The International Solid State Circuits Conference (ISSCC) is scheduled to take place from February 3rd -7th 2008 in San Francisco, California. Regional conferences are also scheduled to be held from November 26th to December 3rd in Japan, Taiwan, Korea and China.Statistics have shown that NTU ranks the sixth place in global industrial and academic institutions, and starting from 2005, NTU has occupied the first place in academic institutions for six years in succession. This year NTU has seven theses accepted for presentation at ISSCC, a feat that remains unrivalled in the world!

  To express his gratitude for Media Tek and TSMC's contributions to NTU, President Si-chen Lee presented Certificates of Appreciation to these two semiconductor companies during the ISSCC 2008 Press Conference and the ISSCC 2008 Banquet and NTU ISSCC Paper Contribution Appreciation which were held in Taipei on November 28th.President Lee emphasized that, although NTU's remarkable performance in ISSCC is largely attributable to the efforts put forth by faculty and students, the support from Taiwan's semiconductor industry also plays a pivotal role. He specifically mentioned Media Tek's sponsorship of N.T. 100 million in the past five years to set up the "NTU/Media Tek Wireless Communication Laboratory" and its offer of scholarships to students whose papers are accepted for presentation. In addition, President Lee said that the "International Research Project" was instrumental in the development of the cutting edge 90 nanometer production process. As he pointed out, the research project was a collaboration among TSMC, UC Berkeley, Stanford and NTU.

  The theme of ISSCC 2008 centers around "System Integration for Life and Style," and the main purpose of the conference is to explore the sustained progress of semiconductor technology in the nanometer sector and the increased applications of related electronic systems. As the enhancement of integration capability induced the development of a number of new systems, mankind's lifestyle was changed considerably. In view of this change, contributors of papers to ISSCC need to demonstrate their potentials at integrating circuits, while showing their ability toward developing new systems which will make contributions to the evolution of mankind's lifestyle.

  ISSCC is of vital importance in the academic and industrial circles. The standards for theses selection are quite rigorous. Besides innovative ideas, all theses submitted to ISSCC must be accompanied by proof of actual technical products. This year Taiwan has 13 theses accepted for presentation at ISSCC, of which NTU occupies the majority, ranking No.1 in Taiwan, and No. 6 in the global industrial and academic institutions. Starting from 2005, NTU has taken the first place in academic institutions for four years in a row, demonstrating its superb research and development capability.

  A very important reason for NTU's outstanding academic performance is the strong support and participation from Taiwan's industry. Of the seven theses accepted by ISSCC, five are from the "NTU/Media Tek Wireless Communication Laboratory", and all five used the cutting edge 90 nanometer production process provided by the research project initiated by TSMC. Successful cooperation between university and industry is the deciding factor in NTU's research achievements which top the world.

  In this year's theses accepted by ISSCC, Associate Professor Jri Lee's paper on "A 20 Gb/s Duyoobinary Transceivering 90 nm CMOS"was accepted for presentation. Last year his paper on "A 75 GHz PLL in 90nm CMOS Technology" won the ISSCC Beatrice winner Award, making him the first scholar from Taiwan to win this award, and the first non Japanese, American, and European scholar to obtain such honor. That Dr. Lee is able to have theses accepted by ISSCC for two years in succession truly epitomizes the superb research capability of NTU!!