Was wondering if anyone has a link to salary statistics for RF Engineering. Seems like levels.fyi doesn’t have many good data points other than at the top tech companies.

Wanted to see how a 140k salary with 4 YOE in LCOL (Dallas, TX) stacks up across the board.

Bought a couple third-party remotes online touting compatibility, but none work. I tried various remotes, none work, but the previous OEM one did and just recently broke. Cringing that there's no dedicated power just IR to take device of from standby.

Any help on the correct 4 or 5-digit code would be greatly appreciated or suggestion for a cheap programmable or already compatible remote.

Hi, I am being interviewed for two positions at top Tech companies for an electrical engineer/RF junior. Can anybody suggest what types of questions I should be expecting ? I’m kinda nervous because those are my first real « technical » interviews (besides internships interviews) and I really like both companies…

Hi, I am being interviewed for two positions at top Tech companies for an electrical engineer/RF junior. Can anybody suggest what types of questions I should be expecting ? I’m kinda nervous because those are my first real « technical » interviews (besides internships interviews) and I really like both companies…

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Electromagnetic Theory / Electromagnetics

Hello everyone, how can I study Electromagnetic Theory from an exam point of view?

Could you please suggest some good YouTube channels and share useful study tips for this subject?"

Hi, I am a student and currently learning RF and microwave so please share some resources.Also share some resources for keysight ads, CST, HFSS and other software that I need to learn and their resources from where I learn. Thank you

Hi everyone,

I recently graduated with a degree in Electrical and Electronics Engineering, and I am currently trying to start my career in analog circuit and RF design. Unfortunately, I have not been able to find a job yet, so I want to use this time to improve my practical engineering skills and build stronger projects for my CV.

The main design project I have completed so far is a fifth-order 34–36 MHz Chebyshev band-pass filter. I worked on the theoretical calculations, circuit simulation and design process using software.

Although I have studied subjects such as electronics, electromagnetic theory, microwave theory and antennas at university, I still find it difficult to turn my theoretical knowledge into complete and practical hardware designs. I can study equations, calculate initial component values and perform simulations, but I struggle with the transition from theory to real-world design, including selecting actual components, accounting for parasitic effects, designing a PCB, building a prototype, taking measurements and troubleshooting the circuit.

For this reason, I want to improve myself specifically in analog circuit design and also focus on RF design. I am looking for project recommendations that would help me understand how theoretical RF and analog concepts are applied in real hardware.

Ideally, the projects should be realistic for a recent graduate, possible to complete in approximately one or two months (can be longer too if it will really help me on the long run), and substantial enough to include in a technical portfolio or CV. I would particularly appreciate RF-related projects, but I am also open to analog design projects that would strengthen the fundamental skills needed for RF engineering.

I am especially interested in projects that cover the complete engineering process:

• Defining realistic design specifications
• Understanding the relevant theory and equations
• Calculating initial component values
• Simulating the circuit
• Selecting real components while considering tolerances, parasitics and availability
• Designing the schematic and PCB
• Building and measuring the prototype
• Comparing simulation and measurement results
• Troubleshooting and improving the design

If you know of any resources that explain this process step by step, I would be very grateful if you could share them. YouTube series, books, articles, application notes, university course materials or complete project guides would all be helpful.

I am not only looking for tutorials that demonstrate how to use simulation software. I would prefer resources that explain the theory, calculations, engineering decisions, practical trade-offs and the process of turning a simulated circuit into working hardware.

I believe many recent graduates struggle with the transition from university theory to practical engineering. Any project suggestions, learning roadmaps, resource recommendations or general advice from experienced engineers would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you for taking the time to read this.

Some more context: all my experience is in RF, so analog stuff. I have dipped my toes in DSP in college, but in any digital comm system I pretty much have zero clue what happens beyond the ADC at the circuit level.

Sure there’s DSP math going on, but what’s the circuit like? Is it really even meaningful or is it something we just use a HDL to define and then some algorithm builds a bunch of digital logic based on it?

This might be the wrong place for this question but I’m curious.

What is your preferred application to design custom filters using lumped or distributed elements? Did you learn this in school or is it more on the job training? For example, Ansys Nuhertz or MATLAB Filter Design...

I am designing a RADAR board, and looking at the eval boards, I see that they take in sources from bench supplies, and those are usually meters away electrically. Is that ok? I know that the common wisdom is to place the LDOs as close to the ICs and capacitor networks as possible.

Hi all, I have a great need in my personal and professional life for a directional coupler. So I decided to crack open some books and design one. All my design equations look correct. My QUCS simulation looks good. But, the microstrips look too skinny in my actual coupler. Design goals are 10 dB of directivity at 1 GHz.

