Hp Plotter Parts

Looking back across 50 years of microwave engineering

At this year's IMS2011, the IEEE Microwave Theory and Techniques (MTT) Society awarded Bill Oldfield the Microwave Application Award in recognition of his contributions to the field of microwave technology and engineering. Bill has been called an "industry pioneer," and I was curious to hear his thoughts on all things microwave. Graciously, Bill agreed to answer our questions, revealing his self-deprecating humor, experience, and enthusiasm for "all things microwave." Interestingly enough, it all began with a hitchhiker... When I started in 1961, we took data one frequency at a time. We had signal generators and tunable klystrons, and you could sweep the frequency simply by turning a dial. We hooked up a pot to the dial with a battery and an XY plotter, and were able to make a swept plot. In those days, 18 GHz in coax was high tech and most signal generators had only an octave range. At Wiltron, we made the first network analyzer that measured amplitude and phase in both the forward and reflected signals. The widest coverage was an octave. Now, we make a VNA that covers from 70 KHz to 110 GHz. One question was, “Do you think there will ever be a 40 GHz coax connector?” The expert they asked was from H-P and he went on at great length about how this was almost impossible. This took up the bottom third of the page. On the same page was the outline of a paper that I was giving introducing a 40 GHz connector, the K connector, as well as a 40 GHz test system in coax. The thing that surprised me the most was the industry reaction to the connectors that I designed. The K connector was not an invention; Maury Microwave had proposed a similar design. My contribution was to make it user friendly and fairly inexpensive. I have always said that designing a higher frequency connector was merely dividing by two. Yet, people still are amazed by each new connector. I like to tell the story of how I happened to work in the microwave industry. I was looking for my first job in the Boston area with little luck. I picked up a hitchhiker and asked him where he wanted to go. When I dropped him off, I noticed an electronics sounding company name across the street. I went over and asked what they did. They told me, “Microwave components.” I had no idea what a microwave was. They hired me anyway.  I’m glad they did because I have really enjoyed the microwave industry.

8/2/2011 11:39 PM EDT

This is a very engaging story of success in engineering when passion goes with hard work. He says the Management tried to make a manger out of him without knowing his aptitude but luckily he escaped before being burned by it. I think more companies that we care to think make this mistake of trying to automatically push talented people up the management ladder without a regard to their preference.