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Pink RF and America’s Odyssey link to bring RF repair to Nijmegen
Dutch radio frequency specialist Pink RF is expanding operations. In collaboration with the American RF repair company Odyssey, European RF and semiconductor customers will have a new option located in Nijmegen.
Collin Arocho
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The city of Nijmegen has a new hightech repair shop. The new business, which started operations in March of this year, is a collaboration between the Netherlands’ Pink RF and its new American collaborator, a world leader in the repair and service of radio frequency (RF), direct current (DC) and microwave devices, Odyssey Technical Solutions. Together, the companies will look to work with European wafer fabs, big and small, offering repair and maintenance services for RF and microwave equipment in the Dutch and European high-tech industry.
The right fit
Headquartered in Round Rock, Texas, Odyssey has a long-standing reputation in the radio frequency and microwave repair domain. The company has been repairing RF equipment used in semiconductor production for the last twenty years, having successfully repaired more than 60,000 devices for its US and Asian customers. With this success, Odyssey has had a keen interest in better serving the European market.
For quite some time, the Texas-based company has been looking for a first cooperation partner in Europe. As the search for the right fit led them to the Netherlands, the decision was clear – Pink RF was its choice. “The new company creates a lot of synergies,” describes Klaus Werner, director and founder of Pink RF. “For Odyssey, we offer relevant expertise in the mindset of RF and semiconductor manufacturing. Odyssey, on the other hand, contributes its resources and an established business model within the domain. Furthermore, the collaboration will give Pink RF access to a large network of experts that can repair systems, including our own. This will allow us to really put our focus on our core strengths.”
Credit: Fotowerkt.nl
Place to be
The duo has opened its doors on the Novio Tech Campus (NTC) in Nijmegen, adjacent to the current offices of Pink RF. “Not only were our offices already established here, but the availability of and proximity to RF and microwave expertise and suppliers like NXP, Ampleon, Macom and Minicircuits is fundamental to Pink RF’s success,” says Werner. “The reality is that Nijmegen is the place to be for RF and semiconductors. Being located amid semiconductor manufacturing heritage, we have unrivaled access to contacts, customers, vendors and experienced talent.”
According to Odyssey CEO Jim Plourde, the company was already performing repairs for European customers, but taking a foothold in Europe was badly needed. “Odyssey has been doing repairs for European customers for years, but logistically speaking, a location in Europe made sense as the company grew,” Plourde explains. “We’re essentially aligning our service locations with our global customers by establishing the new Nijmegen service center.”
“Oost NL informed us about the semiconductor sector in the region, helped settle administrative obligations and informed about the possibilities surrounding the Semicon fair in Munich. Then we were guided from start to finish by Kadans Science Partner and Novio Tech Campus in the campus location,” states Plourde. “This was the deciding factor for us to become part of the Nijmegen health and high-tech network.”
Ramping up
While the first few weeks were spent building out the new offices and setting up operational structures, the RF company is ready to hit the ground running. The shop has already received its first few orders for repair. Currently, operations consist of just three employees, however, the ambition is to grow to 15-25 workers, at the Nijmegen location, over the next three years. “As the newest state-of-the-art repair facility in Europe, we’re looking forward to ramping up our business,” highlights Werner. “We intend to forge further cooperation with companies close to semiconductor manufacturing businesses to enlarge our reach within Europe.”
Cees Links is a Wi-Fi pioneer and the founder and CEO of Greenpeak Technologies and currently General Manager of Qorvo’s Wireless Connectivity business unit.
Wi-Fi thermal challenges for RF front-end designers
There are two main design challenges when it comes to thermal management in the Wi-Fi front-end. The first is the increased demand for smaller, sleeker routers, access points and wireless speakers that must be aesthetically pleasing. Consumers are migrating away from one wireless router per home and toward a mesh-networked home, driving the need for a smaller and less obtrusive product. Additionally, Wi-Fi is designed into set-top boxes, speakers and voice assistant devices that are also becoming smaller and sleeker. Smaller and more pleasing to the eye is good for the consumer, but it creates additional pressure on the design as the devices inside have less space to properly dissipate the heat they create.
The second challenge is in the enterprise market, where the power source for Wi-Fi products is in the Ethernet connection. This Power over Ethernet (POE) connection is limited, so the challenge for product designers is to maximize the RF output power of the RF front-end with a limited POE. Efficient power dissipation is key.
Power dissipation is defined as the amount of power consumed and converted to heat. Electronic devices produce heat, as an unwanted byproduct, which is a waste of energy. The desired state of any RF circuit is to reduce this wasteful heat and provide extensive RF output power, system efficiency and RF signal range.
