September 14, 2011 -- The annual IEEE International Electron Devices Meeting (IEDM) will convene in Washington, D.C., December 5-7 at the Hilton Washington Hotel. This year’s IEDM boasts strong technical presentations alongside new features such as tutorial sessions for graduates and young professionals, and a focus on emerging trends.

The Saturday tutorial sessions (December 3) will run 90 minutes, offering technical instruction for graduates and other interested attendees. Sunday December 4 will host pre-event Short Courses. The Saturday classes are meant to bridge the gap between established textbook-level knowledge and the leading-edge research as presented during the conference. Sunday’s courses delve deeper.

Two new technical subcommittees reflect evolving technology trends, covering the interaction between circuit and device, and nano device technology.

This year, IEDM is highlighting key trends: energy harvesting and power electronics, circuit-device interaction, and biomedical devices. These themes are part of the technical program of 220 presentations, as well as panels, special sessions, Short Courses and other events. Look for presentations on silicon and non-silicon device and process technology, molecular electronics, nanotechnology, optoelectronics, MEMS/NEMS (micro-/nanoelectromechanical systems), energy-related devices and bioelectronics.

IEDM’s speakers represent “major semiconductor manufacturers and research institutions around the globe,” noted Patrick Fay, IEDM 2011 Publicity Chair and Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering at the University of Notre Dame. This year’s hot presentations for Fay? Conventional silicon used to make 20nm devices, record speeds from gallium nitride (GaN) and other materials, and new memory work.

For registration and other information, interested persons should visit the IEDM 2011 home page at www.ieee-iedm.org.

Scheduling:

Tutorial Sessions -- Saturday Dec. 3

Tutorial sessions will be presented in parallel in two time slots. Advance registration is required.  The tutorials that will be presented are:

2:45-4:15

Microresonator Filters and Oscillators: Technology and Applications by Roy H. Olsson III, Sandia

Graphene Nanoelectronics by Walter De Heer, Georgia Tech

Modeling and Characterization of Noise in Advanced CMOS by Andries Scholten, NXP

4:30-6:00

Technology CAD for Modeling and Design of Bio-Devices by Yang Liu and Robert Dutton, Stanford University

Kinetic Energy Harvesting - Technologies and Applications by Tomasz Zawada, Meggitt PLC

IGBT and Superjunction - Leading Power Device Technologies by Florin Udrea, University of Cambridge, U.K.

Short Courses -- Sunday, Dec. 4

The IEDM offers two day-long short courses on Sunday, prior to the technical sessions. They provide the opportunity to learn about emerging areas and important developments, and to benefit from direct contact with expert lecturers. Advance registration is required. This year’s courses are:

VLSI Technology Beyond 14nm Node

Advanced Memory Technology 

Plenary Presentations -- Monday, Dec. 5

IEDM 2011 will open on Monday, Dec. 5 at 9 a.m. with three plenary talks:

Approach Towards Achieving Sustainable Mobility by Takumi Matsumoto, General Manager, BR Electric Vehicle System, Toyota Inc.

Perspective on The Past, Present and Future of Transistors by Mark Bohr, Intel

Various Technologies of MRAM and Logic-in-Memory Architecture Based on Hybrid CMOS/Magnetic Technology by Bernard Dieny, Director, CEA

Emerging Technologies Session -- Tuesday morning, Dec. 6

This year’s Emerging Technologies session is on the topic: Energy Harvesting Devices, Circuits and Systems, organized by Suman Datta of Penn State University. Invited speakers from academia and industry will discuss recent advances in the area of energy-harvesting materials and devices, and self-powered autonomous systems. 

Gang Chen of MIT will discuss novel thermoelectric nanocomposites with markedly enhanced efficiency for application in thermoelectric power generators.

Chris Van Hoof of IMEC will describe innovative wafer-level integration of CMOS and MEMS technologies for high-efficiency electrostatic vibrational-energy harvesters as well as for thermocouple-based thermal energy harvesters.

Michael Flynn of the University of Michigan will discuss the challenges and opportunities in implementing small form-factor, energy-efficient, highly integrated microsystems that are self-powered using harvested RF energy.

Dennis Buss of Texas Instruments will highlight state-of-the-art research in ultra-low-power CMOS microelectronics and energy-efficient digital signal processing architectures for remote wireless sensor networks and medical electronics.

Craig Schmidt of Medtronic will provide a critical assessment of the performance potential of state-of-the-art autonomous power source technologies, and will benchmark them against equivalent form-factor battery technologies, for possible application in implantable medical electronics.

Luncheon Presentation -- Tuesday, Dec. 6

The IEDM Luncheon presentation on Tuesday, December 6 will be given by Masaaki Tsuruta, Executive Vice President of Technology Platform and CTO of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc.  His talk is titled Interactive Games.

Evening Panel Sessions -- Tuesday evening, Dec. 6

Tuesday, Dec. 6 at 8 p.m., the IEDM will offer attendees two evening panel discussions. Audience participation is encouraged, with the goal of fostering an open and vigorous exchange of ideas. The panel topics are:

Will SiC or GaN replace Si As The Semiconductor For Power Devices? moderated by Paul Chow, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

Is 3 Dimensional Integration at Best a Niche Play? moderated by Subramanian Iyer, IBM