3. Welcome and Introductions	12. Educational Activities Committee report: Kevin O’Connor.
4. Secretary’s report:  Kevin O’Connor (acting)	13. Awards Committee report : Bruce Wooley.
5. President’s report: Lew Terman.	14. Nominations Committee report : Dave Pricer.
6. Treasurer’s report : Dave Hodges.	15. IEEE USA R& D Policy Committee report: : Rick Dill.
7. Chapters Committee report : Jan Van der Spiegel.	16. Meetings Committee report  Charles Sodini.
8. Distinguished Lecturers Program report:  Dick Jaeger.	17. CAS Representation Amendment: Phillip Allen.
9. Membership Committee report : Steve Kosonocky	18. Role of Elected AdCom Members: Lew Terman.
10. Executive Office Report: Anne O’Neill.	19. Circuits & Devices Magazine: Lew Terman
11. Publications Report: Dick Jaeger	20. IEEE USA against the bill in the US Congress to increase immigration limits for technical jobs: Bruce Wooley.

 

1. Motions

• Motion 1. To approve the minutes of 2/4/98. The motion passed without dissent.
• Motion 2. From the Chapters Committee: To subsidize 9 existing chapters at $6,638 and new chapters to $6k; total $12,638.  The motion passed without dissent.
• Motion 3. For up to $40K to fund the Distinguished Lecture program. The motion passed without dissent.
• Motion 4.  That SSCS will not promote affiliate membership but also will not exclude affiliate membership. The motion passed without dissent.
• Motion 5. To increase the best paper award to $1000 from $500.  The motion passed without dissent.
• Motion 6. To sponsor three IEEE Press Books as noted in the letter of recommendation [Attachment E2].  The motion passed without dissent.
• Motion 7.
• 1. To prepare a 2 CD-ROM set of 1989-1994 issues of the JSSC to be available at 1999 ISSCC at a selling price of $35 for members, $200 non-members.
• 2. To develop a 4 CD-ROM set to include 1966-1988 JSSC available in the year 2000.
• Motion 8. To cooperatively cosponsor the CAS course series “Video and Wireless Communications” to be presented in Thailand 11/30-12/11/98. Motion passed without dissent.
• Motion 9.  To approve expenditure of up to $10K for a pilot program to produce a short course in CD-ROM and WWW format as a new educational tool. The motion passed with three abstentions.
• Motion 10. To provide 20% financial co-sponsorship of 1999 Rochester ASIC Conference. The motion passed without dissent.
• Motion 11.  To provide technical co-sponsorship of 1999 Mixed Signal IC Design Conference. The motion passed without dissent.
• Motion 12. To advance  $30K for ’99 VLSI Symposium on VLSI Circuits. The motion passed without dissent.
• Motion 13. To continue technical co-sponsorship of VLSI TSA99 in Taiwan. The motion passed without dissent.
• Motion 14. To accept SSCS budget as presented. The motion passed without dissent.
• Motion 15.  To continue support of C and D Magazine. This motion failed.

2. Action Items

A. Lew Terman – To discuss IEEE USA policies at the next TAB meeting.

3. Welcome and Introductions:

The meeting was called to order by SSCS President Lew Terman.

4. Secretary’s report:  Kevin O’Connor (acting)

A. Roll Call: 18 voting members were present, establishing a quorum. 7 non-voting members were present.
(a) Voting members present:
 Asad Abidi Phillip Allen Sergio Bambi Dick Hester Dave Hodges Dick Jaeger
Steve Kosonocky Kevin O’Connor Les Palkuti Ken Pedroti Dave Pricer Willy Sanson Charlie Sodini Bob Swartz Lew Terman
Rudy Van der Plassche Jan Van der Spiegel TR Viswanathan Bruce Wooley
(b) Non-voting members present:
Bill Bidderman  Rick Dill Steve Lewis Anne O’Neill Resve Saleh Stan Schuster
 Tim Tredwell John Trnka
(c) Voting members absent:
Gerhard Fettweis Ebby Friedman Jitendra Goel  Nicky Lu  Chris Mangelsdorf  Toshiaki Masuhara Stuart Tewksbury Eric Vittoz

B. The minutes of the Feb. 4, 1998 SSCS AdCom meeting were submitted.
Motion 1. To approve the minutes of 2/4/98. The motion passed without dissent.
 
C. Action items from 2/4/98 meeting were reviewed. Items 1-3 will be addressed in committee reports.  Item 4, IPDI Symposium, was resolved because the 2/99 meeting was cancelled due to lack of sufficient submissions.

