Earlier this month Filtronic welcomed a delegation of eight UK Members of Parliament who serve on the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) Committee to the Filtronic facility at NETpark in Sedgefield, County Durham. The BEIS Commons Select Committee is tasked with scrutinising the policy, spending and administration of the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy and its public bodies.
The visit focused on the electronics and semiconductor manufacturing expertise in the North East region, as highlighted by the recent launch of the North East Advanced Material Electronics (NEAME) cluster group. In addition to meeting Filtronic, the BEIS Committee members are also visiting several other manufacturers in the region who are members of NEAME, including aXenic, Evince Technology, Smartkem, Kromek and PragmatIC.
“We are very proud of the contribution that Filtronic’s technology and manufacturing capability is making to the regional economy here in the North East, and the MPs’ visit is an affirmation of that role,” said Richard Gibbs, CEO of Filtronic. “It is a pleasure to host this delegation from the BEIS Committee, giving us the opportunity to present our capabilities and acknowledge the support we have received from the Government and also to offer advice on where future investment might best be targeted.”
“Semiconductors are critical to the Government’s future industrial strategy, demonstrated by this select committees visit. Filtronic and the other members of NEAME, highlight the range and strength of capabilities across the supply chain we have here in the North East”. Said Paul Howell, MP for Sedgefield.
The BEIS Select Committee MPs taking part in the visit are Tonia Antoniazzi; Alan Brown; Paul Howell (who is also the MP for Sedgefield); Mark Jenkinson; Darren Jones; and Mark Pawsey. To find out more about NEAME click here
by Jonathan Neale, Chairman, Filtronic
Organisational culture is complex, well researched and important but quite difficult to define. Culture in organisations unites and organises us. It is shaped by our beliefs, our values and our behaviours and impacts how we see the world and how we respond to it. However, because organisations are often built and organised around work tasks or particular skill-sets, an inevitable consequence is that these ‘sub-teams’ sometimes have distinct norms or patterns of behaviours. As such organisational culture is not uniform throughout the business. Neither is culture something static. It is more like the operating system of a computer that helps guide what the business does and how it responds to internal and external situations. Although culture is hard to define, it is often evident in the everyday, for example the conversations we have or perhaps, and importantly, the ones we don’t have.
Developing and aligning a culture to support better teamwork, creativity, innovation, and problem solving as well as being able to handle conflict inside organisations requires deft skills in leadership with equal emphasis from the Board to first line supervision and team leaders. As we strive for high performance and greater diversity in our teams it follows that we may experience conflict of ideas and greater challenge to our thinking. This is not just a consequence of difference; it is an important element of high performing teams. Difference or ‘heat’ brings change.
To be successful a business must pay attention to what matters both inside the business and, importantly, outside the business’s ever-changing markets, economies, and customer expectations. This is not just a reactive process it requires foresight and horizon scanning to try and anticipate what opportunity or impact is next. If we want to effect change, we need to adapt the culture. If we want to change the culture, we need to change the conversations we have and pay attention to what matters. Getting what matters, and what we must pay attention to on the agenda is not always easy but is greatly supported by diversity.
The number one objective of the management team at Filtronic is to create a climate for success, and are redoubling our efforts in this area. In the last twelve months, we have prioritised talent recruitment, retention and development. Our long-term vision and strategy focuses on sustainable growth in exciting and important markets such as aerospace, defence, space and telecommunications.
Delivering a sustainable future for Filtronic requires focus on three critical areas:
- Commercial sustainability. This needs agility and adaptability as markets, technologies and customer requirements change and evolve. Our goal is to remain relevant to our customers and to grow and attract new business by being an RF technology leader, one that continually drives innovation over the long term.
- A sustainable organisational plan. Recruiting diverse talent and providing meaningful work and purpose. Our people are a real point of difference for Filtronic. We value diversity, inclusion and development.
- A sustainable environmental strategy. We recognise the threat of climate change and our potential impact on the scarcity of resources and the need to reduce our environmental impact on land, in water and in the air.
