We are extremely excited to announce the winners of the NXP Homebrew RF Design Challenge. Earlier
this year NXP organized a promotional opportunity for amateur radio enthusiasts to use their
creativity and build their own power amplifier designs. The Homebrew Design Challenge was promoted
at such events as the International Microwave Symposium (IMS) in Boston, U.S.A. and European
Microwave Week (EuMW) in Paris, France.
Let the RF Design games begin!
Back on October 31st all the contestants were judged by our RF marketing and applications team on
their design, performance (gain, bandwidth, efficiency and power) and their overall creativity.
Contestants were to record a video or publish an article about their design using NXP’s new
and easy-to-use MRF101AN or MRF300AN RF Power transistors. The contest was open to everyone
– students, professional engineers, companies or individuals. In order to help motivate
their RF designs, NXP also released the
MRF101AN RF Essentials kit
as a starting point.
Let’s give it up to the Homebrew RF Design Challenge winners!!
1st – Jim Veatch, U.S.
Prize: $3,000 cash award + $1,000 certificate for NXP RF Samples
Design: An MRF101AN broadband amplifier design with 1 W Input, 100 W Output 1.8-54 MHZ Amplifier
deck. To watch the
video
and learn more about Jim Veatch’s design and specifications please visit RFPowerTools.
2nd – Razvan Fatu, United Kingdom
Prize: $1,000 cash award + $750 certificate for NXP RF Samples
Design: MRF300AN transistors were used to build a linear amplifier that covers 1.8 to 54 MHz at a
gain of over 20dB, efficiency over 60% and an output power of around 600 W. (580 W to over 750 W
depending on band).
Please visit
Razvan Fatu’s Blog
to learn more about the design process and circuit.
3rd – Weston Braun, U.S.
Prize: $500 cash award + $100 certificate for NXP RF Samples
Design: A high-efficiency switch-mode RF Amplifier using MRF101AN LDMOS device for a CubeSat
plasma thruster. To learn more please read the
project article
from Stanford and Australian University. **Additional Stanford University and Australian
University authors included in article citations
It was a close call and highly competitive! Each participant had their own creative, unique and
impressive way of displaying the capabilities of these new parts.
NXP is always up for new design challenges. Go to
NXP.com
and access our new
RF Circuit Collection
to continue designing. Also, don’t forget to follow us on NXP’s social media channel
(
Twitter,
LinkedIn,
Facebook
and
YouTube) for new stories and promotions.
Tactical Marketer Radio Power Solutions, NXP Semiconductors
Megan is the Tactical Marketer for NXP's Radio Power Solutions Marketing Team at NXP
Semiconductors. Megan Faust has worked with NXP in collaborating with both teams in
RF Cellular Infrastructure and Multi-Market. NXP RP applications include SiGe, LDMOS
and GaN RF solution designs for mobile and communication infrastructure as well as
consumer, industrial and aerospace/defense. The NXP Radio Power marketing team is
focused on making RF easier to use, to enable customers and address new market
segments. Megan is responsible for the logistics, operations and distribution
support for RF devices and evaluation boards. While also enabling innovation and
marketing development for NXP Radio Power. Megan has earned a Bachelor of Arts
degree in Business and is certified in Applied Business Data Analytics from Arizona
State University.
