It is our pleasure to invite you to the 2023 IEEE MTT-S International Microwave Symposium (IMS2023), the centerpiece of a microwave week that is bookended by the Radio Frequency Integrated Circuits (RFIC) Symposium and the Automatic RF Techniques Group (ARFTG) Microwave Measurements Conference. The IMS week is the world’s largest technical conference and industry exhibition for RF, microwave, mmWave and THz researchers and practicing engineers from academia, industry and government.

IMS2023 will be a live, in-person event with an exciting technical program of some 360 technical papers, presenting “the Coolest Ideas under the Sun” in the RF and microwave field, in addition to the industry exhibition with over 500 vendors demonstrating their latest products. We will also have multiple great networking events and plenty of opportunities for attendees and exhibitors to re-establish old connections and make new ones.

This year’s event takes place from Sunday 11 June through Friday 16 June, and will be held in the San Diego Convention Center, which is on the bayfront in San Diego.

While several aspects of the microwave week will be comfortably familiar, at IMS2023 we will introduce several innovations. We have focus themes to highlight a number of areas of RF and microwave engineering that are of topical interest, with a continued emphasis on RF and microwave systems and applications. These themes include:

  • Wireless Communications, including 6G developments, Wi-Fi, RF and microwave system-on-chip integration, massive MIMO systems and subsystems and more
  • Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning (AI/ML) Technologies for Microwaves
  • Model-Based Systems Engineering, including Digital Twins
  • Space and Aerospace
  • Wireless Power Transfer
  • RF and Microwave Technology in Biomedical Applications.

Each theme will have focused technical sessions, workshops, a keynote speaker, a panel session and a technical lecture. Additionally, we will have a “Systems Pavilion” in the industry exhibition, showcasing wireless, with demos by the finalists in the ‘MTT-Sat Challenge.’ Since San Diego is a stone’s throw from Latin America, one of our IMS2023 focus themes is to highlight advances in RF and microwave research in Latin America.

IMS2023 also features the “Connected Futures Summit” on Tuesday. This is a conference-within-a-conference, co-sponsored by the IEEE Communications Society. The focus is on strategic and tactical developments in 5G/6G technologies for future wireless communication systems, with several invited speakers. The theme for 2023 is “Connected Transportation.”

At IMS2023, we are encouraging greater participation by industry. We will host the Industry Showcase, where authors of the best technical papers from industry will present their work in a poster and demo session, giving attendees the opportunity to see the latest results and projects in industry, and to meet the authors and discuss their work.

New for 2023 will be Industrial Keynote Speakers, who will provide the featured presentations on the major technical tracks of IMS. The speakers are invited technical leaders from industry, and they will be providing an overview of the latest developments in their topics. Also new in IMS2023 is the “Early Career” Best Paper award, encouraging younger engineers in industry to publish their work.

In post-conference surveys, the most frequently-cited reason for attending IMS is networking. IMS2023 will be an in-person conference, and we are looking forward to the return of face-to-face networking at IMS2023. There will be several networking receptions held on the Tuesday evening, including the Women in Microwaves reception, the Young Professionals mixer, the Ham Radio Social and the MTT Society Reviewers’ Reception. Top marks if you make it to all of them. All of these events will be held in the Hilton Bayfront Conference Hotel, which has some great open spaces and bay-view terraces for hosting, so you can easily move from one event to another to meet old friends and make new ones. The Convention Center is adjacent to the famous Gaslamp Quarter, which is the lively social center of San Diego, with plenty of restaurants and bars for all tastes. Many of the industry-sponsored social and networking events will be held in the Gaslamp Quarter.

And finally, a brief comment on diversity and inclusion: the IMS2023 Steering Committee, which organizes the technical program and our social and networking events, is probably the most diverse ever. The committee comprises about 25 percent women participants, with women co-chairs of all the sub-committees, and, of course, Gayle is the General Co-Chair. We definitely have the “international” in IMS, with about 25 percent of our Steering Committee being located outside the U.S., including Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, China, Germany, India, Ireland, Italy, Mexico, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain and U.K.

We look forward to meeting you in San Diego, 11-16 June 2023!