With nearly 400 participants from industry, government and academia from almost 20 countries, the first International Vacuum Electronics Conference (IVEC) burst into life in Monterey, CA, on May 2, 3 and 4, 2000. IVEC 2000, sponsored by the IEEE Electron Devices Society (EDS), attracted the largest vacuum electronics audience in decades. While the explosive growth of electronics in the last half century has been in the area of solid state devices, vacuum devices are still widely used for displays and for high power and high frequency applications, such as satellite communications, radar and electronic countermeasures (ECM). "The response to IVEC 2000 is a clear indication of the continued vitality of vacuum electronics," said Jim Dayton, Director of Technology for Hughes Electron Dynamics (HED), Torrance, CA, who served as General Chair of IVEC 2000.
The conference commenced with a Plenary Session led by Dayton, who welcomed the participants to Monterey and introduced the members of the IEEE EDS Technical Committee on Vacuum Devices, who had organized the conference. Three speakers who focused on "The Status of the Vacuum Electronics Industry" followed. Jon Christensen of HED, representing the US Electronic Industry Association, spoke for the United States. Takao Kageyama of NEC followed by giving an overview of the industry in Asia. Georges Faillon of Thomson Tubes Electroniques (TTE) concluded with a description of the situation in Europe. All three described an industry that is experiencing nearly flat military sales, but dynamic growth in commercial opportunities.
The next three speakers addressed more specifically "New Commercial Opportunities in Vacuum Electronics." Ivor Brodie of SRI International spoke on what has become the most ubiquitous vacuum device today, the display tube. Brodie particularly emphasized the prospects for conventional cathode ray tube (CRT) technology to be overtaken by thin panel displays, many of which will continue to be comprised of vacuum tubes using field emission cathodes. Walter Wood of Xicom Technology described growing markets for vacuum devices in terrestrial communications both for satellite uplinks and for wireless telephony and communications systems. The final speaker on this topic, Kevin Mallon of Loral Space Systems, described how the traveling wave tube (TWT) has become the dominant amplifier for commercial space communications because of its reliability, efficiency and power handling capabilities. With the assistance of the TWT, he forecasted that with the implementation of digital radio in the near future, a traveler driving from Los Angeles to New York City could listen to the same radio station for the duration of the trip!
The final topic in the Plenary Session was a panel discussion on "Training the Next Generation," moderated by Neville Luhmann of the University of California (UC), Davis. The panelists described successful programs merging the needs of academic institutions, industry and government to provide students with credible training and realistic career opportunities. The audience reaction to the panel discussion indicated that the hiring outlook in the vacuum electronics industry parallels its recent dynamic growth.
The highly successful IVEC is scheduled to repeat every other year in the USA, rotating to Europe and Asia in every fourth year. IVEC 2001 will be held in Noordwijk, The Netherlands, on April 2, 3 and 4, sponsored by the European Space Agency (ESA). In 2002, IVEC will return to Monterey and in 2003 it will be held in Korea. IVEC evolved from the Monterey Power Tube Conference, which had been sponsored by the US Department of Defense since 1978 and formerly had been restricted to U.S. participants.
Additional technical highlights are summarized at www.ewh.ieee.org/soc/ eds/ivec. Selected extended articles from IVEC 2000 will be published in January 2001 in a Special Issue of the IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices.
—Ayman Shibib, Editor
The CAS/ED Chapter of IEEE Pikes Peak Section 5 held two technical meetings during the 4th quarter, 2000. The first presentation, on October 24, was entitled "SiGe HBT Technology and Applications: An Overview" and was presented by Mr. Don Herman, Senior Design Engineer, Linear Technology Corporation, Colorado Springs, CO. The talk was well received with over 25 people in attendance.
The second presentation, on November 7, was entitled "The Evolution of Capacitor Technology" and was presented by Dr. Elliott Philosflky, former president of Teagal Corp. and former vice-president of AUX and Ramtron Corporations. The presentation traced the evolution of capacitor technology to its current use in advanced microelectronic technologies as ferroelectric nonvolatile memory devices. The CAS/ED Chapter is also planning future meetings focused on emerging areas in Solid State Microelectronics. The Chapter is also organizing a Solid State Session for the Region 5 Technical Conference 2001 to be held in April 2001.
