EUROSOI'08

The 2008 EUROSOI Workshop will be held in Cork, Ireland, on January 23-25 2008.

The EUROSOI Workshop started as an event related to a former Coordination Action funded by the European Commission. EUROSOI was a Thematic Network which included most of the European teams working on SOI technology. Actually, this network will be funded again for three years more.

The EUROSOI Workshop has become an international forum to discuss the recent advances on all aspects of SOI technology: materials, devices, modeling, simulation and circuits.

EUROSOI 2008 will be organized by the Tyndall National Institute in Cork. The Chairman is Prof Jean-Pierre Colinge, a recognized pioneer in SOI technology.

The deadline for abstract submission is November 16 2007

European Microwave Week (EuMW) 2007

European Microwave Week provides the opportunity to attend four conferences and various workshops and short courses given by leading experts in their field. Moreover, the European Microwave Exhibition constitutes the largest trade show on RF and microwaves in Europe.

Following the pattern established in Paris in 2005, European Microwave Week now consists of four conferences:

• The European Microwave Conference (EuMC)

• The European Conference on Wireless Technology (ECWT)

• The European Radar Conference (EuRAD)

• The European Microwave Integrated Circuits Conference (EuMIC)

The event focuses on the needs of engineers and researchers and seeks to serve both academia and industry. The week provides an opportunity for both communities to consider the latest trends and developments that are widening the field of application of microwaves.

European Microwave Week 2007 continues the series of successful microwave events and is set to return to Munich, Germany. By the, way, I cannot stand but recommending you to take this opportunity, and have a try with the Oktoberfest... It is actually worth it!

2008 IEEE International Reliability Physics Symposium

For over 40 years, IRPS has been the premier conference for engineers and scientists to present new and original work in the area of microelectronic device reliability. Originally started in the early 1960’s by the military and aerospace community, IRPS is now co-sponsored by the IEEE Reliability Society and the IEEE Electron Devices Society. This co-sponsored event has drawn participants from the United States, Europe, Asia and all other parts of the world. IRPS 2008 promotes the reliability and performance of integrated circuits and microelectronic assemblies through an improved understanding of failure mechanisms in the user’s environment, while demonstrating the latest state-of-the-art developments in electronic reliability.

The focus of the symposium is the 3-day plenary/parallel sessions (at the Phoenix Convention Center) featuring original work that identifies new microelectronic failure or degradation mechanisms, improves understanding of known failure mechanisms, demonstrates new or innovative analytical techniques, or demonstrates ways to build-in reliability. Specific areas to be addressed during the 2008 IRPS are reliability concerns associated with silicon (integrated circuits, discrete devices, MEMS), non-silicon (GaAs, LEDs and diode lasers, optical fiber and flat panel displays), and emerging technologies including organic electronics and nanotechnology:

Product Reliability and Burn-In Non-Volatile Memory Qualification Strategies Circuits and Systems Soft Error Effects Assembly and Packaging

Failure Analysis Transistors High Power Devices Devices and Processing Interconnects Device Dielectrics

ESD and Latch-Up Process Induced Damage MEMS Nanoelectronics Device Reliability Organic Electronics

Other opportunities at the symposium include:

• A 2-day Tutorial Program featuring a set of bound notes from all tutorials. Attendees have the opportunity to learn a new area in some technical depth from an industry expert or brush up on the fundamentals with introductory tutorials. There are typically about 20 tutorials that are offered on topics ranging from back-end reliability to gate dielectric and transistor reliability to circuit/product reliability to assembly/ packaging reliability.
• Reliability Year-In-Review Seminar. This seminar provides a summary of important work published from the previous year in key reliability areas. Industry experts serve as the “tour guide” and save you time by collecting and summarizing this information to bring you up to date in a particular area as efficiently as possible.
• Evening Session Workshops enhance the synergy of the symposium by affording the attendees an opportunity to meet in informal groups to discuss key reliability physics topics with the guidance of experienced moderators. Some of the workshop topics are directly coupled to the tutorial program to allow more discussion on a particular topic.
• Equipment Demonstrations held in parallel with tutorials and technical sessions are a unique aspect of this symposium. Manufacturers of state-of-the-art analytical and test and stress equipment are on hand to demonstrate their products and systems to individuals and small groups. Attendees are encouraged to bring samples or questions for onsite analysis and discussion.
• An Evening Poster Session has become an important part of the IRPS for authors and attendees to discuss recent research and results in a very interactive environment.

  There are lots of opportunities to be involved in increasing your understanding of this technically important field. We look forward to seeing you in Phoenix!

Out-of-Topic: Smiley emoticon

It is a very out-of-topic post, but I think that it is quite important, culturally speaking. Today (September 19th, 2007), this emoticon :-) becomes 25 years old. Visit the homepage of its creator ( Scott E. Fahlman ) for more information.

ISPSD'09

The 21st IEEE International Symposium on Power Semiconductor Devices and ICs will take place in Barcelona (Catalonia, Spain) on June 14-18.

The deadline for abstract submission is October 24 2008.

ISPSD is the main international conference on the areas of power semiconductor devices, power integrated circuits, their hybrid technologies, and applications.

Topics include: processes, materials, CAD/Simulation, devices, power ICs, packaging and applications.

For researchers interested in compact modeling of power semiconductor devices, ISPSD is a top event to present and get to know the last results in this field. "Device & circuit simulation" is explicitly mentioned as one of the subtopic in the "CAD/Simulation" topic. Compact modeling fits very well this subject. And of course, there is a subtopic of "Modeling" in the "Device" topic.

The Conference will take place mainly at the Axa Winterthur Auditorium but some parallel sessions will be held at the NH Constanza Hotel which is just beside the Auditorium.

Certainly Barcelona is a wonderful place to have such an important event. There are many superb attractions in Barcelona: historical landmarks, the well-known modernistic buildings in Gaudi-style, the "Barri Gòtic" (middle-age downtown), the Museum of Fine Arts, or the stadium of the Barça Football Club. And one can find nice beaches very close to Barcelona. The weather in June is usually very good, warm enough to go to the beach, without been too hot.



The last edition of ISPSD was a success.

The 20th IEEE International Symposium on Power Semiconductor Devices and ICs (ISPSD) was held May 18–22, 2008, in Orlando, Florida, USA.

The venue of ISPSD'08 was the Windham Orlando Resort, a tropical paradise located just outside the entrance to the Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida.


The General Program Chairman was Professor T. Paul Chow, from the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI), in Troy NY. Prof. Chow is a recognized authority in the field of power devices and circuits.