The National Microelectronics Institute (NMI), the trade association representing the semiconductor industry in the UK and Ireland, in collaboration with the UK’s nanoCMOS project, is to hold Europe’s first international conference dedicated to the subject of CMOS variability. The conference will take place on 23rd October at the Royal College of Physicians, London.

‘Design for variability’ will bring together world leading companies representing the complete semiconductor supply-chain and major research initiatives in order to analyse the far-reaching implications of variability on semiconductor design and to promote collaboration between industry players. The opening keynote address entitled “Variability in next generation CMOS technologies and impact on Design” will be followed by four speaker sessions:

• Session 1: ‘Design Concepts’ (IMEC, University of Manchester and STARC)
• Session 2: ‘Design implementation & tools’ (Mentor Graphics, Synopsys and Cadence.)
• Session 3: ‘Semiconductor Technologies’ (IBM, Freescale and TSMC.)
• Session 4: ‘IP Development & Research’ (ARM)

These sessions will then be followed by a panel debate entitled, “Integration and Collaboration in the Era of Design for Variability (DfV)”. In addition to the main conference, delegates are also offered the opportunity to attend two complementary satellite events. Consisting of half-day reviews, the events will introduce delegates to the research highlights from two major multidisciplinary UK research projects in the fields of device, circuit and system design. Taking place on 22 October, “Meeting the material challenges of nano-CMOS electronics” will summarise state of the art research in materials modelling and electrical device simulations. And on 24 October, the UK eScience pilot project “Meeting the design challenges of nano-CMOS electronics” will present developments in multiscale and grid enabled TCAD and ECD device simulation.