5. President’s report: Lew Terman.

New appointments and actions:
A. Publications chair: Dick Jaeger
B. Distinguished Lecturer’s Program: Dick Jaeger
C. Chair Long Range Planning Committee:  Bruce Wooley
D. JSSC Editor: Steve Lewis.
E. A recognition plaque was presented to Dick Jaeger for his Service as Editor of the Journal.
F. Outgoing SSCS Society representatives were presented Certificates recognizing their contribution to the Society
G. SSCS Representative on the IEEE Sensors Council: Ken Wise.
H. IEEE USA  R and D Committee: Rick Dill

6. Treasurer’s report (see Attachment J): Dave Hodges.

For 1998 Dave cautioned that the Society may close with a deficit. Although ISSCC generated a reasonable surplus ($95K), the VLSI Circuits Symposium is estimated to have a deficit of $25K (although it will probably close in 1999).  There are several new expense areas including Executive Office, CD-ROM program and the Newsletter. Also, a $25K overdue payment to University of California Davis was made in ’98, for a 1996 expenditure. Bob Swartz noted the importance of insuring all funds sent to IEEE are accounted for.

For 1999 the SSCS budget was there was discussion on increases for CD-ROM project and the  educational activities project. Dave asked if the budget includes ’98 ISSCC. The response was that although there are estimates from ’97, it is not sure when the accounts of  this meeting actually complete audit and are closed. At the time of this meeting the 1999 budget of the Society  showed $235K total net deficit.

Motion 14. To accept the SSCS budget as presented. The motion passed without dissent.

7. Chapters Committee report (see Attachment A): Jan Van der Spiegel.

The number of chapters grew from 4 in Feb. ‘98 to 9 in Aug. ‘98, with 2 in Europe and 2 in Asia. Chapters are offered a subsidy of up to $1K for which they can apply. The requests from 8 chapters for 1999 totaling $6,638 were presented. John Trnka asked how this subsidy use is tracked. It is done in a report at year-end.
Motion 2. From the Chapters Committee: To subsidize 9 existing chapters at $6,638 and new chapters to $6k, total $12,638.  The motion passed without dissent.

8. Distinguished Lecturers Program report: (see Attachment B): Dick Jaeger.

Dick presented a list of proposed Distinguished Lecturers and  requested $40K to fund the program.  Dave Hodges questioned chapter versus non-chapter use, university versus industry use.  Anne O’Neill proposed an order of preference for meeting speaker requests modeled after another Society’s Distinguished Lecture Program: Solid-State Circuits Chapters, Student Chapters, other Society Chapters and non-IEEE affiliated organizations. Bob Swartz questioned the makeup of list as focused on all analog. Dick Jaeger indicated it was not intentional.
Motion 3. SSCS provide for up to $40K to fund DL program. The motion passed without dissent.

9. Membership Committee report (see Attachment C): Steve Kosonocky.

Steve indicated that membership stood at about 11,500 for all grades, with about 450 recruited at 1998 meetings. It was suggested that more students might be recruited to the SSCS by charging a differentiated registration rate at the ISSCC for member versus non-member students.  John Trnka indicated the ISSCC registration form was being revised for 1999 to charge students who are not members $75 and student members $60.
Discussion on affiliate membership ensued. Details are in Attachment C slide.

Motion 4.  SSCS should not promote affiliate membership but should also not exclude affiliate membership. The motion passed without dissent.

Senior membership will now be acknowledged in newsletter, and nominating forms are available at senior-member-forms@ieee.org.
A printer’s proof of the SSCS Membership brochure was passed around.  Anne O’Neill was commended for her effort in producing the brochure.

10. Executive Office Report: (see Attachment D): Anne O’Neill.

Anne reviewed the activities of the executive office.  In particular, the newsletter is now on-time and the Membership Brochure has been completed.  In addition to implementing the actions of this meeting, upcoming office activities will focus on the Society and Periodicals Reviews scheduled during the November Technical Activities Board series.

