Pasternack Blog

There are many predictions that the RF GaN industry has been, and will continue, to experience substantial growth over the next several years. Predictions estimate that the currently nearly US$ 400 million RF GaN market (2017 close) will likely grow to, or beyond, US$ 1 billion by 2023 [1, 2]. With the defense industry consuming ..

There are a multitude of layers, protocols, and wireless standards for IoT applications. The following blog gives a brief description of these layers and lists (with links!) to a variety of the leading protocols and standards relevant for IoT applications. IoT Application Protocols The Application layer protocols are typically responsible for data formatting and presentation, ..

IoT Network Categories The previous post in the IoT 101 series described the types of system architectures common with IoT. This post will describe the network categories and topologies. The network categories are divided mainly by the region they enable access, and often interface with other networks to provide additional features and services. For example, ..

This blog series is an extension of an earlier released blog, “IoT Wireless Standards in a Nutshell”. This post focuses more on the basic background of IoT systems architecture and network categories. Future blogs will cover more detailed information about network topologies and IoT protocols, standards, and wireless communication technologies. IoT System Architecture Generally, IoT ..

Many countries have yet to release, or license, mm-Wave spectrum for service providers to use or lease. The US, via the FCC, just auctioned seven 100 MHz blocks of spectrum in the FCC Auction 102. This mm-Wave spectrum covers the lower and upper 24 GHz spectrum, between 24.25 GHz and 24.45 GHz, and 24.75 GHz ..

Though the hype train of 5G may have some believing that true mm-Wave 5G will be showing up at your door any minute, the reality is that most 5G services will likely take years before they become viable. 3GPP Release 15 brought a new aspect to 5G beyond what many were expecting (other than the ..

Though there are high hopes for Millimeter-wave 5G solutions to solve all of our bandwidth woes, there will likely still be a couple, to several, years before large scale deployments of mm-Wave 5G occur. For the time being, wireless service providers are focusing on developing hardware and prototyping the new Sub-6 GHz 5G NR bands. ..

In last week’s post, we covered foundational details regarding PIM in modern wide-band and multi-carrier communication systems, with a note on upcoming 5G NR sub-6 GHz frequencies being added to the mix. This week’s blog expands upon that discussion and provides more details of PIM considerations specific to DAS. With DAS, another large PIM concern ..

Passive intermodulation distortion is the result of discontinuities, metal-to-metal contact, and material properties that lead to nonlinear characteristics of typically linear passive transmission lines and components. PIM can be induced in a variety of RF components, such as connectors, adapters, cable, combiners, splitters, couplers, tappers, attenuators, terminators, antennas, and cable-to-board interconnect. PIM is generated when ..

Last week’s post covered why low PIM components, other than coaxial cables and assemblies, can be important to consider for low PIM applications. This blog focuses on low PIM Directional Couplers, Loads, Attenuators, Adapters, and Antennas, and provides brief descriptions of their use cases and value. Low PIM Directional Couplers Unlike tappers, splitters, and dividers, ..