IEEE LA & Caribbean Semi Summit

IEEE Latin America & the Caribbean

Semiconductor Summit

LACSS 2026 will bring together leaders from industry, government, academia, research institutions and the investment community to explore Latin America and the Caribbean’s role in the rapidly evolving global semiconductor ecosystem.

The two-day (Oct. 1-2) program will examine regional capabilities and opportunities across semiconductor design, talent development, advanced manufacturing, packaging and testing, supply chains, investment, public policy, research, critical technologies and international cooperation. The IEEE EDS/CASS MQ Semiconductors in Latin America will follow on the third day (Oct.3)

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DAY 1 — Academia and Industry: Building Talent, Research and Innovation
Thursday, October 1st, 2026

Opening
08:30–09:00	Opening Ceremony Ivan Armuelles, Chair IEEE LACSS 2026 Juan Pimiento, SENACYT, Panama
09:00–09:30	Overview of the Semiconductor Industry Today and Opportunities for Latin America through the IEEE Open Silicon Initiative Fernando Guarin, IEEE Division I, Director - GlobalFoundries (Retired) / IBM (Retired), USA
Building Semiconductor Talent: National Experiences from Latin America Moderator: Fernando Guarín, IEEE
09:30–09:50	Building Panama's National Semiconductor Talent Pipeline Zoila De Castillo, C-TASC, Panama
09:50–10:10	Brazil´s Semiconductor Industry and Design House Ecosystem Jacobus Swart, University of Campinas (UNICAMP) / INCT NAMITEC, Brazil
10:10–10:30	The Kutsari initiative and strategy for the future (virtual) Edmundo Gutierrez, Kutsari (National Center for Semiconductor Design in Mexico), Mexico
10:30–11:00	Networking Coffee Break
Electronic Design Automation Moderator: Ricardo Reis, UFRGS, Brazil
11:00–12:30	Panel: EDA Innovation and Latin America’s Role in the Global Semiconductor Ecosystem Antonio de la Serna, Siemens EDA Victor Grimblatt, Synopsys Marcelo Da Silva, Cadence
12:30–14:00	Lunch
Talent Development and Industrial Capabilities Moderator: Carlos Silva, PUCP, Peru
14:00–14:30	Talent: the keyword for the development of semiconductors Ricardo Reis, Institute of Informatics, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), Brazil
14:30–15:45	Panel: Preparing Semiconductor Talent–Industry and University Experiences Rodrigo Jaramillo, Circuify Semiconductors, Mexico Alfredo Arnaud, Universidad Católica del Uruguay, Uruguay Victor Grimblatt, Synopsys, Chile Amílcar Josué Véliz Solares, Universidad Galileo, Guatemala Javier Marte Michelen, Pontificia Universidad Católica Madre y Maestra, Dominican Republic
15:45–16:15	Networking Coffee Break
16:15–16:45	Assembly, Testing and Packaging: Opportunities for Latin America Joel Molina, INAOE, Mexico
Day 1 Wrap-up
16:45–17:00	Day 1 Wrap-Up Ivan Armuelles, Chair IEEE LACSS 2026
18:00–20:00	Welcome Reception (off-site) La Casa - Ciudad del Saber

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DAY 2 — Government and Industry: Policy, Investment and Regional Strategy
Friday, October 2nd, 2026

08:30–08:45	Day 2 Kick-off Start of Day 2: summary of the previous day and agenda of the day
Global Policy, Cooperation and Investment Moderator: Erik Heilman, IEEE-USA
08:45–09:30	Global Policy Perspectives for Semiconductor Development Filipe Silva, Semiconductors Team Lead, OECD (virtual)
09:30–10:00	Pax Silica and the Global Semiconductor Ecosystem: Implications for Latin America and the Caribbean (virtual) Akhil Ramesh, PAC Forum
10:00–10:30	Panama’s Semiconductor Strategy (TBC) Victor Sanchez, C-TASC AIP, Panama
10:30–11:00	Networking Coffee Break
The Semiconductor Policy Playbook: Regulation, IP and Regional Development Moderator: TBC
11:00–12:20	Panel: Policies and Partnerships for Latin American Semiconductor Ecosystems Adão Villaverde, Brazil Mayté Milián, Guatemala Nestor García Romero, Mexico Lorena Garcia, Colombia
12:20–12:30	IEEE Division I–Synopsys MoU Signing Ceremony: Semiconductor Workforce Development Fernando Guarín, IEEE Division I Victor Grimblatt, Synopsys
12:30–14:00	Lunch
Semiconductor Design, Manufacturing and Entrepreneurship Moderator: Lorena Garcia, Alianza E, Colombia
14:00–15:30	Panel: Building Semiconductor and Hardware Businesses in Latin America Rodrigo Jaramillo, Circuify Semiconductors, Mexico Israel Mejia, QSM, Mexico (virtual) Gabriel Ortiz, Pixart, Argentina Alfonso Chacon, Rydev, Costa Rica Javier Ardila, OnSilicon, Colombia (virtual)
15:30–16:00	Networking Coffee Break
Expanding Access to Semiconductor Design, Prototyping and Manufacturing Moderator: Joel Molina, INAOE, Mexico
16:00–17:00	Panel: Expanding Access to Semiconductor Design, Prototyping and Manufacturing Pat Deegan, Tiny Tapeout Mitchell Hsing, InchFab Alfonso Torres, INAOE (virtual)
FET 100 Moderator: Arokia Nathan, IEEE EDS, USA
17:00–17:45	FET100 Speakers: Fernando Guarin, Jacobus Swart.
17:45–18:00	Closing - LACSS 2027 announcement Ivan Armuelles Ricardo Reis
18:00	End of LACSS

