The 23rd edition of the International Semiconductor Conference (CAS 2000) organized by the National Institute of Research and Development in Microtechnologies (IMT-Bucharest) took place in Sinaia, in October 10-14, 2000. The Conference was co-sponsored by IEEE Electron Devices Society, the National Agency for Science, Technology and Innovation (ANSTI), the IEEE – Romania Section and Electron Devices Chapter and it was held under the aegis of the Romanian Academy and the Electrochemical Society, Inc.
This year, CAS 2000 brought together about 160 specialists (57 from abroad) engaged in research and industry, university teaching staff and students with excellent results in the field of research and semiconductor device design, from 25 countries on 4 continents (18 countries from Europe, 3 from America, 3 from Asia and one from Africa) among which: France, Italy, Germany, U.S.A., Japan, Spain, Norway, Holland, Austria, Belgium, Greece, England, Mexico, Russia, Hungary, Poland, Ukraine, Bulgaria, Serbia, Belarus, Lithuania, Republic of Moldavia.
CAS also rejoiced, this year, at the participation of some guests of high reputation: Prof. A. Jelenski – Inst. of. Electronic Materials Technology, Warsaw - Poland, Dr. A. El-Fatatry, BAE Systems, Advanced Technology Centre and Prof. E.M. Sankara Narayanan, De Montfort University from England, Dr. T. Grasser, Technical University Vienna – Austria, Dr. P. Ohlckers, University of Oslo – Norway, Dr. K. Itoh, Hitachi, Prof. Y. Okuto, Nagoya City University and Prof. M. Migitaka, Toyota Technological Institute from Japan, Prof. D. Syvridis – Univ. of Athens and Dr. N.A. Vainos, FORTH, Institute of Electronic Structure and Laser, Crete, from Greece, Prof. W. Schoenmaker, IMEC – Belgium and Dr. M. L. Ciurea, National Institute of Materials Physics – Romania.
Traditional CAS picture
In the photo: Prof. A.Jelenski-ITME, Poland; Prof. A.Tugulea-Romanian Academy; Dr. M.L.Ciurea-INFM, Romania; Prof. Y. Okuto-Natural Science Center, Nagoya City Univ., Japan; Prof. D. Dascalu-IMT-Bucharest, Romania; Prof. E.M. Sankara Narayanan-De Monfort Univ., England; Prof. M. Migitaka-Toyota Technological Inst., Japan; Prof. P. Ohlckers-Univ. of Oslo, Norway; Prof. G. Brezeanu-"Politehnica" Univ., Romania, Dr. V. Beiu-RN2R/Rose Research LLC, USA; Dr. M. Badila-IMT-Bucharest, Romania; Prof. A.M. Manolescu-"Politehnica" Univ., Romania; Dr. R. Ionicioiu-ISI, Italy.
The dynamics of the number of CAS papers for the past 3 years, indicates a stabilization of the number of foreign papers from the total number of papers, to 40-50 %.
In the program of CAS 2000, Romania was represented by 68 contributed papers and one invited, as compared to 36 and 14 invited papers from abroad.
CAS 2000 papers (invited and regular): Total 118 papers (foreign 41.5%, Romanian 58.5%).
The quality of the papers accepted in the CAS 2000 program was guaranteed by the evaluation made by 30 referees (including members of the International Advisory Committee and of the Technical Program Committee). After a strict and minute review, the papers were printed in English in the "CAS 2000 Proceedings", in two volumes (582 pages), in 350 copies. The volumes were available for the participants in the first day of the conference and are to be distributed in the world, by IEEE-Book Broker Program, being also registered at the Library of Congress, U.S.A.
A special event at CAS 2000 was an award presentation: Prof. M. Migitaka, from Toyota Tehnological Institute, Japan, received the IEEE Fellow Certificate, within the opening of the conference.
In the Picture: Prof. Masatoshi Migitaka, (Toyota Technological Inst., Japan) – on the left – receiving the IEEE Fellow Certificate from Prof. Andrei Tugulea, (Romanian Academy and "Politehnica" University, Romania).
Wishing to encourage the participation of young students, CAS 2000 included in its program a "Student Papers" session, the best two papers being awarded by the Electron Devices – Romania Chapter (authors: Mr. S. Masuko, Japan and Mr. D. Tournier, France)
In the picture: Mr. S. Masuko (Toyota Technological Inst., Japan) – on the left – receiving his Best Student Paper Award from Prof. G. Brezeanu (Electron Devices-Chapter), Prof. D. Dascalu (General Chairman of the Conference) and Prof. A. Rusu (Technical Program Chair).
The participants in the conference particularly appreciated the scientific level of the papers and the very good organization activity. This year too, according to tradition, the best papers of the previous CAS’99 edition were awarded.
