Microwave Engineering December 1999 & January 2000 Cover story Our cover shows a new device structure highlighted at the IEDM Conference in Washington DC this month. New technologies at the conference included a 200W MODFET for WCDMA base stations, a method for producing mechanical trenches in a silicon substrate from Toshiba and a transistor structure from researchers at TRW. IMT 2000: we have radio! At the tail end of 1999 and possibly the beginning of the next millennium - unless you like to think of that as January 1st 2001 - it's good to have a comment with 2000 in the title. It's good too that we finally have progress on the radio interfaces for IMT 2000, the next generation of mobile communications. In fact, if there's one thing the 3rd generation cellular discussions have with the exact timing of the millennium, it's that agreement on timing, and what should happen in the future, is tough to find. That's why it's great to see that a meeting of the International Telecommunications Union group, tasked with defining the radio interfaces for the next generation, approved a specification. Maybe all that disagreement over standards was a 20th Century thing which we can all abandon in the build up to the 21st Century. So what did they agree at the meeting in Helsinki last month? The task group, operating under the exciting name of ITU-R Task Group 8/1, came up with a set of radio interfaces which should embrace satellite and terrestrial systems. There are five separate blocks defined, covering direct spread (IMT-DS), multi-carrier (IMT-MC), single-carrier (IMT-SC), and frequency-time (IMT-FT). Not familiar terms, until you see the explanation that IMT-DS is more commonly known as W-CDMA, IMT-MC is CDMA2000 and IMT-FT is DECT. What happens now? "The extent to which the promise of this new wave of communication can be delivered depends on the delivery of the IMT 2000 implementation," said Yoshio Utsumi when he closed the meeting. Whether that was intended to be a statement of the obvious or a veiled swipe at the countries who failed to embrace the opportunities of the second generation, or neither, is unclear. The accompanying statement from the ITU certainly spelled out the need for operators (and by implication the nation states) to support all the different radio standards if the global economies of scale are to be exploited. Those global economies of scale will be driven in the developed and wealthiest nations of the world but they will have the most impact in making communication affordable in the poorest and least developed corners of the globe. With the new millennium just around the corner, this year or next year that's a tremendous possibility. Just one small note of the 20th Century caution. Formal approval of the task group's work is actually scheduled for the next ITU Radiocommunications Assembly at the beginning of May, so there's still time to fall out if any group really wants to! Paul Jackson

Contents In focus Process carves out a sharper performance; Rhode & Schwarz takes "universal" route to 3rd generation Focus on hybrid components and packaging Wireless manufacturers' consortium attacks design cycle times An automotive 77GHz radar system designed for volume manufacture This paper by S. Redfern, C. Oxley, D. Dawson, J. Bird, G. Hilder, B. Prime, T. Brown and D. Spencer of Mitel Semiconductor, describes a 77GHz radar sensor which will enter series production as a headway sensor, initially for use in automatic cruise control (ACC) systems. Later applications of this technology may be adopted in safety related applications such as collision avoidance and pedestrian safety. Behavioural modelling of a bit synchroniser with Matlab Orlando Peña from Ericsson describes how they model the process of sorting the signal from the point in a communication receiver and the influence of the voltage-controlled oscillator. A Ka-band diplexer using planar TE mode dielectric resonators with plastic package Described in this paper which was awarded the EuNC prize for the best paper at European Microwave Week in Munich in October, is Ka-band diplexer using novel planar TE mode dielectric resonators. The authors are T. Hiratsuka, T. Sonoda, S. Mikami, K. Sakamoto, and Y. Takimoto of Murata Manufacturing Co. Ltd. Sommaire d'articles Zusammenfassung der Artikel New Products and Data Calendar Classified - Catalogue Updates & Appointments