—Charles Yarling, Editor
There will be a colloquium entitled "Future Trends in Microelectronics" to be held in Guadalajara, Mexico, on November 17, 2001. It is organized by the EDS chapter of Mexico DF and the student chapters of CINVESTAV DF and CINVESTAV Guadalajara. Three topics will be presented: CMOS Technological problems for downsizing by Dr. Hiroshi Iwai from the Tokyo Institute of Technology; State of the Art and perspectives of power devices and IC by Dr. Ayman Shibib from Agere Systems; and Trends in Low Cost Electronics by Dr. Sigur Wagner from Princeton Univeristy. Inscription is free for EDS chapter members. For other attendees, the registration fees are as follows: IEEE Members $150 U.S.; IEEE Student Members $50 U.S.; Non-IEEE Members $3000 U.S.; and Non-IEEE Student Members $100 U.S. Notes will be provided for all attendees. For aditional information, contact: Dr. Magali Estrada, SecciÛn de ElectrÛnica del Estado SÛlido (SEES), Departamento de Ingeniería Eléctrica, CINVESTAV IPN, Av. IPN No. 2508, Apto. Postal 14-740, 07300 DF, México. TEL: 52-5 7473800 ext. 3121, FAX: 52-5 747 2114, E-Mail: mestrada@mail.cinvestav.mx
—Adelmo Ortiz-Conde, Editor
The Chapter activities during the second half of 2000 were as stated below.
Two seminars were organized by the St. Petersburg State Technical University in July: Dr. V. V. Yatsenko reported on "Electromagnetic diffraction by double arrays of dipole scatterers" and Dr. A. G. Rezvanov reported on "Space filtering of microwave signals using magnetostatic waves".
Under the Distinguished Lecturer Program, an invited lecture by IEEE Fellow Dr. Saj Durranin on Satellite Communications was held on October 2, 2000. The lecture was organized by the St. Petersburg State Electrotechnical University and was dedicated to communication systems, technologies, and services available through satellites at domestic, regional and international levels and to new systems for personal communications.
An all-Russia student conference in radiophysics was held in Peterhoff on December 5-7, 2000. It was organized by the St. Petersburg State University and the St. Petersburg State Technical University (see conference Web page http://radio.stu.neva.ru/studconf.htm). Over 60 participants attended the conference including 45 students from 10 universities and higher-education institutes of 8 cities of Russia. Nine students received best paper monetary awards from the St. Petersburg ED/MTT/AP Chapter. Three participants—Yuri Antonov (St. Petersburg State Electrotechnical University), Victor Sdobnjakov (Nizhny Novgorod State University) and Stanislav Voinich (St. Petersburg State Technical University)—were also awarded free IEEE membership for the year 2001 and diplomas from the ED/MTT/AP St. Petersburg Chapter.
The traditional student conference "Week of Science" was held on December 7, 2000, at the St. Petersburg State Technical University, where also a moving exhibition of IEEE materials was organized.
For further information about conferences annually organized in St. Petersburg and its region, please contact Prof. Sergei Zagriadski (E-Mail: zagriadski@ieee.org ).
The end of 2000 in Saratov was rich in scientific events and has been marked by several big technical meetings. The main event was the Fourth International Conference, "Actual Problems of Electron Device Engineering" (APEDE 2000), held at Saratov State Technical University (SSTU), September 20-22. This Conference is biennial, and the next one will be held in 2002. More than 130 papers were submitted and more than 150 participants have attended the Conference. The Conference Proceedings have been published in Russian with the Abstracts in English. It was organized by Saratov State Technical University, Ministry of Full and Professional Education of Russia, Ministry of Education of Saratov Region, IEEE MTT/ED/ AP/CPMT Saratov-Penza Chapter, and sponsored by IEEE EDS, Enterprise TORY (Moscow), and Enterprise CONTACT (Saratov). The Scientific Program included papers on Microwave Electronics, Microwave Theory and Technique, Implementation, Technology, Manufacture for Microwave, Electron Devices and Instruments Application and Technology, and Education in Electronics.
The second event was the Fifth Chapter Workshop "CAD and Numerical Methods in Applied Electrodynamics and Electronics," which was held day after the APEDE'2000 at SSTU (September 23, 2000). There were about 45 participants and 22 reported papers as oral presentations. The Workshop was solely organized by the Chapter and chaired by Prof. M.V. Davidovich.
The International Conference, "Problems of Communication and Control" (PCC'2000, September 20-22, 2000, SSTU), chaired by Prof. V.A. Kolomeytsev, was organized in conjunction with APEDE'2000. There were 55 participants. The Conference was co-organized by the Chapter.
The fourth action was the School-Conference, "Nonlinear Days in Saratov for Young Scientists" (NDSYS 2000, October 16-20, 2000). The conference was organized by Saratov State University and supported by the Chapter. Conference Chairman was Prof. D. I. Trubetskov, rector of Saratov State University. The goal of this School-Conference was to involve the graduate and post-graduate students and scholars into the problems of nonlinear dynamics. There were 86 participants.
Finally, the Second International Conference, "Fundamental Problems of Physics," was held at Saratov State University, October 9-14, 2000. About 240 reports have been presented and more then 250 participants have attended the conference. The conference was organized by the Ministry of Education of Russian Federation, Saratov State University, Program "Universities of Russia" Scientific center "College", under the support of the Russian Foundation of Fundamental Research and IEEE MTT/ED/ AP/CPMT Saratov-Penza Chapter.
All reported events were very successful, useful for personal contacts, and aimed at improvement of cooperation and scientific exchange in different areas. For further information, please contact Prof. Michael Davidovich (E-Mail: DavidovichMV@info.sgu.ru ).
