March 2014 e-Newsletter

IN THIS ISSUE

• From the Editor
• Table of Contents for recent MTT publications
• Spring 2014 IEEE MTT-S Undergraduate/Pre-graduate Scholarships
• Student Design Competitions at IMS 2014
• Call for Papers: IEEE T-MTT Special Issue on Power Amplifiers
• Survey for a New Journal on Numerical Methods as Applied to Electromagnetics or Wireless Systems
• New Online Resume Tool for IEEE Members
• A Little Humor
• IEEE MTT-S International Microwave and RF Conference (IMaRC 2013)
• Report on 2014 SPIE Photonics West Show
• Upcoming Deadlines
• Upcoming Conferences

Thought of the Month:

“If an apple is magnified to the size of the earth, then the atoms in the apple are approximately the size of the original apple.” – Richard P. Feynman

From the Editor
Welcome to the March 2014 issue of the IEEE MTT-S e-newsletter; the official monthly e-newsletter for MTT-S members. After a busy start to the new year, we are ramping up to the International Wireless Symposium in Xi’an, China from 24–26 March 2014. With the IMS 2014 fast approaching, it is time to start planning the trip – please complete hotel reservations at the earliest as rooms are getting sold out!

— Bhaskar Banerjee
Editor, MTT-S eNewsletter

Table of Contents for recent MTT publications

Spring 2014 IEEE MTT-S Undergraduate/Pre-graduate Scholarships
The MTT Society provides financial assistance to graduate students who show promise and interest in pursuing full-time programs in RF and microwave engineering. There are 10 awards for general Microwave Engineering Fellowships and two awards for the Microwave Engineering for Medical Applications Fellowships. MTT Society will sponsor up to ten scholarships for each Spring and Fall semester in 2014 for undergraduate/pre-graduate students to encourage their interest in microwave and RF technologies. Additional travel supplement funds will be available for the awardees to attend an MTT-S sponsored microwave conference. MTT-S strongly encourages students in microwave and RF engineering to apply for the Scholarships and to take the chance to be the next recipient.

Please consult the detailed instructions here and submit your application.

Submission deadline: 15 Apr 2014.

Student Design Competitions at IMS 2014
The 2014 International Microwave Symposium in Tampa will feature a broad variety of student design competitions. The design competitions are managed by the Technical Committees (TCs) of the IEEE Microwave Theory and Techniques Society, and many of the TCs are sponsoring competitions this year. The competitions vary in their themes from radar to circuit design and transistor modeling. In addition, a new competition involves “microwave app” design, a tool promoting and educating in the area of microwave engineering.

All student design competitions will take place on Tuesday, June 3, 2014, with the competition winners recognized at the Student Awards Luncheon on Thursday, June 5, 2014. Student competitors should be aware that the IMS will not assist participants in getting necessary equipment or designed circuits/systems into the United States.

Submission Deadline: 1 Apr 2014.

For more details checkout the Student Design Competitions Webpage.

Call for Papers: IEEE T-MTT Special Issue on Power Amplifiers
In recent years, there has been an explosion of wireless systems. Throughput is ever increasing, expanding the bandwidths of the modulated signals and number of transmitters within a system. Correspondingly, the emissions requirements are becoming tighter, expanding the capacity even further. The efficiency of these systems has always been important, but sustainability has provided renewed focus. Power amplifiers are the final amplifying stage of each of these transmitters and these requirements are increasing the constraints on their design and the design of the transmit system.

The aim of this special issue is to provide insights into PA design advances, device characterization and compensation of nonlinearities across the range of power levels, signal dynamics and frequencies our community addresses. From PAs that whisper at specific times within the Internet of Things (IoT), to basestation PAs that must blast signals just to be received inside buildings at significant distances, to user terminal PAs that have to be able to transmit at one, or more, of a variety of possible bands.

Some topics of interest to this T-MTT Special Issue include, but are not limited to, combinations of the following areas, and other relevant topics are also welcome:

• Advances in devices that extend the possibilities for PAs.
• Advances in nonlinear modeling and validation (compact device and behavioral models).
• Measurement systems that enable waveform engineering for high efficiency PAs.
• Load modulation for improved efficiency.
• PA design for IoT, WiFi and/or WAN systems, uplink or downlink.
• Applied analog or digital predistortion for wide modulation bandwidths.
• Switch mode PAs and alternative transmitter architectures.
• PA design for phased array radar systems.
• Increasing efficiency through supply modulation.
• Wideband PA design for multiple modes and multiple bands.
• High frequency PAs at millimeter wave and beyond.

Authors should see here for submission instructions.

This special issue will be published in February, 2015 under the guest editorship of Dr. Paul Draxler.

Submission deadline: 1 Sep 2014.

Survey for a New Journal on Numerical Methods as Applied to Electromagnetics or Wireless Systems
The IEEE is considering a new journal on numerical methods as applied to electromagnetics or wireless systems. We request your input through the survey with the link below to gauge the level of interest in the new journal, to better understand the need for a new journal on the topic, and the possible disadvantages of starting a new journal that may compete with existing journals. Your input on the survey will influence IEEE’s decision to go forward with the journal and MTT-S participation in the new journal. Therefore, it is important that everyone, even those that do not publish on topics of numerical methods, to complete the short survey.

