Visit Res-net in Paris!

What's the occasion? It's European Microwave Week 2015 starting Sunday, September 6 at the Palais Des Congres, in Paris. The event is actually made up of three separate but closely related conferences: the European Microwave Integrated Circuits Conference (EuMIC), the European Microwave Conference (EuMC), and the European Radar Conference (EuRAD). In addition, there will be a Defence, Security and Space Forum.

Res-net Microwave will participate in the EuMW Trade and Technology Exhibition, to be held Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, September 8th, 9th, and 10th. They'll be providing information on Res-net RF & microwave attenuators, RF & microwave terminations, RF & microwave resistors, and diode detectors for commercial, military, and space applications.

Also highlighted will be Res-net's CVD diamond products, which handle both high frequency and high power in miniature product packages. For example, a Res-net 40 by 20 mil CVD diamond resistor operates up to 35 GHz at 20 watts; a miniature Res-net termination is specified at 26.5 GHz, 50 watts.

ETI Microwave Group companies Star Microwave (ferrite isolators and circulators for telecommunications) and Nova Microwave (high quality passive RF and microwave circulators and isolators) will also be represented.

Come see us at Booth # 144.

Feeling "Corrected?"

Over Thursday and Friday of last week, major stock indexes fell more than 10% from their recent peak. Commentators (calmly) urged investors to remain calm, that "corrections" such as these occur periodically. While additional factors were at work -- including a prevailing concern of a worldwide economic slowdown, China's decision to devalue its currency in the hope of making its products more price competitive appears to have triggered the quick decline.

Over the next few days, it will be interesting to see whether Vietnam, Indonesia, and other Far East countries follow suit and devalue their currencies in order to preserve their competitive positions with China -- which could make this all an exercise in ring-around-the-rosie. An actual correction could be still in the making.

Thankfully, ETI investor relations people aren't burning the midnight oil over this -- because we don't have any investor relations people. We have no stock. We're privately held.

If we have any "safe haven," it's in the confidence of our people, the true value of our products, and the strength of our relationships with our customers.

We like it that way.

Bright Lights And A Low Profile Technology.

50 years ago this fall, GE physicist Nick Holonyak built the world's first LED. Holonyak's diode emitted only red light. (see note 1)

Besides off/on indicator lights in electronics front panels, we haven't seen that much of the LED, until recently. Then strange applications began to pop up, like tiny blinking lights in children's shoes, and blinkers and decorative lighting on high-end cars. Then a big one -- LED flashlights that stayed bright a long long time.

Today, multi-colored LEDs illuminate homes and cities, the latest iPad “retina” screens, and flat-screen TVs. You can even buy a 750+ lumen (very bright) LED bicycle headlight to train at night (during winter) for your next bike race. People are doing it!

Of course, advances in LED technology have made this all possible, such as much greater brightness per watt, multiple colors, dimming, and improved multi LED packaging. Benefits of energy savings (75-80% over incandescent), brightness without halogen heat, ruggedness, and a 10-year bulb life put LED way ahead of incandescent and (more recent) florescent.

We like to see improvements in a technology that enable it to leap to the forefront. Everybody benefits.

30 years ago, people predicted that magnetics for signal conditioning would become obsolete for applications above 35 Mhz, because of increasing parasitic capacitance with increasing frequency. We're going way past that these days, because of improvements in our own design and manufacturing techniques.

How far past? The answer keeps changing. Ask our people at Raycom Electronics (http://www.raycomelectronics.com/).

Note 1: http://www.gelighting.com/LightingWeb/emea/news-and-media/news/First-LED-by-the-GE-engineer-Nick-Holonyak.jsp#sthash.R2GAmWxc.dpuf)

What's That Up There?

Recently, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos explained on CBS's 60 Minutes TV show that the company is considering the use of drones to deliver packages of 5 pounds or less at some point in the future. The planned program is called "Prime Air."

National Geographic recently listed 5 other (non-military) uses for drones currently or expected in the near future: hurricane hunting, 3D mapping, protecting wildlife (poachers in Africa), farming including precision applications of pesticides, water, or fertilizers (widely done in Japan already), and search and rescue for missing persons. Forest-fire fighters in California could probably provide an additional application or two.

Of course, we're in the electronics business and we're enthusiastic about new technologies that utilize the rf and microwave and other electronic components made by Electro Technik companies. But has technology managed to jump ahead of good sense when it comes to drones? Are drone-flying paparazzi just the beginning?

Just last week, two commercial passengers reported a drone flying within the protected airspace at JFK International Airport -- one sighting within 100 ft of the jet! And on August 7, CNN and several other news sources reported on an Ohio prison "free for all," after a drone dropped drugs into its prison yard.

"Free for all" is right!

The FAA currently does not issue Certificates Of Authorization to private citizens or civilian businesses. However, The FAA Modernization and Reform Act of 2012 requires that the FAA establish rules for drone operation by September 30, 2015.

Let's hope they make the deadline.

China, The TPP, And A Dash Of Irony.

This week we watched China's stock markets tumble over worry that the Chinese government is curbing its support, estimated in the hundreds of billions of yuan thus far, and that it may now be "testing whether the market can support itself" (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/shanghai-plunges-8-on-worries-beijing-is-ratcheting-down-inflows-2015-07-27).

Meanwhile, after eight years of effort leading up to a hopeful conclusion, talks failed and no general agreement was reached in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiations between Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, Vietnam and the US (http://news.yahoo.com/no-final-deal-pacific-trade-talks-negotiators-033653500.html).

China is not included among the would-be TPP partners.
Sticking points in the troubled TPP talks involved agricultural markets, auto manufacturing and trade, protection for drug-makers, copyright protection, workers rights and environmental protections.

Also written into the Trade Pact agreement is a mechanism to provide temporary credit for companies in member countries to make major purchases, such as capital equipment for manufacturing. The intent is to provide credit and funding for transactions more quickly than can often be accomplished in certain member countries, and then be reimbursed when normal credit is acquired.

Some opponents of the agreement explain that this can put a government entity into the position of picking winners and losers -- which should not be the case.
So there we have it. China picking stocks (winners and losers) in a large-scale effort to prop up its stock market while the U.S. and its TPP partners get bogged down in ideologies while seeking to expedite transactions for free trade.
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