3D InCites Podcast
3D InCites Podcast
The Wireless Golden Gateway: Why Advanced Packaging Professionals Should Attend IMS 2025
The IEEE MTTS International Microwave Symposium attracts over 9,000 attendees and 500+ exhibitors to share cutting-edge developments in RF, microwave, and advanced packaging technologies. Tim Hancock and Jim Buckwalter from the IMS committee explain why this premier event, taking place in San Francisco's Moscone Center from June 15-20, has become increasingly relevant to professionals in advanced packaging and heterogeneous integration.
• Approximately 15% of accepted papers directly address packaging and heterogeneous integration topics
• Papers undergo rigorous double-blind review with an in-person committee meeting to ensure highest quality content
• Technical focus includes laminate technology, chip stacking, thermal management, and other critical packaging technologies
• Special workshops address 3D heterogeneous integration, millimeter-wave phased arrays, and advanced packaging solutions
• Exhibition floor features 500+ companies providing networking opportunities and technology discovery
• Student programs include design competitions, volunteer opportunities, and dedicated sessions for underrepresented groups
• Early bird registration ends May 16th with regular registration continuing at ims-ieee.org
Register at ims-ieee.org to secure your spot and book accommodations before they fill up.
The 2025 IEEE MTT-S IMS is the largest event for RF and microwave professionals in the world.
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This episode of the 3D InCites Podcast is sponsored by the 2025 IEEE MTTS International Microwave Symposium, or IMS 2025. This is the largest event for RF and microwave professionals in the world, attracting over 9,000 attendees and more than 500 exhibitors from 65 countries, taking place in San Francisco from June 15th to the 20th. This is the best place to discover cutting-edge technologies, connect with top leaders and gain valuable insights to stay ahead in this rapidly expanding industry. Explore new possibilities at this wireless golden gateway. Register at ims-ieeeorg.
Francoise von Trapp:Hi there, I'm Francoise von Trapp, and this is the 3D InCites Podcast. Hi everyone, the IEEE MTT-S International Microwave Symposium is just one month away, starting on June 15th. In fact, tomorrow, may 16th, is the early bird deadline. So, before you listen any further and forget, hit the pause button on your listening device, go register and then come back to hear why you don't want to miss this year's event. I am sitting here with Tim Hancock and Jim Buckwalter, who are both members of the IMS committee, and they're here to talk about the conference and why it's really important for members of the advanced packaging community to start consider attending.
Francoise von Trapp:Welcome to the podcast, guys, thank you. So before we dive in, can you each just give me a little backstory what your roles are, what your roles have been at IMS and what your day jobs are? Why don't you go first Tim?
Tim Hancock:Great. So in my day job, I am a principal technical fellow for Raytheon in our advanced technology business, where I'm the director of microelectronics initiatives, which really encompasses a lot of our work around compound semiconductors 3D heterogeneous integration of our work around compound semiconductors 3D heterogeneous integration and packaging of a mix of 3-5 devices with silicon and things of that nature. As far as IMS goes, I'm a longtime volunteer for IEEE. I've been involved with the conference and the society for nearly 20 years at this point. I have chaired a number of sessions. I was the technical program co-chair in 2019. I'm an advisor this year for 2025, as I will be the general co-chair for 2026 the following year. To maintain continuity, we make sure to have multiple years involved.
Francoise von Trapp:I'm familiar with the IEEE ECTC conference which is coming right up, and I know it's like this seven-year commitment and you progress through the different roles and I don't know if that's the same for IMS.
Tim Hancock:It varies depending on the role. We certainly have people that become longtime volunteers and rotate through multiple roles.
Francoise von Trapp:Okay, and Jim, what about you?
Jim Buckwalter:Yeah, I'm a professor of electrical and computer engineering at the University of California, santa Barbara, and a founder and chief technical officer at Pseudolithic, a startup company founded to commercialize heterogeneous integrated circuits for the microwave and millimeter wave spectrum. I've been a longtime member of MTTS. I'm a fellow of the IEEE and an elected member of the ADCOM, which administers MTTS activities. In that role, I'm the chair of the Technical Coordination and Future Directions Committee. I've previously been the co-chair of the Technical Program Committee at IMS 2010 and 2020.
