Over the last 6 months our ‘Future Waveguide’ blog series has featured many discussions about the impact waveguide has in our daily lives over several different sectors. As we bring this series to a close, we reflect on how modern life would not be possible without the presence of waveguide technology.

Since the widespread use of RADAR during the second world war, waveguide technology has increasingly influenced our modern lives. From early military applications, through the satellite communication boom in the 1980s, to self-driving cars in the modern era, waveguide has played an integral role in many new innovations for people and industry, and this trajectory shows no sign of levelling off. Enabled by constant evolutions in technology, and supported by higher precisions in metrology, the future waveguide market is moving towards three main areas: higher frequencies, higher power densities, and an increased use of outer space. This direction is driven by increasing market demand from a wide range of industries, governments, militaries, scientific research, and humanity as a whole.

Historically, Flann has been at the forefront of higher frequency and precision metrology advances, rather than very high-power technology, but as the market has enabled us to provide advanced waveguide systems with higher power densities in all waveguide sizes. This direction of higher power density also crosses over into our future space markets, harnessing the capabilities of focused energy transmission between satellites and from space to Earth in the context of renewable solar energy, adding to our well-established tradition of satellite waveguide devices such as space switches, antennas, and attenuators.

Looking to the future, Flann’s waveguide solutions will play an integral role in addressing emerging economic, healthcare, and societal demands, such as the communications systems of smart sustainable cities, the next generations of medical scanning technology, or the sensing and navigation systems of autonomous vehicles.

Radio frequency and microwave technology has been important to worldwide communications and information infrastructure for decades; and as the demand for faster wireless data transmission increases exponentially in the future, Flann’s heritage of cutting-edge waveguide technology will enable us to deliver integrated solutions in the millimetre-wave (mmWave) bands, through the terahertz (THz) bands, and beyond.

As our technology evolves and these markets rapidly expand, Flann Microwave will continue to provide solutions to new technical challenges and create unique instruments for the future.

You can read our previous blogs from the ‘Future Markets’ series via the links below:

Waveguide and Humanity

Flann’s Heritage

Waveguide’s Future Market – Frequency

Waveguide’s Future Market – Power

Waveguide’s Future Market – Space