Streit, who develops gigahertz microelectronic amplifiers, receivers, and other devices for dense wireless communications, believes wireless Internet services could go completely RF with satellites bridging the gaps between base stations. Alternatively, he said designers may take a hybrid approach that uses optical fiber to connect base stations. Because of government regulations, wireless bands are extremely limited while the demand for wireless bandwidth continues to exceed expectations from year to year. When you do much denser modulation schemes, it puts extreme requirements on the microelectronics-the power amplifiers need extremely linear response with good phase and amplitude control, and that's where we fit in. If you look at telco companies that bury fibers for trunk lines and backbone networks, they're operating at higher and higher capacities, moving from 2.5 to 10 GB per channel.
People talk about mobile services.
It could be a car, it could be a remote location-like military posts. It could be an airplane or a shipor digital distribution of movies to theaters. Gigahertz optoelectronic wireless components will become very important. Small companies are working on these wireless technologies and the big companies are looking to acquire the technology instantly. Perhaps in this scenario, satellite links will play an even larger role.