Francoise von Trapp:Okay, First of all for our listeners, can you explain what this conference is all about?
Tim Hancock:So the International Microwave Symposium is really the premier microwave conference of IEEE. This includes technology and techniques, but it also includes integrated circuits. It's really composed of multiple events within the week. We start off the week with the RFIC symposium, so those are typically silicon integrated circuits, although as things are changing, as the technology changes, it's not always silicon these days focused on monolithic integration and as the week progresses it gets into a broader set of microwave technology. That would include things like packaging technology. That would include things like packaging filters, a small amount of antennas, discrete microwave components and a wide variety of microwave technologies. In addition, you know, this really includes, I guess from a technical standpoint, almost 3,000 technical attendees and papers that run the entire week. In addition to the technical attendees with the papers, we have over 500 exhibitors for a total of about 900 total booths, which often fills an entire convention center.
Francoise von Trapp:Okay, so you're telling me that some of the exhibitors have more than one booth?
Tim Hancock:No, that's exactly right. So in some cases, the exhibitors will have multiple booths as well, as we have universities that have booths. Ieee has some booths, and so it really becomes this premier event that approaches 9,000 total attendees. It's really the place to be during June for anybody that works within the microwave industry.
Francoise von Trapp:So where is this taking place this year?
Tim Hancock:This year we'll be in San Francisco, in the Moscone.
Francoise von Trapp:Aha, okay, I'm familiar with the Moscone Center. You definitely need your good walking shoes. Maybe heelies Get around. This is the event that's grown from past years.
Tim Hancock:It's to be seen right. We'll see who shows up and what the final registration numbers are, but I think we're on track to do quite well, as many conferences have. After COVID, there was certainly a dip and a regrowth period, I would say, and so I think, from what I've seen, 2025 is on track to have great attendance with excellent numbers.
Jim Buckwalter:It's an excellent location for a conference like this. San Francisco Silicon Valley. There's a lot of companies in the space industry and communications chip business that'll be attracted, I think, to coming to the meeting.
Francoise von Trapp:What is driving the growth of this event? Do you think?
Jim Buckwalter:I think personally that IMS gives a vertical view of the ecosystem. It's a great place for people to learn about the technology. We have excellent workshops. I myself am giving a workshop on Sunday. I also encourage my students to come to learn the basics of the technology. But it's a great place for experts to come and hear about new emerging trends and, just from the strength of the exhibition, kind of get a sense of where the industry is going by talking to industry leaders as well as academic researchers.
Francoise von Trapp:Would you say the content is more like emerging content, or is there a lot of commercial content as well?
Tim Hancock:I would say that it's actually both.
Tim Hancock:The academic content fills up a portion of the technical papers, which is then often complemented by the exhibitors as part of the technical program, in addition to the peer-reviewed papers that are published by IEEE, we also have industry workshops, we have boot camp, which are more tutorial-based and is a great way for students and new professionals to the area to get exposed to certain topics and often those are emerging topics to certain topics, and often those are emerging topics.
Tim Hancock:And so, as an example, that has fed some of the growth is things like quantum computing, the addition of more AI and ML, either for the design of microwave circuits and packaging, or to design systems that are performing AI ML, whether that is the packaging of compute devices and signal integrity and things of that nature that would matter to the packaging community. And so I would say some of the growth that you asked about is really because it is such a broad technology that impacts so many different market segments, whether it is 5G, defense, aerospace applications, as we see the proliferation of low Earth orbit satellite, which needs an immense amount of communication, we see microwave technology being really the backbone of many of those market segments, when you look at even the devices that the average person carries, whether it's your watch, or your phone or your laptop. Each one of those often has multiple radios in them, and a lot of that work grew out of work that was published at the conference over the years.
Francoise von Trapp:You said before that they were peer-reviewed papers and you have, I think, a total of 456 papers accepted. How are the speakers and papers selected? What's the process that the speakers go through to actually be able to present at this event?
