The ARMMS RF and Microwave Society is an independent professional society comprised of Electronics Engineers with an interest in high frequency (RF & Microwave) design and measurement. A conference is held twice a year, consisting of a conference and associated exhibition.

Thermal Measurement a Requirement for Monolithic Microwave Integrated Circuit Design Richard Hopper, De Montfort University

• The paper will present the state of the art infrared (IR) microscopy facility at De Montfort University which uses a Quantum Focus instrument with state of the art spatial resolution of around 2.6 microns in the 2 to 5 micrometer wavelength band. The instrument has also been set up to make on wafer and packaged device measurements. The paper will describe the IR measurement technology necessary to obtain accurate 2-D thermal profiles on the surface of electronic devices. The measurement procedure will be explained, including the device mounting arrangement and emissivity correction techniques.

Peter James, Astrium

• Previously, conventional satellite payloads have been modelled successfully in RF terms by using spreadsheet software tools that allowed predictions to be made with confidence. However some calculations such as spurious signals or inter-modulation levels and locations, phase noise, Bit Error Rate (BER) and interference are more difficult entities to model. An approach taken on a theoretical development study at Astrium Portsmouth has been to create accurate RF models of each piece of equipment at an early stage in the modelling process and to assemble these together into a single chain of a generic payload model.  This paper will present some of these generic models, some theoretical results and show the various tools that could be applied to test the functionality of a future payload.

Frank van Vliet, TNO Defence, Security and Safety

• The increasing demand of frequency bandwidth for broadband wireless applications results in surveys to new frequency bands, suitable for high data-rate applications. The 60 GHz band is one of the candidates for this type of applications. Due to the high operating frequency the 60 GHz topic is challenging for IC design and measurement. Integration of building blocks is important to minimise high frequency interconnects, which are uncertain design factors. Building blocks for a 60 GHz transceiver MMIC and antenna, designed and measured at TNO, are presented in this paper.