11. Publications Committee Report: (see Attachment E): Dick Jaeger.

The change-over to Steve Lewis as JSSC editor has been comleted. Retiring associate editors are Richard Hester, Mark Horowitz and Stuart Taylor. New associate editors; Anantha Chandrakasan, John D. Cressler, Kevin W.Kobayashi and Laurence D.Lewicki. The new IEEE staff associate editor is Tonya Ugoretz. The Journal publication is on schedule.
Motion 5.  To increase the best paper award to $1000 from $500. The motion passed without dissent.
A. SSCS Newsletter
Relevant commercial short course announcements will be included in the newsletter as requested.  This policy will be addressed again, if the number of requests becomes unreasonable.
B. Transactions on VLSI:
No report.
C. IEEE Press: Dick Jaeger for Stuart Tewksbury.
Dick reported that there are three book proposals in progress.
Motion 6. Sponsor three IEEE Press Books as noted in letter of recommendation [see Attachment E].  The motion passed without dissent.
D. Electronic Publishing: Bruce Wooley.
Bruce presented the continuing work-in-progress on the JSSC archival project.  The costs and quantities were roughly outlines as follows:
1. 89-94 issues in a 2 CD-ROM set for $54k for 4000 units
2. 66-88 issues in a 2 CD-ROM set for $72k for 2000 units
Motion 7.
1. To prepare a 2 CD-ROM set of the 1989-1994 issues of the JSSC to be available at 1999 ISSCC at a selling price of $35 for members, $200 non-members.
2. To develop a 4 CD-ROM set of the 1966-1988 issues of  JSSC available in the year 2000.
There was a good bit of discussion on the budget split (L. Terman), details of CD searching and Optical Character Recognition (OCR) (A. Abidi), abstract searching (K. Pedroti), limits on unit sales to individual members (J. Trnka). There was also discussion on schedule of delivery and failure to deliver on time at ISSCC (J. Trnka). The conclusion was that Sony is expected to deliver on time.
The motion passed without dissent.

12. Educational Activities Committee report: Kevin O’Connor.

A. Circuits and Systems Society Advanced Continuing Education (ACE) Initiative.
SSCS was invited to cooperatively cosponsor the first of a series of short course programs in this CAS educational initiative. This first course sequence is on “ Video and Wireless Communications”, financed by CAS and the local organization, organized by the Imperial College, London and Mahanakorn University of Technology, Thailand, and presented in Thailand. Dates are 11/30-12/11/98. SSCS involvement necessarily is limited to aiding in advertising and related actions due to the time frame.
Motion 8. To cooperatively cosponsor the CAS course series “Video and Wireless Communications” to be presented in Thailand 11/30-12/11/98.
The motion passed without dissent.
 
B. Pilot program for investigating CD-ROM educational format programming.
The Committee is determined to look for new methods of presenting intellectual material assembled or produced within the various SSCS programs of meetings, conferences, lectures and short courses. CD-ROMs offer a lasting and flexible format for multimedia presentations. The committee would like to evaluate the trade-offs in the industry for such presentations by working with existing material from ISSCC or other meetings.
Motion 9.  Approve expenditure of up to $10K for a pilot program to produce a short course in CD-ROM and WWW format as a new educational tool.
There was a great amount of discussion on the effectiveness, utility and quality of such productions. Consensus was that it was warranted to explore new technologies and not to discourage the effort.  The motion passed with three abstentions.

13. Awards Committee report (see Attachment F): Bruce Wooley.

A. The IEEE Solid-State Circuits Technical  Field Award went to  Prof. Ken Wise at University of Michigan
B. The Predoctoral Fellowship went to Jouko Vankka, Helsinki University of Technology
C. There were five Fellows nominations evaluated.

14. Nominations Committee report (see Attachment G): Dave Pricer.

Dave presented the committee roster, and the final 9 candidates for the AdCom membership ballot. The ballot deadline is 11/1/98 and results announced 11/9/98.

15. IEEE USA R& D Policy Committee report: (see Attachment H): Rick Dill.

Rick presented his experiences in working on the IEEE USA R and D Policy Committee.  His views are presented in Attachment H. He invited feedback at rdill@us.ibm.com.

16. Meetings Committee report (see Attachment I): Charles Sodini.

Charlie gave an overall review of the current issues and sponsorship requests.

A. ASIC 99 (Rochester 9/99)
is asking for 20% financial sponsorship and would like to see active participation by SSCS. There was some discussion regarding the past history of this meeting (A. Abidi), possible time conflicts with ESSCIRC (D. Hodges, W. Sanson), its content overlap with CICC (D.Pricer, B.Wooley).

Motion 10. To provide 20% financial co-sponsorship of 1999 Rochester ASIC conference.  The motion passed without dissent.

