Microwave Journal
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2017 RFIC Symposium

Kevin W. Kobayashi, General Chair; Walid Ali-Ahmad and Stefano Pellerano, Technical Program Co-Chairs

May 12, 2017

Kevin W. Kobayashi, General Chair; Walid Ali-Ahmad and Stefano Pellerano, Technical Program Co-Chairs

The 2017 IEEE Radio Frequency Integrated Circuits Symposium (RFIC 2017) is the premier integrated circuit (IC) design conference focused exclusively on the latest advances in RF, microwave and millimeter-wave IC technologies and designs, as well as innovations in high-frequency analog/mixed-signal ICs and will be held on June 4-6. Attendees will have the opportunity to interact with world experts, expand their network and leave invigorated with new ideas and a drive to innovate.

RFIC 2017 will continue to offer a number of initiatives: The 2-page industry brief format, allowing the latest state-of-the-art RF IC design results to be presented without requiring die photos and detailed schematics, will continue in 2017. The popular Industry Showcase Session, featuring poster presentations (and optional demos) of the most innovative and highly-rated industrial papers (both 2- and 4-page), will be the highlight during the RFIC Reception on the evening of Sunday, June 4, 2017. The Interactive Forum (IF) Session will continue to be held jointly with the Industry Showcase during the RFIC Reception, and will offer the attendees an enhanced interactive technical experience in a relaxed environment. Short 1-minute video highlights of each industry showcase and interactive forum poster presentation will be featured on IEEE.tv and posted on the RFIC website after the conference, providing authors and their affiliations publicity for their work.

The 2017 RFIC Symposium will begin on Sunday with 16 RFIC focused workshops (10 full-day and six half-day) held at the Convention Center. In addition, there will be several joint RFIC/IMS workshops on Sunday and Monday. These workshops cover a wide range of advanced topics in RFIC technology and IC design, including 5G systems and beyond.

The Plenary Session will be held on Sunday evening at the Hilton Hawaiian Village Hotel, the IMS headquarters, after a full day of workshops that take place at the Hawaii Convention Center.  Shuttle buses will be ready to promptly take RFIC workshop participants from the Convention Center to the RFIC Plenary session at the Hilton Hawaiian Village Hotel.  The Plenary Session will begin with conference highlights, followed by presentation of the Best Student Paper Awards sponsored by TSMC and the Industry Best Paper Award.

The plenary session will conclude with two outstanding keynote talks focused on 5G, beginning with Dr. Seizo Onoe, CTO and EVP of NTT Docomo who will enlighten us on the “Deployment Realities of 5G.“ In this talk, Dr. Seizo Onoe will discuss 5G technologies, the timelines, lessons learned from past generations and experimental trials and their latest results.

The second plenary talk will be given by the Wireless Communications Industry Chair Professor at UCSD and National Academy of Engineering member, Prof. Gabriel Rebeiz, who will share his vision on “RFIC/Silicon-based Phased Arrays and Transceivers for 5G.” Prof. Rebeiz will present the progression of phased-array systems from defense-oriented applications to becoming the cornerstone of commercial 5G systems, and the role of silicon RFICs and advanced packaging in the deployment of these 5G systems.

Immediately following the plenary session will be the RFIC “Interactive” Reception that will highlight the Industry Showcase and Interactive Forum papers in an engaging social and technical evening event supported by this year’s RFIC Symposium corporate sponsors (SMIC, MaxLinear, Qorvo, TSMC, ADI, GlobalFoundries, Intel, Qualcomm, TowerJazz, Cadence, Skyworks). 

On Monday and Tuesday, RFIC will have multiple tracks of oral technical paper sessions. Keeping with the 5G plenary theme, Monday morning will feature 5G focused technical sessions. Two entertaining panels will be featured during lunchtime on both days. The Monday panel session, moderated by Brian Floyd and Oren Eliezer, is titled “5th Generation Wireless–Where is that going and what’s in it for me?” The Tuesday panel session will be a gameshow-quiz titled “Who Wants to be a Millimeterwavionaire?” Two teams of contestants, including preselected and randomly selected contestants from the audience, will compete in answering questions on RF and microwave theory and history, including IMS/RFIC conference trivia.  Be ready to answer questions like “Who really invented the Smith Chart?” and “What is WIM?” Prizes will be awarded to the contestants, as well as to others in the audience who may be called upon for answers.

On behalf of the RFIC Steering and Executive Committees, we welcome you to join us at the 2017 RFIC Symposium in Honolulu, Hawaii!