Ray Pengelly, Cree Inc.

Gallium nitride (GaN) RF power transistor and MMIC technologies have become sufficiently mature and reliable in the last few years that there are now very large numbers of fielded devices in both military and commercial applications. Wide bandgap technology is now finding extended use in switching, control and low noise applications. Cree’s GaN on silicon carbide (SiC) MMIC process provides high drain to source breakdown voltage (typically 150 volts) resulting in robust transistor operation allowing, for example, simpler receiver protection circuitry. In addition high output impedances enable large bandwidth of operation; high output third order intercept (TOI) enables lower distortion and higher dynamic range receivers; low noise figures similar to GaAs MESFETs coupled with high fT (27 GHz) enable multi-stage LNA’s to be produced. Application areas for GaN switches, control components and low noise amplifiers include electronically scanned arrays, both military and commercial communications as well as jammers.

Wideband Component Design - Directional Couplers

John Kitchen, SJ Technologie Ltd

The paper will discuss the implications of coupling ripple versus bandwidth for the component, the different options for designing such a component, the trade-offs with each design option and the limitations of each.

Demonstration of Flexible 240W GaN SSPA for Space Application

C D Seymour, C R Green, M D Goss, EADS Astrium Limited

The paper will present the performance of a 200W S Band Gallium Nitride (GaN) SSPA with flexible output power capability. This pre-flight demonstration unit incorporates proven flight design features, and all active components are fully space qualified. By incorporation of elements of the EADS Astrium adaptive 'Flexamp' technology, the SSPA demonstrates high efficiency over a 6dB output power range, with a consequential DC power saving of over 80W at 6dB Output Power Back-off compared to fixed class A/B operation. It is considered that this SSPA pioneers the way towards a new class of EADS Astrium high power spaceflight SSPA products incorporating GaN technology.

Antenna Characterisation for Amplitude Comparison in Electronic Warfare Systems

Simon Brown, Institute for System Level Integration

Radar warning receivers listen for pulses from radars of interest. The angle of arrival of each pulse is needed for pulse processing and location purposes. It can be accurately calculated using phase comparison, but this method is often impractical and expensive. This paper describes the authors attempts to use the less accurate method of amplitude comparison to provide adequate accuracy for use in a novel low cost radar warning receiver.

Improved infrared temperature measurement of RF devices

R H Hopper, D Prime and C H Oxley, De Montfort University, Leicester

The presentation will describe the infrared (IR) thermal measurement facility at De Montfort University and the use of the facility to make conventional IR temperature measurements on RF devices. Some of the limitations with the conventional IR measurement technique will be described; including effects related to the low emissivity and optical transparency of materials.
A novel method for improving the accuracy of IR temperature measurements has been developed. By measuring the level of IR radiation emitted by high emissivity micro-particles, placed in isothermal contact with an electronic device, an indirect estimate of its surface temperature can be obtained. The presentation will show how the “micro-particle” technique has been used to make improved IR temperature measurements on GaAs Gunn diodes and GaN high electron mobility transistors (HEMTs).

Low-power, Low-cost and Low-voltage ISM band oscillator Using Discrete Components and a Miniaturized Resonator

Kwok Lui, Imperial College

In this paper, a low-voltage and low-power 2.4GHz LC-oscillator using
discrete components on FR-4 is presented. This LC-Oscillator requires
only 1.8V to operate and the optimized layout is implemented on low-cost
conventional double layer PCB without using an additional layer for
connection between the miniaturized resonator and transistors. The
dimension of the PCB is only 32 mm x 21 mm. Measured results show the
circuit consumes only 2.56mW using a supply voltage of 1.8V, with phase
noise of -119dBc/Hz at 1-MHz offset. Further experiment shows that it
can operate at 1.1 V with power consumption only 0.69 mW.

EXHIBITION

The meeting will host an accompanying exhibition. If you are interested in exhibiting please email exhibition@armms.org.

SPONSORSHIP

We would like to thank the following company for sponsoring this event…

APC Novacom

APC Novacom

CALL FOR PAPERS

Contributions are invited with an emphasis on R.F. and microwave design, testing and associated subjects. Papers will be printed in the society digest and distributed to delegates at the meeting. Presentations are generally in the form of an informal talk with Powerpoint or OHP illustrations. Alternative methods of presentation are welcome. Contributors are requested to submit the title and a one-page abstract of their paper as soon as possible.

Please contact the Programme Co-ordinator for further information.

Click here to view our Guidelines for Authors.

Click here to view our Publication Release Form.

BOOKING

If you would like to book a place on this conference click here.

Site design by Pepper Creative Web Design Agency