Impressions of IMS2011

I attended my first MTT-S show in 1995. My impressions at the time were of an industry that was exhausted and hoping that the emergence of commercial cell phones and "wireless" would breathe new life into it. Well breathe it did. As we rode the merry wave of the rise of commercial applications, including the birth of Bluetooth, the rise of RFID and WLANs, and the introduction of ZigBee, we watched the "traditional" microwave companies get a bit sidelined and marginalized.

Over the years, it seemed that no one wanted to talk about waveguides and radar anymore; it was all about PAs, ADCs, switches, filters, and new exciting semiconductor technologies. I admit, I've enjoyed it all, but I was also very happy to see the high profile of radar, high power applications, and military transmission technologies at this year's show. Perhaps it is my continual support of the "underdog" in things that led me to want to give a little cheer as I saw all of this "military" activity. Of course, there was also plenty of PAs, ADCs, switches, filters, and exciting developments in semiconductor technology. But I heard very little about ZigBee and nothing about RFID.

In other news, it seemed that there was a lot going on for backhaul and base stations at the show. Also the show was strong in cutting edge test equipment and design tools. And much buzz around GaN. For those of you that I met there, it was my distinct pleasure to have the chance to talk with you. Please keep in touch and keep up the great work!

If you were at the show, please sound off about your impressions of how it was, how it has changed, and what you thought was buzzin'.