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DAY 3 — 2026 IEEE EDS/CASS MQ Semiconductors in Latin America
Saturday, October 3rd, 2026

Universidad De Panama Auditorio (Piso 3), Facultad De Informática, Electrónica Y Comunicación

	IEEE EDS/CASS MQ Session:  Exploring Innovation, Research, and Opportunities for a Semiconductor Future in the Caribbean
8:00–8:15	Opening Ceremony — Registration and Welcome Remarks
8:15–8:45	Low Power Design for Sustainable Manufacturing in Agribusiness Victor Grimblatt
8:45–9:15	Embedded Timing: A New Scaling Layer for Compute at System Scale Rodrigo Calderon
9:15–9:45	Reliability Topics for Advanced Semiconductors Fernando Guarin
9:45–10:15	Physical Design Automation: From Past to Future Ricardo Reis
10:15–10:45	Networking Coffee Break
10:45–11:15	Brazil’s Semiconductor Industry and Design House Ecosystem Jacobus Swart
11:15–11:45	Oxide Electronics Arokia Nathan
11:45–12:15	Dielectrics Materials from Field Effect Transistors to In-Memory Computing Durga Misra
12:15–13:30	Lunch

[EUMW.EU] IHP Open Source Toolchain

Open-source Toolchain in RF and Digital Design

08:30 - 12:50; Monday 5 October 2026

European Microwave Week 

WM02, Room 3, ExCeL, London

The European Chips Act serves as a strategic roadmap to secure technological sovereignty by aiming for a 20% global market share in semiconductors by 2030. The goal is to minimize the geopolitical supply chain risks and foster a self-sufficient ecosystem. Democratization of hardware development through the development of open-source EDA tools is a key pillar in these aspects. This would lower the entry barriers for SMEs and researchers and ultimately accelerate a collaborative and transparent era of European silicon innovation. There are multiple EU funded projects have started from last few years. These projects are set to offer robust process design kits (PDK) for open-source tools. In parallel, existing open-source tools for IC design are being further enhanced to include necessary functionalities for complete design flow for digital, analogue and RF design. Aligning with above mentioned goals, multiple private, academic, and commercial entities have stepped up towards the development. This workshop aims to share a glimpse of activities in open-source EDA tools developments and chip design activities in Europe. It would begin with a talk about current EU projects and the statuses in open-source EDA development. Then there will be two talks about digital and RF design flow using open-source tools. The final talk is about electro-magnetic simulation for RF circuits. Overall, this workshop is targets to publicize the open-source activities towards the building of a collaborative society in chip design domain. 

The event is aimed at IC designers, researchers, PhD candidates and engineers who already have a basic understanding of chip design and EDA workflows. Familiarity with digital, analogue or RF design will help you get the most from the sessions.

This workshop, chaired by the IHP Team: Corrado Carta, Sergei Andreev, and Farabi Ibne Jamal, gives you a practical view on the following Open-Source R&D Topics:

• European Open-Source EDA projects currently stand
• Sergei Andreev, IHP
• How digital design flows can be built with Open-Source tools
• Frank Kagan Gurkaynak, ETH Zürich
• How Open-Source tools are being applied to RF design 
• Harald Pretl, Johannes Kepler Universität Linz
• How Open-Source EM simulation fits into RF circuit development
• Giovanni Di Pietrantonio, IHP and Volker Mühlhaus, MCS, GmbH

Join the IHP OpenPDK Team if you want to understand where open-source chip design is heading, what is already usable today, and how these tools could complement your own work. Register at the EuMW website.