A framework that works for us at Filtronic, is close alignment with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. This ensures our Environmental Social and Governance goals are tailored for our business and drive us towards a sustainable and successful future. We believe that by building a high-performing culture, we generate good local jobs and drive economic growth. It also ensures we use innovation as a pathway to a long-term future.
Better communication technologies are essential to reducing local, regional and national inequalities. Closing the digital divide creates sustainable communities that prosper through greater connectivity and information access, it improves efficiencies, well-being, and ultimately the quality of life.
Find out more about Filtronic’s capabilities:
The formal launch of the North East Advanced Material Electronics (NEAME) cluster group has been announced today, with Filtronic as a founder member. NEAME’s mission is to highlight and promote the region as a centre of excellence for advanced compound semiconductor technology design and manufacture. The cluster – led by CEOs and other senior decision makers in the North East electronics industry – aims to provide a central voice both to raise the profile of the region and to help its members address their main challenges and opportunities profitably.
The electronics sector is projected to contribute £447m Gross Value Added to the region by 2026, with the potential to create and support around 4,500 jobs.
“NEAME is an opportunity to showcase this region’s strength within advanced material electronics. What has always struck me about this area is the level of innovation that is happening every day on our doorstep.” said Richard Gibbs of Filtronic.
Paul Howell, MP for Sedgefield who officially launched the group said. ‘The North East continues to pioneer and develop new technologies that can have a huge impact on a global scale. The formation of the NEAME highlights the strength of the region’s growing advanced material electronics sector and presents an opportunity to develop the skills and the jobs of the future, establishing the North East as a global hub for this technology.
NEAME is being launched at the NMI’s annual conference in Durham. Jillian Hughes, NMI Director said, ‘NMI are delighted to be continuing our support of the UK semiconductor industry by hosting the announcement of the NEAME during our Annual conference. During the last 25 years we have supported the semiconductor design, manufacturing and supplier communities adding value through collaboration, networking and knowledge sharing.
Other founding companies in the cluster are: Axenic, Evince, Inex, Isocom, Kromek, Pragmatic, Viper RF and II – VI.
To find out more about NEAME click here
SEDGEFIELD, UK — 15 June 2022 — Filtronic plc (AIM: FTC), the designer and manufacturer of RF-to-mmWave components and subsystems, today announced the launch of the Hades range of active diplexers, designed to enable original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to manufacture cost-effective E-band radios with significantly increased RF performance, for use in military or commercial telecommunications applications, including airborne and High Altitude Platform Systems (HAPS).
The active E-band mmWave diplexers operate over the 71 – 76GHz and 81 – 86GHz bands, and offer a range of configurable options integrating high power amplifiers (PAs) and low-noise amplifiers (LNAs), thus reducing size and weight compared with discrete components. Their low overall SWAP (size, weight, and power) makes them ideal for airborne and HAPS applications.
Active diplexers can be used in conjunction with a wide range of commercially available off the shelf (COTS) surface mount-compatible packaged upconverters and downconverters. This provides enhanced performance compared with using surface mount products, and allows versatility in the deployment of configurable E-band links with different power levels.
The integral PAs have saturated transmitter (Tx) power output levels up to more than +30dBm, and incorporate a Tx RF power detector to facilitate power calibration and automatic level control (ALC). The LNAs have a receiver (Rx) noise figure of less than 4dB. With a typical output IP3 at +20dBm of +31dBm, the high linearity of the units are capable of supporting modulation formats up to 1024QAM to facilitate very high data rates.
Where specified, the modules can be supplied with full calibration of transmitter power/frequency and receiver gain characteristics, stored on an integrated I2C EEPROM. An integrated temperature sensor also provides users with accurate amplifier temperature data.
A wide range of configuration options are available for the Hades diplexers, which can be specified to integrate either GaAs or InP amplifiers as required, in either or both of the Tx and Rx chains. There is also the option to combine two GaAs PAs to give a higher linear Tx power for long range terrestrial and non-terrestrial E-band communications links. Furthermore, the WR12 port locations and directions can be customised upon request.