Tim Hancock:So right now we have the RFIC and the IMS conference that are part of the microwave week, and those each have a technical program review committee, and so those are made up of technical volunteers and the papers are submitted. They're self-selecting into certain categories. My paper fits into category A, b or C, let's say into certain categories, my paper fits into category A, b or C, let's say. And then the review committee vets those and makes sure that it's well aligned with that topic area and then they're reviewed by subject matter experts. In some cases each conference is a little bit different, but in some cases a double-blind process, and that's done so that the author's identity is protected during that review, so that that integrity is maintained during the review process. Once the papers are selected and discussed by the review committees, then sessions are formed, the conference is put together and then authors are notified accordingly.
Jim Buckwalter:And I would add, I think these conferences are excellent for both academic researchers, students trying to get their first paper or even their last paper of their PhD Accepted, to show the kind of cornerstone work they've done. The conference is really good about bringing industry papers in as well and kind of giving a spotlight to research trends. So I think it's a great kind of focal point for both academic and industry papers point for both academic and industry papers.
Francoise von Trapp:You know I had never realized or thought about the process of having a double blind and not revealing the authors of the paper. Why is that important?
Tim Hancock:Well, we think it's important to combat. You know some of the challenges that you might see in a conference where you know your subject matter. Experts that are often writing papers are sometimes also the people in the community that are participating in the review. Obviously, if you have a conflict, they step away from the review so that they're not reviewing any of their own work. But as part of that double-blind process, we go to great lengths to make sure that specific language in the papers are avoided, right, so we make sure that there's no sentences that are, you know, in reference three I showed, right. That's a dead giveaway, because then obviously you go look up reference three and you know who that author is, right.
Tim Hancock:And so we give very specific instructions to not use language like that in the reviewers, and then the actual PDF files are stripped of the authors when they submit their manuscript for review so that it can be blind. Obviously the TPC chairs know who the authors are and they can deal with any conflicts, but the reviewers are able to review the papers blind.
Francoise von Trapp:Also, in addition to the authors, are the companies or organizations that the authors are affiliated with. Are those also stripped from the papers?
Tim Hancock:Absolutely yeah, the affiliations are removed, their authors' names are removed and you avoid specific languages like that so that you don't tie back to any references.
Jim Buckwalter:The chairs of the committees do an immense amount of work to kind of review the papers before they go to committee members to make sure that everybody the papers have conformed to that standard. It's a little more work on the front end, I think, of the review process for some of the committee chairs, but at the end of the day it's in the name of making a more impartial decision process.
Francoise von Trapp:So you're really getting papers presented that are based on their content value according to the selection committee.
Tim Hancock:Yes, that's correct.
Francoise von Trapp:That should guarantee the quality of what's being presented.
Jim Buckwalter:I've come back year after year because I think it's a great place to present.
Francoise von Trapp:Is this different than other IEEE events? Do they review through a similar process?
Tim Hancock:Every conference is a little bit different. I am aware of other conferences that do use the double-blind, but not all of them do, and so I think this was something that IMS and RFIC phased in sometime in the last five to 10 years. It's something that the society and the conference organizers felt was important and had seen it work in other contexts, and so we started to phase it in, and I think it's worked well for the community worked well for the community.
Jim Buckwalter:What's really unique about the IMS and RFIC review processes is they meet in person on one day to decide all of the papers, so they're given one month to review the papers.
Francoise von Trapp:It's actually for IMS, it's over Christmas, oh that's so mean, that's so mean, oh, that's so mean.
Jim Buckwalter:That's so mean. Well, you squeeze it in between Santa Claus oh my gosh, that's dedication guys in January. And then they all fly from around the world. They all fly for one day meeting at the RWW conference, wherever it's held in January, the second week of January, where they sit around a table and they debate about these papers.
Jim Buckwalter:And I really think that that in-person discussion is extremely important to the process because it gives champions an opportunity to say why they like the paper. It's not just like oh, you make a decision and you send your review in over email and there's no back and forth to advocate whether somebody understood the paper or not. And so I think one of the very special things that IMS does that's gradually going away at most other conferences, I think, because it is a huge burden for the members of the committee to fly into a meeting for one day on a Sunday, you know in January, when they have day jobs, they've got families, you know, et cetera. That is the extra work they put into the review process that I think you don't see at every other conference today, where they may just do an informal like okay, here's the papers, send us your favorites and we'll look at the reviews and make a decision.