The IEEE activity in the Siberia Region is characterized by the words "slow progress". International conferences have been held since 1995 for motivation of scientists and specialists and to attract them to join IEEE. The last, the Sixth International Scientific and Practical Conference of Students and Young Researchers "Modern Techniques and Technology" (MTT-2000), was held at Tomsk Polytechnic University February 28–March 3, 2000. This conference, co-sponsored by EDS and supported by the Novosibirsk Joint Chapter, offered the opportunities to learn and share information on the latest advances in techniques and technology.
An increased interest in the Tomsk conferences has been clearly observed. While the SIBCONVERS-1995 conference hosted about 50 participants, MTT-2000 attendance was about 300 from 5 countries. The invited and regular papers were presented in 6 oral sessions, each session addressing key problems of modern electronic devices, radar, and modern manufacturing technologies, as well as some related topics about photo-refractive effects in crystalline media. These papers were published in a Proceedings, officially registered as an IEEE edition. Several active conference participants, both engineers and students, have been awarded for the best papers.
The workshop on ultra-wide band radar was held at the SIBCONVERS symposium. At the workshop, Professor James Taylor, well-known American specialist in the radar field, editor and co-author of the book "Introduction to Ultra-Wideband Radar Systems", gave a short course for students, post-graduate students, and young researchers. The course was very successful.
On the 1st of October, Oleg Stoukatch, the Tomsk Chapter Chair, took an active part in the 2000 IEEE Divisions I & IV Region 8 Chapters Meeting in Paris. It was an excellent opportunity to get acquainted with chapter activity in Region 8 and to meet colleagues.
This year, our Chapter held two technical meetings with the Student Branch, which was established on June 14, 2000. Our common aim is to attract new IEEE student members. Complete information on our activities is available at the web site http://me.tusur.ru/~tieee/index.htm, created by Victor Sidorenko—the best web master in Tomsk. For further information please contact the Chapter Chair, Oleg Stoukatch, (E-Mail: tomsk@ieee.org).
For its current activities the West Ukraine Chapter in 2000 won the IEEE CPMT Society 1999 Chapter of the Year Award. Mrs. Olga F. Zamorska, Chapter Secretary, received the special banner from the CPMT Society at the IEEE Division I & IV Region 8 Chapters Meeting in Paris, France, on October 1, 2000. Recently our Chapter organized 8 meetings with technical and scientific subjects of interests to its members. The most interesting of them were:
In addition, the educational course "Reactive Laser Technologies" was given by Dr. Dmytro I. Popovych, Institute for Applied Problems of Mechanics and Mathematics of NASU. Topics of the course were fundamentals of reactive pulsed technology; mechanics of reactive pulse laser sputtering; diagnostic and characteristic of laser-produced plasmas; process characteristics and film properties in reactive laser plasma deposition.
Among the other activities, the most important was the Fifth International Seminar/Workshop on Direct and Inverse Problems of Electromagnetic and Acoustic Wave Theory (DIPED-2000), organized together with the IEEE MTT/ED/AP/EMC Republic of Georgia Chapter on October 3-6, 2000, at Tbilisi State University, Tbilisi, Georgia. A total of 26 papers from Georgia, Germany, Poland, Russia, Taiwan, Ukraine, and USA were presented at the Seminar in five oral sessions. The most interesting presentations were following: G. Sh. Kevanishvili, "On the theory of Hallen integral equation"; B. Z. Katsenelenbaum "The antenna shape in the line for the microwave power transmission by a long beam"; P. O. Savenko "About structure of solution of the nonlinear synthesis problem of linear antenna according to the prescribed power directivity pattern". The DIPED-2000 Proceedings were published before the event and included in the IEEE Book Broker Program. The DIPED-2000 traditional awards for young speakers recognized A. Geonjian for the "Non-uniform conforming mesh generator for FDTD scheme in 3D cylindrical coordinate system", K. Tavzarashvili for the "The method of acoustic and EM waves field visualization and based on it experimental setup for ultrasonic tomography", and Yu. V. Kasyanyuk for the "Calculation of singular and hypersingular integrals in scalar diffraction problem". The next DIPED will be organized at Institute of Applied Problems of Mechanics and Mathematics, Lviv, Ukraine, on September 18-20, 2001.
Our plan for future activities include financial support from the Chapter budget for 15 IEEE Student Members and the recruitment of 3-4 new IEEE members, organization of 10-15 technical meetings with scientific subjects of interest to Chapter members and 3 educational courses as a special lecture series, organization of the 6th International Conference on the Experience of Designing and Application of CAD Systems in Microelectronics (CADSM-2001) at National University "Lvivska Politechnika" (NULP) Lviv, Ukraine, on February 12-17, 2001, web site: http://www.polynet.lviv.ua/CADSM200/, etc.
