NECINA SemiTech Special Interest Group (SIG) Seminar
Time: 6:30pm to 9:00pm, Thursday, April 16, 2009
Venue: Foley Hoag LLP, 1000 Winter St, North Entrance, Suite 4000, Waltham, MA
To register, please go to http://www.acteva.com/booking.cfm?bevaid=180095

Topics:            
1. Technologies for Analog, Mixed Signal, RF and mmWave ICs
Analog and RF ICs are key enablers for advanced communications which have dramatically changed our daily life in many ways. This talk will first review the semiconductor IC market and the evolving applications. It will then cover different technology options and technology roadmap from leading foundry for analog/RF/mmWave IC designs. Device menus for advanced RFCMOS, SiGe BiCMOS, and high performance RF passives will be presented. It will provide insightful guidance in choosing proper technologies for appropriate applications with considerations of device performance scaling impact, system requirement, and cost.

2. CMOS Silicon on Insulator:  Enabling changes in RF designs
Silicon on insulator (SOI) refers to the use of an insulator substrate instead of conventional silicon substrates in semiconductor manufacturing to reduce device parasitic and improve performance. After a journey of more than 20 years and leveraging with low currents consumption and high speed, SOI triumphantly shows off its successes in digital and mixed signal IC, from processors to game consoles. Benefiting from low cost and high integration, it is also quietly reaching into high performance RF/MW field which traditionally is dominated by III-V compound. The purpose of this talk is to give an overview of SOI from RF circuit designers’ perspective, and to share with you what SOI has substituted, and what kind of innovations may be enabled in multi-mode multi-band front end module as well as in millimeter wave fields.

Agenda
6:30pm-7:00pm Networking (Pizza will be served)
7:00pm-7:40pm RF/Analog Technology (Dawn Wang )
7:40pm-7:55pm Questions and Answers
7:55pm-8:15pm RF CMOS SOI (Dr. Yang Li )
8:15pm-8:30pm Questions and Answers

Speakers            
Dawn Wang is a senior foundry application engineer in IBM Microelectronics. She had also held various senior technical positions in Texas Instruments and TriQuint Semiconductors in technology and product development for RF, Analog/Mixed Signal (AMS) integrated circuits. Dawn has published technical papers and holds US patents in RF/AMS designs. She is a member in wireless working group of International Technology Roadmap of Semiconductor (ITRS).
Dawn Wang received her BSEE and MSEE from Tsinghua University in China. She also received her M. S. in Solid State Physics from Arizona State University.

Dr. Yang Li is a principal engineer in Skyworks developing 3G/LTE power amplifier and front-end module. Before joining Skyworks, he was with Peregrine Semiconductor working on RF front-end designs on SOI. He also co-founded XEL focusing on short-range wireless communication technologies.

Yang Li received his B.S. and Ph.D. in Electronic Engineering from Tsinghua University, Beijing, China, in 1996 and 2001, respectively.

Registration:
This event is open to all public. To register, please go to http://www.acteva.com/booking.cfm?bevaid=180095
 
Organizers: Bo Zhang<bzhg2000@...>, Dawn Wang <dawn_wang@...> and Yang Li <edwardliyang@...>

For more information, please visit the following sites
NECINA Semi SIG:  http://www.yahoogroups.com/groups/necina_sig_semiconductor
NECINA: http://www.necina.org/
Event Sponsor: Foley Hoag LLC http://www.foleyhoag.com/

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NECINA Optics Special Interest Group (SIG) Seminar
Time: 2:00pm to 5:00pm, Saturday, April 11, 2009
Location: Finisar Corporation, 36 Jonspin Road, Wilmington, MA 01887
Topic: Optical Imaging

Agenda:
2:00pm-2:30pm Networking Time
2:30pm-2:45pm Introduction
2:45pm-3:45pm Computational Photography: From Epsilon to Coded Photography, Professor Ramesh Raskar, Media Lab, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
3:45pm-4:00pm Break
4:00pm-5:00pm aNIRS: towards ambulatory monitoring of cerebral vascular diseases, Prof. Quan Zhang, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School

Organizers: Xifeng Qian, Hongzhi Zhao, Qingwu Wang, Yong Qiao, Xueyan Zheng, Frank Fan, and Yi Qian

Abstract:
Computational Photography is an emerging multi-disciplinary field that is at the intersection of optics, signal processing, computer graphics+vision, electronics, art, and online sharing in social networks. The field is evolving through three phases. The first phase was about building a super-camera that has enhanced performance in terms of the traditional parameters, such as dynamic range, field of view or depth of field. I call this Epsilon Photography. Due to limited capabilities of a camera, the scene is sampled via multiple photos, each captured by epsilon variation of the camera parameters. It corresponds to the low-level vision: estimating pixels and pixel features. The second phase is building tools that go beyond capabilities of this super-camera. I call this Coded Photography. The goal here is to reversibly encode information about the scene in a single photograph (or a very few photographs) so that the corresponding decoding allows powerful decomposition of the image into light fields, motion deblurred images, global/direct illumination components or distinction between geometric versus material discontinuities. This corresponds to the mid-level vision: segmentation, organization, inferring shapes, materials and edges. The third phase will be about going beyond the radiometric quantities and challenging the notion that a camera should mimic a single-chambered human eye. Instead of recovering physical parameters, the goal will be to capture the visual essence of the scene and analyze the perceptually critical components. I call this Essence Photography and it may loosely resemble depiction of the world after high level vision processing. It will spawn new forms of visual artistic expression and communication. In this talk, I will focus on Coded Photography. 'Less is more' in Coded Photography. By blocking light over time or space, we can preserve more details about the scene in the recorded single photograph. I will show several applications and describe emerging techniques to recover scene parameters from coded photographs.