Francoise von Trapp:Okay, and if the outcome is 456 total papers accepted, how many papers did they go through to get to this number?
Tim Hancock:I don't know the total number. We typically the acceptance rate is in the mid 40s to about 50% give or take. So almost probably twice that number, maybe a little bit more than twice.
Francoise von Trapp:And how many reviewers are there?
Jim Buckwalter:Upwards of 500, 500, 400 to 500.
Francoise von Trapp:Okay.
Jim Buckwalter:I think there's 30 committees with 10, maybe 10 each. Okay.
Francoise von Trapp:And everybody meets together. Those 500 come together for that one day and everybody's in charge of a session. Okay, that's really cool, very, very interesting. So how much of this year's content will be of interest to the advanced packaging and heterogeneous integration community itself?
Tim Hancock:I went through and looked at the accepted papers and I would estimate, just based on the titles, that at least 15% are probably packaging and heterogeneous integration related. Many microwave and RF papers often have some aspect of packaging. So even if it's not in the title, it's very possible that there are even more than that 15%. But just simply looking at the title of papers it's very clear that at least 15. That spans everything from laminate technology, traditional machining and cavities, chip stacking, bumping, plating all of the things that we do in packaging, thermal management. These are all the technologies that obviously are really a packaging technology, but at IMS you get to see it in the context of microwave design, so those material parameters matter. The thickness may drive the impedance of a line or the resonance of a filter cavity or something like that, and so you have people that work at the intersection of packaging and microwave design, which really makes for interesting papers.
Francoise von Trapp:So would you say that there's been growth in advanced packaging technologies for the RF and microwave applications?
Jim Buckwalter:Absolutely. We've kind of moved beyond just a CMOS chip as being the end result of innovation. Now you know we're moving to an era when to build those cutting edge systems like phased arrays, you're bringing in compound semiconductors and silicon and antennas and there's all kinds of issues that arise around thermal management and just how do you build systems like this. It all really focuses on how you're packaging. At every level people are struggling with packaging. My students at the university struggle. A small business will struggle with advanced packaging because it's a place where a lot of companies only want to deal with high volume customers. Right, the government struggles finding, you know, packaging solutions that meet their needs, and I think it's really a focal point for the microwave community as it becomes more system oriented.
Francoise von Trapp:Yeah, really, and reliability is such an issue, especially for the kind of products or devices, that these go into right when we're dealing with space and automotive, all of these devices that before used still pretty hardened technology, right, because of the reliability issue. And how do you get the most advanced device into the next generation of spacecraft? Right, right, right, right, right.
Jim Buckwalter:Okay, we really would like to see hardware become easier to build over time, not take 10 years to get from a new device innovation to finally reaching some space payload right. I think packaging is the place where we have an opportunity to make accelerations of hardware into platforms, and I think that's why it'll remain a growing area for IMS.
Francoise von Trapp:Okay. So if you were going to recommend a colleague who's interested in learning more about RF and microwave as an application for their technology, what sessions would you point them towards at this year's event? Because there's a lot of sessions to go to right and pay attention to, so everybody needs to kind of plan their schedule and things are running simultaneously. So they were going to ask you what's really important for me to attend. What would you say?
Tim Hancock:I would start by looking at the detailed program book, as that comes online with the organization of each of the sessions, and so I would encourage an attendee, as they register, to go to, you know, ims-ieeeorg and look at that.
Tim Hancock:Beyond the technical sessions, there are focused workshops, and those workshops are published and on the website because they would require dedicated registration and, depending on what you're interested in packaging-wise, I could recommend a few. There's one that's specifically toward quantum computing and the signal density challenges associated with that. There are others that are focused on 3D passive components, and so I suspect within that workshop, you would get into probably some additive manufacturing as well as probably some complex use of silicon redistribution layers and specialized materials. And then, finally, there's actually two workshops that are very specifically related to packaging, one of which Jim is participating in, and so one of those is addressing challenges in system and package for 3D heterogeneous integration of millimeter wave phased arrays. And then there's another one that is advanced design and integration and packaging of power amplifiers and front-end modules, and so one of those is on Sunday and one of those is on Monday as the week kicks off, and those would be two that I would definitely recommend for somebody that is very interested in packaging.
