Nuno Borges Carvalho and Ke Wu
Figure 1. An IMS2022 panel session.
IMS panel and rump sessions (Figure 1) have always served as a unique platform to present technological updates and debates, which allows for discussions, brainstorming, and future perspectives. Scheduled during lunch times during the IMS2023 week, except for the rump session on Tuesday evening, they cover a broad range of topics of interest to everyone.
In addition to the panel sessions, (co)sponsored by the IEEE RF Integrated Circuits (RFIC) Symposium and the IEEE Microwave Theory and Technology Society’s (MTT-S’s) IMS, we will present two Inter-Society Technology Panels (ISTPs), which have been organized by the MTT-S Inter-Society Committee since 2021 on behalf of the MTT-S Administrative Committee. Those ISTPs are set to promote inter-societal collaborations and dialogue on cross-sector and multidisciplinary technological research and developments in the MTT-S fields of interest.
The 2023 Microwave Week panels start with an RFIC panel on Monday, “How Soon Will We Become Cyborgs?” This panel will debate the growing use of smart devices and implants. Then, a joint IMS/RFIC panel on Tuesday, “AI/ML-Based Wireless System Design and Operation—Hope or Hype?” will cover recent developments in machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) for circuit and system design and operation.
We will also bring back the Tuesday rump session this year, organized as part of the afternoon sessions, with a topic dedicated to “Meet the MTT-S Journal Editors and Publication Enthusiasts” and addressing various issues and matters of interest for MTT-S publications.
On Wednesday, two other panels will be organized. The first panel’s topic will focus on digital twins and model-based systems engineering, with an important question: will this actually work? The other is the first ISTP on “RF/Microwave Packaging and Interconnect Technologies for Global Integration—Are We on the Right Track?”
On Thursday, two more panels will be presented, with one devoted to “5G frequency range FR1–FR2 Convergence: Challenges and Outlook for Remote Health Care and Time-Critical Communications.” The other is the second ISTP on emerging multidisciplinary topics of multi-societal interests, with a discussion on the “Tapping Power WIRELESSLY everywhere? Technologies, Standards and Impact in Our Life.”
Session organizer: Oren Eliezer (Samsung Semiconductor).
Augmented-reality contact lenses, cochlear implants, AI-aided earbuds, and thought-activated prosthetics have already demonstrated the restoration and enhancement of human capabilities, and the incorporation of AI into these technologies can further increase their potential. This lunchtime panel will host academic researchers and industry pioneers who are developing these technologies and will debate how they will affect our near- and long-term lifestyles.
Session organizers: Costas Sarris (University of Toronto), Qi-jun Zhang (Carleton University), Bodhi Sadhu (IBM T.J. Watson), and Oren Eliezer (Samsung Semiconductor).
The use of machine learning (ML), or more broadly, artificial intelligence (AI), has already been demonstrated in a wide range of applications, including even music composition and artistic design.
This lunchtime panel, with both industry and academia experts, will explore how we may harness AI in wireless system design and operation, and will attempt to distinguish hope from hype.
Session organizers: Pete Siegel (JPL and Caltech) and Ke Wu (Polytechnique Montréal).
The technical publications environment is currently undergoing an enormous upheaval. The tried-and-true subscription journals, which have been the backbone of scientific dissemination for more than 300 years, are rapidly being challenged by all-digital pay-to-publish venues from both reputable and not-so-reputable, for-profit enterprises. The number of new journals entering the marketplace is increasing at an exponential rate. Within the MTT-S itself, we have more than doubled the number of publications we sponsor within the last 10 years, and authors, readers, and technical experts are being overwhelmed with both content choice and demands for peer reviewing.
This special MTT-S rump session, moderated by Dr. Peter Siegel and Dr. Ke Wu, will focus on the growing concerns of our author and end user communities regarding the future of scientific publishing and the position that IEEE—and specifically the MTT-S—should take in moving forward. The session will also focus on the editorial content and practices of our core publications, including manuscript preparation, the peer-review process, quality standards, industrial contributions, and editorial practices. We will bring together MTT-S editors-in-chief (EiCs) and/or Editorial Board members from several of our core publications [IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques (T-MTT), IEEE Transactions on Terahertz Science and Technology (TTST), IEEE Microwave and Wireless Technology Letters (MWTL), IEEE Microwave Magazine, and IEEE Journal of Microwaves (JMW)], industry and government lab representatives, and young professionals to present their perspectives and experiences on publication policies and practices. Panel participants include: Almudena Suarez, EiC of T-MTT; Nuria Llombart-Juan, EiC of TTST; Malgorzata Celuch, president of QWED Poland; Sara Barros, Thales Nederland B.V.; and Chris Rodenbeck, Naval Research Labs.
Please join us for an interesting discussion on scientific publishing in general as well as an opportunity to learn more about our own technical publications. The rump session will take place on Tuesday, 13 June, from 5–6:30 p.m. in the San Diego Convention Center in Room 20A (off the Ballroom Lobby on the upper level across from the Sails Pavilion). It will be followed by a ticketed event, “Get to Know Our Journals Reception, Panel, and Poster Session,” from 7–9 p.m. at the Hilton San Diego Bayfront Hotel. (Sign up for the follow-on reception here: https://mtt.org/ims2023-journal-event/.)