B. Mixed Signal IC Design (Irvine, 10/99)
CAS currently sponsors this meeting. It is asking for technical co-sponsorship by SSCS.
Motion 11.  To provide technical co-sponsorship of 1999 Mixed Signal IC Design conference.   The motion passed without dissent.
C. International Symposium on Low Power Electronics and Design (ISLPED):
Charlie discussed that SSCS had technical co-sponsorship in this meeting in 1997 but that its purpose had diffused and it was of less interest to the Solid-State Circuits community. The meetings committee is withdrawing sponsorship, for which there was no objection from the AdCom.
D. CICC: Resve Salah.
CICC will be fully sponsored by SSCS starting in 1999.
Res reviewed the ’98 meeting results. The educational sessions had heavy attendance (350) but exhibits continued to decline and have poor attendance. CICC will make suites available to companies wishing to exhibit in the future.  Conference attendance was flat, between 600 and 700 for the last three years. Discussions ensued over location and timing of meeting, including the flat impact of Santa Clara (A. Abidi). Budget impact was raised (L. Terman) and it was noted that CICC netted $35K in 1998, 8% of meeting income The technical program chairman for ’99 is Michael Beunder from Silicon Access.
E. ISSCC: John Trnka.
John reviewed the attendance figures and they were very positive at 3100 for ’98, though lower attendance is expected in ’99 due to the economy. Budget issues were reviewed and there was discussion on streamlining of registration, the increase in CD cost due to ISSCC publishing format and loss of the Sony subsidy, increases in European and Far East travel expenses and the expansion of the press activities.
Registration rates for ’99 were discussed.  (see Attachment I).  There was a discussion over the number of pages per paper in the Digest (A. Abidi); thickness and expense limited increasing the number of Digest pages.  Bruce Wooley noted that the Journal was a better archival format for extended works.
F. Solid-State Circuits Technical Committee: Stan Schuster.
Stan indicated that the committee needed continued input on topics to keep the workshop going. Dave Hodges inquired to where the announcements appeared. Response was that it is in the ISSCC flyer, an October ’98 mailer and on the WEB. A limited mailing list is used. John Trnka noted that the workshop topic for 2/99, “RF Passive Components” has some conflict with ISSCC.
G. VLSI Symposium: Bill Bidderman.
The statistics for 6/98 were reviewed. Attendance was down, and there was low registration figures for the short course.
Motion 12. Request for $30K advance for the ’99 meeting. The motion passed without dissent.
H. VLSI TSA99: Charlie Sodini.
Motion 13. To continue technical co-sponsorship of VLSI TSA99.  The motion passed without dissent.

17. CAS Representation Amendment: Phillip Allen.

Phil announced that the SSCS now has a voting member on the CAS Board of Directors, the counterpart of the voting CAS representative on the SSCS AdCom.

18. Role of Elected AdCom Members: Lew Terman.

Lew said he will provide members with a portfolio of assignments in order to formalize responsibility of members. A discussion followed on how the AdCom meeting should change and on how staffing of committees should proceed.
Lew discussed guidelines for electronic voting. This would require a proposal to be sent out, followed by a period of review and comment, followed by a normal majority vote of a quorum. Asad Abidi voiced concern over pure electronic methods in that there may be a need for requesting that the  vote be taken at an AdCom meeting.

19. Other Items: Lew Terman

Discussion and comments on status of Circuits and Devices Magazine
Bruce Wooley reviewed drop in distribution, budget position and subscription rate. The main question was whether SSCS should continue support of C and D Magazine. SSCS currently has 500 subscribers. Dave Hodges indicated that original material was poor. Lew Terman indicated that the magazine would likely continue without SSCS. Dick Jager asked if any AdCom members had seen recent issues as it had improved. Lew indicated that if SSCS were to support the magazine there should be an SSCS editor.
Motion 15. To continue support of C and D Magazine. This motion failed.

20. New Business: Bruce Wooley.

A. Bruce opened discussion on the position taken by  IEEE USA against the bill in the US Congress to increase immigration limits for technical jobs. There was no process for member comment on position paper/policy by IEEE USA. Both Wooley and Jaeger noted that the IEEE USA position that there is no engineering shortage is hard to see as valid. The questions was raised as to whether IEEE membership agrees with position.  Wooley noted that the USA Regional Assesment fee should be optional for members. Trnka commented that membership of IEEE as whole may indeed agree with IEEE USA. Terman indicated the intent to go forward at TAB to try to change some of these policies and positions.

B. The next AdCom meeting will be held Sunday, Feb. 14, 1999.

21. Action Items.

A. Lew Terman – To discuss IEEE USA policies at the next TAB meeting.