IMS2020 Welcome
Tim Lee, IMS2020 General Chair
Figure 1 Los Angeles Convention Center.
Figure 2 Hollywood Boulevard at dusk.
Los Angeles and the IMS2020 steering committee are eager to welcome the microwave technical community to the 2020 International Microwave Week. This year’s event will take place from Sunday, June 21 through Friday, June 26 and will provide an integrated program including the RFIC Symposium, the International Microwave Symposium (IMS), the 5G Summit and the ARFTG Microwave Measurements Conference. The technical program and industry exhibition will be held at the Los Angeles Convention Center (LACC), located at heart of downtown LA (see Figure 1). The last time IMS was in downtown LA was in 1981.
Downtown LA (DTLA) began its renaissance with the opening of the Staples Center in 1999 and has experienced unprecedented growth in attracting business, residents retail and hospitality services. Notable landmarks include the Kodak Theatre (2001), Walt Disney Concert Hall (2003), LA LIVE (2008), the Grammy Museum (2008). This is not your grandfathers’ LA (see Figure 2)!
Greater Los Angeles has had a long history in the development of the aerospace industry - that covers the beginning of the aircraft industry, space exploration and microwave engineering. By the end of World War II, 60 to 70 percent of the American aerospace industry was located in Southern California. Major aviation companies included Lockheed, Northrop, Douglas, Rockwell and Hughes Aircraft. Today, in the 21st century, industry leaders like Northrop Grumman, Boeing, Rockwell and Lockheed Martin have joined research labs like HRL Laboratories and Teledyne Scientific and new companies like SpaceX.
In nearby El Segundo, there is the U.S. Los Angeles Air Force Base which is the home for the Space and Missile Systems Center that includes the Global Positioning System, satellite communications and satellite control networks. We also have the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena which is the hub of deep space exploration and Earth science missions. Key universities in the region with aerospace and microwave engineering research efforts include UCLA, CalTech, UCSD, UCI and USC. The steering committee, which includes volunteers from most of these organizations, are proud to be your hosts for IMS2020 to provide the best experience for the technical, academic and industry attendees.
NEW THIS YEAR
The 2020 edition of IMS week continues the MTT-S tradition to continue with best practices while adding new features that include:
- Increased coverage of development of technologies for microwave systems like 5G, autonomous vehicles and smart installations for Industry 4.0 and healthcare.
- Reduced pricing for comprehensive Student Superpass that allows admittance to all RFIC, IMS, all workshops, 5G Summit, one technical lecture and ARFTG events.
- Addressing how microwave and wireless technologies can address the broadband digital divide in rural and underserved areas of the world.
INTERNATIONAL MICROWAVE WEEK
The overall format of International Microwave Week remains the same as last year. The RFIC Symposium begins on Sunday with workshops and concludes Tuesday morning. The Three Minute Thesis (3MT®) Competition will be held on Sunday. IMS opens on Monday with a Plenary Session and Welcome Reception. The 5G Summit, again cosponsored by the IEEE Microwave Theory and Techniques Society and the IEEE Communications Society, picks up on Tuesday afternoon and concludes Tuesday evening with a panel session. IMS2020 will run from Sunday through Friday, with the Industry Exhibition open from Tuesday through Thursday. The ARFTG Microwave Measurements Conference will also begin on Friday. In all, we expect more than 9,000 attendees from around the world participating in the technical sessions, workshops and industry exhibition. More than 800 exhibitor booths will showcase the latest developments in microwave hardware, software, components and systems.
Workshops will be held on Sunday, Monday and Friday. Short courses have been replaced by focused technical lectures given by invited subject matter experts on topics that will be of great interest to the technical community. The Opening Plenary Session will be held Monday evening and will feature keynote addresses by Mark Dankberg, chairman of the board and chief executive officer of Viasat Inc. and Doreen Bogdan-Martin, director of telecommunication development at the International Telecommunication Union. The Welcome Reception will immediately follow the Plenary Session in the Petree Plaza area of the LACC. IMS2020 technical sessions will run from Tuesday through Thursday. The Closing Session on Thursday afternoon will feature a keynote address by Hartmut Neven, engineering director of Quantum Artificial Intelligence Lab at Google.
The MTT-S IMS Industry Exhibition is a core foundation of the IMS Week and will take place from Tuesday through Thursday. The industry-hosted reception will be held late afternoon on Wednesday. The exhibition floor will be well organized to provide ready access for attendees to find and engage with exhibitors to learn about new products and services. The MicroApps Theater, the Societies Pavilion and Startup Pavilion will offer the opportunity for learning and engagement with different organizations and sectors. The IMS2020 schedule will include exhibition-only time on Wednesday afternoon to bring focus on the latest products from the microwave industry.
