Robert H. Caverly
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The IEEE Microwave Theory and Technology Society (MTT-S) represents a diverse and inclusive community whose work spans components and systems from MHz to THz. These wide-ranging topical areas are organized into 26 technical committee (TCs) in technologies spanning from core technologies and applications to systems and applications. Each month, IEEE Microwave Magazine tries to bring you the best overview and review articles on representative aspects of these technology areas, whether they are technical features supplied by one of our TCs or technical features supplied by engineers working in a technical field. Periodically, we also report on work performed by students and young professionals, who are the next generation of MTT leaders. Finally, we act as a communications channel for MTT administrative bodies to talk to and, we hope, solicit comments from the members. If one is interested in components, circuits, or systems, from MHz to THz, MTT is the go-to community.
We have a multidimensional issue for you this month, with wide-ranging technical features covering tunable couplers and common-mode noise suppression as well as student competition winners. All of these technical features, including the student papers, were technically peer reviewed. In the feature article by Tan and Zhang [A1], the authors discuss various reconfigurable couplers that use several different reconfiguration/tuning components, including varactors, active inductors, and piezoelectric devices. Our second technical feature this month, by Zhou et al. [A2], focuses on the well-known phenomenon of common-mode suppression in differential circuits and examines the issue from a noise perspective in both reflective and absorptive modes. This month’s “Application Notes” column, by Blatnik and Vidmar [A3], covers a novel photovoltaic biasing approach for depletion mode devices, with an eye toward low-noise amplifier applications. The authors show several approaches along with tips on using this approach in designs. Finally, we have technical articles from the winners of four student design and paper competitions ([A4], [A5], [A6], and [A7]). We are fortunate that we could group these papers into a single issue as the review processes for these student papers were all completed within a month or two of the others. We had a reduced number of published student papers over the last couple of years because competitions, for the most part, were suspended due to most conferences being run in a virtual format. Now that our conferences are coming back to prepandemic modalities, we can expect more interesting papers from winners of the various conference student competitions. Note that each article indicates the conference and/or competition the students won.
Moving on to our regular features; in the opening sentence of this column, I mentioned that the MTT-S is a diverse and inclusive community. MTT-S President Nuno Borges Carvalho, in his “President’s Column” [A8], expands on how the MTT-S is ensuring this through several initiatives aimed at continually improving the MTT community. Fred Schindler, in our “MicroBusiness” column [A9], takes a sentimental look, and a historical and personal perspective, on the development of gallium arsenide monolithic microwave integrated circuit (MMIC) technology and one of the leaders of the field, Robert Pecel, who about 10 years ago wrote a historical perspective on MMIC technology [1] that was published in the magazine. It is always a good idea to periodically review history because there is truth in the aphorism, to paraphrase Satayana, “Those who do not learn from the failures in previous technologies are doomed to repeat them.” Continuing with our regular columns, we have a new “Microwave Surfing” column article [A10] by Rajeev Bansal and a report from the MTT-S in the “Young Professionals” column [A11]. In this issue’s “Conference Report” [A12], the 2022 IEEE MTT-S International Conference on Numerical Electromagnetic and Multiphysics Modeling and Optimization organizers have a nice summary of their most recent conference, while in our “MTT-S Society News” column [A13], TC-4 (Microwave Passive Components and Transmission Line Structures) presents an in-depth look at the accomplishments and activities of the TC over the last few years. The restrictions of the pandemic do not seem to have slowed down any of the TC’s efforts. Our “Women in Microwaves” column [A14] has a personal perspective on why the author, Janine Love, is a Senior Member of IEEE. Takashi Ohira, the “Enigmas, etc.,” [A15] contributor, has a new puzzle this month and also contributes to our “Educator’s Corner” column [A16] with his look at how instructors can use plane geometry as a precursor to introducing the Smith chart. Finally, and as mentioned before, our conferences are increasingly going back to in-person modalities, and in the issue you will find some calls for papers as well as important dates in our “Conference Calendar” [A17].
We hope that you enjoy the issue!
[A1] X. Tan and Y. Zhang, “Tunable couplers,” IEEE Microw. Mag., vol. 24, no. 3, pp. 20–33, Mar. 2023, doi: 10.1109/MMM.2022.3226550.
