High-Resolution Chipless RF Sensor Tag

A new planar-resonator coupled structure uses two passive split-ring resonators (SRRs). The 2.6-GHz reader resonator is coupled to an active feedback loop with an amplifier modified to give higher gain at the tag resonator's resonance frequency than at the reader's. This increases the sensing tag's overall quality factor to about 75,000, offering a practical sensing solution.
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Vote Now for At-Large MTT-S AdCom Members

Voting for MTT-S 2021 AdCom At-Large members election opened 1 Aug. and runs through 4 Sep. MTT-S members may vote electronically at a secure URL at any time during this period. The candidates are (in alphabetical order) Kamran Ghorbani, Xun Gong, Rajeev Jyoti, and Sai Padmanabhan. The 2021 Adcom election page includes a statement from each candidate.
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Quantum-Limited Detection of Comet Isotopes

JPL has developed new aluminum oxide- and aluminum nitride-barrier superconductor insulator superconductor (SIS) junction mixers (on 6μm silicon-on-insulator substrate) to deliver quantum-limited receivers in the 500-600-GHz band. The devices are helping to unravel the mystery behind the origins of Earth's water by distinguishing abundances of hydrogen and oxygen isotopes in cometary water, detecting deuterium, O16, O17, and O18 with exquisite sensitivity.
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Last Call: High Efficiency PA Design Contest

The IEEE MTT-S Microwave High Power Techniques Committee (MTT-12), in collaboration with Keysight Technologies, is pleased to announce the 16th High Efficiency Power Amplifier (HEPA) Student Design Competition (SDC). The competition is open to all students, undergraduate and graduate. Competitors must register by 1 Sep. and submit their entries by 1 Oct. Measurements will be live-streamed from Keysight Labs on 16 Oct.
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Manufacturers' and Standard Submillimeter Waveguide Flanges Compared

Metrologists at the U.K. National Physical Laboratory compared dimensions and performance of standard (IEEE Std 1785.2-2016) waveguide interfaces (flanges) and interfaces made by manufacturers to improve performance of rectangular metallic waveguides at submillimeter wavelengths in the WM-380 band (500 750 GHz). They find that the non-standard flanges achieve "very good electrical performance," particularly with the addition of alignment pins.
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Calls for Papers: Microwaves OA, Quantum Information, Covid-19

Paper submissions begin 1 Sep. for the new, open-access IEEE Journal of Microwaves, which begins publication in January. The deadline is 30 Sep. for papers in both the IEEE Transactions on Quantum Engineering (TQE) special section on "Classical Control Systems for Quantum Information Applications" and the IEEE Journal of Electromagnetics, RF and Microwaves in Medicine and Biology (J-ERM) issue on "Covid-19 related Emergency Methods and Systems."
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Reconfigurable Circuits Exploit Abrupt Phase-Change Material

New, dynamically reconfigurable distributed circuits exploit the abrupt conductivity transition in phase-change materials, using metallic inclusions (much smaller than the wavelength) in PCM film to provide low loss and reconfigurability. Researchers developed a tunable dipole operating from 2.13 to 9.07 GHz and a tunable triple-stub matching network operating from 5 to 40 GHz.
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MTT-S Webinars: Chip-Scale Wave-Matter Interactions and More

Stay up-to-date with free MTT-S webinars. Catch previous presentations or sign up for upcoming programs like "Chip-Scale Wave-Matter Interactions at RF-to-Light Frequencies," with Ruonan Han (MIT) on 25 Aug.; "Nonresonating Modes Do It Better," with Simone Bastioli (RS Microwave) on 8 Sep.; "THz Communications at 300 GHz," with Ho-Jin Song (NTT) on 22 Sep., and many more.
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Wideband, High-Quality, Delay-Tunable, Fully Differential All-Pass Filters

A University of Calgary team used two-port network modeling techniques and symbolic math CAD tools to systematically derive all possible wideband, fully differential, second-order voltage-mode active all-pass filters (APFs). From these, they constructed APFs yielding dispersive delay as well as flat delay for true time delay elements. A 0.11x0.348 mm² prototype demonstrated what appears to be the highest Q value of any published second-order APF.
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Coming Up:RF Integration, Intelligent Mobility, Electronic Packaging

Upcoming MTT-S sponsored conferences include: UK-Europe-China Workshop on Millimetre Waves and Terahertz Technologies (UCMMT, virtual, 29 Aug.-1 Sep.); Radio-Frequency Integration Technology (RFIT, Hiroshima, Japan & virtual, 2-4 Sep.); Design and Analysis Frontier of Electronics Packaging (EPEPS, virtual, 4-7 Oct.); Workshop on Emerging Technologies: Wireless Power (WOW, virtual & Seoul, 15-19 Nov.); Latin America Microwave (LAMC, Cali, Colombia, 14-16 December), and others.
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