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Microwave engineering is part science and part creativity. One must learn the basic mathematics and electronic theory on how things work. A lot of microwave stuff is counter-intuitive, so to think properly you have to know where the theory comes from. But you do not spend a lot of time on theoretical stuff, but instead have to know where to find information, equations, software, etc., and how to use them. A microwave engineer has to apply a fair amount of art to the use of the equations, since the equations describe a very basic condition and the real world usually departs significantly from the equation's predicitions. A good microwave engineer is inquisitive and untrusting. There are many good microwave performance prediciting software packages out there, but none of them are great, so it is the microwave engineer's job to know when the program is lying or not, and what to do about it.
Microwave engineers are a little like medical doctors, also. When you go to the doctor and tell him you are sick, from the moment you walk into the examination room the doctor is Sherlock Holmesing you--watching how you walk, you skin color, if you are bent over, if you have a rash, if you are moving slow and having trouble walking. He listens to your story about symptoms but ignores you guess at what is wrong with you. He might pull out some sophistocated test equipment and make some measurements. Then he tries something, a drug prescription, based on his observations and waits to see what the reaction is to the drug.
A Microwave engineer often performs the same role. Your company is making satellite receivers for Dish network, and all of a sudden your final test success went from 98% to 75%, costing the factory $1 million dollars a month in rework effort, and you have been assigned to figure out what has changed. You walk into the factory and do the doctor thing. You look at the test data, "is this the same equipment you have been testing it on all along?", you talk to the technicians, you try to isolate the test failure to one area of the circuitry, you look up the engineering change orders on this circuit over the last year, you see if any component vendors have changed, you read over specifications and try to figure out if the system will work if components are delivered to that specification, etc, etc. If you are good, you notice some obscure thing that everyone overlooked and save the day.
Design wise, a microwave engineer is concerned with cost, performance, reliability of his designs. To meet all those criteria simultaneously, he is constantly searching out new materials and semiconductors to use in new designs, keeping abreast of any troubles on the manufacturing line to be able to design-out troublesome circuits, and he has to keep atuned to just how much it costs for a team to design something, and how much it costs to manufacture something. As part of his designs, he often has to "bid" (predict) the engineering development cost and the manufacturing cost of something that is just a fuzzy idea in his head. Good microwave engineers spend a good deal of time convincing his customers that his design is the best, and that his company deserves the work over some competitor. A good microwave engineer often has to negotiate specifications with customers and vendors, getting the best performance for the lowest price.
Also, unfortunately, microwave engineers are becoming a dying breed. For large volume projects, a engineers role is becoming one of chosing a semiconductor chipset, and making sure it works properly and repeatably. If you were thinking of becoming a microwave engineer, I would recommend you get as much semiconductor training as possible and become a microwave chip designer. Then go work for a good semiconductor house like Analog Devices, etc. I would also recommend you get a good helping of digital design education, since the line between microwave and digital design is going to get pretty blurry in the next decade.
Today, a microwave engineer is much more valuable if understands digital signal processing, programming small gate arrays and fpga, and simple microcontrollers. Even if he does not do the actual digital programing of those devices, he is expected to understand what can and can not be done, and where to draw the RF/digital line.
I would assume that, as cad software becomes more user friendly and you can purchase software engines for major digital processing functions, the microwave engineer will be fully in charge of controller and dsp processing functions as well as the microwaves. This will especially be true if all these functions reside on one chip, and the microwave guy is doing the layout (system on a chip designs).
thats interesting... but as it is, microwaves in itself is so vast majorly because of vast frequency range and different type of work/design techniques, that it takes almost half a life time before one can be called a master of microwaves...in whatever small area he has specialized...
i mean if u take amplifiers as your area... then you have so many different types of amplifiers, narrow band techniques are different from wide band techniques... In C-band techniques are different as compared to Ku band and then if u go to millimeter waves, the concepts again change...then there are hybrid designs and MMICs...and so on and so forth...
So is it really a possibility that DSP and digital can be the additional areas of work for microwave engineers...hope that doesnt make them jack of all master of none...
And is it a good idea to start concentrating on all these different areas right from the begining...or u would suggest that one should first get a feel of microwaves for a few years and then append DSP etc to his domain...
Pl suggest and also suggest what should be the process if one wants to add DSP to his domain... what books would you suggest for a microwave engineer to begin for DSP???
The trouble is, lets say you spend half of your life becoming a master of GaAs PHemt Power amplifier design, and everyone loves you, and your salary grows. Then someone else invents a new silicon carbide photonic maser amplifier with 97% efficiency and 1 to 70 GHz bandwidth, a technology that requires deep knowledge of quantum well mechanics to design circuits in, and your boss lays you off. What then, driving a cab?
then you don't recommend to be specialized in microwaves only..
now I've a question what's the difference between microwaves and signal processing?
best regards
Nothing like understanding third and 5th order distortion in Class B and up amplifiers in order to optimize the sound quality of the radio in your Taxi you're driving... Might get you an extra tip...
well the discussion seems to have taken a wrong turn... we were discussing something serious about the career of microwave engineers... pl concentrate on this and cut the crap...
those who can guide properly, pl come forward and help your juniors...
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