Microwave Engineering May 1999 Cover story We are celebrating the tenth birthday of Microwave Engineering Europe this month. The journal, first published as Microwave and RF Engineering, has covered the dramatic changes in our industry over the past decade – changes reflected in the images within these pages and from the first three front covers incorporated into this month's Ten years on This month, we are celebrating the tenth anniversary of Europe's dedicated RF and microwave journal, Microwave Engineering Europe. It's an event that we're very happy to celebrate, not only because the ten years have provided the MEE team with fun and interest, not to mention employment, but also because it has been such an exciting decade of change for our industry. Looking back on the first three years of the journal, which was then published just six times each year, it is interesting to recall the burning issues highlighted in this column and to see just how much the products and technologies have changed. 1989 was the year when direct broadcasting of analogue TV services from satellites into homes got underway. Gain budgets were all over the place, the technology wasn't always ready and the customers seemed pretty slow to sign up. It wasn't easy but it was the first real push for the microwave industry into commercial applications and it provided the first volume design win for microwave monolithic integrated circuits, MMICs, an important foundation that underpinned the development of low-cost RF circuits for the wireless communications industry. The demise of one of the satellite TV operators also brought lawyers to the forefront of the microwave industry, although not on anything like the scale that third generation cellular has been threatening. By the middle of 1991 two significant milestones were upon us, the deadline for enacting legislation on electromagnetic compatibility throughout the European Union and the date for introduction of GSM digital cellular service. Denmark was actually the only country to hit both targets! Radio frequencies were, nevertheless, definitely making it onto the public agenda with the looming implementation of Europe's EMC Directive about to compel manufacturers to take action on RF emissions and susceptibility of all electrical products. The GSM system, from that shaky start, when it was still named after a special committee of ETSI, rocketed past 100 million users within seven years and has become the closest thing possible to a World-standard for cellular telephones. One year later, the WARC 92 conference set the framework for a new generation of future wireless services with the allocation of frequencies to satellite cellular systems like Globalstar and Iridium, systems that will take global communication to parts of the world that missed out on the telecommunications revolution of the late 20th century. This drive into the commercial sector was accompanied by the political changes in Eastern Europe which dramatically changed the defence strategies and the defence spending levels of all the major European powers. In 1990 the European Microwave Conference was held in Budapest with a small exhibition and an intriguing mix of delegates from the East and West. It was a very different event to the 2nd European Microwave Week now taking shape for Munich this October. Throughout the decade, Microwave Engineering Europe has enjoyed terrific support from the engineers in our industry who read and contribute to the journal, from our editorial advisory panel, and from the companies who support the journal with advertising. We appreciate all their support and it is certainly a good time too for thanks to the team that produce the journal, listed on our contents page in each issue. How will our industry look in another ten years from now? Read on for clues! Paul Jackson

Contents In focus Picturing a decade of change. Satellite communications systems in the 90s and for the next millennium The space segment of communications has been transformed from a collection of single point relays to fully fledged satellite systems. Marco Lisi of Alenia Aerospazio, a regular contributor to MEE and member of our editorial advisory board, tells the story. A decade of change for test and measurement Test equipment and design tools have been the core tools for most RF and microwave engineers. To find out how the test and design needs have changed over the past decade, MEE's editor, Paul Jackson, spoke to Byron Anderson, head of Hewlett-Packard's Microwave and Communications Group and a vice president of the Hewlett-Packard Company. 10 years of RF Silicon integration In just a decade the shape of RF transceivers has changed dramatically. Jan Sevenhans and Bart Verstraeten of Alcatel, describe the progress towards a single-chip radio on silicon and the iterations through bipolar, BiCMOS and SiGe that have lowered cost and increased the integration levels for RF circuits. RF and microwave CAD from 1989 to the next millennium: a virtual round-table discussion The CAD Benchmark has been a popular feature of Microwave Engineering Europe for many years. In this 10th anniversary issue, we take the opportunity to ask the companies that have participated in the past, and some new to the scene, what their perceptions of the current state of the industry are, what it has achieved in the last ten years, and what challenges it faces for the future. Sommaire d' articles Zusammenfassung der Artikel New Products and Data Calendar Classified Catalogue Update & Appointments