REPORT ON THE OPEN COMMISSION MEETINGS (BUSINESS MEETINGS)
Chair: Professor T. Itoh (U.S.A.)
Vice-Chair: Professor R. Sorrentino (Italy)
The Commission held two business meetings, respectively on 28 and 29 August. This is a report on the main business transacted as well as on the Scientific Programme organised at the XXVth General Assembly of URSI.
1. New Chair and Vice Chair for 1996-1999.
At the conclusion of the General Assembly, Professor Roberto Sorrentino, former
Vice Chair, took over the Chair from Professor Tatsuo Itoh. Three candidates
had been nominated for the position of Vice-Chair of Commission D for 1996-99,
viz.:
Prof. B.N. Biswas, India
Prof. Peter Russer, Germany
Prof. Alwyn Seeds, United Kingdom
According to the URSI rules, at the second business meeting, any official
member who was present was given the opportunity to change his vote (if
previously cast by mail). As a result of the ballot, Commission D recommended
to Council the candidates for Vice-Chair in the following order:
1. Prof A Seeds United Kingdom
2. Prof P Russer Germany
3. Prof B N Biswas India
Professor Seeds was consequently appointed by the Council Vice Chairman of the
Commission D for the triennium 1996-1999.
2.Terms of reference
The Commission noted that its scope is extremely broad. The Commission was originally formed in part to provide URSI input on new technology, but its status was enhanced to "stand-alone". With increased emphasis of URSI on telecommunication issues, Commission D has strengthened its traditional coverage on electronic and photonic devices, circuits and components, many of which are key ingredients for the modern telecommunication, wired and wireless.
It was resolved unanimously to keep the present terms of reference, that are as follows:
"The Commission promotes research and reviews new developments in:
(a) Electronic devices and applications;
(b) Photonic devices and applications;
(c) Physics, materials, CAD, technology and reliability of electronic and
photonic devices, with particular reference to radio science and
telecommunications.
The Commission deals with devices for generation, detection, storage and
processing of electromagnetic signals together with their applications,
covering all frequencies, including those in the microwave and optical
domains."
3. Radio Science Bulletin
At the first business meeting, Prof. Itoh informed the Commission that each URSI Commission should appoint an Associated Editor to the Radio Science Bulletin. His duties are to solicit and select two or three papers a year for the Radio Science Bulletin. The Commission agreed to postpone the appointment of our Associated Editor to the 2nd Business Meeting, after a Vice Chair had been chosen. Dr Zoya Popovic (USA) was then appointed Associate Editor for Commission D of the Radio Science Bulletin.
4. Review of Radio Science and Disk of Reference
At the proposal of Professor Itoh, the Commission resolved that, as customary, the incoming Vice Chair will serve as Commission Editor for the Review of Radio Science.
Regarding the participation of the Commission in the Disk of Reference, Professor David Skellern (Australia) made a motion to cease participation. Professor Zoya Popovic seconded the motion. It was then resolved unanimously not to participate in the Disk. The Commission approved the following recommendation.
"The URSI Commission D,
considering
a) that the area of interest of the Commission is so wide that the time and
effort required to produce an exhaustive annotated reference list would be not
justified;
b) that well-organised data bases are already accessible from computer networks
resolves
that Commission D will not participate in the preparation of the Disk of
Reference for the triennium 1996-1999."
5. ICO (International Commission for Optics)
Prof. Itoh informed that ICO belongs to the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics Union (not URSI), but that its area overlaps with that of URSI. Commission D was charged to review the issue of joint activities between ICO and Commission D. Professor Seeds wrote a recommendation proposing that ICO and Commission D should keep each other informed of their respective activities. The following recommendation was subsequently approved.
"The URSI Commission D,
considering
a) the overlapping interests in optical phenomena of the Commission and the
ICO,
recommends
a) that ICO and Comm. D should keep each other informed of their respective
activities.
b) that the URSI President initiate appropriate actions to promote and enhance
cooperation between ICO and URSI, and to initiate whatever actions are needed
to provide an Inter Union Commission status to ICO, if they so desire. "
6. International Symposium on Signals, Systems and Electronics
ISSSE'98
Prof. Itoh reported on the history of the International Symposium on Signals, Systems and Electronics (ISSSE), a conference organised by URSI Commissions C&D. In accordance with the recommendations made to the URSI General Assembly in Tel Aviv in 1987, it was decided to initiate a series of triennial international symposia with the aim of covering all the fields of telecommunications (in particular the activities of Commissions C&D), and of promoting the exchange of experience and results among scientists and engineers working in these multidisciplinary areas. The first ISSSE in the series was held in Erlangen, Germany. The Symposium then moved to Paris (France) in 1992 and San Francisco (USA) in 1995. There was discussion on where to hold 1998 meeting. Italy, Japan, Ireland, Australia and the Netherlands were suggested as possible venues. Discussion on location and scope of ISSSE followed. It was recommended that the scope of the conference should be focused on specific subjects, that could be changed from one meeting to the other.