This means RF front-end designers must create products that function using a low power source but produce high RF output power. And they also need to ensure their products efficiently remove the unavoidable excess heat created, to maximize RF output and reduce unwanted cooling fans or bulky heat sinks. These fans and heat sinks hinder the manufacturer’s ability to meet the sleek, small, aesthetically pleasing product criteria.
To solve the thermal heat/dissipation challenge, an innovative plan of attack is needed, one that focuses on efficiency, low current consumption and maximum power output. This de
sign approach can help reduce thermal dissipation by 25-50 percent per RF stream while maintaining output power requirements and RF range.
Wi-Fi 5 and Wi-Fi 6 routers and access points with multiple RF multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) streams are typically subjected to average temperatures of 60 °C or higher, even when the room is a moderate 25 °C. Additionally, more functionality and more data throughput in a smaller product footprint all contribute to the same problem: more heat.
Fortunately, there are some innovative 2.4 and 5 GHz products in the market that address both Wi-Fi 5 and Wi-Fi 6 solutions with multiple RF streams and voltage requirements. These RF front-end (RFFE) products address the thermal and power dissipation challenge, but they also meet the small form factor requirement. They help enable a broad range of end-products and market sectors, such as retail, operator, enterprise and consumer, in a form factor that’s acceptable to customer requirements.
Heat can degrade overall system performance, impacting throughput, range and the ability to prevent interference. So, when designing WiFi systems, it’s important to choose RFFE components that mitigate heat-related problems. Product designers should also consider using fully optimized, integrated front-end modules (FEMs) instead of discrete front-end components. These modules reduce line lengths and the need for tedious tuning of the design, which contributes to insertion loss and system heat.
By choosing RFFE modules that provide a complete solution – that meet the stringent thermal and RF range requirements and integrate filter, PA, LNA, switch, detector and coupling in one package – designers can remove the expense and tedious task of piecing these individual components together. Instead, the design process can be streamlined, costs reduced, products certified faster, and most importantly: time to market is reduced and stringent schedules can be met.
YOUNG INVENTORS IMPROVE THE WORLD, EVEN IN A PANDEMIC
To inspire youth for a future in tech, The Inventors Foundation every year organizes the Inventors Competition for all children in primary schools. This year’s final event was a special Covid-19-proof edition and showed that youngsters can inspire grownup inventors as well!
Inventors Competition In the Inventors Competition, children can post their ideas, solutions and inventions on a special website (deuitvinders.com). They’re encouraged to recruit online votes, which addresses their talent for entrepreneurship. The best inventors are invited to the finals, where they can pitch their ideas for a large audience and a jury. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, this year’s finals at the Discovery Factory in Eindhoven could only host 30 persons. All young inventors were able to do a ‘normal’ presentation on a real stage, facing the crowd, with a large projection on the wall. Through a live connection, their schoolmates could still cheer for them. Tech rules!
Guitar fire extinguisher
Although all finalists deserved a prize, the jury had the harsh task of selecting the winners. The award for the most original invention went to 11-year-old Willemijn Heijman. She developed a “guitar fire extinguisher” for firefighters in love. With this invention, they can bring their sweetheart a serenade and – paradoxically – at the same time water squirts out of the guitar neck, extinguishing all starting fires. Jury member Nicol van Hoof, owner of metal company Van Hoof Group, praised this love-spreading idea when handing over the award.
Anti-rain traffic light
According to the jury, the best inventor was 10-year-old Teun Roux. He invented the “antirain traffic light”: in case of rain, a sensor on the traffic light makes sure that cyclists are prioritized over cars, preventing them from becoming soaking wet. Teun had built a working prototype, which he demonstrated on stage, greatly impressing the jury and audience. Jury member and alderman Stijn Steenbakkers (City of Eindhoven) promised to have implementation of this solution seriously researched by the responsible department of the municipality.
Inventor virus
The Inventors Competition and the finals demonstrated that using creativity, technical solutions really can make the world a better place. Thanks to the young inventors of course. But also thanks to the partners of The Inventors Foundation and Discovery Factory, without whom the competition wouldn’t exist. If your company wants to participate as well or even set up an Inventors project of its own to inspire youngsters, contact The Discovery Factory in Eindhoven. In a partnership anything is possible. The inventor virus is stronger than any other virus!
The Discovery Factory is there to inspire youngsters for a future in design and technology. Projects are supported by tech companies such as ASML, Brainport Industries, Daf Trucks, Frencken Europe, Hager, NTS Group, Philips, Stam en De Koning and VDL Group, and by Bits&Chips as the media partner.
