News and Information from Besser Associates • December 2008
In this issue:
- Special Price for Applied RF II in San Jose this December
- Next Webcast: RF Power Amplifiers
- Upcoming Web Classroom Course - EMC/Shielding/Grounding Techniques for Chip & PCB Layout
- Tutorial: Smith Chart ABC's - Part I
Happy Holidays from Besser Associates!
Besser Associates instructors and staff wish you a happy holiday season!
Special Price for Applied RF II in San Jose this December
This five-day course is a follow up course to Applied RF Techniques I and provides participants with the critical tools to design, analyze, test, and integrate nonlinear transmitter and receiver circuits and subsystems. Circuit level engineers will master the latest nonlinear design techniques to both analyze and design transceiver circuits. System engineers will examine commercially available integrated circuit functions; learn the performance limits and how to establish specifications. Test engineers will learn how to test and evaluate circuits. Transceiver circuits to be covered include power amplifiers and the critical receiver elements: oscillators and mixers. Receiver architecture and synthesizer design to meet critical requirements will be presented. Techniques to successfully integrate circuit functions for the transceiver will be presented.
Space is available and the course is confirmed to run.
| San Jose, CA | Dec 08-Dec 12, 2008 |
| Course 003-4049 | Presented by Ed Niehenke |
Special Price: $1,995  |
|
Next Webcast: RF Power Amplifiers
The 2008 Webinar series from Microwave Journal and Besser Associates continues with RF Power Amplifiers by instructor Allen Podell. This webcast discusses the fundamental considerations of RF high-power amplifier design. The presentation will cover criteria for transistor selection, device models, various classes of operation, circuit topologies such as push-pull, power combining techniques, optimum load-lines and impedance matching. The webcast will run December 16th at 8AM Pacific Time.
Upcoming Web Classroom Course - EMC/Shielding/Grounding Techniques for Chip & PCB Layout
EMC/Shielding/Grounding Techniques for Chip & PCB Layout
This seminar discusses techniques for identifying the sources of unwanted coupling and radiation, and systematic approaches for their minimization. Upon completing the course, the participant will be able to:
• Define electromagnetic compatibility.
• Identify sources of coupling and radiation.
• Discuss and simulate the effectiveness of various shielding strategies.
The Besser Web Classroom features live, instructor led courses that are taught using web conferencing instead of a traditional classroom. The sessions last 90 minutes, so you can still keep up with your everyday work and meetings, and run everyday for five days. Classes typically have 10-20 students, you can ask questions any time, and you will receive a PDF copy of the course manual so that you can print it out and take notes as the course progresses. These are not just "Powerpoint" presentations, rather they also include demos of CAD simulations and opportunities for the instructor to tailor the pace and coverage to the audience. Currently the sessions run from 9AM to 10:30 AM Pacific Time.
| EMC/Shielding/Grounding Techniques for Chip & PCB Layout | |
| Jan 12-Jan 16, 2009 | Course 140-4125 |
| Presented by Allen Podell | Register by 1/5/2009 and pay $449, otherwise pay $495 |
Tutorial: Smith Chart ABC’s - Part I
In this series of brief articles, instructor Rex Frobenius gives a very basic introduction to the Smith Chart.
Nobody needs to reiterate that the Smith Chart is a complex and intimidating tool for those who have only recently been introduced to it. If you are a new or infrequent user of this tool, it can also be difficult to remember your way around on the chart. Do short circuits show up on the left or right side, for example?
In my experience, you can avoid a great deal of confusion by simply focusing on the horizontal axis of the chart, which unlike the arcs and circles that make up the rest of the chart is a nice, straight line. We are familiar with lines, and more specifically horizontal axes, from our most formative years in working with graphs. The values represented on such axes almost always increase in value from left to right. Fortunately, the same property holds true on the Smith Chart. Impedance terminations appear on the chart such that an impedance of zero appears on the left end of the horizontal axis, and an impedance of infinity appears on the right end. Now just remember that an impedance of zero ohms is in fact a short, while an impedance of infinity is an open circuit, and you will never be confused about which one goes where on the chart again. A matched termination appears in the middle of the chart (between zero and infinity), as shown below.
This would be a very short tutorial if we stopped there. But there is more we can gain from simply remembering where the short and open terminations appear on the Smith Chart. Next month, we'll look at how you can remember the formula for reflection coefficient just by knowing where the short, matched, and open terminations appear on the chart. In the mean time, be sure to use our free Smith Chart java applet on the BesserNet website.