Link to the survey: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/Numerical_Methods_Journal

New Online Resume Tool for IEEE Members
IEEE ResumeLab is an online service that allows IEEE members to develop a resume or curriculum vitae with multiple resume templates, perform mock interviews, and develop letters, portfolios, and skills assessments for interviews. Best of all, the information developed on IEEE ResumeLab is easily shared with potential employers, mentors, or colleagues via a personalized website.

A Little Humor
What does the sub-atomic duck say?
Quark Quark!
—
What did one uranium atom say to the other?
“I’m feeling a bit unstable, I better split”.

IEEE MTT-S International Microwave and RF Conference (IMaRC 2013)
The IEEE Microwave Theory and Techniques Society (MTT-S) with technical co-sponsorship from The Institution of Electronics & Telecommunication Engineers (IETE), New Delhi, India organized the 2013 IEEE MTT-S International Microwave and RF Conference (IMaRC) during December 14–16, 2013 in New Delhi, India. This new conference was first in the series and will be held annually in India to provide a forum for the international community of microwave engineers to meet and present their latest technical achievements in microwave and RF components, circuits, systems, and modeling methods.

177 papers were submitted to IMaRC, and 65 of these papers were accepted for presentation with an acceptance rate of 37%. Majority of the submissions were from India (81%) and USA (7%). Submissions were also received from Europe, Asia, North America, Australia and South Africa. About 67% of the submissions were indicated for student paper contest. The submissions were categorized under 8 technical tracks for review. These papers were presented in oral and poster sessions over three days. In addition, there were special sessions on satellite communications, filters and packaging. The conference was attended by 220 participants. The technical program started with a plenary session, followed by a special session acknowledging contributions made by eminent scientists from India, namely Sir J.C.Bose and Shri C.V.Raman. The keynote address was delivered by Prof. R.K. Shevgaonkar on “Promising Future of RF and Wireless Technology Research in India”.

A total of 220 participants attended the conference. An industry exhibition was organized which saw 17 exhibitors (both from India and abroad) displaying their products. The conference was supported by industry and Govt. of India through Platinum and Silver sponsorships. An award banquet was organized on Dec. 15th, where best student paper (1 winner and 4 finalists) were awarded a plaque and cash prize. The winner also received a book voucher of US$ 200 from John Wiley. The MTT-S also presented Best Chapter Awards to various chapters from India.

The conference, first of its kind in India, was very well received by the industry and academia.

Report on 2014 SPIE Photonics West Show
Peter Siegel and Frank Maiwald prepared and manned a booth (#6038 North Hall) at the 2014 SPIE Photonics West Symposium at the Moscone Center, San Francisco between Tuesday and Thursday February 4th–6th. They gave out over a hundred copies of the latest two issues of IEEE Transactions on Terahertz Science and Technology to visitors at the booth, and spoke to dozens of individuals about the journal, the IEEE, and the Microwave Theory and Techniques Society. This year, MTT-S was joined at the Symposium, by the IEEE Photonics Society, who also had a nearby booth.

Frank and Peter were helped by MP Associates’ Susie Horn who organized the booth and made sure all the boxes arrived safely, and by Amanda Scacchitti and Lee Wood who helped with securing the space. THz transactions Topic Editors Peter Uhd Jepsen, Technical University of Denmark, and Rene Beigang, University of Kaiserslautern, also stopped by.

The event was quite successful from the point of view of getting visibility for the journal within the Photonics community, especially because interest within Photonics is leaning more and more towards THz activities (T-Cognition’s terahertz spectrometer won one of this year’s Prism awards for innovation). There were 25 booths devoted to THz companies – a record for Photonics West.

Peter and Frank encourage more of this type of outreach for MTT-S publications and for IEEE in general.

Upcoming Deadlines
2–4 Sep 2014 – IEEE International Workshop on Cognitive Cellular Systems – Rhine River (Germany) Paper or Abstract Submission Deadline: 10 Mar 2014
1–3 Sep 2014 – IEEE International Conference on UltraWideBand – Paris (France) Paper or Abstract Submission Deadline: 11 Mar 2014
14–19 Sep 2014 – 39th International Conference on Infrared, Millimeter, and Terahertz Waves – Tucson, AZ (USA) Paper or Abstract Submission Deadline: 1 Apr 2014
28 Sep – 2 Oct 2014 – IEEE Bipolar/ BiCMOS Circuits and Technology Meeting – Chicago, IL (USA) Paper or Abstract Submission Deadline: 29 Apr 2014

Upcoming Conferences
23–27 Mar 2014 – IEEE MTT-S International Wireless Symposium – Xi’an (China)
2–4 Apr 2014 – Workshop on Integrated Nonlinear Microwave and Millimetre-Wave Circuits – Leuven (Belgium)
3–4 Apr 2014 – Texas Symposium on Wireless and Microwave Circuits and Systems – Baylor University, Waco TX (USA)
8–9 May 2014 – IEEE Wireless Power Transfer Conference – Jeju (Korea)
14–16 May 2014 – International Conference on Numerical Electromagnetic Modeling and Optimization for RF, Microwave, and Terahertz Applications – Pavia (Italy)
1–3 Jun 2014 – 2014 IEEE Radio Frequency Integrated Circuits Symposium (RFIC) – Tampa Bay, FL (USA)
1–6 Jun 2014 – 2014 IEEE International Microwave Symposium (IMS) – Tampa Bay, FL (USA)
6 Jun 2014 – 16th IEEE Annual Wireless and Microwave Technology Conference (WAMICON) – Tampa, FL (USA)
16–21 Jun 2014 – 6th International Conference Microwave and Radar Week – Lviv (Ukraine)