I would like to extend a warm welcome to the technical leaders in power semiconductor devices and integrated circuits to the 20th International Symposium on Power Semiconductor Devices and ICs (ISPSD’08). This tremendously exciting field continues to advance rapidly and deliver extraordinary value to society by reducing electrical energy consumption, lowering the cost of power delivery, and cutting greenhouse gas and other emissions. The result is reduced costs for all goods and services and a positive environmental impact worldwide.

The conference returns every third year to North America, this time to Florida, after very successful events in Jeju Island, Korea and Naples, Italy. The enthusiastic attendance for both the Asian and European venues is a great indicator of the growing importance of this forum and our field. This makes me very optimistic for another excellent exchange of ideas and advancements in the electrical power management field.

This year, the conference had 130 submissions from 17 countries. The geographic distribution of these had 46 papers coming from Europe, 49 from Asia, and 35 from North America. The countries with the most contributions were the United States with 32, Japan with 29, Korea with 11, Germany with 10, France and United Kingdom with 8, and Switzerland with 6. To balance the paper distribution, the ExCom decided to separate the silicon high-voltage device papers from the wide bandgap ones. After this, we had 40 papers submitted to the Silicon High Voltage Committee, 33 to the Wide Bandgap High Voltage Committee, 32 to the Low Voltage and RF Committee, and 25 to the Integrated Power Committee.

The program includes 3 invited plenary, 35 contributed oral presentations, and 45 poster presentations, for about a 61% overall acceptance rate. In addition to the submitted papers, the conference will offer the following programs:

• An exciting short course program on Sunday before the conference in four segments: Superjunction Devices by Drs. Gerald Deboy and Florin Udrea, IGBT devices by Dr. Stefan Linder, SiC and GaN Power Devices by Dr. Mrindal Das and myself respectively, High-Voltage Power IC by Dr. Don Disney.

• Plenary speakers to open the conference, beginning with Dr. Edward Stanford informing us about Environmental trends and Opportunities for Computer Power Delivery, followed by Dr. Shimada discussing a new ac current switch and concluding with Dr. Thomas Stockmeier on trends in power semiconductor modules.

Many thanks go to all those who have helped with the arrangements and worked tirelessly for this conference, in particular, Dr. Mohamed Darwish as our Technical Program Chair, Dr. Don Disney as our Publicity Chair, Dr. Gary Dolny as our Publications Chair, Professor John Shen as our Local Arrangements Chair and Professor Alex Huang as the Short Course Chair. We all very much appreciate the support of our international technical program committee, who enabled us to accept the latest and finest technical work to include in the program. I am grateful to Dr. Seki for his help in arranging for excellent plenary speakers from Asia. My thanks also go to Valerie Chaisson, Minzhi Cao, and my able graduate students for their help with administration, the web site, and a host of other issues.

Orlando, Florida is one of the most attractive entertainment destinations in the world, with the flagship attractions being Walt Disney’s Magic Kingdom and other World Resorts.  In addition, being located near the central region of Florida, Orlando is close to most of the other tourist destinations in Florida. To the east is the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral and Daytona Beach; to the west is the Tampa-Clearwater area in which Busch Garden is situated; to the southeast is the world-famous Miami Beach; and, to the southwest is the long chain of Key West Islands. Also, the climate in May is near ideal, with dependable sunshine and comfortable temperature. The beaches, entertainment sites, golf courses, fishing and boating activities, and many other attractions offer a variety of enjoyment to go with the learning. There will be opportunities for spouses and families to participate in local tours to take in the many interesting aspects of the region. I, together with the whole organizing committee, really look forward to seeing you there!

T. Paul Chow

General Chairman
ISPSD’08