“The Hades range of active mmWave diplexers feature multiple configuration options to optimise them for a range of demanding commercial and military communications applications,” said Dan Rhodes, Director of Business Development ‒ mmWave Technology at Filtronic. “The high power, linearity and low SWAP mean that they deliver unparalleled performance in E-band links for HAPS systems as well as in many terrestrial use cases.”
Filtronic will be exhibiting at booth 2068 at the Colorado Convention Center, from the 21 – 23 June 2022.
SEDGEFIELD, UK — 15 June 2022 — Filtronic plc (AIM: FTC), the designer and manufacturer of RF-to-mmWave components and subsystems, today announced that it will be showcasing its newly extended range of E-Band mmWave transmit and receive products at the microwave industries premier event.
Launched at the event will be Filtronic’s range of Hades Active Diplexers, designed to enable original equipment manufacturers (OEM’s) to reduce the cost of their E-band radios whilst significantly increasing RF performance.
Filtronic products on show at IMS will include the recently released Cerus range of E-band power amplifiers, plus the newly launched Hades active diplexer. Also on display will be Morpheus II, Hercules, filters and other RF components and subsystems for telecommunications, aerospace and defence, critical communications and space.
As part of the show Filtronic will be presenting two microapps presentations. The first focuses on how to achieve high data rates in non-terrestrial applications. The second explores the technical challenges of employing GaN and addresses how to overcome them. In addition, in a combined presentation along with the National Physics Laboratory we will be presenting a paper on making reliable on wafer measurement at mmWave frequencies from lab to factory floor.
“We are delighted to be back at IMS in Denver, it will be a great chance to meet existing and new clients and talk about future innovations. We are excited to be launching our new Hades range of active diplexers at what is the flagship event for all things microwave and RF,” said Walter Magiera, CCO of Filtronic.
Filtronic will be exhibiting at booth 2068 at the Colorado Convention Center, from the 21 – 23 June 2022.
by Dan Rhodes, Business Development Director, Filtronic
The advances made in mmWave technology at Filtronic over the past decade offer a valuable opportunity for global communications businesses to accelerate their satellite launch programmes. The core technology employed within the latest iteration of our E-band transceiver modules (Morpheus II), and amplifier modules (Cerus) provide the basis for cost effective, exceptional performance Satcom transceivers – giving major satellite businesses a chance to bypass lengthy in-house development programmes.
For those major businesses planning vast Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite constellations, there’s no time to lose in sourcing the complex radio frequency (RF) components that transmit and receive signals at mmWave in space. Quality, performance and reliability are essential for these components if they are to operate consistently for many years in the extremes of space.
Access over a decade of innovation and development
While the mega satellite constellation companies may have considerable expertise and resources at their disposal, any development programme will inevitably face pitfalls, generate waste and incur significant costs along the way. All of that can be avoided by tapping into the experience, expertise and proven technology available from Filtronic.
The core technology within our highly integrated Morpheus II E-band transceiver module, together with our Cerus amplifier technology provides a basis for the transmit and receive functions required for ultra-high capacity satellite communications gateway links. Both products are designed to withstand the rigors of LEO Space deployment, but without the costs traditionally associated with solutions designed for deep space missions and GEO satellite applications. Since we produced our first generation E-band transceiver – Proteus – ten years ago, we’ve made significant improvements in costs, efficiency, and yield through an ongoing process of optimisation and innovation.
Transformational cost and performance improvements
The first generation transceiver module was far bigger, heavier and less integrated than our latest iteration (Morpheus II). Throughout the technology evolution process, we’ve integrated two circuit boards into one – reducing material, complexity and operational costs while enhancing performance. The development costs for Morpheus II are less than a tenth of the same costs for Proteus.
The build cost per unit for each transceiver today is a third of the cost per unit for Proteus. Over the same period, internal manufacturing yield has increased significantly. When you factor in the increase in production output from just 200 units per month to more than 3,000 per month today, combined with the difference in unit costs, this represents a significant benefit.
Yield improvements are the result of major learned experience and gradual iterative improvements. They are also the result of investments in state-of-the-art, precision manufacturing equipment at our mmWave centre of excellence. These advanced facilities combined with our engineering expertise are a powerful force for innovation and quality.
