We arrived in Rome on Sunday and the weather is beautiful (sunny and 80s during the day, high 60s are night). After some quick sightseeing in the afternoon we made our way over to the conference Monday morning. The venue is nice but quite spread out and not much surrounding the area. The sessions are in large, nicely arranged rooms all in the same area with a cafe so the setup is very well done for the conference. The exhibition is in a separate building next door so hopefully everyone will make there way over when it opens tomorrow.

In quickly looking through the sessions, there seems to be much more about higher class amplifiers (Class E and F including inverse versions) as the demand for more power/efficiency increases and the characterization techniques improve. It will be interesting to hear the details about power amplifiers that are over 75% efficient! There also seems to be more CMOS based devices as Si is ever improving its upper frequency limits and of course, more about GaN amplifiers. The passive devices are always getting smaller and doing more functions than their previous generations.

The exhibition starts tomorrow and the setup is nearing completion. The exhibition hall is well laid out and just the right size for this type of show. The large test and measurement companies dominate the entrance with Agilent, Rohde & Schwarz and Anritsu present with large booths. Of course, the component and software companies are well represented along with the large Italian defense companies Electtronica/Selex and Finmeccanica providing a large sponsorship which we don't typically see at the other European locations. It is nice to see such good local support - maybe they can continue in the other locations.

Let me know your impressions of the conference and exhibition.