SOCIAL AND NETWORKING OPPORTUNITIES
Figure 3 IMS2019 reception at the Lawn on D in Boston.
IMS2020 offers many opportunities for social and networking at the coffee breaks, and evening events for you to catch up with old colleagues or make new ones. The 2020 RFIC and IMS plenary sessions and welcome receptions on Sunday and Monday, respectively, enable informal meet and great opportunities (see Figure 3). Tuesday night there will be the Young Professional social and amateur radio social. On Wednesday evening, the Women in Microwaves reception will be held. Within short walking distance of the LACC and IMS2020 hotels are many restaurants and nightspots for informal and private gatherings.
ENJOYING LOS ANGELES
LA is home to renowned museums, unique hotels, diverse experiences, vibrant multicultural neighborhoods and miles of sunny coastlines. Close by to our venue include the Space Shuttle Endeavor, the CA Science Center, Walt Disney Concert Hall, the Getty Center and many art galleries. LA is the entertainment capital of the world. Attractions include Warner Bros Studio Tour and Universal Studio Hollywood. You can hike near the Hollywood sign, discover fossils at the La Brea Tar Pits and find your favorite movie star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame (see Figure 2). The Pacific Ocean is a short drive or ride from downtown using light rail to arrive at Santa Monica or Venice Beach. You can of course shop until you drop - whether on Rodeo Drive, the Arts District, The Grove, Melrose Avenue or Hollywood and Highland. The average temperature in June will be between 16°C to 25°C (or 63°F to 77°F).
Don’t forget to visit ims-ieee.org for the most up to date information and to download the IMS Microwave Week Mobile App! We look forward to welcoming everyone in Los Angeles for IMS2020!
2020 RFIC Symposium at IMS2020
Waleed Khalil, RFIC 2020 General Chair, Brian Floyd, RFIC 2020 Technical Program Chair and Osama Shana’a, RFIC 2020 Technical Program Co-Chair
The 2020 IEEE Radio Frequency Integrated Circuits Symposium (RFIC 2020) will be held in Los Angeles, Calif. on June 21-23. Attendees will have the opportunity to interact with world experts, expand their network and leave invigorated with new ideas and a drive to innovate.
The steering committee has implemented important changes for RFIC 2020. In addition to the Emerging Circuit Technology area introduced in RFIC 2019, the symposium is expanding its scope to System Applications and Interactive Demonstrations. This includes papers and presentations on systems and applications in 5G, radar, imaging, terahertz, biomedical, security, IoT and optoelectronic areas. A new Systems and Applications Demonstration Session is being organized to highlight these system papers and provide more engagement opportunities for the audience. Additionally, we continue to expand our focus to include RF and wireless circuits in emerging circuit technology areas.
The RFIC Symposium, in partnership with IMS, offers numerous opportunities for students to enhance career growth, networking and educational experiences. First, the student registration has been streamlined to allow all students to purchase the Student Superpass. This will allow all students to experience every activity within Microwave Week, including a workshop, all three conferences (RFIC, IMS and ARFTG), the 5G forum, a technical lecture and much more, all at a deeply discounted price for IEEE members. Second, RFIC will once again conduct a student paper contest to select the top student papers from the symposium. These top papers will be featured in our Sunday Symposium Showcase. Third, all RFIC students will have the opportunity to apply for and participate in the Three-Minute Thesis (3MT®) program. Fourth, as part of IMS, students can participate in design competitions, the build-a-radar-in-a-day workshop and RF Bootcamp. Finally, MTT-S offers the Ph.D. Student Sponsorship Initiative for new students to become engaged with IMS, providing learning, networking and volunteer experiences along with complimentary registration and accommodations to qualified and selected students.
The 2020 RFIC Symposium will begin on Sunday, June 21, with twelve RFIC focused workshops (seven full-day and five half-day) and one technical lecture. In addition, there will be several joint RFIC/IMS workshops on Sunday and Monday. These workshops cover a wide range of advanced topics in RFIC technology and integrated circuit design, including power amplifiers, 5G systems, coherent optical links, terabit/s networks, quantum computing, imaging radars and much more.
The 2020 RFIC “Technical Lecture” is a 90 minute interactive short course delivered by a distinguished speaker during lunchtime on Sunday, between the morning and afternoon workshop sessions. For 2020, Prof. Peter Kinget from Columbia University, New York, will teach “Taxonomy of RF Receivers: from Basics to Latest Developments.” Don’t forget to register in advance since we expect a very high attendance and seats will be limited!