Prof. Ramesh Raskar joined the MIT Media Lab in spring 2008 as head of the Camera Culture research group. The group focuses on developing tools to help us better capture and share the visual experience. This research involves developing novel cameras with unusual optical elements, programmable illumination, digital wavelength control, and femtosecond analysis of light transport, as well as tools to decompose pixels into perceptually meaningful components. Prof. Raskar's research also involves creating a universal platform for the sharing and consumption of visual media. Prof. Raskar received his PhD from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he introduced "Shader Lamps," a novel method for seamlessly merging synthetic elements into the real world using projector-camera based spatial augmented reality. In 2004, he received the TR100 Award from Technology Review, which recognizes top young innovators under the age of 35, and in 2003, the Global Indus Technovator Award, instituted at MIT to recognize the top 20 Indian technology innovators worldwide. He holds 35 US patents and has received four Mitsubishi Electric Invention Awards. He is currently co-authoring a book on computational photography. http://raskar.info

Abstract:
Near-infrared spectroscopy and diffuse optical imaging (NIRS-DOI) is a new technology. Because of its noninvasive nature, it arouses more and more scientists' interest to see if NIRS-DOI can be used to diagnose cerebral vascular diseases and women's breast cancer. More and more papers has been published in this area.

Dr. Zhang has been engaged in scientific research of NIRS-DOI since 1998 and published more than 20 papers in this topic. Today, his talk will focus on the following issues:
· Basic principle of Near Infrared Spectroscopy (NIRS) and Diffuse Optical Imaging (DOI);
· aNIRS: ambulatory Near Infrared Spectroscopy; · Current related projects and results; Towards ambulatory monitoring of cerebral vascular diseases;

Dr. Quan Zhang joined Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), Harvard Medical School as an assistant professor in 2007. Since 2004, he has been the director of two laboratories, i.e. Biomedical Optics Laboratory, the Center for Engineering in Medicine and Biomedical Engineering Laboratory, Neural System Group. He has also been the consultant in photon migration modeling in Intelligent Medical Devices, LLC, Cambridge, MA, and the consultant in Near-infrared (NIR) spectroscopy and imaging the director Advanced Research Technologies Inc, Montreal, Canada. Currently, his group focuses on two areas:
1) Non-invasive fast optical imaging of visual and motor processing, which aims to non-invasively monitor neural activity using methods that may be suitable for functional brain imaging in populations with developmental disorders;
2) Diffusion optical tomography (DOT) and fMRI studies of visual perception and imagery, which conducts a systematic validation of the true potential and limitations of DOT as a cognitive neuroscience tool in adults by recording simultaneously DOT and fMRI data during established visual stimulation paradigms

Prof. Zhang received his PhD from Xi'an Jiaotong University in 1998. He holds at least 5 US patents.
http://www.nmr.mgh.harvard.edu/martinos/people/showPerson.php?people_id=193

For more information, please visit the following sites:
NECINA Optics SIG: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NECINA_SIG_Optics/
NECINA: http://www.necina.org/

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NECINA Career Development Center Seminar
Financial Planning in an Uncertain Economy

Time: 6: 00 pm - 9:00 pm, Thursday March 19, 2009
Venue: Foley Hoag, 1000 Winter Street, North Entrance, Suite 4000, Waltham, MA 02451
Cost: Free for NECINA members and guests Seats are limited, online registration required.
Please RSVP at: http://www.acteva.com/booking.cfm?bevaid=177536

Are you looking for financial planning advice during this uncertain economy? Are you planning your retirement for success or failure? Are you changing jobs or will be separated from your current employer soon?

If your answer is YES to any of the questions above or you have a general interest in seeing your investments grow, you cannot afford to miss this NECINA career development seminar!

At this session, you would learn how the evolving economy can become an opportunity to grow your savings and investments. We have the views of three Financial Advisors with proven experience. They have committed to giving NECINA Members Best Known Methods and concrete information about finances, the do's and the don'ts.

Agenda:
6:00pm - 7:00 pm Pizza and Networking
7:00pm - 7:05pm Opening Remarks
7:05pm - 7:45pm Speech: Today's Financial Planning and Wealth Management
7:45pm - 8:30pm Panel discussion: How to protect your golden nest in uncertain economy
8:30pm - 9:00pm More Networking

Speakers Bio:
Eric Guenard & Clark Page are both Financial Advisors at Ameriprise Financial Services, Inc., Charlestown, MA.

The speech focus is on Personal financial planning for retirement, education funding, retirement plan distribution, retirement income strategies, protection planning/ family security, investments, wealth preservation strategies and tax management strategies.

VIP Panelist: Kaibin Wu

Kaibin Wu, LUTCF, is a Registered Financial Services Representative with 16 Years experience in the field. His achievements include Leaders Conference Award and Million Dollar Round Table Award. He is the Board member of O.C.E.A.N. (Overseas Chinese-American Entrepreneurs Association Network), and Chair of Investment Club in O.C.E.A.N.

Please visit www.necina.org for more information about the events and NECINA.