At the beginning of 2015, I identified five trends I’d be watching in 2015:

The open modular disruption
All things “RF”
Semiconductor test
Data converters drive instrument architecture
Empowering battery life

Well, I’ve been watching these items. From the trends I’ve seen from the first two topics, I’ve come to the conclusion that there will be more, much more, PXI microwave in the near future.

Prediction: By the end of 2016 we are likely to see PXI instrumentation up to the 60 GHz range, and we may see it sooner.

How many modular instruments (PXI and AXIe) are currently servicing the mmWave range?

None.

Why is that? Are designs at these frequencies that much more complex, making it difficult to achieve in a modular architecture? Yes, higher frequencies result in more challenging designs, but that isn’t the root cause of the lack of mmWave instrumentation. The real root cause is that the fastest growing segment of the modular instrument market has been wireless communications, and those applications are anchored at 6 GHz and below. Therefore, this lower frequency range gets the bulk of the industry investments.

Now, all this is going to change…read the entire article here.