ABOUT CAS'99

CAS'99 Pictures CAS '99 Program  MEMSWAVE Workshop Special NEXUS Session
Awards   Special guests   D. Prunariu, the romanian astronaut at CAS'99

The 22^nd edition of the International Semiconductor Conference (CAS’99) organized by the National Institute of Research and Development in Microtechnologies (IMT-Bucharest) took place in Sinaia, in October 5-9, 1999. The Conference was co-sponsored by IEEE Electron Devices Society, the European Network of Excellence in Multifunctional Microsystems (NEXUS), 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’99 brought together about 180 specialists (63 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 Romania and other 20 countries: France, Italy, Germany, U.S.A., Japan, Spain, Sweden, The Netherlands, Korea, Kuweit, Greece, United Kingdom, Russia, Hungary, Switzerland, Poland, Ukraine, Bulgaria, Serbia, Republic of Moldavia.

CAS also benefited, this year, by the participation of some guests of high reputation:
Prof. A. Jelenski, President of NEXUSPAN Coordination Committee, (Inst. of. Electronic Materials Technology, Warsaw, Poland), Dr. R. Sanford, (Innovative Concepts Co., USA), Dr. A. Wild, Marketing Manager (Motorola, SUA), Dr. G. Charitat, Manager (CNRS-LAAS, Toulouse, Franta), Prof. V. Kantser, Manager (Inst. of Applied Physics, Kishinev, Moldova), Prof. W. Milne (Cambridge Univ., United Kingdom), Prof. G. Papaioannou (Univ. of Athens, Greece), Prof. A. Vladimirescu (Univ. of California, USA), Prof. R.T. Chen (Univ. of Texas, USA).

The program of the conference, structured in 16 sessions (from which one plenary session), included 10 invited papers presented by famous scientific personalities and 105 contributed papers presented in oral or poster sessions. The papers pointed out the latest results in semiconductor device and microsystems physics, design, technology and applications. The dynamics of the number of contributed papers presented at CAS for the past 2 years, indicates a stabilization of the number of foreign papers from the total number of papers presented at CAS, to about 50 %.

In the program of CAS’99, Romania was represented by 58 contributed papers, as compared to 47 and 10 invited papers from 20 countries on three continents (14 countries in Europe, 1 country in America and 4 countries in Asia).

The quality of the papers accepted in the CAS’99 program was guaranteed by the evaluation made by 76 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’99 Proceedings”, in two volumes (580 pages), in 400 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.

Wishing to encourage the participation of young students, CAS’99 included in its program a "Student Papers” session, the best paper being awarded by the Electron Devices – Romanian Chapter.

The invited speakers particularly appreciated the high level of the papers and the very good organization activity. This year too, according to tradition, the best papers of the previous CAS’98 edition were awarded.

Scientific Program

The first two days of the Conference were dedicated to a wide range of themes peculiar to the semiconductor techniques. The invited paper of Mr. Robert A. Sanford, President of Innovative Concepts Co., International Business Development, Marblehead, MA, USA ("A PROJECTION FOR THE SEMICONDUCTOR INDUSTRY IN THE NEXT QUARTER CENTURY”), that opened the plenary session, emphasized the complex aspects of semiconductor device development and fabrication. The image offered by Mr. Sanford on the structure of direct communications in a not very remote future made a stir.

The invited papers presented by Prof. W. Milne, Engineering Department, Cambridge University, United Kingdom ("AMORPHUS CARBON FOR USE IN THIN FILM TRANSISTORS”) and Prof. G. Papaioannou, University of Athens, Physics Dept., Solid State Physics Section, Athens, Greece ("RADIATION EFFECTS IN HIGH ELECTRON MOBILITY TRANSISTORS”), emphasized the latest results in designing and manufacturing thin film transistors (TFT) and very high frequency transistors (HEMT), types of devices whose development implies advanced research in the field of semiconductor materials. The modern integrated circuits simulation methods were the subject of the invited paper presented by: Prof. A. Vladimirescu, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA and  Institut Supérieur d’Electronique de Paris, France as well ("SPICE - THE FOURTH DECADE. ANALOG AND MIXED-SIGNAL SIMULATION - A STATE-OF-THE-ART”), while the paper "CURRENT TRENDS IN THE ELECTICAL CHARACTERIZATION OF LOW-K DIELECTRICS”, presented by Dr. A. M. Ionescu from LETI – CEA, Grenoble , France, centered around very large scale integration (VLSI), focusing on the optimization of the interconnection procedures and on the dielectric layer characterization.