IEEE EDS/SSCS/CAS Mini-Colloquium

Friday 11 September 2026

UIB; Sa Riera Building

C/ de Miquel dels Sants Oliver, 2

07122 Palma

Professors Benjamin Iniguez, URV and Rodrigo Picos, UIB, have organize joint IEEE EDS/SSCS/CAS Mini-Colloquium as an integral part of the recent ESSERC2026 in Palma de Mallorca. All the MQ participants followed the MQ program as follows:

Mini-Colloquium Agenda

9:00 - 09:05 Opening

9:05-9:15 Tribute to Michael S. Shur

9:05-9:15 Tribute to José Epifânio da Franca 

9:15-10:05 Leveraging semiconductor technology for the benefit of society

Fernando Guarin (Director of IEEE Division I)

10:05-10:55 Power efficient WBG devices for the green transition

Mikael Ostling (KTH, SE)

10:55-11:25 Coffee Break

11:25-12:15 Holistic solutions to future computing - not only scaling

Francesca Iacopi (Purdue University, US)

12:15-13:05 Status of the Compact modeling and its Verilog-A standardization

Wladek Grabinski (MOS-AK, CH and IHP OpenPDK, DE)

13:05-14:25 Lunch

14:25-15:15 Graphene thin film technology for neural interfaces

José Antonio Garrido (ICN2, Barcelona, Spain)

15:15-16:05 Energy-Efficient Analog IC Design:

Exploring Solutions at Device, Circuit and System Levels

Antonio López (Public University of Navarra, Spain)

[paper] TCAD Modeling of SB Diode

Pedro Paulo Pessoa Oliveira1,2, Andreas Mai1,3, Norbert Herfurth1, 

and Davies William de Lima Monteiro2

TCAD Modeling of Schottky-Diode in an open-source SiGe BiCMOS technology

In 2026 40th Symposium on Microelectronics Technology and Devices 

SBMicro, pp. 1-4. IEEE, 2026

DOI: 10.1109/SBMicro70495.2026.11684441

1. IHP, Frankfurt (Oder), Germany
2. Department of Electrical Engineering, UFMG - Belo Horizonte-MG, Brazil
3. University of Applied Sciences Wildau, Germany

Abstract: Accurate simulation of Schottky barrier diodes (SBDs) is challenging because standard idealized models fail to capture non-ideal interface physics, such as Fermi-level pinning and image-force lowering. This paper presents an enhanced Technology Computer-Aided Design (TCAD) methodology to model an SBD from the IHP SG13G2 130-nm open-source SiGe BiCMOS technology. To overcome limitations of conventional simulations that often rely on oversimplified assumptions and empirical fitting, this work explicitly incorporates interface en- ergy states into the simulation, specifically modeling the fun- damental pinning mechanisms driven by Metal-Induced Gap States (MIGS). By calibrating the TiSi2/Si interface using the theoretical slope parameter, a value of 0.503 V was determined for the zero-bias barrier height. The resulting physics-based model captures the true rectifying nature of the contact and accurately reproduces the electrical characteristics targeted by the empirical model, achieving a nominal forward voltage drop of 0.39 V and a realistic reverse leakage current of 29.3 nA at -2.5 V. Ultimately, this paper shows the innovation and education gain of open- source foundry data by showcasing an open innovation path for a targeted near-industry device development flow.

FIG: a.) Energy band diagram of the Schottky diode at V=0V. Thecoordinate x = 0 corresponds to the TiSi2/n-Si Schottky interface. The inset displays the 2D device schematic, with the solid black line indicating the multi-segment cut-path used to extract the energy levels across the anode, n-buried layer and n-well RT to cathode contact. b.) Comparison of the simulated DC current-voltage (IV) characteristics between the proposed TCAD model and the standard SPICE macromodel.

Acknowledgment: The authors thank IHP for the open-source PDK and the collaborative research. They also thank Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (UFMG) and the Brazilian Microelectronics Society (SBMicro) for supporting this work. Finally, gratitude is extended to S. Srivastava and B. Sake for their valuable guidance.

[NanoIC] Workshop

NanoIC Pilot Line Workshop

Next logic, memory, and chiplet technologies to enable future system innovation

October 1, 2026; Sede Turismo Andaluz; 40 Compañía Str. Málaga, Spain

Workshop Agenda

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10:00 - 10:10 Welcome
10:10 - 10:30 Marie Garcia Bardon 

Short Introduction to EU Chips Act NanoIC Pilot Line

10:30 - 11:30 Nicolas Pantano 

Enabling Chiplet Architectures Through Advanced Packaging And High-Density Interconnects

11:30 - 12:00 Coffee break
12:00 - 13:00 Fernando García Redondo 

Opportunities in memory scaling: design-technology co-optimization for SRAM and emerging memories

13:00 - 14:00 Marie Garcia Bardon 

Advanced Logic Scaling: Technologies for the sub-2nm

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Free Registration Online Workshop  

               https://u.uma.es/icc/workshop