Flann’s engineers are celebrating the publication of a new three-part international standard that will define how waveguide is used for decades to come.  Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) standard IEEE 1785 sets requirements for waveguides from 75 GHz to 3.3 THz – previously there was no internationally agreed standard for waveguides operating above 330 GHz.  The new standard is split into three parts:

• Part 1 (IEEE 1785.1:2012) defines the operating frequencies, dimensions, tolerances and names for the waveguide.
• Part 2 (IEEE 1785.2:2016) provides three designs of waveguide interface (flange) to guarantee alignment accuracy.
• Part 3 (IEEE 1785.3:2016) describes how to assess the performance of a pair of waveguide interfaces.

This work will be hugely important in the future as the sub-millimeter bands are increasingly used for communications, security imaging and remote sensing applications.  Indeed the previous British Standard, International Electrotechnical Commission and US Mil Standards have remained largely unchanged for 40 years.

Flann’s team has been working with the IEEE Standards working group since it was formed in March 2008, and the interface drawings in the standard were produced by Flann mechanical engineers – evidence that Flann really deserves its place leading the development of sub-mm wave technology!

If you would like to discuss what this means for you, please contact us to talk to one of the standards development team.