Faster, better testing
Product testing too has improved. For Proteus, testing, diagnostics and reworking took nearly two hours. For Morpheus II, the process takes less than an hour. That’s a vast efficiency improvement given today’s higher production volumes and the fact that every single unit needs to be tested.
Intelligent design for efficient manufacturing
Closely aligning the product design with well characterised manufacturing processes and equipment is the key to repeatable volume manufacturing with high yields. Decisions made early in the design process have serious implications for manufacturing. That’s why it’s so important to access the right expertise from start to finish. At Filtronic, we’ve been asked to intervene to improve manufacturing yields for products designed in-house by clients or competitors. In one instance, we introduced improvements for a V-band transceiver that increased yields from 70% when the client tried to ramp production, to more than 95%, after Filtronic had introduced a design for manufacture improvement and took over the volume manufacturing.
We’ve done all the hard work
All of the improvements achieved in mmWave transceivers at Filtronic have been hard-won, requiring expertise, ingenuity and investment throughout prototyping, manufacturing, testing and characterisation. These processes take time – and there are no shortcuts. Any organisation starting out on this development process has all of these hurdles, trials and costs ahead of them. Filtronic is an expert in critical communications and has been delivering quality, high-performance products for demanding applications for over forty years, so understand implicitly the requirements associated with LEO product qualification.
For organisations up against aggressive product development timescales to meet satellite launch schedules, the expertise at Filtronic could be the key to accelerating mmWave system development. Companies could avoid the time and costs associated with refining and perfecting this complex technology – expediting time to market and potentially stealing a march on the competition.
To learn more about our mmWave capabilities click here
To talk to Filtronic about backhaul, mmWave or transceivers contact us today
Find out more
by Dan Rhodes, Business Development Director, Filtronic
The government plan for levelling up includes a target that, by 2030, the UK will have nationwide gigabit-capable broadband and 4G coverage, with 5G available for the majority of the population.
To achieve that goal, there needs to be significant investment upgrading wireless backhaul networks capable of handling vastly increased data flows. Wireless backhaul for mobile networks provide the hidden “data pipes” connecting cell towers to the core telecoms infrastructure. Without this essential ‘data plumbing’ in place, there’s no possibility of achieving the government’s 5G ambitions.
Building backhaul capacity
Providing a mobile backhaul network with sufficient capacity for 5G requires a combination of fibre networks and high capacity wireless point-to-point links. This combination will be vital in levelling up digital connectivity across the UK, where data speeds in rural and northern parts of the UK suffer by comparison with the south-east and dense urban areas.
Getting 5G connectivity into rural areas poses particular challenges for mobile networks, due the distances involved and often hilly terrain. A solution for connecting remote areas to 5G may lie in high-altitude pseudo-satellites (HAPS). These are essentially cell towers in the sky, enabling user devices to connect directly to HAPS base stations at stratospheric altitudes of around 20km. These base stations are connected via wireless backhaul links into the core telecoms network.
E-band for 5G bandwidth
To achieve the bandwidth required for 5G backhaul networks, high-capacity mmWave connections are required – linking the core telecoms infrastructure to both terrestrial and HAPS-mounted cell towers. Within the mmWave spectrum, E-band (71-86GHz) is currently the only commercially available frequency band offering sufficient bandwidth available for dense 5G networks.
Specialists in mmWave technology
Filtronic is a specialist in the design and manufacture of high-performance E-band subsystems for both traditional telecoms and critical communications networks. Our advanced transceiver technology has been developed over the past decade to provide the quality, performance and reliability required for 5G backhaul applications.
Our E-band technology has also been customised for use in HAPS backhaul networks, incorporating the higher power amplifiers necessary to transmit and receive signals over longer distances. The core technology offers the flexibility for customisation to meet the demands of application specific requirements. Filtronic has extensively field proven technology ready to support the expansion of 5G backhaul in the UK.
Design and manufacturing challenges
At higher frequencies, the technical challenges for designing and manufacturing RF sub-systems are much greater. The components and circuit features required at high mmWave frequencies are significantly smaller than those in lower frequency systems, requiring extreme precision in manufacturing.