Following the full day of Sunday workshops, the RFIC Plenary Session will be held in the evening beginning with conference highlights, the presentation of the Student Paper Awards and the Industry Best Paper Award. The 2020 RFIC Plenary Session will conclude with two visionary plenary talks. Dr. Thomas Cho, executive vice president of Infrastructure & Design Technology Center, System LSI Business, at Samsung Electronics, will share his vision for the future of RFIC in his talk “Is the Third Wave Coming in CMOS RF?,” providing a historical perspective and analyzing in-depth the diverse challenges and opportunities looking ahead in RF integrated circuits and systems technology. Bren Professor of Electrical Engineering and Medical Engineering at Caltech, Prof. Ali Hajimiri, will deliver his vision on integrating RFIC with flexible electronics in his talk “The Flexible Future of RF,” giving a perspective on a breadth of new applications ranging from wearable RF fabric to instantly deployable communication networks to wireless power transfer systems, to enable a truly wireless ecosystem of the future.
Immediately after the plenary session, the RFIC Reception and Symposium Showcase will follow, with highlights from our industry showcase and student paper finalists in an engaging social and technical evening event supported by the RFIC Symposium corporate sponsors. You will not want to miss the 2020 RFIC reception!
On Monday and Tuesday, RFIC will have multiple tracks of oral technical paper sessions. Once again, RFIC will schedule special 5G-focused technical sessions on Tuesday morning, which, together with the 5G Summit on Tuesday afternoon and IMS’s 5G sessions on Wednesday, will provide attendees with both in-depth and broad perspectives into the latest breakthroughs in 5G circuits and systems. On both Monday and Tuesday, there will be two fascinating lunchtime panels. The Monday panel session titled “HW Startups - No Longer an Oxymoron” will discuss the future of hardware startups with experts from both industry and academia. The panelists will further provide insight on trends for RF hardware and in which field there is still room for the development of hardware startups, especially considering the surge of software and artificial intelligence startups. The Tuesday panel session titled “Automotive Radars and AI: Is My Car Really Safe?” will be held jointly with IMS. Outstanding panelists from academia and both autonomous driving and RF industries will discuss the limitations of existing autonomous driving systems from a wireless technology perspective. They will also provide different views on the way forward and the outlook for the future of assisted cars.
On behalf of the RFIC Steering and Executive Committees, we welcome you to join us at the 2020 RFIC Symposium in Los Angeles, California. Please visit the RFIC 2020 website (http://rfic-ieee.org/) for more details and updates.
ARFTG at IMS2020
Jon Martens and Peter Aaen, ARFTG
ARFTG, the microwave measurements conference, once again caps an exciting and instructive Microwave Week. ARFTG also participates in several co-sponsored and related events during the week to further expand measurements coverage in the community.
With a slightly more relaxed schedule, ARFTG gives an attendee more opportunities to interact one-on-one with colleagues, experts and vendors from the RF and microwave test and measurement community. Whether your interests include high-throughput production or one-of-a-kind metrology, complex systems or simple circuit modeling, small-signal S-parameter or large-signal nonlinear measurements, simpler passive measurements or complex integrated converter analysis, DC or near-optical frequencies, you will find colleagues interested in similar areas and there is probably an expert attending the ARFTG conference.
There is always ample opportunity during extended breaks at every ARFTG conference for detailed technical discussions with others facing similar test and measurement challenges. On Friday, June 26, ARFTG also hosts a separate, vendor exhibit focused on the measurement industry in a more congenial setting. Given the informal and friendly atmosphere, ARFTG attendees often find these interactions are their best source of ideas and information for their projects. Often, someone at ARFTG has already worked through and solved the same problem you are having.
Among the other ARFTG-related events during the week, ARFTG is co-sponsoring two workshops with IMS2020. Workshop WMF, entitled “Calibrated Testbeds for the Characterization, Optimization and Linearization of Multi-Input Power Amplifiers,” and workshop WMC, “Platforms, Trials and Applications - The Next Step for 5G and Future Wireless Networks,” are scheduled for Monday, June 22 and cover interesting topics in the overlapping areas of communication, subsystem design and measurement. On Wednesday afternoon during the IMS2020 conference, there is also a joint IMS/ARFTG technical session We3C: Advanced Nonlinear Measurement Techniques and Results that covers additional important results. See the full IMS technical program for more details.