The meeting resolved to form a Joint Working Group with Commission C for the organisation of the ISSSE meetings. It was agreed that the composition of the group should be such that major thematic areas of Commission D were represented, so that a balanced view could be presented in determining joint technical themes for ISSSE.
Professor Tatsuo Itoh (microwave devices and circuits), Professor Bohdan Mroziewicz (optical devices and systems) and Professor David Skellern (digital & radio systems) were nominated for membership of the Joint Working Group.
Professors Sorrentino and Itoh agreed to work together with Commission C regarding the establishment of the working group. The working group was then formally established, together with Commission C, as the Steering Committee for ISSSE, and the following joint resolution was made.
"Considering that they have had three successful ISSSE conferences in 1989, 92
and 95, Commissions C and D
resolve
that a Steering Committee for ISSSE be created with Terms of Reference as
follows:
* to maintain long term continuity of both administrative and technical
aspects,
* to put in place conference guidelines in keeping with URSI requirements,
and
* to receive and evaluate proposals and select the conference site."
Membership will be up to three representatives from each commission. In
addition, Commission Chairs will serve as Ex Officio members. The Coordinator
for the Steering Committee will be selected for a three year term, and he will
be the point of contact.
Professor Tatsuo Itoh was designated as the point of contact of the Steering
Committee. He then decided that the Call for Proposals to Run ISSSE'98 would be
due by 15 December 1996 at his address.
The Steering Committee is now soliciting proposals for ISSSE'98 consistent with
the following guidelines.
7. Nomination for URSI Committees
At the second business meeting, the Commission D representation in the
Committee on Developing Countries and the Long Range Planning Committee was
discussed . It was unanimously resolved to put forward the following
nominations :
Prof B N Biswas (India) was nominated for the Committee on Developing
Countries.
Prof D. Skellern (Australia) was nominated for the Long Range Planning
Committee.
8. Scientific Program and Length of Next General Assembly
The Commission discussed possible topics for the Scientific Program of the next General Assembly. Professor Sorrentino reminded attendees that they should respond to the form "Commission D Suggested Topics for 1999 GA". This form should be sent to Professor Sorrentino. It was noted that some titles of the present GA's Commission D sessions caused confusion e.g. Wide Band Devices and Band Gap Devices. More descriptive titles were recommended. Regarding the duration of the General Assembly, the meeting unanimously agreed that the URSI GA Technical program should be reorganised to occupy one week instead of two weeks.
9. Scientific Program at XXV URSI General Assembly
The Commission organised nine technical sessions, and co-organised ten additional sessions in cooperation with other Commissions or other Organisations, such as ICO and IWGP. In five of such sessions Commission D was the principal Organiser.
Most of the sessions were very well attended, particularly those covering topics of broad interest, such as MMIC's, wide band gap devices, etc.. A few of them were focused on specialized topics, in which case the attendance was somewhat reduced.
Here is a summary of the technical sessions held during the XXV General Assembly in Lille (France.
D-Tutorial: Optoelectronic Integration, Professor H. Burkhard (Germany) presented an excellent overview of optoelectronic integration. Main emphasis was technology and devices, but their places in the system were discussed too.
Session D1: Advances in MMIC. Chairperson: R.J. Trew (USA).
MMIC's have
advanced from the research stage to the point where they are finding acceptance
in many system applications. In particular, they are finding use in products
that are directed towards commercial markets such as mobile communications,
automobile electronics, etc. Although compound semiconductors dominate MMIC's
that operate at microwave and millimetre-wave frequencies, SiGe-based devices
demonstrate performance that could permit Si-based high MMIC's to be
fabricated. This session focused on some of the recent advances in MMIC
technology, such as millimetre-wave MMIC for military and commercial
applications, HFET/HBT for power MMIC applications, nonlinear behaviour in
microwave transistors.
Session D2: Advances in III-V Devices. Chairperson: D. Skellern (Australia), R.
Brodersen (USA)
This session dealt with low-power devices and circuits for radio systems. The
four papers addressed design topics from a new low-power hetero-transistor to
full integrated radios in CMOS technologies. Transistor design techniques for
operating CMOS with optimised low power and high speed as well as system-level
design trade-offs for low-power were presented.