For further information on the MTT/ED/AP/CPMT/SSC West Ukraine Chapter, please visit http://www.ewh.ieee.org/soc/cpmt/ukraine.
Our Chapter was organized in the year 1996 due to the EDS and MTTS initiative to include the countries of Former Soviet Union in the IEEE. It was the second IEEE Chapter in the Ukraine, and we started from 16 members from Ukrainian cities of Kiev, Odessa, Kharkov, Donetsk and Sevastopol. Later our Chapter was associated with other IEEE societies: CPMTS (1998) and SSCS (2000), and we now have 34 IEEE members. Historically, in the Ukraine there was a remarkable success in the area of telecommunication. That is why we now work with the IEEE ComSoc in order to add 7 new IEEE members to the Central Ukraine Chapter.
The Central Ukraine Chapter is located at the National Technical University of Ukraine (NTUU). Previously, it was Kiev Polytechnic Institute which was founded in 1898 by a famous Russian scientist Dmitriy Mendeleev who invented the periodic table of chemical elements. Currently, NTUU has more than 30,000 students and about 100 departments that cover the Ukrainian industry interests. The electronic faculty of NTUU has 12 departments and institutes in the area close to EDS (departments of Electronic Devices, Microelectronics, Semiconductor Devices, CAD in Electronics, Biomedical Electronics, Institute of Applied Electronics, etc.).
It is worth mentioning that, nowadays, most Ukrainian technical universities have to use old scientific and technological equipment, and that is why we have a decreased possibility in practical applications of their elaboration. It is well known that Ukraine now is in a deep economic and political crisis, and the Ukrainian education system faces great difficulties. However, in spite of this, Ukrainian education in electronics is directed to the expected future progress. This is one of the reasons that basic points of teaching in microelectronics are fundamental mathematics and physics, computer simulations of electronics devices, and foreign language (English), of course. Present and future sophisticated electronic systems will require engineers with a higher degree of fundamental knowledge. The stage for fundamental knowledge in Ukraine was historically set on good school education as well as on high level and experience of the teaching staff in the fundamental knowledge of the electronics area.
We see the goals of the Central Ukrainian Chapter in the propagation of technical and scientific information as well as in the organization of technical meetings and conferences in accordance to interests of chapter members. IEEE societies are supporting us by the latest journal issues, conferences information, CD-ROMs, etc. This support is extremely useful because our universities cannot afford the foreign literature.
Electronic Devices is one of the major topics in Ukrainian electronics. The international workshop, "Progress in Semiconductor-on-Insulator Structures and Devices Operating at Extreme Conditions," was organized in Kiev, Ukraine, October 15-18, 2000. The meeting was announced in IEEE Electron Device Letters. The host was the Institute of Semiconductor Physics, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. More than 100 scientists from various countries took part in this Workshop.
One month before, in September 2000, our Chapter organized the International Conference "Microwave Telecommunication Technology" with the Workshop "Integrated Microwave Telecommunication Systems" in the Southern part of Ukraine (Crimea, town of Sevastopol). This conference was established last year as well, and it will be annual. More than 150 participants from Russia, Ukraine, Byelorussia, USA, England, South Korea, Turkey, etc., took part in this conference. The two-volume Conference Proceedings contained more than 250 reports.
In 2000, several members of the Central Ukraine Chapter took part in other International Electronics and Microwave conferences in Germany, South Korea, Poland, and Russia. The Chapter provided partial support to its members for conference participation. Two distinguished lectures were given by members of Central Ukraine Chapter in May 2000, at universities in the USA. For other information, please contact Chapter Chair, Prof. Dr. Yuri Poplavko (E-Mail: poplav@inec.kiev.ua), or Vice-Chair, Dr. Yuri Prokopenko (E-Mail: prok@phbmentu-kpi.kiev.ua ).
—Ninoslav Stojadinovic, Editor
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From the left: Mr. Vojkan Davidovic, Chapter Treasurer, Prof. Ninoslav Stojadinovic, Chapter Chair, Prof. Baldomir Zajc, Region 8 Conference Coordinator, Prof. Krishna Shenai, EDS AdCom Member, Prof. Zoran Prijic, Chapter Vice-Chair, and Mr. Ivica Manic, Chapter Secretary, at the meeting opening. |
The ED/SSC Yugoslavia Chapter held a regular meeting on the 23rd of November in conjunction with a celebration of 40th Anniversary of the Faculty of Electronic Engineering, University of Nis. Distinguished Lecturer presentations by Prof. Baldomir Zajc, Region 8 Conference Coordinator, entitled "Rapid Prototyping Technology in Digital Circuit Design Education", and by Prof. Krishna Shenai, EDS AdCom member, entitled "Powering the Information Age" were given at the meeting. Furthermore, Prof. Ninoslav Stojadinovic, Distinguished Lecturer and Chapter Chair, gave a joint promotional lecture entitled "IEEE: Why Students and Engineers Should Join?". Finally, Prof. Krishna Shenai announced that our chapter had been selected as a recipient of the prestigious EDS Chapter of the Year Award, and gave a short affirmative speech on chapter activities and accomplishments over the past year. A reception for the Distinguished Lecturers hosted by the Faculty Dean, Prof. Zivko Tosic, preceded the dinner. The chapter meeting ended by a cocktail party for a large audience from both industrial and academia environments.