Jim Buckwalter:The workshop that I'm participating in is being organized by a couple of researchers at Corvo, ucal and Salvatore Fimicaro, and it's got a great lineup of speakers. Michael Holmes from DARPA, is going to talk about the MGM program, which is one of the most exciting investments the government's made into standing up packaging as part of a national effort, and then there's other great speakers from small companies like 3D Glass and my company, sulythic, but also larger efforts at Corvo, ngc. Cadence is going to be talking about how you simulate packaging as part of a multi-chip solution, and then there's researchers that are going to be there from Penn State and Georgia Tech talking about Glass, as well as IMEC who's going to be presenting some work on silicon interposer.
Francoise von Trapp:Yeah, glass is a big topic right now for the advanced packaging world, and glass core substrates and panelized packaging. So, yeah, that's definitely something that our community would be excited to participate in or attend. So, beyond the papers and technical sessions, what makes this event stand out to attendees?
Tim Hancock:We asked this question in surveys. But I would say, beyond the technical content, it's the exhibit and the networking opportunities. From an exhibit standpoint, we have an immense opportunity to take in the vendors. Some people will go to the show floor and seek out specific booths, which you can certainly do by looking at the app with the floor map, but I often will just take an afternoon and wander up and down the aisles and, as somebody who goes every year, I'm often looking for the things that have changed right, looking for those new companies and, in the case of packaging right, I'm often looking at new materials or manufacturing techniques, whether it is a company that's focused on additive manufacturing, because they have a new printer technology, or a new material technology that was previously offered as a film program dedicated to young professionals as well as women in microwaves, and so those are both social events as well, as they often have panels with a topic that's usually aligned to either career development or something along a similar topic.
Tim Hancock:There's usually a ham radio social. Beyond those social events, we have technical exhibitor events. We have a thing called micro apps, which is tutorial-based sessions from our exhibitors, so it's an opportunity to highlight their technology. It's not quite a full sales.
Tim Hancock:You know sales pitch from the exhibitors but it's often tutorial-based and it shows hey, here's a problem, this is. You know, if you were an EDA vendor, this is how you would solve this problem, using our tool, right.
Tim Hancock:And they walk you through that, and so there are several of those. We also have industry workshops that sort of go beyond micro apps and are a bit more of a deep dive but run by industry and are sometimes a little more accessible for the, I would say, newer attendees or maybe more the practitioner. That's a practitioner rather than a researcher, right, and so if you're maybe a hardcore researcher or you're writing papers, you're maybe a grad student, there's opportunities really at the peer-reviewed technical sessions and workshops. But if you're really a practitioner, there's the industrial workshops, and so there's really something for everybody at every technical level.
Jim Buckwalter:So one of the things that makes IMS unique is that we have a startup pavilion at the exhibition. My own startup, pseudolithic, will be exhibiting there. It's a great place for smaller companies to get on the exhibition floor, meet with customers and vendors, and even potentially competitors, while not spending as much as you might need to to register with a full booth. It's a great way to just get your foot in the door in the community.
Francoise von Trapp:So it's like a tabletop within the pavilion.
Jim Buckwalter:It is yep with a kiosk and a monitor and they give you enough that you basically can come and plug your computer in and go.
Francoise von Trapp:Okay, and are there any other events around startups?
Jim Buckwalter:Yes, we'll have panel sessions every day around startups. Okay, I would add, it's an incredibly social community. I mean, I go now and I see a lot of people year after year from all around the world and catch up with them and it's a very tight-knit community that people really look forward to seeing each other every year. We're all in this ecosystem together. You may think we're there having fun. I'm up at 7 o'clock and I'm out until 11 o'clock at these receptions and plenary sessions and social networking events. It's really a hard-working week but it's a lot of fun.
Francoise von Trapp:It is a lot of fun.
