The IEEE RFIC Symposium (RFIC) is the premier annual forum focused exclusively on presenting the latest research results in RF, mmWave and wireless integrated circuits. RFIC is part of Microwave Week, the world’s largest RF and microwave technical symposium. This year, to maximize our community’s ability to participate, we are organizing the symposium as a first-ever hybrid event with both in-person and virtual symposiums, the same as IMS2021. Our plans for both events continue to evolve, where our goal is to ensure safe, informative, interactive and effective events for all participants.
The in-person RFIC Symposium has been merged with the in-person International Microwave Symposium (IMS). They will take place in Atlanta, Ga. at the Georgia World Congress Center on Monday through Wednesday, 7-9 June 2021. The event starts with a complimentary workshop program on Monday covering key topics in RF and mmWave technology. On Monday night, there will be a plenary session followed by a welcome reception at the Omni Hotel. Two outstanding industry leaders will give the plenary talks - Dr. Ahmad Bahai, the chief technology officer from Texas Instruments, will discuss “New Horizons for Millimeter-wave Sensing” and Mr. Suresh Venkatarayalu, the chief technology officer from Honeywell, will discuss new directions for his industry. Technical sessions will be held on Tuesday and Wednesday in parallel tracks featuring RFIC and IMS authors who elect to attend in person. Finally, the IMS technical exhibition opens on Tuesday and runs through Wednesday.
All RFIC technical sessions will be held on Tuesday in parallel tracks. Since some authors will only participate in the virtual event, the RFIC presentations will include a mixture of in-person and pre-recorded talks. The schedule for the live talks will be optimized to maximize attendees’ ability to see in-person content and updates will be communicated to attendees over the IMS app. During lunch on Tuesday, live and remote panelists will debate the topic “Are RFIC Startups a Dead Horse in the Era of Software Unicorns and Pandemics?” This should help both students and aspiring entrepreneurs understand the evolving RF startup landscape in today’s economy. Finally, RFIC attendees are encouraged to also attend the IMS exhibition on Tuesday and Wednesday, along with the technical sessions.
The virtual RFIC Symposium will be open to both in-person and virtual registrants, the virtual event will start two weeks after the in-person event, running from Sunday, 20 June through Friday, 25 June as with IMS. Attendees will use the same online platform, vFairs, to access all content and interact with others. All presentations, workshops, lectures and panels will be live-streamed by presenters throughout the week and then available on demand afterward. Most sessions are scheduled to begin at 10 am EDT to maximize the ability for attendee participation from around the world. A separate joint RFIC/IMS plenary is planned for the virtual event on Monday, 21 June 2021, again featuring two prominent speakers - Dr. Bram Nauta, distinguished professor from the University of Twente, the Netherlands, presenting his “Transceiver Roadmap for 2035 and Beyond” and a second talk from IMS still to be confirmed.
The core RFIC technical sessions will be held on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, 22-24 June, in parallel tracks. For each live-streamed session online, there will be time devoted to real-time questions and answers. Virtual educational offerings include a technical lecture and multiple workshops. The technical lecture is a tutorial intended for newcomers and practicing designers alike. This year’s lecture is from Dr. Peter Asbeck, professor at the University of California, San Diego and member of the U.S. National Academy of Engineers. He will teach “A Quick Tour Through the World of Si IC Power Amplifiers.” Live-streamed RFIC workshops are scheduled for Friday, 25 June, covering a variety of topics ranging from mmWave phased arrays to power amplifiers, low-power radios and quantum computing. Additionally, we will have two live-streamed panels, the first on the topic “Are RFIC Startups a Dead Horse in the Era of Software Unicorns and Pandemics?” and the other on the topic, “Automotive Radars and Artificial Intelligence (AI): Is My Car Really Safe?” This will provide an interesting debate related to the roles of RF circuits and AI in enabling autonomous driving. Finally, we will feature a new systems and application forum at the virtual event to highlight short videos of RFIC authors’ circuit and system demonstrations.
On behalf of the RFIC Steering and Executive Committees, we welcome you to join us at the hybrid 2021 RFIC Symposium either in-person at Atlanta or online in our virtual platform. If you are a student, we encourage you to consider the student super pass for accessing all events throughout the week. Please visit the RFIC 2021 website (http://rfic-ieee.org/) for more details and updates.