At Filtronic, we have been honing our mmWave design and manufacturing capabilities over the past decade. Crucially, we have developed our own core technology, including monolithic microwave integrated circuits (MMICs), and integrated filters and diplexers so that we can produce these advanced products cost effectively. What’s more, because we have full control over our own precision manufacturing facilities, we can achieve the critical tolerances required for intricate mmWave components. Our design teams work hand-in-hand with our production teams, enabling us to deliver high-performance mmWave components consistently and repeatedly – at scale.
Importantly, for the UK levelling up agenda, Filtronic is the only UK-based manufacturer of high-performance E-band transceivers for 5G backhaul networks.
Data growth demands constant innovation
Looking to the future, as demand for data grows exponentially, E-band itself is likely to become congested and the demand for data will continue to rise – meaning even greater bandwidth will be required. Transceiver technology will be needed to support expansion into W-band (92-114GHz) and even D-band (130-174GHz) – Filtronic is already advanced in developing solutions for these frequencies. By the time we reach 2030, 6G capability will be on the agenda. The drive to enable fast, uninterrupted connectivity to even more mobile and IoT devices will remain a major challenge for the telecoms industry. Filtronic is well placed to provide the mmWave sub-systems required to support universal high-speed connectivity across the UK.
To learn more about our mmWave capabilities click here
To talk to Filtronic about backhaul, mmWave or transceivers contact us today
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SEDGEFIELD, UK — 05 May 2022 — Filtronic plc (AIM: FTC), the designer and manufacturer of RF-to-mmWave components and subsystems, today announced that it will be exhibiting its range of advanced components and subsystems for the aerospace and defence industry on Stand E1 at the AOC Europe event in Montpelier, France, on 10 – 12 May 2022.
Filtronic designs and manufactures RF, microwave and mmWave products that find use in a wide range of defence applications. Use cases include fire control, target acquisition and high-resolution imaging in Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) radar; Electronic Warfare (EW) and Electronic Countermeasures (ECM).
Filtronic products on show at the AOC Europe event will include the recently released Cerus range of E-band power amplifiers. Also on display will be transmit and receive modules (TRMs), front-end modules, filters and other RF components and subsystems for aerospace and defence applications. Furthermore, Filtronic offers contract manufacturing services for secure programmes, producing and testing their designs at scale to individual specifications in its state-of-the-art ISO 9001 and ISO 14001-certified facilities at Sedgefield in the UK.
“When we design, develop and manufacture high-frequency components, we work collaboratively with our defence clients to build trust, communicate openly, ensure compliance, and deliver exemplary products that provide reliable, best-in-class performance,” said Richard Gibbs, CEO of Filtronic. “We have a proven performance record and a continuous improvement culture, supplying some of the globe’s largest defence primes with high-reliability products and services.”
Filtronic has also recently announced a new sales representative agreement with Ormic Components of Israel, a company with a proven track record of selling high-performance mission critical equipment to the Israeli aerospace and defence industry, along with other critical communication sectors including telecommunications.
Ben Snow, Field Sales Engineer, Filtronic
Since the recent deployment of C-band 5G, there has been some concern about the potential of the new 3.7 – 3.98 GHz 5G signals to interfere with the radar altimeters used for aviation in the adjacent 4.2 – 4.4 GHz band, as well as with satellite earth stations. Here we look at how the problems are being investigated, and what steps could be taken to mitigate potential interference in the longer term.
FAA Directives
In the case of aircraft altimeters, concerns were raised in late 2021 by the US Federal Aviation Authority (FAA), which resulted in the authority issuing a new airworthiness directive for certain models of Boeing aircraft in January this year. This followed a two-week delay to the commencement of C-band service by AT&T and Verizon at the request of the US Secretary of Transportation.
According to the FAA’s Special Airworthiness Information Bulletin issued in November, several countries around the world are already deploying wireless networks in C-band. Some of these areas have implemented temporary power restrictions on networks in the proximity of airports, but ongoing studies have produced no definitive reports of harmful interference.