[A2] P. Zhou, T. Zhang, and Y. Shi, “Overview of common-mode noise suppression techniques,” IEEE Microw. Mag., vol. 24, no. 3, pp. 34–43, Mar. 2023, doi: 10.1109/MMM.2022.3226551.
[A3] A. Blatnik and M. Vidmar, “Photovoltaic bias for depletion-mode devices in low-noise amplifier applications,” IEEE Microw. Mag., vol. 24, no. 3, pp. 44–51, Mar. 2023, doi: 10.1109/MMM.2022.3226635.
[A4] H. Lyu, Y. Cao, and K. Chen, “Highly efficient and linearity-enhanced quasi-balanced Doherty power amplifier at 3.5 GHz,” IEEE Microw. Mag., vol. 24, no. 3, pp. 52–58, Mar. 2023, doi: 10.1109/MMM.2022.3226549.
[A5] A. Depold, C. Dorn, S. Erhardt, R. Weigel, and F. Lurz, “A direction-of-arrival estimation system for UAV-assisted search and rescue,” IEEE Microw. Mag., vol. 24, no. 3, pp. 59–64, Mar. 2023, doi: 10.1109/MMM.2022.3226548.
[A6] A. Deublein et al., “Doherty’s dominance continued,” IEEE Microw. Mag., vol. 24, no. 3, pp. 65–74, Mar. 2023, doi: 10.1109/MMM.2022.3226547.
[A7] M. Wenzel, N. C. Albrecht, D. Langer, M. Heyder, and A. Koelpin, “Catch your breath! Vital sign sensing with radar,” IEEE Microw. Mag., vol. 24, no. 3, pp. 75–82, Mar. 2023, doi: 10.1109/MMM.2022.3226546.
[A8] N. B. Carvalho, “Creating awareness for a more diverse and inclusive MTT-S,” IEEE Microw. Mag., vol. 24, no. 3, p. 9–11, Mar. 2023, doi: 10.1109/MMM.2022.3226555.
[A9] F. Schindler, “Reminiscing with Bob,” IEEE Microw. Mag., vol. 24, no. 3, p. 12, Mar. 2023, doi: 10.1109/MMM.2022.3226533.
[A10] R. Bansal, “Never the twain shall meet?” IEEE Microw. Mag., vol. 24, no. 3, pp. 14–15, Mar. 2023, doi: 10.1109/MMM.2022.3226618.
[A11] C. Chu, S. K. Dhar, and X. Zhou, “Young professionals’ experience during high efficiency power amplifier student design competition,” IEEE Microw. Mag., vol. 24, no. 3, pp. 85–88, Mar. 2023, doi: 10.1109/MMM.2022.3226552.
[A12] S. Bila and D. Baillargeat, “The IEEE MTT-S international conference on numerical electromagnetic and multiphysics modeling and optimization 2022,” IEEE Microw. Mag., vol. 24, no. 3, pp. 89–92, Mar. 2023, doi: 10.1109/MMM.2022.3226633.
[A13] K. Wu and M. Bozzi, “MTT-S technical committee TC-4 report,” IEEE Microw. Mag., vol. 24, no. 3, pp. 16–18, Mar. 2023, doi: 10.1109/MMM.2022.3226554.
[A14] J. Love, “Why I am an IEEE senior member,” IEEE Microw. Mag., vol. 24, no. 3, pp. 83–84, Mar. 2023, doi: 10.1109/MMM.2022.3226553.
[A15] T. Ohira, “Rectifier output voltage,” IEEE Microw. Mag., vol. 24, no. 3, p. 99, Mar. 2023, doi: 10.1109/MMM.2022.3226632.
[A16] T. Ohira, “Plane geometry inspires wave engineering starters,” IEEE Microw. Mag., vol. 24, no. 3, pp. 93–98, Mar. 2023, doi: 10.1109/MMM.2022.3226534.
[A17] “Conference calendar,” IEEE Microw. Mag., vol. 24, no. 3, p. 100, Mar. 2023, doi: 10.1109/MMM.2022.3226634.
[1] R. A. Pucel, “Looking back at monolithic microwave integrated circuits,” IEEE Microw. Mag., vol. 13, no. 4, pp. 62–76, May/Jun. 2012, doi: 10.1109/MMM.2012.2189032.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MMM.2022.3227820