RF New Year's Resolutions

Happy New Year!

Ah yes, the proverbial time when folks far and wide swear off snack foods and sedentary lifestyles for more travel and time with family.

Naturally, we in the RF industry are also busy making New Year's resolutions of our own. Here are a few we'd like to propose:

On losing "wait"
No, that's no typo. We recently expanded our family of new front-end modules (FEMs) for Wi-Fi. Tuned to the latest flavor of the 802.11 wireless standard, these FEMs make devices like routers better and faster, over longer range.

As an industry, we should resolve to continue to help device manufacturers lose "wait" times for wireless devices, so consumers can wait less for streaming services and cat memes.

For losing the other "weight"?

We're buying activity trackers that connect to smartphones via RF chips.

On saving money
While others are hoping to save money on car insurance this year, we're looking to reduce the cost of GaN products for commercial and defense use. The choice of packaging plays a major role in the size, weight, power and cost (SWaP-C) of GaN.

As an industry, we should resolve to deliver low cost, lightweight packaging, like GaN in plastic for optimum performance at a lower cost.

On getting organized
The RF front end (RFFE) is arguably the most critical part of a smartphone, controlling vital transmit and receive functionality for frequency bands and carriers around the world. Yet the RF section in smartphones is shrinking, as consumers demand thinner, more beautiful phones with longer battery life.

As an industry, we should resolve to organize RF into increasingly integrated RFFE modules to build the mobile devices of tomorrow.

On professional development
As technology continues to evolve, "never stop learning" becomes less of an inspirational quote and more of a necessity. Thankfully for the RF community, there are plenty of available resources for increasing knowledge of things like "beamforming" and "impedance tuners."

As an industry, we should resolve to speak like humans and focus on how our technology benefits applications and the consumer.

But, if you're looking to really impress your friends with a new language, speak ZigBee.

On spending more time with family
While our industry proudly connects nearly every connected device on the planet, we should resolve to step slowly away from the RF this year.

Invite someone to dinner, instead of texting from the table.

Eat food without Instagramming it first.

Save the bandwidth for someone who might actually need it.

On procrastinating less
We're putting this one off till the very end …

Happy New Year from all of us at Qorvo. Let's make it a great one.

This article first appeared in Brent's Musings on Microwave Journal.