The February issue of IEEE Microwave Magazine is now out!

The February 2024 issue of IEEE Microwave Magazine is here and a great set of features and columns.
Since the early days of electrical energy (from sources such as Leyden jars by von Kleist and van Musschenbroek, and Otto von Guericke’s electrostatic generator [1]), there has always been a need to disconnect the energy source from its load. In the early days, this was a manual operation and, most likely, involved simply cutting or removing the wires from the source. As the early electrical engineer’s ingenuity prevailed, however, mechanical (and then electromechanical) control devices were invented, with the subsequent new applications that came from those. Fast forward to later years and vacuum tubes (or valves), were followed by solid-state control devices that were operated by voltages, currents, or photons. Finally, micro-electrical-mechanical (MEMS) control devices were invented and, with this, new applications were created that literally span the spectrum of “dc to daylight”. Recently, a new technique has been studied involving the use of so-called phase change materials, which go from a high impedance state to a low impedance state through the application (or removal) of a heat source. Tejinder Singh and Pierre Blondy of the MTT-S Technical Committee 6 (TC-6) on RF MEMS and Microwave Acoustics have organized this month’s focus issue on control devices using these phase change materials and have selected three articles on phase change materials. I encourage you to start your reading of the focus issue papers with their Guest Editorial, where they introduce the articles and provide a little background on TC-6. I would like to thank Tejinder and Pierre for not only organizing the issue, but also for serving as authors on two of the three focus issue features. We also have a fourth paper to round out the technical portion of the issue, written by Dipankar Shakya et al., entitled “Exploring millimeter-wave and Terahertz Circuits and Systems with a Novel Multiuser Measurement Facility”, in which the authors describe a facility that is open to all.

MTT-S President Maurizio Bozzi writes in his column this month about the MTT-S portfolio of conferences at the international, national, and regional levels. Of special note is the new World Microwave Congress, a fully virtual event that provides a unique format for global participation across 24 time zones. Fred Schindler, in his MicroBusiness column, discusses the positives (and not so positives) of partners and rivals in the technology space. In our Around the World column, Ke Wu and J.-C. Chiao present a summary of the InterSociety Technology Panel that was held during the 2023 European Microwave Week. Next, we hear from TC-27, the Connected and Autonomous Systems Committee, in our MTT Society News column, about their activities over the last two years, as well as a look ahead to new activities.

To round out the issue, we have six new microwave and RF-related products that are announced in our New Products column, followed by the Women in Microwaves column, and a new Enigmas etc., problem for you to ponder. I should point out that there are several award and scholarship announcements in this issue, so keep an eye out for those as you review the issue. And, of course, we have our Conference Calendar.

Finally, in this month’s In Memoriam column, we can read about the life and career of Shigeru (Reynold) Kagiwada, the 1992 President of the MTT Society. He will be missed by the society.

[1] Leyden Jars, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leyden_jar, accessed 20 November 2023.