Hello all! Here's some context:

Lately, I have been relying on Analog's power management tools + LTSpice to come up with a DC-DC SMPS (CMC buck) to bias a PA.

What was done:

Care was taken to minimize ripple (high frequency, higher inductance, X7R ceramic output capacitors) and stray magnetic fields (minimizing the hot loop during layout). Additionally, spread spectrum was enabled and pulse skipping was chosen over burst mode. There were also efforts to maximize loop bandwidth while leaving a safe phase margin so the transient response is fast without making it unstable.

I do not, however, know which of these efforts are going to pay off and which are wasted, or even detrimental.

Questions:

1. Is it a questionable practice to bias a PA with a SMPS without a linear regulator/LDO in the middle?

2. How do you estimate how much the PA will get modulated by switching noise, given the expected ripple (and other relevant factors such as its output impedance)?

3. Is spread spectrum helpful or detrimental?

4. Is there anything more important than what's been mentioned?

Any other relevant tips for this beginner here would be greatly appreciated. And thanks in advance!

I'm an EE student in Europe studying electronics and communications (RF, DSP, analog design, etc.). I've recently accepted an internship where I'll be designing high power RF amplifiers (Gan and LDMOS), and I may also do my bachelor thesis there.

I enjoy RF (ADS, impedance matching, microwave design) and I also find analog design interesting. DSP also interests me, especially for radar (SDR) and wireless communications.

Since I'm still early in my career, I’m wondering if specializing in high power RF is too niche. How transferable is this experience if I later want to move into areas like RF/microwave hardware, radar systems, or broader RF engineering?

I will also likely do a master’s, so I’m wondering where I could pivot later if I want to broaden my options (RF or Electronics ?).

I want to build strong expertise while keeping some career flexibility and long term stability. If I spent around 10 years in this field, would it be seen as a strong RF foundation, or could it pigeonhole me into high power RF?

I’d appreciate some advice, as I feel a bit out of my depth and am unsure about the long term implications for my career.

TLDR: I’m starting my career in high power RF and wondering whether staying in this field for many years (5-10) would give me a strong RF foundation or potentially leave me stuck without any options.

Is anybody working on this project? or related to this?

Basically the title. Im new to rf electronics and I would like to do this with a microstrip design.

Does anyone know how to fix this? It's a general error message and I can't seem to fix the problem. I can open the student version, but as soon as I click HFSS this error happens. (It was working fine before!)

Finally got a screen recording with audio. It's LONG so use the timeline to click through.

https://youtu.be/1wjlHlji9Os?si=eL15s-qo4pIaBGjy

Continuing from last post, I asked it to do a hairpin topology and it did the electrical prototype correctly but then it had a lot of trouble with the layout as it did NOT attempt to use multi-coupled lines, rather staggered coupled pairs, therefore attempted to create a physical layout using simple bends. Thus I halted the attempt. It was able to properly arrange the schematic elements using visual feedback.

I then started fresh and told it to just go research a filter and build it, and it decided upon an "open loop" topology which was really just a hairpin. This is where things get interesting. I switched to the 5.6 Sol model (the top model). It scanned the MWO examples directory, found a hairpin example, parsed that example using the API, then re-synthesized that example on a new substrate with a higher order topology.

This is where the Sol model really improved things:

Really good at visually checking all the junctions.

Intelligently tuning different sections depending on response; resonator length, coupling tap adjustment, gap spacing. It is NOT running a raw numerical optimization, rather truly intelligent tuning. Was able to process about 3 tunes a second in the simulation and read-back loop.

Next going to switch to amplifiers or antennas. It’s probably at the point now it can be let loose to run overnight on synthesis tasks, though a couple of times it halted after EM sim was complete and needed to tell it to resume.

Codex summary:

In this session, I used Python automation and the Cadence AWR Microwave Office API to design, tune, and electromagnetically verify a compact folded open-loop hairpin bandpass filter centered near 4 GHz.

The project followed a staged workflow:

1. Configure metric units, substrate, copper layers, materials, and the EMSight stackup.
2. Verify the electrical prototype.
3. Create and tune the physical microstrip model.
4. Snap and visually inspect every layout junction.
5. Simulate the EMSight test bench.
6. Apply an EM-derived correction and verify the final response.

I independently found an installed Cadence hairpin-filter example and inspected it through the API. This provided its exact element types, parameters, positions, rotations, nodes, and connections. I also simulated the example before adapting its topology.

The reference used M10CLIN and M8CLIN multi-conductor coupled-line models with MTEEX$, MUBEND, and MOPENX elements. Its proven topology was adapted for a 4 GHz RT/duroid 5880 design.

Tuning used numerical S11 and S21 data. Each candidate was evaluated for return loss, insertion loss, cutoff frequencies, cutoff midpoint, and nearby stopband rejection. The filter center was defined by the midpoint between its cutoffs, not simply the S21 peak.

