Andrej Rumiantsev, Joe Gering
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In January 2024, the Automatic RF Techniques Group (ARFTG) will hold its 102nd Microwave Measurement Conference. ARFTG will be co-located with IEEE Radio & Wireless Week (RWW) and will be held in San Antonio, TX, USA. We are planning for this conference to have all of the usual ARFTG activities, including the NIST/ARFTG joint short course; workshops; exhibits; interactive nonlinear vector network analysis (NVNA) and on-wafer user’s forums; and—most importantly—the formal conference with peer-reviewed papers across a range of test, measurement, modeling, and other RF and microwave topics.
ARFTG started as a network analyzer user group and held its first conference in September 1972, which was called Automatic Network Analyzer–Automatic Test Equipment (ANA-ATE). It adopted the ARFTG name in 1974. Today, ARFTG is devoted to both cutting-edge and practical measurements in RF, communications, microwaves, millimeter waves (mm-waves), and related fields. Therefore, if you have any interest in high-frequency measurements (anything from 1 kHz to more than 1 THz), be sure to make the ARFTG conference part of your schedule for the week. You will find that the atmosphere at ARFTG is informal and friendly. Chances are that you will leave with much more than you had when you came in, perhaps fresh ideas to help with your current projects or new technical contacts to use in the future. Throughout its history, ARFTG has drawn experts from industry, academia, national laboratories, and research institutes from around the world to attend, present papers, and participate in all of the events of the conference. If you have ever had questions on calibration, linear or nonlinear measurements, on-wafer techniques, or any measurement topics, ARFTG gives you the opportunity to meet with the people that developed many of the measurement techniques that you use today.
The theme for the 102nd ARFTG Conference is “Software Architectures and Automation of Microwave Measurement Methods and Systems.” From the first days of ARFTG’s history, software and automation of microwave measurements have progressed tremendously: from the first simple automated network measurements to complex software-defined instrumentation and open source integrated tools. We encourage the submission of original papers demonstrating innovative approaches to tackle measurement challenges inherently linked to the high explosion of diverse applications based on electromagnetic waves. Suggested topics for the 102nd ARFTG paper submission include but are not limited to the following:
Topics always of interest to the ARFTG community are RF/digital mixed-signal measurement and calibration, nonlinear/large-signal measurement and modeling techniques, terahertz measurement techniques, and recent developments in metrology including measurement uncertainty.
Please visit https://www.arftg.org for more information.
The most stimulating part of the ARFTG experience is the opportunity to directly interact on a one-to-one basis with colleagues, experts, vendors, and metrologists in the RF and microwave test and measurement community. The open conference schedule and the presence of many acknowledged experts in the high-frequency measurement field make it easy for attendees to have their questions answered and learn about new subject areas. The following link provides a glimpse of the types of presentations offered at ARFTG conferences: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgrTxVB-T4oxubdOBeVnxsg.
The conference starts with the 1 1/2-day ARFTG/NIST short course (all day Sunday and Monday morning) on basic and advanced measurement concepts, which will be presented by experts in the field from national metrology labs, equipment manufacturers, and academia. The short course covers fundamental measurement concepts, such as traceable power and scattering parameter measurements, as well as more advanced topics, such as nonlinear measurements, on-wafer characterization, and OTA test methods. This is an excellent way to be introduced to the fundamentals of RF and microwave measurements as well as interact directly with experts in the field (Figure 1).
Figure 1. The NIST/ARFTG short course is an excellent way to be introduced to the fundamentals of RF and microwave measurements as well as interact directly with experts in the field.
The main technical conference runs from noon Monday through Tuesday with standard oral papers and more informal interactive forum papers, both of which are peer reviewed and archived in IEEE Xplore. The oral technical sessions at ARFTG conferences are conducted in a single-track style (Figure 2). The interactive forum papers are presented during coffee breaks and are co-located with the exhibition (Figure 3). ARFTG papers cover theoretical and practical aspects of measurement topics and address everyone from researchers to end users and manufacturers. The exhibition features many major instrumentation companies as well as vendors of accessories and specialized equipment for RF, microwave, and mm-wave measurements. This affords you a great opportunity to bring them your questions about their products. The conference is often attended by key technical people from these exhibitors, so you can speak directly to the individuals who design your test equipment. ARFTG grants a Best Exhibitor Award based on the conference attendees’ voting results. The competition for the ARFTG Best Exhibitor Award motivates exhibitors to serve you the best.
Figure 2. The single-track format of the main ARFTG conference presents talks on novel and innovative measurement techniques as well as measurement best practices.
Figure 3. The intimate exhibit and interactive forum allow for more in-depth discussions with researchers and equipment developers.
An ARFTG and RWW joint workshop (in addition to the regular RWW workshops earlier in the week) is planned for Wednesday. The plenary session on Tuesday, also held jointly with RWW, will explore interesting high-level topics. Finally, an awards luncheon will be held on Tuesday, during which the best papers and exhibitors from the 101st ARFTG conference will be honored, along with special awards for achievement in the measurement field (Figure 4).
Figure 4. The ARFTG awards luncheon during which the best papers and exhibitors are honored, along with special awards for achievement in the measurement field.
Last, during the week, there are two ARFTG-sponsored users’ forums, one focusing on NVNA and the other covering on-wafer measurements, including measurements at THz frequencies. These free events are designed to be more like open discussions on selected subtopics. They provide platforms to exchange know-how and experience, to coordinate activities in new areas of research, and to facilitate the application of already-existing methods across the microwave measurements engineering community (Figure 5).
Figure 5. The ARFTG-sponsored NVNA and On-Wafer Users’ Forums are free events providing open platforms for discussions on selected subtopics and exchanging of know-how and experience.
The ARFTG website (https://www.arftg.org) has all you need to know about upcoming events, including our conference during RWW 2023. The key contacts within the ARFTG organizing group are as follows:
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MMM.2023.3314024