The Hindu Business Line : Microwave tech needs more takers, says ISRO chief

COMPUTER technologies have apparently caused yet another casualty: There are few takers today for studies in microwave technologies, according to the ISRO Chairman, Mr G. Madhavan Nair.

The scenario for a field that can be as much or more promising than IT is bleak, as only two institutions in the country offer courses in microwave engineering. There is a need to attract more students to this area with innovative curricula and teaching methods, Mr Nair said at the opening session of a three-day international symposium on microwave technology, IMEC 2004, here. And "I can assure you that students in microwave technology will have a better and (more) secured future" than IT, Mr Nair said.

With the exception of IIT-Kharagpur and Delhi University, there is a falling interest among teachers, researchers and students in the field in which Sir J.C. Bose had done pioneering work in 1897.

"The latest IT is incomplete without microwaves, be it high-bit rate and high-speed data transfer or (fast) computers," Mr Nair said. "Microwaves will be the only solution for future computers; in fact, Bluetooth is an extension of the use of microwaves in IT."

In recent years, microwave applications have moved beyond military detection radars to a vast spectrum of civilian uses, such as communication, industries, traffic monitoring and even household ovens. Yet he regretted that "electromagnetics/RF (radio frequency) and microwaves are subjects which scare students and working professionals alike everywhere in the world, perhaps more so in India."

Today, microwave sensors have come to stay as they are used by the military to detect threats, weapons and enemy personnel; by the police to detect contraband goods and personnel; to control detonation of minor weapons; as automatic door openers, assembly line controllers, traffic signals, speed measurement; in communication satellites; mobile phones and direct-to-home broadcasts. Their other uses are in traffic monitoring in air, sea or land; by the auto industry for vulcanising tubes; as ovens by the processed food industry; and even by doctors to sense diseases, treat tumours and remove scars using RF surgery.

Communication, earth observation satellites and the planned lunar probe use them too. Mr Nair said ISRO would launch India's first microwave remote sensing satellite, RISAT, in a couple of years.

According to the speakers, for the industry, too, there is a vast scope for making antennas, microwave systems, devices and radars. The 30,000 VSATs (very small aperture terminals) that operate in the country are imported.

The country has technology, infrastructure and experts but needs to showcase its expertise well, Mr Nair said. Bangalore, which houses LRDE, BEL and ISRO, and Hyderabad, which has the microwave devices foundry GAETEC, are hubs of microwave technology.

IMEC 2004, said to be the first symposium and exposition on microwaves, has been organised by the Aeronautical Society of India, Society of Indian Aerospace Technologists and Industry and COPEX.

According to Mr Ramakrishna, Technical Chairman, Institute of Electronics, Telecommunication Engineering (IETE), IMEC has 50 participants from France, Russia, Germany, the US, Singapore and India.