Microwave electronics can be defined as the field of study in which devices are constructed to emit, receive, and interpret microwaves. A microwave is a wave that has a short wavelength, and a frequency that ranges between 3 and 300 gigahertz. The short wavelength of a microwave means that the receiving platform must be very small. This is why you will see very small antennae on devices that receive microwaves. Not only can these small receivers handle high frequencies, but they are also much easier and cheaper to produce on an industrial scale. Outside of the obvious use within microwaves that heat food in a short period of time, microwaves remain one of the greatest technological discoveries of the twentieth century, and to this date serve as one of the most useful technologies in existence.
What Devices and Services Use Microwaves?
Microwaves were discovered in the second World War and were used to improve the radar technology available to the military. Today, microwave electronics have extremely broad applications in real life, and span a very wide range of products and services. Things like Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS, broadcast radio, and broadcast TV are amongst many of the services that rely on the use of microwaves in order to function properly. Likewise, microwaves are used in devices that include garage door openers, car alarms, and even missile radars. Communication via microwaves is accepted as the most reliable form of communication, with minor exceptions when it comes to heavy rainstorms. This is easily solved by using microwaves of shorter length, or the use of alternate paths to deliver the microwave signal from the sending device to the receiving device. Those in the medical field also use microwaves frequently, such as with tissue ablation. This surgical procedure involves the carefully controlled destruction of tissue using microwave energy, while avoiding damage to the nervous system and burning of the skin. Alternatively, it is also used to treat and remove unwanted tumors. Advances in the use of microwaves in medicine involve making their delivery far more selective to affect only the desired target area.
How Is Microwave Technology Being Advanced?
The goal of microwave-based products in the modern age is to conduct research and testing that will allow for the fastest possible transmission of microwaves while retaining the integrity of the signal itself. This directly results in the improvement of high-speed Internet and cellular communications between phones. So long as people have the need to communicate and receive messages on digital devices in today’s fast-paced world, microwave technologies will always be very useful to the consumer, whether they realize it or not. Research is being done not only in academia, but in major corporations that pay generous sums of money to discover these advances and keep the secrets exclusively to themselves.
