You are cordially invited to attend the 2013 Symposium on VLSI Circuits, to be held on June 12-14th, 2013, at the Rihga Royal Hotel Kyoto in Kyoto, Japan. We are repeating last year’s successful two day overlap with the Symposium on VLSI Technology to foster greater interactions and synergies between these two key conferences. This juxtaposition is a unique feature and value that distinguishes the Symposia from other conferences. In addition, for the second time, the Symposia offer four Technology/Circuits Joint Focus Sessions on the two overlap days. Papers in these sessions cover topics of interest to both communities, and facilitate closer exchanges and cooperation among them. The Symposium brings together experts and experienced engineers and scientists from industry and academia around the world to discuss present and future challenges in VLSI circuits and technology.

Preceding the Circuits Symposium, a one-day Short Course will be held on June 11th. This short course will focus on “Design Awareness in Circuit Design in the Era of Disruptive Changes” where experts will give educational talks on challenges and solutions for VLSI circuit designs in scaled CMOS process technology nodes. On the same day, in parallel, we also have a Workshop on “Non-Volatility and 3D-Ability: Empowering LSI-based Smart Systems of Tomorrow.” For a single Short Course/Workshop registration fee, attendees will have access to both the short course and the workshop.

On June 12th, an executive panel, "Message for the Future of VLSI," will be held just after the Circuit opening session as a Technology/Circuits plenary event. Four distinguished panelists will talk about historical aspects of semiconductor technology, forecast continuous technology advancements, and provide messages for young professionals in this field.

We have also invited two distinguished industry leaders to describe recent advances and new challenges related to VLSI circuits, technology and applications: “Perspective on Mobile Devices and Their Impact on Semiconductor Technologies” by Dr. Seh-Woong Jeong, Executive Vice President of the Sales and Marketing team for the Systems LSI Division of Samsung Electronics Co., and “Glass for the Future: Displays and Semiconductors” by Dr. Peter L. Bocko, Chief Technology Officer for Corning Glass Technologies, Corning Incorporated’s largest business group.

This year, the technical program committee reviewed 396 papers and selected 109 papers for presentation covering a range of topics including Digital Circuits and Systems, Memories, Data Converters, Wireless and Wireline Communications, Analog Power Management Circuits, and Biomedical Circuits. The traditional emphasis of the Symposium has been on paper quality. This year the committee has selected very high quality papers representing the scope of the Symposium.

To complement the plenary talks and papers, we have arranged two evening sessions on interesting and provocative topics to provide all conference attendees an opportunity to participate in the discussions and mix with other attendees. The evening sessions explore: “The Best Logic and Memory Interface Technology for 2D/2.5D/3D ICs” and “Analog Designer’s Playground Beyond 20nm, is it Circuit Physics or Auto Place & Route?”

We organize a luncheon talk for attendees of the Circuits and Technology Symposia to enjoy informative and entertaining speeches on interesting topics in a relaxed atmosphere with excellent food. This year, it will feature the talk “Symbiosis with Lightning which is one of the most spectacular natural phenomenon” by Dr. Takeshi Kudo from Otowa Electric Co, Ltd.

The rich technical content of the program will undoubtedly interest you, and we certainly hope that the Symposium will be a fruitful and enjoyable experience.

We look forward to meeting with you at the Symposium in Kyoto.

Hideyuki Kabuo

Jeffrey Gealow

Program Chair

Program Co-Chair