The 105 regular papers approached both problems referring to semiconductor physiscs, materials and fabrication technologies (product reliability included) and to discrete device and integrated circuit design, modelling and characterization. Much importants was attached to high voltage and silicon carbide devices as well as to microwave componets.

Special NEXUS Session

The impact of CAS’99 on the scientific community was amplified this year by carrying on, within the conference, a special NEXUS Session on Friday, October 8, 1999 structured in two sessions (oral and poster) preceeded by invited papers. In this session there were exhibited posters illustrating the research activity of IMT – Bucharest and other institutions of the Magurele platform, in the field of microsystems.

The organizing of this special session is a natural consequence of the activity carried in the field of microsystems these last years in Romania and especially in IMT – Bucharest, as well as of constant preocupations to join NEXUS scientific events (the NEXUSEAST Symposium   "Microsystem Technology” – CAS’95 and the NEXUSPAN Course   "New Materials and Transducers for Chemical Sensors” – CAS’98) to the conference.

Within the special NEXUS Session five invited papers were presented. Significant details concerning the activities of the NEXUS excellence network and of European programs in the field of microsystems were presented by Prof. A. Jelenski from the Institute of Electronic Materials Technology, Warsaw, Poland, President of Co-ordination Committee of NEXUSPAN in the invited paper "NEXUS – NETWORK OF EXCELLENCE IN MST” and by Dr. P. Salomon from VDI/VDE-IT, Teltow, Germany, editor of MST NEWS journal in the paper "EUROPEAN PROGRAMS AND STRATEGIES FOR MICROSYSTEMS TECHNOLOGY (MST) AND MEMS”.

The invited paper "MICRO FLOW SENSORS” presented by Prof. M. Elwenspoek from the University of Twente, Dept. of Electrical Engng, MESA Research Inst., Laboratory of Transducers Science, Enschede, The Netherlands, approached a topic of high interest in the microsystem technique – fluid sensors manufactured by silicon micromachining. Recent results of advanced research in the field of optical interconnects in the stucture of microsystems were described in the invited papers of Prof. J. Holleman from MESA Research Institute, University of Twente, The Netherlands ("VISIBLE LIGHT EMMISSION FROM REVERSE-BIASED SILICON NANOMETER-SCALE DIODE-ANTIFUSES") and of Prof. R.T.Chen from Microelectronics Research Center, University of Texas, Austin, Texas, USA (“GUIDED-WAVE Si CMOS PROCESS-COMPATIBLE OPTICAL INTERCONNECTS”) . It should be mentioned the practical exemplifications particularly spectacular presented by Prof. R.T. Chen.

MEMSWAVE Workshop

A workshop on "Micromachined Circuits for Microwave and Millimeter Wave Applications" (MEMSWAVE) was organized on Saturday, October 9, jointly with CAS’99 by the European project INCO–COPERNICUS No. 977131, where IMT–Bucharest is the co-ordinator. There were presented 15 oral papers centered around one of the most modern aspects of micromachining techniques– microwave and millimeter–wave passive and active componets manufactured on semiconductor and dielectric thin membranes.

Location:

CAS '99 was also held this year, in the mountain resort Sinaia, “the Pearl of the Carpathian Mountains”, hostess of the last 14 editions of the conference.

CAS 2000

The 23-rd edition of the conference (CAS 2000) will be held in the period October 10-14, 2000, at the Sinaia Hotel, Sinaia, Romania.

Further details reffering to CAS’99 as well as the “Call for Papers  – CAS 2000” can be found on the internet page of the conference http://www.imt.ro/CAS.