Francoise von Trapp:I've been to a lot of similar events not in the microwave community, but sounds familiar, and so I want to give some people tips. I always really think about the exhibitors and how much they have to pay to be at these things and how much effort goes into their exhibits, and people get really caught up with head down going to the sessions and don't necessarily always make it over to the exhibit hall. So I really encourage people to take the time, because these events like this wouldn't happen without the support of the exhibitors and sponsors. So it's really important to make sure to acknowledge their participation in this and go and walk the floor and ask them about their products and technologies and, you know, hand out business cards and get on mailing lists and really be an active player in the community, not just an attendee. That would be my advice for something like this. You talk about the early days that go into the late evenings and the parties are always fun. Pace yourself, stay hydrated, wear comfortable shoes and clothing and just be prepared for a lot of fun, say.
Jim Buckwalter:You know, every time I've sent a student to IMS for the first time, they are blown away by the exhibition because it is the first time. Somebody who has just seen microwaves in a textbook sees the scale of the industry right. Just seeing microwaves in a textbook sees the scale of the industry right and all of the companies selling connectors and cables and you know test infrastructure or foundry services, design services, CAD you know it blows them away how big this business actually is and I think that's probably something a first time person is going to find when they go to IMS. It's a much bigger community than they realize.
Francoise von Trapp:And you know, when you think about all of the issues with workforce development, are there any activities for students under university to come and see what it's all about? Because I always find when you get high schoolers into these events, they're like I had no idea that this is what goes into creating all of these different devices that we know exist in the world and sometimes have in our homes.
Tim Hancock:So at the university level there are our graduate student researcher volunteer program. Essentially we call them student ambassadors, so they're the volunteers throughout the week that typically wear a special colored polo shirt and help direct traffic and things like that, and by volunteering for something on the order of a day they basically get a travel grant or reduced registration or some combination thereof that helps offset their expenses to attend the conferences. So that's a great opportunity for student volunteers to absolutely take advantage of. We also have a program that specifically reaches out to underrepresented minorities, as well as a high school program that attempts to work with local high school groups. It's a little tricky sometimes in June, depending on exactly when the conference falls it depends on the city but there's usually a local outreach and working with either a high school association or community college to try to pull in high school students, at least for the afternoon, and get them a little bit exposed to a STEM topic that maybe they've never been exposed to before.
Jim Buckwalter:And there's also some student design competitions. So for those students that are, you know, graduate students and maybe they didn't put a paper in this year, they didn't get around to it, they missed the deadline the technical committees host student design competitions. I think there's about 12 or 14 of them. They've grown tremendously over the years and so they can come and they're given a task design a power amplifier. Right, they come and they compete to build the best power amplifier and there's a committee members that will be judges for that and make sure everyone compares accurately on the spot. They usually have a test set up on the spot so that everybody can see how everyone else's performs at the conference and then they hand out awards for the best competitors. So it's a lot of fun for students who may not even be doing research yet to participate in the student design competition.
Francoise von Trapp:That's all we have time for today. Where can listeners go to learn more?
Tim Hancock:The best place is to go to the website, and that is ims-ieeeorg, and that will tell you everything you need to know about the conference. It'll tell you about the registration, the prices, the hotel arrangements and, as you mentioned at the beginning, the early bird registration. So the cheapest rate that you can get ends on May 16th, which is tomorrow, and then it will shift into the early registration. So definitely, if you miss the early bird, still register. You'll get a little bit of a discount. If you wait till on site, obviously that's going to be the highest priced option.
Francoise von Trapp:And book your hotel rooms, for goodness sake these things go fast.
Tim Hancock:Yeah, absolutely.
Francoise von Trapp:Okay, thanks so much for joining me today, guys.
Tim Hancock:Thank you, thanks so much for joining me today, guys, thank you next time on the 3d insights podcast.
Francoise von Trapp:We'll continue our deep dive into the importance of 100 inspection in the semiconductor manufacturing environment, this time looking at advancements in 3d x-ray inspection. There's lots more to come, so tune in next time to the 3D Insights Podcast. The 3D Insights Podcast is a production of 3D Insights LLC.