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Jack Kilby looking into the future after his historical expose during his ED Sweden seminar. |
Professor Alferov during an excited explanation of his early heterojunction experiments. |
The ED Sweden Chapter hosted its most successful meetings ever during December last year. Together with the IEEE Sweden Section and Royal Institute of Technology, we arranged two meetings with two of the Nobel Laureates in physics 2000, Professor Zhores Alforev and Jack Kilby. On the 11th of December, Jack Kilby gave a most interesting expose of the work that paved the way for the invention of the integrated circuit. The seminar had a record high attendance of about 350 people. We counted more than 50 IEEE members. On December 13, Professor Alforev gave a seminar covering the development of the institute, the funding situation in Russia, and of course the important experimental development on the growth of heterojunction structures for laser applications. This seminar also attracted a large crowd of close to 200 people. Preceding both seminars, the Nobel Laureates were invited to a luncheon where university people and people from the telecom industry had the opportunity for informal discussions. For more information, contact Mikael …stling Professor, Head of Department of Microelectronics and Information Technology Device Technology Laboratory KTH, Royal Institute of Technology E229 SE-164 40 Kista, Sweden. TEL: +46-8-7521402, FAX: +46-8-7527850, CELL: +46-70- 5658007 Secretary Zandra Lundberg TEL: +46-8-7521348.
—Mikael Östling, Editor
Two meetings were held at the Holon Inst. of Technology (HAIT) - Holon. On November 15, 2000, the subject of the meeting was "Neural Computing of Effective Properties in Random Composites," with the guest lecturer being Prof. Abraham Beltzer from HAIT. Twenty people (mostly students and academic staff) attended the meeting in Holon. On December 20, 2000, the subject of the meeting was "Microwave Radiation Hazards to Biological Tissues" and the lecturer was Dr. Gady Golan from HAIT. Fifty people (mostly students and some academic staff) attended the meeting in Holon. The Chairman of both meetings was Dr. Gady Golan - ED Israel Chapter Secretary.
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Prof. Nathan among the student members of ICM 2000 Organizing Committee. |
The 12th International Conference on Microelectronics (ICM 2000) was held October 31–November 2, 2000, in Tehran, Iran. This conference was organized by the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department, University of Tehran, and technically co-sponsored by IEEE EDS. For the first time in ICM's history, most of the paper submissions were conducted electronically and the conference proceedings were also distributed in CD. The conference had more than 550 attendees from 19 countries and 69 contributed papers accepted from more than 120 submitted papers. Six invited papers were also presented, including Prof. Meindl of Georgia Institute of Technology on "Advanced Interconnect Technology"; Dr. Shahidi of IBM on "Challenges of CMOS Scaling at below 0.1micron" (presented by Dr. Assaderaghi); Prof. Elmasry of the University of Waterloo on "Low Power VLSI CMOS Circuit Design"; Dr. Assaderaghi of IBM on "DTMOS: Its Derivatives and Variations, and Their Potential Applications"; and Prof. Nathan of the University of Waterloo on "Thin Film Imaging Technology on Glass and Plastic". While we regret that Prof. Mertens could not attend the conference to present his invited talk on "Research in the Field of System-in-a-Package at the Interuniversity Microelectronics Center (IMEC)", this talk was replaced by Dr. Mohajerzadeh's lecture on "Research on Microsensor Technology at the Thin Film Laboratory of the University of Tehran". Reporting the rapid progress of the laboratory since its establishment in 1997, Dr. Mohajerzadeh emphasized that the main factor in research is outstanding students and novel ideas and not necessarily sophisticated facilities.
One of the main features of this year's conference was the spectacular participation of the students, which gave a vivacious spirit to this academic event. More than 300 students attended, with 30 of them as authors or co-authors. Also a group of 35 members of the University of Tehran IEEE Student Branch contributed in organizing the conference. During the conference, a great deal of effort was devoted to promote IEEE and EDS membership. Having proposed to establish the EDS student chapter at the University of Tehran, this idea was strongly encouraged by Prof. Nathan. We are looking forward to having more participation in EDS activities in the near future.
On October 30, a day before the conference, Prof. Meindl was kind enough to visit our department and deliver a tutorial on "XXI Century Opportunities for Giga Scale Integration". The tutorial addressed fundamental, material, physical, circuit, and system limitations based on theoretical and practical aspects of the issue.
—Gady Golan, Editor
The CDE 01 (Electron Device Conference) was held in Granada on February 15-16. It was the third edition of this conference with the important participation of researchers from universities, industries, and research centers. For more information, contact Prof. Ramon Alcubilla, TEL: 34-934016757 or FAX: 34-934016756.