Session D3: Advances in III-V Devices. Chairperson: H. L. Hartnagel (Germany)
Advances in III-V devices have been presented based both on power handling as
well as on new material solutions for high breakdown voltages. These two basic
papers were followed by contributed concepts of complementary logic for
portable electronics, harmonic power extraction from Electron Transfer devices
and a new material scheme by GaAsN.
Session D4: Wide Band Gap Devices, Chairperson: M. Shur (USA)
Wide band gap
devices based on SiC and GaN have a long and illustrious history going back to
1907 (if not before), when the first SiC Light Emitting Diode was reported.
However, it is only relatively recently that the dramatic advances in the
growth and doping technologies of these materials made it possible to
demonstrate a new generation of wide band gap semiconductor devices that
promise to find many important practical applications, ranging from consumer
electronics, power industry and medicine to avionics and defence. The papers in
this session reviewed the state of the art of this rapidly developing
technology and presented new original results on wide band gap electronic and
optoelectronic devices.
Session D5, Advances in Device Modelling, Chairperson: C.M. Snowden.
Success of
first pass design of MMIC and RF circuits critically depends on the accuracy of
the model of the devices. This session reported recent developments of the
device modelling for microwave active devices including MESFET, HFET and HBT.
Both empirical and physical models were considered. Innovative approaches to
make the model efficient, such as quasi-two dimensional models as well as those
on noise and thermal phenomena were presented.
Session D6, Optical Interconnects, Chairperson : B. Mroziewicz (Poland)
The
programme of the Session covered most of the topics that constitute now the
domain called "Optical Interconnects". They extended from the integrated
optoelectronic devices up to the large optical communication links and
systems.
Session D7, Optoelectronic Devices and Integration, Chairperson: K. Tada
(Japan)
In the first three invited talks the most recent results have been
reported on monolithic integration in vertical (surface-normal), horizontal
(waveguide) and free-space micro-optic configurations. Similarly, newest
results have been presented in the latter two invited talks for hybrid
integration based on silica and polymer. Two contributed papers were concerned
with high-speed MQW waveguide modulators and gain-coupled DFB laser diodes.
Session D8: Squeezed Light and Photonic Band Gap Devices, Chairpersons: W.N.
Cheung (Australia) and J. Arnaud (France)
Papers presented were related to
squeezed light: theory, generation and system application. There were some
interesting discussions after each presentation. The final paper was on the use
of finite-difference time domain method of analysis for photonic band gap
devices.
Session D9, Wireless Circuits and Components, Chairperson: J. Hénaff
(France)
Wireless applications have shown an impressive increase over the last
few years with the development of personal communication services (PCS) and
wireless local area network (WLAN) as well as wireless access for intelligent
highway systems. The session reviewed the situation regarding the main problems
raised by mobile communications and automobile collision avoidance radar
systems: - millimetre-wave components, circuits and systems, - improvement in
low power electronics, and SAW devices like intermediate frequency filters and
duplexers, such devices are very useful owing to their compactness, planar
nature and low cost.
Session DB1, Comprehensive Electromagnetic Modelling, Chairpersons: R.
Sorrentino (Italy) and P. Russer (Germany)
As the frequency of operation becomes higher and higher, and the packing
density of microwave circuits (including passive and active devices) is
increased, a comprehensive or global simulation is required. Comprehensive
simulations account for electromagnetic interaction phenomena among various
components of the circuit itself as well as between the circuit and the
package. The session reviewed the state of the art in this rapidly developing
area, including both time domain and frequency domain modelling.
Session DC: Microwave/optical Interactions, Chairpersons: C. Someda (Italy) and
H. Ogawa (Japan)
Microwave/Optical interactions are one of the emerging technologies for
wireless applications. A microwave (MW) and millimeter-wave (MW) signal
distribution over fiber, MW and MMW signal generation by optical devices, MW
and MMW optical simulators and detectors, and optical beamforming networks were
presented in the session.
Session D-ICO: Nonlinear Optical Phenomena and Devices in Transmission Systems,
Chairperson: A. Seeds (UK)
The session comprised five invited papers covering both applications of, and
limitations due to non-linearity in optical transmission systems. Subjects
covered included non-linear gain in semiconductor lasers, use of quantum-well
saturable absorbers in soliton lasers, dispersion management in soliton
transmission systems and effect of fibre non-linearities on wavelength division
multiplex optical transmission systems.
Session D-IWPG: Wideband Characterization of Printed Circuits, Chairpersons:
T.K. Sarkar (USA), D. Jaeger (Germany), and E. Miller (USA)
The objective of
this session was to present an overview of the various signal processing
techniques to speed up numerical computations. In this way wideband
characterization of printed circuits can be effectively achieved in reasonable
time. The papers of the session were divided into time domain and frequency
domain techniques.