News
Electronically tunable frequency
comb fits on a chip
Optical frequency combs are typically
bulky and expensive, which limits their
applications. Consequently,
researchers are
exploring how to miniaturize
these sources of
light and integrate them
onto a chip to address a
wider range of applications,
including telecommunications,
microwave
synthesis and optical
ranging. But so far, onchip
frequency combs
Image courtesy of Second Bay
Studios/Harvard SEAS
have struggled with efficiency, stability
and controllability.
Publishing their research in Nature,
scientists from the Harvard John A. Paulson
School of Engineering and Applied
Sciences (SEAS) and Stanford University
have developed an integrated, on-chip
frequency comb that is efficient, stable
and highly controllable with microwaves.
“In optical communications, if you
want to send more information through
a small, fiber optic cable, you need to
have different colors of light that can be
controlled independently,” said Marko
Loncar, the Tiantsai Lin
Professor of Electrical
Engineering at SEAS
and one of the senior
authors of the study.
“That means you either
need a hundred separate
lasers or one frequency
comb. We have
developed a frequency
comb that is an elegant,
energy-efficient and integrated
way to solve this problem.”
Loncar and his team developed the
frequency comb using lithium niobite, a
material that can efficiently convert electronic
signals into optical signals. Thanks
to the strong electro-optical properties
of lithium niobite, the frequency comb
spans the entire telecommunications
bandwidth and has dramatically improved
tunability.
www.seas.harvard.edu
TDC picks Ericsson
for 5G
Danish service provider TDC has selected
Ericsson to roll out nationwide commercial
5G – as part of a major network
overhaul, and provide managed services
through the Ericsson Operations Engine
– to drive its ‘Digital Denmark’ ambitions
by helping mobile broadband subscribers,
enterprises, industries, and society
to capitalize on 5G, the Internet of Things
(IoT), and Industry 4.0
Ericsson will modernize TDC’s entire
Radio Access Network (RAN) network
with the latest from Ericsson Radio
System, while TDC’s core network will
be modernized with Ericsson’s dualmode
5G Cloud Core.
Roll-out of Ericsson 5G New Radio
(NR) hardware and software products
will begin in 2019 in line with 5G licensing
obligations. TDC will make 5G available
to selected customers under pilot
testing from mid-2019, with actual 5G
network roll-out expected to be initiated
in October – pending the anticipated
approval and availability of licensed 5G
spectrum.
www.ericsson.com
LitePoint and Movandi aim to
boost 5G mmWave performance
LitePoint has announced that Movandi
has selected its IQgig-5G millimeter wave
(mmWave) test system for design validation
and production of Movandi’s latest
5G BeamX systems. Innovative wireless
testing will enable fast manufacturing
product ramps of 5G systems, while
reducing lengthy test development and
debugging cycles. High quality network
equipment and connections are vital in
5G mmWave networks due to high data
rates and the mission critical nature of
the networks. IQgig-5G is designed to be
easy to set up and easy to use. All of the
mmWave test functionality resides in a
single enclosure and the system is easy
to program and integrates both signal
generation and analysis capability.
“Movandi is revolutionizing mmWave
5G networks by providing the complete
system to enable 5G everywhere,” said
Maryam Rofougaran, Co-CEO and
COO, Movandi. “Our systems deliver the
highest level of performance and flexibility
to ensure that 5G technology can be
broadly and successfully deployed in the
real world. Using LitePoint’s 5G mmWave
testing technology is vital to meeting our
aggressive time to market and production
goals to our early stage customers.”
“The IQgig-5G virtually eliminates the
complexity of over-the-air millimeter wave
testing and is the simplest solution for design
verification and production testing of
5G mmWave products as all the required
hardware is self-contained inside a single
box,” said Adam Smith, Director of Product
Marketing at LitePoint.
5G mmWave devices are expected to
start initial production in 2019. 5G devices
include base stations, small cells, and mobile
broadband access points operating in
the 28 GHz and 39 GHz frequency bands.
www.litepoint.com/test-5G
www.movandi.com
Qualcomm win as JTFC
finds licensing lawful
Following a nine-year evidentiary proceeding,
Japan Fair Trade Commission
(JFTC) has reversed a 2009 ceaseand
desist order affecting Qualcomm
licensing in Japan. The JFTC found that
Qualcomm’s cross-licensing provisions
and non-assertion covenants that were
the subject of the cease-and-desist
order did not violate Japanese antimonopoly
law.
In 2010, the Tokyo High Court had
issued a stay of the JFTC cease-anddesist
order pending this proceeding.
This week’s JFTC decision, the result
of a process that included 37 separate
hearings, rejected an initial finding related
to cross-license agreements between
Qualcomm and Japanese manufacturers.
“The JFTC is now the second antitrust
agency after the Taiwan Fair Trade Commission
to have revoked its ruling against
Qualcomm,” said Don Rosenberg, general
counsel and executive vice president
of Qualcomm
www.qualcomm.com
8 MW March - April 2019 www.mwee.com
/www.seas.harvard.edu
/www.ericsson.com
/test-5G
/www.movandi.com
/www.qualcomm.com
/www.mwee.com