In the picture: Acad. Dan Dascalu, General Chairman of the Conference, Prof. Adrian Rusu, Technical Program Chairman, Doina Vancu, Conference Manager, Sergiu Iordanescu, Technical Program Vice Chairman and Prof. J.P.Karamarkovic (Univ. of Nis, Yugoslavia) – on the right – receiving his Best Paper Award.
An exhibition of Philips Analytical and Motorola DSP Center (some of CAS 2000 sponsors) accompanied the Conference.
Famous personalities represented at CAS 2000 prestigious Japanese companies as NEC, Toyota, Hitachi and Mitsubishi.
In the picture fron the right to the left: Prof. Y. Okuto (Natural Science Centre, Nagoya City Univ., presented an invited paper in cooperation with NEC Corp., Japan); Prof. M. Migitaka (Toyota Technological Inst., Japan) and Dr. K. Itoh (Hitachi, Japan).
Conference ProgramThe program of the conference, structured in 17 sessions (from which three plenary sessions), included 14 invited papers presented by famous scientific personalities and 104 contributed papers (also including 6 papers on "biomaterials") presented in oral or poster sessions.
The Conference profile has been partially changed in the last few years. CAS continues to deal with silicon and compound semiconductor devices and circuits but also includes new topics beyond semiconductors, as it is demonstrated this year by an entire day (Friday, 13 of October) devoted to "micro and nanotechnologies". Even in the case when the semiconductors are used in building the micro and nanostructures, quite often it is not the electronic properties of the semiconductor materials which provide the key features of operation.
CAS 2000 program contains papers devoted to both basic and applied research. Apart from the micro and nanotechnologies, already mentioned, the main topics are power devices, application-specific integrated circuits, as well as materials and physics of semiconductor devices.
This new orientation towards micro and nanotechnologies, microtransducers and microsystems was stressed by the satellite events of CAS 2000: a number of NEXUS sessions (13 and 14 October) and the panel discussion on "biomaterials" (13 October 2000).
The practice of satellite events is not new at CAS. At CAS'99, the Conference was followed by a one-day workshop on "Micromachined Circuits for Microwave and Millimeter-Wave Applications", organized within the frame of the Inco-Copernicus Project No. 977131 (MEMSWAVE). The participants in CAS’ 99 were freely admitted to attend the workshop. The papers presented at this workshop were later on published in the Romanian Journal of the Information Science and Technology. New scientific and technological results related to the MEMSWAVE project may be found in the CAS 2000 Proceedings.
The papers presented at these satellite events are not included in the Conference Proceedings. However, the titles are listed in the CAS 2000 Program.
NEXUS Events at CAS 2000NEXUS brought to CAS 2000 a number of contributions and special events. First, the vice-president of NEXUS, Dr. A.El-Fatatry and the Chairman of NEXUSPAN, Prof. A. Jelenski, participated with invited papers in the plenary sessions of CAS, on Friday morning. They gave important contributions to the first part of the "micro and nanotechnologies" section of the Conference (Friday 13 October morning). Secondly, a special plenary session inserted in the CAS program on Friday afternoon presented the NEXUS technology road map, the future of the NEXUS network and the NEXUS user-supplier clubs. The presentations were given by members of the NEXUS executive board and by the coordinators of four user-supplier clubs. Finally, after the Conference, on Saturday 14 October morning, the closing meeting of the NEXUSPAN National Contact Points (also open to CAS participants) concluded the activity of this network, also marking the full integration of Eastern partners in the European network for microsystem technologies.
In the picture (from the left): Prof. A. Jelenski (President-Steering Committee of NEXUSPAN); Prof. P. Ohlckers (Univ. of Oslo, Norway); Dr. A. El-Fatatry (Vice-President of NEXUS); Dr. P. Salomon (NEXUS Board).
Location:CAS 2000 was held this year too, in Sinaia, hostess of the last 15 editions of the conference. The small town of Sinaia, with its famous Peles Castle, formerly the Summer Royal Residence, is the best-known mountain resort in Romania. Sinaia, the so-called "Pearl of Carpathians" (Bucegi chain, 2500 meters highest altitude) is situated on the Prahova valley and it is the favourite place outside Bucharest for international conferences and high-level meetings.
CAS 2001The 24-th edition of the conference (CAS 2001) will be held from 9-th to 13-th of October 2001 at the Sinaia Hotel, Sinaia, Romania.
CAS 2001 will include a workshop dedicated to "Micro and nanotechnologies for bio-medical applications" organized by the "International Society for BioMEMS and Biomedical Nanotechnology". Selected papers from this workshop will be published in "Biomedical Microdevices" (Editor-in Chief: Prof. Mauro Ferrari, the State University of Ohio, Columbus, Ohio, USA.
The third workshop on "Micromachined Devices for Microwave and Millimeter Wave Devices" (MEMSWAVE) related to the INCO COPERNICUS Project will take place on Tuesday, October 9, 2001, Sinaia, Romania.
Further details referring to CAS 2001, as well as the "Call for Papers – CAS 2001", can be found on the internet page of the conference http://www.imt.ro/CAS