CHAIRMANfS MESSAGE
On behalf of the conference committee, I would like to welcome you to the 13th International Symposium on Power Semiconductor Devices and ICfs (ISPSDf01) in Osaka. Following very successful meetings in Toronto in 1999 and in Toulouse in 2000, the ISPSD returns to Japan again. Since the establishment of ISPSD which was held in Tokyo in 1988, the ISPSD has continued to make progress and has today become the most important international conference in the field of power semiconductor devices and ICfs. This symposium serves not only as a forum for expert discussions on the latest power device developments but also as a place where participants from all over the world can meet and exchange information and opinions.
ISPSDf01 is the first of the 21st century. In commemoration of this, the organizing committee set up the gISPSD Contributory Awardh for ISPSD members who have made outstanding contributions to launching and organizing the ISPSD from the very beginning. ISPSDf01 is expected to be even more significant and more suggestive for the development of power semiconductor devices in the new century. From such a view point, two plenary sessions and a workshop have been organized. The plenary sessions will feature invited presentations on six topics by leaders in the power electronics field. These are Transmission and Distribution by Dr. Rahul Chokhawala, Pulsed Power by Prof. Shozo Ishii, Car Electronics by Prof. John G. Kassakian, EMI/EMC by Prof. Tamotsu Ninomiya, Transportation by Dr. Ingo Herbst, and Home Appliances by Dr. Teruya Tanaka. The workshop will provide an opportunity to discuss road maps of power semiconductor development in the early 21st century. For discussion purposes, participants will be divided into four groups, high power devices, discrete power devices, integrated power devices and radio frequency power devices. Furthermore, at the dinner banquet, we have been very fortunate in securing a Keynote Speech by Dr. Kunihiko Sawa, the president of IEE Japan.
The program committee received 140 abstracts. The international nature of the forum is reflected in the regional distribution of the submitted papers, from 17 countries in total; 23% from Europe, 25% from North America, 14% from Asia and 38% from Japan. From the abstracts, 43 papers were accepted for oral presentation with another 53 accepted as poster session papers. These papers will be presented during the four day-session. gBest Paper Awardh and gYoung Researcher Awardh will be presented to excellent papers. The winners of the gBest Paper Awardh will be selected from all the presented papers, while the gYoung Researcher Awardh will be presented to candidates who are 30 years old or younger.
To conclude, I would like to express my sincere appreciation to the members of the Program and Steering Committees for their outstanding job they have done in planning and arranging the 2001 forum. It is with great pleasure that I extend a warm welcome to all of you attending the ISPSDf01 in Osaka.
Yoshitaka Sugawara
General Chairman