Session organizers: Ian Rippke (Keysight Technologies) and Sherry Hess (Cadence).
Even as today’s sophisticated electronic systems have evolved, the designs behind them have, unfortunately, remained largely in multiple silos: digital, analog, RF, package, board, analysis, and more. These disjointed flows involving multiple tools cause delays and design risks. How can these silos be broken down and design led with integration and optimization at the electronic system level?
Model-based systems engineering (MBSE) is a methodology where a set of models is developed for use in the design, analysis, and verification of complex electronic systems. MBSE is having a renaissance, expanding beyond high-level requirements capture and system modeling (macro) to incorporate more detailed, higher fidelity, and physics-based modeling techniques (micro).
While MBSE is already employed within major aerospace and defense companies, it is more recently expanding into industry and companies within the space and wireless arenas. However, will the advance and industry expansions usher in an era of the digital twin that impacts all electronic systems and products? Or will electronic design remain largely one of siloed design and “over-the-wall” information sharing?
Join us at this panel session where experts in MBSE, spanning industry, government, and academia, will discuss whether MBSE really is the gateway to digital twinning or if the challenge is too big to overcome on the path to success.
Session organizers: Ke Wu (Polytechnique Montréal), Kamal K. Samanta (Sony Europe), Manos M. Tentzeris (Georgia Tech), and J.-C. Chiao (Southern Methodist University).
RF/microwave front-end modules, including antenna systems operating over the megahertz through terahertz frequency range for sub-7-GHz and 5G/6G applications, continuously require innovative solutions for meeting high electrical, RF, mechanical, and thermal performance at a low cost. This MTT-S ISTP will discuss recent advancements in RF/microwave packaging and interconnect technologies enabled by emerging new materials, advanced processing techniques and topological innovations as well as underlying technical challenges. This special panel will bring together industrial and academic experts of various backgrounds from different IEEE Societies and other organizations, including the IEEE Electronics Packaging Society, IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society (AP-S), IEEE Solid-State Circuits Society, IEEE Electromagnetic Compatibility Society, IEEE Circuits and Systems Society, MTT-S, and others.
State-of-the-art achievements in manufacturing, interconnect, and packaging techniques will be reviewed. This panel will debate the critical issues and relative advantages and suitability of various emerging materials and interconnects (hybrid/metaconductors); processes, such as additive and subtractive manufacturing; and matured and emerging integration techniques—multichip modules, antenna in packaging/systems on chip/system in packaging/system on substrate, heterogenous and wafer-level packaging, and chiplets—considering the cost, performance, reliability/repeatability, and volume production requirements. It will suggest possible application spaces with timescales and future directions. The panel will also discuss the impact of new technologies on the traditional realm of metal conductors and subtractive manufacturing.
Session organizers: Ali Sadri (Airgain Inc.) and Abbas Omar (University of Magdeburg).
The chip- and system-level coexistence of FR1 (sub-6 GHz) and FR2 (millimeter-wave) in wireless standards, including 5G and beyond, is highly debated because of both capital and operational expenditures. On the other hand, these bands are utilized to offer uninterrupted connectivity for relevant time-critical applications that demand ultrareliable low-latency communications. These include, for example, telesurgery, remote diagnostics, remote monitoring of health conditions of patients and elderly individual, virtual clinics, etc. Many of the sensors involved in these applications, such as those used for remotely monitoring vital parameters of patients and elderly individuals (remote measurement of blood pressure, blood sugar, sudden falling, etc.), and communicating their measurements wirelessly need such a coexistence for a reliable operation.
It is the aim of this panel to present the relevant health-care applications that rely on the wireless communications offered by 5G and beyond and to discuss their need for eventual FR1–FR2 coexistence on both the chip and system levels.
Session organizers: Naoki Shinohara (Kyoto University), Alessandra Costanzo (Universite di Bologna), and J.-C. Chiao (Southern Methodist University).
Recently, the industry of wireless power transfer (WPT), which involves near-field WPT and far-field WPT, has risen significantly. For near-field transfer, we can already buy wireless chargers everywhere and cheaply for smartphones. Start-up companies are developing far-field WPT for Internet of Things (IoT) sensors based on New Radio regulations. In the International Telecommunication Union–Radiocommunication Sector, enthusiastic discussions for New Radio regulation of WPT and safety concerns are taking place every year. WPT is expected to be one of the game-changing technologies with electromagnetic waves/fields.
Although the theory has been established and advanced, with a long history since the 1960s, the expectation for the WPT market and industry seems to be higher than the reality. High-power wireless chargers for electric vehicles and batteryless IoT sensors powered by microwaves have not appeared in the mass-production markets. What will the industrial future of WPT be? What are the innovative technologies needed to create wide-use markets? How do we harmonize WPT with conventional radio applications? How do we create human-safe WPT systems? Can we have worldwide universal standards? In this panel, panelists from the WPT and application industries, IEEE Power Electronics Society, and AP-S will discuss these important topics from diverse and cross-disciplinary perspectives.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MMM.2023.3242804