Three panel sessions on Wednesday from 12:00-1:15 will include, “Is GaN Ready for Prime Time?,” “Will RF-MEMS Make the Commercial Leap?” and “Grant Opportunities at the National Science Foundation.”

Moderated by Mark Rosker of DARPA, “Is GaN Ready for Prime Time?” the panel discussion will focus on the readiness of GaN-based devices and where will they find a home? Panelists include Mike Wojtowicz of NGST, Toshi Kikkawa of Fujitsu, Silvain Delage of Alcatel, Paul Saunier of TriQuint Semiconductor, Jeff Shealy of RFMD, and John Palmour of Cree.

Likewise, “Will RF-MEMS Make the Commercial Leap?” will be moderated by Scott Barker of the University of Virginia and Gabriel Rebeiz of the University of California San Diego. RF-MEMS devices have achieved dramatic increases in reliability and power handling. Therefore, the attainment of real-time adaptable RF front-ends should be at hand, but will system designers consider RF-MEMS for use within cell phones in the near future? This panel session will bring industry experts from cell phone manufacturers as well as RF MEMS researchers to explore this question. Its panel comprises William Panton of Qualcomm, John McKillop of TeraVicta, John Maciel of Radant MEMS, and John Ebel of U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory. The National Science Foundation (NSF) is a federal agency committed to supporting fundamental research, generating new technologies and scientific understanding and developing a well-educated workforce. The session, “Grant Opportunities at the National Science Foundation,” will provide an overview of the agency, information on programs of interest, and guidelines on how to submit a proposal. Panelists include Leda Lunaradi and Don Senich of NSF.

Three focused sessions on Wednesday will uncover advances in GaN MMICs, societal security and microwave systems for deep space missions. From 1:20-3:00, “Advances in GaN Technology” will explore advances in GaN MMIC power and low-noise performance and maturation of the technology to enable multiple commercial applications. New broadband power and efficiency benchmarks will be reported for designs in NDPA distributive technology. It will show that wideband sub-dB noise figure has been achieved in a broadband L- and C-band amplifier with 2 W output power, and more than 50% PA efficiency is reported at 35 GHz. Devices packaged in commercial plastic packaging have achieved 18 W output at 3.5 GHz. Plus, GaN device reliability improvement have been addressed through reduction in early current drop degradation.

During the same 1:20-3:00 slot, another session will explore “Microwaves in Support of Societal Security.” The frequency range used in this application extends from the MHz region to 100 GHz for various communication and detection systems. Threat detection, counter-threat techniques, and first-response technology to man-made as well as natural disasters will be considered. This session will present detection technology that is under development to protect societies against threats as experienced by multiple nations from terrorists. Passive imaging, radar and ultrawideband sensors will be presented that have a variety of applications of great use to make life safer and provide a key advantage under low-visibility conditions.

Current and planned deep-space missions depend on advanced techniques in microwave/RF design to accomplish demanding science and telecommunications requirements. The session, “Advances in Microwave Systems for Deep Space Missions,” will focus on advances in microwave systems and technologies in recently launched missions, including the new horizons mission to Pluto and the MESSENGER mission to Mercury, on improvements to NASA's deep space network, and on the technologies that future missions to the Moon, to Mars, and beyond are depending on to achieve their goals. It will take place from 3:30-5:00.

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