—Christian Zardini, Editor
The Chapter has been actively involved and technically co-sponsored the 2000 Conference on Optoelectronic and Microelectronic Materials and Devices (COMMAD) held in LaTrobe University, Melbourne, during December 6-8, 2000. The Conference attracted 150 participants from more than 20 countries and the technical program contained 20 invited talks, 40 contributed oral papers and more than 100 poster papers.
For further information about chapter activities, please contact the Chapter Chair: Professor Chennupati Jagadish, Department of Electronic Materials Engineering, Research School of Physical Sciences and Engineering, Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 0200. TEL: 61-2-6125-0363, FAX: 61-2-6125-0511, E-Mail: chennupati.jagadish@anu.edu.au.
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EDS Distinguished Lecturer Xing Zhou and Bombay Chapter Chair Juzer Vasi at the IEEE booth during the seminar "VLSI: Systems, Design and Technology" held in Bombay. |
The most important event of this quarter was the seminar "VLSI: Systems, Design and Technology" held during December 9—11, 2000. This was co-sponsored by the AP/ED Bombay Chapter. The seminar attracted about 350 participants from the microelectronics and VLSI industry in India, as well as researchers and students from academic and R&D institutions. There was a tutorial short course on "DSP Architectures for VLSI" presented by Dr. Mahesh Mehendale of Texas Instruments, India Ltd. The seminar consisted of a total of 18 invited papers and 20 contributed papers. One of the highlights of the technical sessions was the paper by the EDS Distinguished Lecturer, Dr. Xing Zhou of Nanyang Technological University (Singapore), on "Mixed-signal multi-level circuit simulation: An implicit mixed-mode solution". An IEEE booth was set up during the seminar to highlight the advantages of IEEE membership which attracted a great deal of attention.
Dr. Xing Zhou also gave another DL talk on "MOSFET compact I-V modeling for deep-submicron technology development" on December 9, 2000, to an audience of IEEE members and students.
All these talks attracted large audiences ranging from 50 to 150, including many students.
For further information, please contact Juzer Vasi, Electrical Engineering Department, IIT Bombay, Powai, Mumbai 4000076 India. FAX: +91-22-5723480, E-Mail: j.vasi@ieee.org.
Three invited lectures were delivered in December. The first one on "R&D Profile of Nokia Research Centre in Germany" was delivered by Dr. Dirk Friebel of Nokia at the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, on December 6, 2000. The lecture highlighted the functionality of real-time systems, internet telephony and data transmission, embedded systems, and object oriented programming for devices for better utilization of bandwidth. The talk covered the present 0.18 micron technology products and the probable quantum jump to 0.08 micron technology for high speed communication etc. It was attended by 50 participants from the R&D groups and students. Prof. Bharathi Bhat and Dr. B.S. Panwar coordinated the interactions at IIT, Delhi. The second talk entitled, "Fiber Optical Sensors for Disaster Monitoring," was delivered by Prof. Brian Culshaw of Strathclyde University on December 15, 2000. The basic techniques of fiber sensors for a variety of applications such as gas sensing, hydrocarbon spillage, and flooding were illustrated. The event was organized by the Chapter in association with CRRI and about 80 scientists attended the talk. After the talk, Prof. Culshaw had a separate session with the Chapter Chair, Dr. Rao, Mr. Jaspreet Singh of CRRI to discuss issues related to early warning system for landslides and earthquakes detection using the hydrogel based optical sensors. The third lecture was delivered by Prof. Bruce Eisenstein on "New Educational Paradigms: Role of IEEE Societies in Education and Lifelong learning" at IIT Delhi on December 19, 2000. Dr. Eisenstein touched on the various educational programs, the innovative services and products offered from IEEE, the initiatives from IEEE to encourage graduates to obtain knowledge of contemporary issues, and also the various life long educational programs. The talk was followed by an interactive session where issues such as speeding up of the IEEE publication review process, better methodology of review, IEEE life membership, freedom to members for on-line access to other IEEE society publications, increasing IEEE on-line magazine support, etc., were discussed. The meeting was attended by the Chapter Chair, Mr. Asthana (IEEE Delhi Section Chair), Prof. H. M. Gupta, Prof. S. S. Jamuar and Dr. B. S. Panwar. The event was attended by about 40 participants.
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Attendees at workshop on broadband photonic links, NCRA-TIFR, Pune. |
A follow-up meeting on the national workshop on "Broadband Photonics" was held at NCRA Pune on November 13, 2000. It was decided at the meeting to make the event a regular feature to serve as a forum for the photonics/opto-electronic community.
A national Workshop on "Microwave and Millimeter Wave Active Devices and Their Application" was co-sponsored by the Chapter and was held at the Central Electronics & Engineering Research Institute (CEERI) on December 15–16, 2000. It consisted of presentations by experts on areas of high power microwave tubes, semiconductor devices, MEMS and their latest developments and trends. The workshop was attended by 100 participants and was a very successful forum for discussing the trends in microwave and millimeter wave devices and applications. Dr. S. Ahmad, Shri S. N. Joshi from CEERI, Dr. Govind from Ministry of Information Technology took a leading role in organizing the event.
