The IEEE International Electron Devices Meeting is an annual electronics conference held alternately in San Francisco, California and Washington D.C. each December. Established in 1955, the IEDM is perhaps the world’s premier forum for the presentation of research on electron devices.
IEDM 2011 will be held at the Hilton Washington in Washington, D.C., USA on December 5–7, 2011, preceded by a day of Short Courses on Sunday, Dec. 4; and new 90-minute tutorial sessions on Saturday afternoon, Dec. 3. The tutorials are especially geared toward recent graduates, young professionals and those looking to broaden their understanding of emerging technical disciplines, while the short courses provide all-day, in-depth coverage of selected topics.
The IEDM is the largest and most prestigious gathering for scientists and engineers to disclose, discuss and debate the best recent R&D work in electron devices. “Electron devices” is the general term for components whose operation is based on the movement of electrons, such as microelectronics, nanoelectronics, bioelectronics and energy-related devices.
Unlike specialty technical conferences focused on narrow areas of inquiry, the IEDM presents more leading work in more areas of the field than any other technical conference, encompassing silicon and non-silicon device and process technology, molecular electronics, nanotechnology, optoelectronics, MEMS (MicroElectroMechanical Systems), NEMS (NanoElectroMechanical Systems), bioelectronics and energy-related devices.
The 2011 edition of the IEDM conference features a strong overall emphasis on circuit-device interaction, energy-harvesting and power devices, and biomedical devices. This year there also are two new technical subcommittees reflecting evolving trends in technology (Circuit & Device Interaction and Nano Device Technology).
The IEDM is sponsored by the IEEE Electron Devices Society of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), the world’s largest technical professional society.
The conference typically accepts approximately a third of the papers submitted for consideration, one of the lowest ratios of any major technical conference and an indicator of the high quality of the technical program.
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The First Annual Technical Meeting on Electron Devices took place on October 24–25, 1955 at the Shoreham Hotel in Washington D.C. with about 700 scientists and engineers in attendance. At that time the transistor was only seven years old; the integrated circuit, or computer chip, wouldn’t come along for a few years yet; and the electron tube reigned as the predominant electron-device technology. Fifty-four papers were presented on the then-state-of-the-art in electron device technology, the majority of them from just four U.S. companies—Bell Telephone Laboratories (birthplace of the transistor), RCA Corporation, Hughes Aircraft Co. and Sylvania Electric Products.
The meeting was an instant success and made evident the need for an annual forum for the exchange of important information about new electron devices and their ongoing development. That need was driven by two factors: commercial opportunities in the fast-growing new “solid-state” branch of electronics, and the U.S. government’s desire for solid-state components and better microwave tubes for aerospace and defense.
The conference later became known as the Electron Devices Meeting and established a reputation as the premier conference in the field. (The word “International” was added in the mid-1960s.) It has been held every year since, both stimulating and benefiting from the work of scientists and engineers who have transformed the computer chip from a gee-whiz curiosity into an essential building block of the modern world economy, spawning revolutions in computing, communications, entertainment and other fields along the way.
Originally the meeting was sponsored by a group within the Institute of Radio Engineers, but in 1963 that organization merged with another electrical engineering association to create the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE) http://www.ieee.org, the world’s largest technical professional society. Since 1963 the conference has been sponsored by the IEEE.
The meeting’s best attributes are the strength of its technical program and the stature of its invited speakers. Through the years most notable industry figures have given technical papers and/or luncheon or plenary talks. A small but representative sampling of notable figures from the early days includes: Gilbert Amelio, John Bardeen, Robert Dennard, James Early, Andrew Grove, J.B. Gunn, Terry Haggerty, F.P. Heiman, J. Hoerni, S.R. Hofstein, Nick Holonyak, Jack Kilby, Gordon Moore, Jerry Sanders, William Shockley, Simon Sze. These are in addition to thousands of other individuals who have made and are making important contributions to the field.
• 1959 was the first year the meeting featured papers on the integrated circuit — not surprising since Jack Kilby successfully demonstrated the first working integrated circuit a year earlier on September 12, 1958.
• 1962 brought a paper reporting the first practical MOSFET, the type of transistor in widespread use today.
• Numerous papers and talks on solar cells were given from the oil crises of the 1970s into the mid-1980s, and still are today.
• Many technologies discussed through the years have since fallen out of the mainstream: magnetic bubble memories, superconducting Josephson junctions, CCD memories, and most types of vacuum tubes among them.
• On the other hand, some technologies from the meeting’s early days faded away but have since re-appeared, such as germanium transistors, tunnel diodes and ferroelectric circuits.
IEDM 2010 took place in San Francisco, California from December 6–8, 2010. Highlights included an emphasis on power and energy, with two entire sessions, a plenary talk, and an evening panel discussion comprising at least 14 papers addressing important power and energy technical issues.
Because the usual Washington, D.C. venue was undergoing extensive renovations in 2009, the conference that year was held at the Hilton Baltimore from December 7–9, 2009 preceded by a day of Short Courses on Sunday, Dec. 6. Highlights from the technical program included:
IEDM 2008 took place in San Francisco, California from December 15–17, 2008. Highlights included:
http://semimd.com/blog/2011/04/29/iedm-to-emphasize-nanodevices-c-d-interactions/
http://www.eetimes.com/electronics-news/4227382/Intel-compound-FinFET-IEDM
http://blogs.intel.com/technology/2010/01/iedm_32nm_and_the_all_new_2010.php
http://www.chipdesignmag.com/pallab/2009/12/14/iedm-2009-numonyx-advances-phase-change-memory/
http://www.fabtech.org/news/_a/imec_demonstrates_gan-on-si_architecture_at_iedm/
http://compoundsemiconductor.net/csc/features-details.php?id=19607288
http://www.semiconductor-today.com/news_items/2009/DEC/INTEL_151209.htm
http://www.eetimes.com/electronics-news/4086308/IEDM-MEMS-enables-powerless-curved-retinal-implant
http://www.eetimes.com/electronics-news/4086295/IEDM-SIA-tech-exec-calls-for-new-research-model
Visit the IEDM home page at http://www.ieee-iedm.org.