Message from the Chair

Dear Colleagues,

On behalf of the Organising Committee, it is my great honour and pleasure to invite you to the 36^th International Symposium on Power Semiconductor Devices and ICs (ISPSD’24), which will be held from the 2^nd to the 6^th of June 2024 in the concert hall “Die Glocke” in Bremen, Germany.

Since the first meeting held in Tokyo in 1988, ISPSD has established itself as the premier and truly international forum for technical discussions on all aspects of power semiconductor devices and integrated circuits. In the meantime, the conference location is rotating among Japan, North America, Other Areas and Europe and in 2024 it is Europe’s turn again.

The Free Hanseatic City of Bremen is a historic merchant city taking the cosmopolitan legacy of the Hanseatic League into modern times. The city even preserved some of its independence by being a state of its own within the Federal Republic of Germany and is situated in the northwest of the country on the banks of the river Weser, about 60 km upstream from the harbour of Bremerhaven and the open North Sea. Besides trading and logistics, Bremen is well-known for its food industry including the famous Beck’s brewery and for its engineering industry including the biggest Mercedes factory and the aeronautics and space industry with its roots going back to the airplane manufacturer Focke-Wulf. But Bremen is also a cultural place with many renowned museums like the Kunsthalle (art museum) with French and German paintings from the 19^th and 20^th century as its highlights, the Überseemuseum (natural history and ethnographic museum) or the Universum (science museum). And just around the corner of the conference venue, there is the market square with its traditional red brick buildings like the historic city hall, the statue of knight Roland (both together UNESCO world heritage site) and the cathedral as the origin of the city. Or you just say hello to the famous Bremen Town Musicians, whose sculpture is attached to the city call. An alternative for history enthusiasts is the historic quarter of Schnoor, which survived the war and provides an impression of the old days. More recent history can be experienced in the Böttcherstraße, an old alley next to the market square, which was rebuilt in the 1920s in a special version of the Expressionist style. Or enjoy “Das Viertel” (the quarter) with its vibrant life in bars and other Bohemian places or the flair at the bank of the river Weser with restaurants along the former site of the medieval harbour. There are many exciting places to discover and I am sure, you and your family will enjoy the stay in Bremen!

The technical programme starts with 4 outstanding plenary speakers, representing each of the conference regions. The speakers, this time all from industry, go beyond the power devices’ core field and look into other aspects of device technology and device application. They set the stage for the submitted contributions, which have been selected by the Technical Program Committee (TPC) under the guidance of TPC Chair Prof Ulrike Grossner, ETH Zurich. This year, the selection has been made from 338 submitted abstracts (331 regular and 7 late news), which is almost exactly the record high number of ISPSD2020 in virtual Vienna. The submissions originated from 19 different countries with 20% of the papers coming from Europe, 62 % from Other Areas (mainly China, Taiwan, Korea), 11 % from Japan and 7 % from North America, underlining the truly global character of the conference, but at the same time the increasing impact of Asia/Pacific on the power semiconductor community. This is also reflected in the top 5 countries in the submission statistics, with 183 abstracts from China, 36 from Japan, 28 from Germany, 23 from United States, and 17 from Taiwan. Again, the SiC and GaN tracks attracted the highest numbers of submissions with 104 and 94, respectively. Low Voltage (50) and High Voltage (43) devices had a strong submission as well, whilst Modules & Packaging Technology (26) and IC Design (14) still contribute substantially.

From these submissions 42 lectures and 99 posters have been selected for presentation. With an acceptance rate of 12.7 % for lectures and 42.6 % over all, ISPSD continues to be most selective and stands out in its quality of contributions to the field of power semiconductor devices. I would like to thank all authors for being the strong backbone of the ISPSD by sharing their thoughts and achievements and by preparing some of the most influential papers of the field. And I would like to thank Prof Grossner and the entire TPC for their enormous effort and the detailed as well as fair assessment of every single submission.

The conference will also offer an educative Short Course on Sunday, 2^nd of June. The short course has been arranged by the Short Course Chair Prof Florin Udrea, University of Cambridge, and consists of 7 presentations with a focus on wide band-gap (WBG) devices. The programme starts with an overview of SiC power devices, their fundamentals and their remaining challenges (Prof Tsunenobu Kimoto, Kyoto University). The second presentation is about power ICs made from GaN, the required technology and the potential benefit (Prof Kevin J. Chen, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology). In the third presentation the technological challenges of SiC devices and current trends are discussed (Dr Andrei Mihaila, StarPower Europe). A more general topic is the circular economy and how power electronics and devices can be developed to contribute (Prof Johann W. Kolar and Dr Jonas Huber, ETH Zurich). As the SiC MOSFET matures, the structures and technology become more and more elaborate and demanding (Prof Kuang Sheng, Zhejiang University). Controlling WBG devices is another challenge. Concepts and topologies are discussed (Dr Nicolas Rouger, University of Toulouse). Finally, a glimpse into the future of WBG and ultra-WBG devices reveals multidimensional architectures and the required technology (Prof Yuhao Zhang, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University). I would like to thank Prof Udrea and all the short course speakers for their dedication and effort to arrange this exciting programme.

I would also like to thank our sponsors for their generous donations enabling this conference and our exhibitors complementing the peer-reviewed technical programme with cutting-edge technology on display. Take the chance to visit their stands and to learn more about their exciting offerings.

Finally, I would like to thank the GUARANT International team in Prague (Administration and Local Arrangements), especially the project leader Ms Pavla Hlinková, for handling every single detail of the conference professionally, patiently and after all, perfectly and the ISPSD Advisory Committee for their support. And I will not close before I have sent a thank you to my team at the University of Bremen for their support and understanding and our Chancellor for her backing. Organising ISPSD is fun, but sometimes also quite demanding. Therefore, my family deserves a huge hug. Thank you!

Now, I am looking forward to welcoming all of you to Bremen, to the concert hall “Die Glocke” and to the ISPSD’24. May it become an insightful, rewarding and memorable visit with many good chats to the colleagues and friends.

Sincerely yours