Under the IEEE STAR program, the Chapter Chair had diversified these efforts to different regions in the country. For the current year, schools in Andhra Pradesh (Eluru) and Delhi were identified to extend the efforts currently underway at Kurukshetra.
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Lecture by IEEE President to students and faculty of IIT, Delhi. |
Consequent to the Chapter completing 25 years of its existence, a silver jubilee celebration is underway and likely to be inaugurated by the IEEE President in December 2000. A series of initiatives concerning the practices and procedures of chapter administration were proposed. As part of these initiatives, the Chapter Committee meeting was held outside Delhi at Kurukshetra University, to provide opportunities for interaction with chapter members at Kurukshetra. Several issues, such as rotation of chapter committee meetings, all-India election process for chapter positions, organizing more workshops/short courses/seminars, national science and technology exhibitions/fares for student etc. were discussed. In view of the need to meet the request of regional members, it was decided that next year's chapter committee meeting will be held in other regions in the country.
For further information, please contact Dr. K. S. Chari, Director, Micro Electronics & Photonics Division, Department of Electronics, C.G.O. Complex, New Delhi, India, TEL: 91-11-436 1464; FAX: 91-11-436 3082; E-Mail: chariks@hotmail.com.
ED Malaysia has successfully organized the 2000 IEEE International Conference on Semiconductor Electronics (ICSE2000) on Nov 13-15, 2000 at Guoman Port Dickson, in the state of Negeri Sembilan. The conference was technically co-sponsored by the Electron Devices Society and financially sponsored by MIMOS Semiconductor(M) Sdn. Bhd, ON Semiconductor(M) Sdn. Bhd and State Government of Negeri Sembilan. This is the fourth ICSE organized by the Electron Devices Chapter of IEEE Malaysia Section every two years since 1996. The scope of the conference covers all aspects of the semiconductor technology, from materials issues and device fabrication, photonics technology, IC design (RF and VLSI) and testing, manufacturing, and system applications. The participants represented ten countries: Malaysia; Singapore; Taiwan; Indonesia; USA; UK; Australia; France; Thailand; and India. A total of 52 papers were presented with two of them being invited papers. Prof. Hiroshi Iwai, IEEE EDS Regions/Chapters Chair/Distinguished Lecturer, spoke on Problems and solutions for downsizing CMOS below 0.1 mm and Prof C.I.M. Beenakker from Delft Institute of Microelectronics and Submicrontechnology, Netherlands spoke on New Developments in Silicon Technology. All papers were published in the Proceedings ICSE2000 which will distributed by IEEE under the Book Broker Program.
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Singapore Chapter EPTC 2000. |
The Chapter successfully organized the Third Electronic Packaging Technology Conference (EPTC 2000) on December 5–7, 2000, in Sheraton Towers. The attendees totaled 270, from 18 countries. The Chapter also played host for the Region 10 CPMT Society Chapter Chairs along with the EPTC week. Overseas delegations (that includes the Board of Governors) attended this Region 10 CPMT Chapters Meeting in Singapore. The ED/CPMT/REL Chapter for the year 2001 will be headed by Dr. M. K. Radhakrishnan as Chairman and Dr. S. H. Ong as Vice-Chairman.
For further information, please contact Dr. S. H. Ong, TEL: 65-5595-452, E-Mail: soon.huat.ong@nsc.com.
—W. K. Choi, Editor
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IWJT during session. |
The First International Workshop on Junction Technology (IWJT2000) was held at the Makuhari Prince Hotel, Makuhari, Chiba, Japan, on December 6. The conference is sponsored/co-sponsored by the Japan Society of Applied Physics and EDS and several other organizations. This workshop was founded in order to offer an opportunity to engineers and scientists participating in junction technologies to meet together, present their works, and exchange their ideas for possible collaborations. Junction technology specialists were invited from around the world and more than 100 researchers attended the workshop. Prof. M. Koyanagi of Tohoku Univ, gave a plenary talk regarding the requirement of ultra-shallow junction technologies from a device point of view. Then, Dr. L. Larson of Sematech delivered a perspective on ultra-shallow junction technology from the viewpoint of ITRS '99. The workshop was concluded by a panel discussion moderated by H. Iwai of Tokyo Inst. of Tech., regarding new junction technologies for sub-100 devices. IWJT 2001 will be held in Tokyo, Japan, on November 29 and 30, 2001. For further information, please access http://home.hiroshima-u.ac.jp/iwjt or contact Dr. B. Mizuno at mizuno@mrg.csdd.mei.co.jp .