Throughout January and February, the FAA released a series of statements revising the landing requirements for various different types of aircraft at US airports in areas where C-band 5G had been deployed. The latest situation as of March 24, 2022 is that 78% of US airports have been assigned a “Green” category, where more than 90% of aircraft models are available to land, while 22% remain categorized as “Yellow”, with only 50% – 89% of models allowed to land there. The FAA continues to work with the FCC and other relevant agencies to resolve the safety concerns.
Interference at satellite ground terminals
Satellite communication terminals operating in C-band have a receive band in the range 3.4 – 4.2GHz and a transmit band of 5.85 – 6.425GHz. There is clearly potential for interference in the receive band with C-band 5G, especially since the satellite signals received at a ground terminal are orders of magnitude weaker than the 5G signal. Even if the 5G radiation meets all the relevant regulatory specifications, interference could still occur if the base station is near the ground terminal. Out of band interference can also generate higher-order intermodulation products between the interfering signal and either the satellite receive signal or the local oscillator that can appear within the receive band.
Identifying and mitigating interference
In addition to spurious signals from intermodulation products, interference can also cause problems such as receiver saturation, gain compression and noise floor degradation. Although these are of concern for satellite systems, they are unlikely to be a factor for aviation altimeters due to the larger frequency separation.
For effective mitigation of any interference problem, it is usually necessary to examine both the entire RF environment in the relevant area, and also the effectiveness of the receiver – whether satellite or altimeter – in rejecting signals outside its specified operating frequency range.
As described by the Information Technology & Innovation Foundation (ITIF), the cause of interference problems often lies with the adjacent user (the satellite station or altimeter manufacturer) rather than with the new operator, who will be adhering to their allocated spectrum regulations. Radio receivers with a broader bandwidth than necessary may not exhibit any problems until a new “neighbor” invades their spectrum, which is why only certain older altimeter models have been identified as potentially at risk.
Once a problem has been identified and characterized, an interference mitigation filter could be applied to the affected receiver, whether it is an altimeter, satellite ground station or any other system operating in an adjacent band. True to its name, Filtronic has many years of experience in designing custom filters for this type of application, including models to prevent LTE 800 interference with air-to-ground (ATG) cellular and specialized mobile radio (SMR), and with digital TV during the transition from analogue to digital. Further custom filter designs already prevent interference between FDD and TDD channels in LTE 2600, and of LTE 2600 with radar systems.
To learn more about our interference mitigation filter capabilities click here
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Sedgefield, UK — 7 Apr 2022 — Filtronic plc (AIM: FTC), the designer and manufacturer of RF-to-mmWave components and subsystems, today announced that it has signed a sales representative agreement with Ormic Components of Israel.
Ormic has a proven track record of selling high-performance mission critical equipment to the Israeli aerospace and defence industry, as well as to other critical communication sectors including telecommunications. Founded in 1997, Ormic has a solid client base and is a trusted source for RF/microwave modules, including front ends, amplifiers, and transceivers.
Filtronic offers a class-leading range of amplifiers, transceivers, waveguides, and filters, and its capabilities across the entire RF spectrum, including mmWave, are complementary to Ormic’s client base and technology portfolio. Filtronic’s proven capability to develop high-performance custom solutions for complex RF problems gives Ormic a clear advantage in extending its homeland security business, and will help it further enhance its position within Israel’s aerospace, defence, and telecom industries.
“Ormic’s existing client base and laser-focused approach to sales channel development will create new opportunities for Filtronic,” said Jerry Sanham, Director of Business Development at Filtronic. “We are looking forward to a mutually productive working relationship with Ron and the team at Ormic.”
“At Ormic we pride ourselves on working with leading technology partners,” said Ron Mizrahi, Managing Director of Ormic. “Our partnership with Filtronic provides us access not only to key mmWave products, but also to their strong capabilities in hybrid and RF design and manufacturing, and we are excited to be representing Filtronic in the Israeli market.
About Ormic:
Ormic Components is a leading hi-tech manufacturers’ representative and value-added facilitator in Israel. Ormic has a proven track record of dedicated sales, services and support of the Israeli Electronic Industry with high performance & innovative solutions.