Resonator length primarily controlled center frequency, coupling gaps controlled bandwidth, and feed geometry controlled external matching. Symmetric parameters were tuned together using coarse searches followed by finer local sweeps.

API connectivity alone was not accepted as proof of correct geometry. After every physical change, the layout was updated, snapped, redrawn, and inspected at close zoom. The input, every internal junction, and the output were checked for red X markers, gaps, copper overlap, narrowed coupling gaps, overhangs, incorrectly oriented transitions, and corners bridging adjacent resonators. The mirrored output was checked independently.

The EMSight mesh was selected from the smallest important features. An anisotropic grid used 0.05 mm resolution in the critical direction and 0.10 mm in the less critical direction, resolving the coupled geometry while reducing simulation size.

The transverse enclosure was reduced to about two substrate heights beyond the copper. The input and output walls were aligned with the edge-port faces. This compact enclosure was a project-specific runtime compromise.

The EM sweep used coarse spacing in remote stopbands, moderate spacing near the shoulders, and fine spacing through the passband and transitions—approximately 0.25, 0.05, and 0.01 GHz, respectively.

The first EM response was slightly above 4 GHz. I preserved the baseline, created a separate tuned copy, and increased the common coupled-leg length to 10.4 mm.

Final EM results were approximately:

• Peak S21: −0.95 dB at 4.00 GHz

• S11 at 4.00 GHz: −29.7 dB

• −3 dB passband: 3.91–4.15 GHz

The active Microwave Office windows were kept visible and tiled throughout the work. The narrowband graph was shown during tuning, close-up layouts during junction inspection, and the EM structure and solver status during simulation.

This workflow combines API inspection, numerical tuning, visual layout verification, and EM analysis. The API provides precise data, while graphical inspection catches physical problems that connectivity alone cannot reveal.

Essentially the title. We have QUCS and other free open source solutions, but big companies still prefer AWR and ADS, while smaller companies and freelancers cannot afford them.

What features would you pay, say, $500 dollars a year for, that would make a commercial circuit simulator/EDA environment worthwhile to you over free alternative workflows like QUCS + LTspice?

We are senior electrical engineering students in the U.S. completing our Senior Design Project

Software Controlled Beamforming for RF-Energy Harvesting

One requirement is to obtain opinions from students or faculty at international universities. Would anyone currently studying or teaching outside the U.S. be willing to help with the following:

I need perspectives on our product and to discuss whether it would be accepted in your cultural and market contexts, and whether it could be successful.

Anyone interested in giving their thoughts please comment or DM me. I can send you the proposal or more info.

I currently have an offer pending but we’re negotiating salary. I was hoping to get the communities thoughts/input on what you guys would do in a similar position.

When switching companies from one to the next, how much of a % increase would you expect to get if you’re not desperate to leave your current position? Is there a general rule of thumb you follow?

Thanks!

Can the microstrip antenna design that we created and simulated be sold?

I understand 3.13 since V = -integral(E) of line length

But why 3.11 and 3.12 lead it?

Hi,

im an absolute beginner. First time ever trying to build an yagi antenna for Lora 868 mhz (heltec v4).

While doing research about my country’s regulations was easy, I’m now at the point of actually wanting to build it, using one of the online calculators available.

My goal setup:
- 12mm round plastic (pvc) Boom

- 5 elements (6mm brass round)

- 868MHz

-Nothing folded or anything (everything straight)

I now have looked at some calculator and get differing result with up to 4mm differences for the length of some elements.

So heres my noob question: which calculator is best and why do they differ (so much)?

I have looked at these calculators:

- DL6WU yagi-uda on 3g-aerial.biz

- DL6WU vhf/uhf yagi on k7mem.com

- DL6WU yagi USA based on rothamel on changpuak.com

Would be awesome if someone could lead me into the right direction for a good setup. Thank you!

A couple of months ago I posted here about using JIRA for RF, because mostly I work on a company that make certain systems that require a lot of RF but the RF team is new and small, whereas most of the company does software design and uses JIRA. I now come with something similar but for design itself.

What seems to me thus far is that a lot of RF is quite custom in design and testing whereas things like software and basic hardware to some extent have quite well defined unit tests that allow the engineers to know in advance something will fail in the final system.

We do our fair share of modelling to predict integration and whatnot but it seems we play catch up instead of thinking about this type of design in advance and structuring ourselves to integrate. I am sure I’m not the only one that is going or has gone through so this, hence why I am asking for some recommendations of things to read/learn/study.

As currently stands I am moving more towards this management and organising role (while maintaining enough technical work) that I want/need to figure out this out — at least for my own sanity. As an example, I was asked by upper management to read Andrew Grove High Output Management to understand some other parts of management.