| R&D | Research and development | Alternatively, remorse and disappointment. |
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| RAD | radian | Unit of angle. There are 2pi radians in 360 degrees. Rad can also mean bad to a young engineer, which of course means good. |
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| RADAR | radio detection and ranging | -- |
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| RBW | resolution bandwidth | An oscilloscope term. |
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| RC | resistance x capacitance | Generally a time constant, |
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| RCS | radar cross-section | -- |
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| RCTA | Rear cross traffic alert | An application of automotive radar |
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| RDL | re-distribition layer | Used in RFICs and PWBs to move input/outputs to different positions |
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| RETMA | Radio Electronics Television Manufacturers Association | Defunct group that developed standardized component values that are still used today. |
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| RF | radio frequency | As in "whats the frequency, Dan Rather?" |
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| RFIC | radio frequency integrated circuit | The silicon cousin of MMIC. |
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| RFID | radio frequency identification | What Walmart uses to track inventory. |
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| RHCP | right-hand circularly polarized | Circular polarization is often used in communications systems. |
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| RIE | reactive ion etching | A method of dry etching. |
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| RKE | remote keyless entry | RF device that opens your car door. |
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| RL | return loss | Magnitude of S11 in decibels. |
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| RMS | root-mean-square | Often used to evaluate phase and amplitude errors over many states. |
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| RN | noise resistance | -- |
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| ROM | READ ONLY MEMORY | -- |
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| RPN | residual phase noise | -- |
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| RSS | root-sum-square | Used in evaluating the composite error of many contributors, as opposed to worst-case. |
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| RTA | rapid thermal annealing | -- |
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| RTD | resonant tunneling diode, resistor temperature device or detector | One is a new semiconductor used in MMW, the other is like an expensive thermistor |
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| RTOL | room temperature operating life | A reliability test that takes a very long time! |
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| RX | receive | An abbreviation sometimes used for receive. |
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