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Standing (left to right) Tatsuo Otsuki, Yasushi Yamamoto, Akira Suzuki, Kenji Taniguchi, Masaru Kazumura, Masaaki Kuzuhara, and Takashi Nakamura. Sitting (left to right): Kazuo Tsubouchi, Hiroshi Nazawa, and Hiroshi Iwai. |
The ED Kansai Chapter has been newly founded under the IEEE Kansai Section, Japan. Kansai is a geographical region in Japan, including Kyoto, Osaka, Kobe, and Nara. Kansai had been the political and cultural center of Japan for a very long period. In fact, old Japanese capitols had been located in this region for more than 15 hundred years until only 130 years ago. The number of EDS members in the Kansai Chapter is about 170. Now, the Japan Chapter has been divided into two chapters, the Japan Chapter under the Japan Council and the Kansai Chapter under the Kansai Section. The Japan Chapter covers the 7 remaining section areas under the Japan Council, including Tokyo, Sendai, Hiroshima, Fukuoka, and so on. The opening ceremony was held at the Renaissance Building in front of the Kyoto station on December 25. Hiroshi Nozawa, Chair, Masaru Kazumura, Vice Chair, Yasushi Yamamoto, Secretary, Tatsuo Otsuki, Treasurer, and other key members of the chapter attended the ceremony to discuss its new activity. The EDS Regions/Chapters Committee Chair, Hiroshi Iwai, and Japan Chapter Chair, Kazuo Tsubouchi, were invited to give congratulatory speeches on behalf of the EDS and the Japan Chapter, respectively.
—Hisayo Momose, Editor
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Dr. Dieter M. Gruen lecturing at ED Beijing Chapter |
Dr. Zhou Xing (EDS Distinguished Lecturer) lecturing at ED Beijing Chapter. |
The following are the activities of the ED Beijing Chapter for last three months:
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VLSI-TSA |
The 2001 International Symposium on VLSI Technology, Systems, and Applications will be held in April, during the beautiful Spring season in Taiwan. The conference location, Hsinchu, is the center of advanced integrated circuit manufacturing in Taiwan. The purpose of the Symposium is to bring together scientists and engineers actively engaged in research and development on VLSI technology, systems, and applications from all over the world to discuss the current progress in this field with the subject experts from Taiwan's local industry.
This year, the conference has attracted more than 110 excellent contributed papers from all over the world, representing original works on the latest advances in the area of VLSI technology, circuits, and applications. In addition, the conference has invited 15 world experts to present reviews on the state of the art in their respective area of expertise. Furthermore, the Symposium is very proud to have three plenary presentations by distinguished speakers from around the world, including "Systems on a Chip from a System's Perspective" by Gene Frantz (Senior Fellow, Texas Instruments, USA), "Future is in Wireless" by Heikki Huomo (Vice President, Research and Technology Access, Nokia, Finland), and "Joint Activity for Semiconductor R&D and Role of Semiconductor Technology Academic Research Center (STARC)" by Toyoki Takemoto (Executive Vice President, STARC, Japan).
The conference site this year is the Lakeshore Hotel in Hsinchu (see attached photo). It has relaxing and elegant surroundings, in addition to being close to the science park of Hsinchu, where most of Taiwan's IC manufacturing is located. Please visit our Symposium web site at http://www. erso.itri.org.tw/ VLSI-TSA.
The 2001 VLSI-TSA, sponsored by the Industrial Technology Research Institute of Taiwan, ROC, will take place in Hsinchu, Taiwan, April 18-20, 2001. Technical co-sponsors include the Chinese Institute of Engineers, ROC, Taiwan Semiconductor Industry Association, IEEE Electron Devices Society, IEEE Solid-State Circuits Society, IEEE Circuits and Systems Society, IEEE Taipei Section, and IEEE Electron Devices Society Taipei Chapter.
Please contact the Symposium secretariat for further details: Ms. Annie Lee, Secretariat of 2001 VLSI-TSA; A5300 ERSO/ITRI; BLD. 11, Sec. 4, 195-4, Chung-Hsing Road; Chutung, Hsinchu, Taiwan 31015, R. O. C.; TEL: +886-3-5913478; FAX: +886-3-5820257; E-Mail: annielee@itri.org.tw.
Instructed by Prof. Jack C. Lee, University of Texas, a short course on Dielectrics will be offered on April 12 in Santa Clara and April 26 in Taiwan. Part of the Vanguard Series, the course offered in Taiwan will be the first outside the U.S. It will be held at the Hsinchu Science-Based Industrial Park, Hsinchu, Taiwan. For more information, contact the EDS Short Course Manager, Emily Sopensky, The Iris Company, 923 East 39th Street, Austin, Texas, TEL: +1 512 452 2448, FAX; +1 512 452 8950, Email: e.sopensky@ieee.org , or Prof. Steve S. Chung, Department of Electronic Engineering, National Chiao Tung University, Taiwan. TEL: 886-3-573 1830, FAX: 886-3-572 4361, E-Mail: schung@cc.nctu.edu.tw .
—Tahui Wang, Editor