IEEE Solid-State Circuits Society History

From ETHW

About the Society

With over 9,000 members around the world, the IEEE Solid-State Circuits Society focuses on fabricated integrated circuit designs -- in contrast to simulated circuits and analyzed models-- for all applications using relevant materials and interconnections.

The Society produces the Journal of Solid-State Circuits (JSSC), the most downloaded technical journal in IEEE Xplore, and sponsors the International Solid-State Circuits Conference (ISSCC), the world's premier circuits realization conference.

The roots of the Society go back to the launch of the ISSCC in 1955, and the debut of the JSSC in 1966 as an archive of major presentations from conferences, expanded into journal length papers. Soon afterward, the leadership of the ISSC and JSSC formally became a Council comprised of all IEEE societies contributing to the field of integrated circuits.

As the field grew in the 1980s, two more solid-state circuits conferences were launched -- the VLSI Symposia, a sister conference with the Electron Devices Society, and the Custom Integrated Circuits Conference (CICC). In addition, the Council established a signficant relationship with the European Solid-State Device Electronics Conference and the European Solid-State Circuits Conference (ESSCIRC/ESSDERC).

To gain more control over its own work, the Council became the IEEE Solid-State Circuits Society in 1997. SSCS established the Asian Solid-Solid State Circuits Conference (ASSCC) in 2003 and the Solid-State Circuits Magazine in 2009.

Today SSCS is a member of six Councils to leverage interdisciplinary technologies.

The Society began in May 1966 as the IEEE Solid-State Circuits Council in May of 1966. It achieved its current status on 1 January 1997.

Brief Timeline

  • May 1966 - Solid-State Circuits Council founded
  • January 1, 1997 - Solid-State Circuits became a Society
  • June, 1981 – Field of Interest revision

Council History

The Solid-State Circuits (SSCC) Council was formed in 1966 to serve the members of the solid-state circuits community by publishing the Journal of Solid-State Circuits (JSSC) and by sponsoring the IEEE International Solid-State Circuits Conference (ISSCC).

During the past several years, the Council has realized that it must move beyond publishing the Journal and sponsoring the ISSCC if it is to properly serve the solid-state circuits community. The Council presently supports or helps support three publications:

  • IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits (over 7,000 subscriptions)
  • IEEE Transactions on Very Large Scale Integration (VLSI) Systems (over 3000 subscriptions)
  • IEEE Transactions on Semiconductor Manufacturing (over 3000 subscriptions)

In addition, the Council sponsors or cosponsors several conferences, symposia, and workshops:

  • IEEE International Solid-State Circuits Conference (ISSCC)
  • VLSI Circuits Symposium (VLSI)
  • Custom Integrated Circuits Conference (CICC)
  • Symposium on Lower Power Electronics (SLPE)
  • Solid-State Circuits and Technology Committee Workshops (SSCTW)

To recognize and support the members of the solid-state circuits community, the Council:

  • Sponsors the IEEE Solid-State Circuits Award
  • Nominates Fellows of the IEEE
  • Sponsors a Pre-Doctoral Fellowship
  • Sponsors Student Best-Paper Awards

The Council has a 30-year track record of service to the solid-state circuits community. It operates on a sound financial basis and it has committed itself to continuous innovation to provide the best-possible support to the community. The Council welcomes your comments and suggestions.

The current field-of-interest statement for the Council was:

The field of interest of the Council and its activities and programs shall include all aspects of solid-state circuits, with emphasis on those aspects which either overlap the present interest of the Member Societies, or are presently not covered by any one IEEE Society. Included are the design, testing, and application of circuits and subsystems as well as closely related topics in device technology and circuit theory. This shall include scientific, technical, and industrial applications, or other activities that contribute to the field, or utilize the techniques or products of the field, subject, as the art develops, to additions, subtractions, or other modifications directed or approved by the IEEE Technical Activities Board or the IEEE Executive Committee.

The following Societies were the sponsors the SSC Council at the time it transistioned to a Society:

Council Documents

ISSCC Over the Decades- A Brief Statistical Overview of 40 Years, Kenneth C. Smith, Laura C. Fujino, Department of Electrical and Cornputer Engineering, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada

ISSCC at 7, Arthur Stern

The Origin of the JOURNAL, the Council, and the Conferences, Donald O. Pederson, Fellow, IEEE

Newsletter

Links and related pages

Link to IEEE Solid-State Circuits Society

Solid State Circuits Society First Hand Histories