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Hawaii is the hot spot for wireless conferences this summer, with five events spanning June and July. But if you can only afford one of these conferences, this year's IEEE Microwave Theory and Techniques Society (MTT-S) conference should be it.

Over 10,000 attendees are expected to pack the Honolulu Convention Center when the conference, also known as the International Microwave Symposium, or IMS2007, hits during Microwave Week, June 3-8.

Two speakers will deliver keynote addresses at the plenary session. Anil Kripalani (see figure), senior vice president for Global Technology Affairs at Qualcomm, will discuss the future of mobile broadband. Ryuji Kohno (see figure), a professor at the Center of Medical Information and Communications Technology of Yokohama National University in Japan, will address pioneering advanced wireless communications technology in MedicalCT, or CAT scans.

Regular sessions running 15 to 30 minutes long and covering a range of topics start Tuesday, June 5 at 3:30 p.m. and run all day Wednesday and Thursday. Wednesday's and Thursday's panel discussions will look at gallium-nitride devices, radio-frequency microelectromechanical systems (RFMEMS), terahertz electronics for the 21st century, and signal-integrity engineering.

WORKSHOPS AND COURSES
The conference also offers extra-cost workshops and courses, either on Sunday and Monday before the regular sessions begin or on Friday after the regular conference closes. The workshops usually run from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

The three levels of workshops and courses include: tutorial workshops that cover the fundamentals for newcomers and review previously published subjects; advanced workshops that address state-of-the-art subjects to experienced attendees; and courses taught by a team of experts. The range of topics is huge and the small classes fill up rapidly, so register early. Also, attendees earn IEEE continuing education credits.

THE EXHIBITS
Over 400 vendors will be on hand at IMS2007. Exhibiting semiconductor companies will include Analog Devices, California Eastern Labs, Freescale Semiconductor, NXP Semiconductors, RF Micro Devices, and TriQuint Semiconductor. Test equipment companies will show off their latest RF test gear. Among them are Aeroflex, Agilent, Anritsu, Bird Technologies, Boonton Electronics, Keithley, National Instruments, Rohde & Schwarz, Roos Instruments, and Tektronix.

Almost anyone who is anyone in the microwave equipment and component world will be there, including numerous antenna companies. Nowhere else can you see so many microwave vendors in one place.

As if that weren't enough to fill your schedule, other conferences slated for the big island will probably prevent you from surfing. The Radio Frequency Integrated Circuit Symposium and the Automatic Radio Frequency Techniques Group show will be held at the same time. Then, the IEEE International Symposium on Antennas and Propagation will take place from June 10 to June 15. Finally, the IEEE International Symposium on Electromagnetic Compatibility is scheduled for July 8-13.

For additional information about the show, go to the IMS2007 conference Web site at www.ims2007.org, where you will find a complete listing of sessions, workshops, exhibitors, and related events. Also, check out the related sites at www.rfic2007.org and www.arftg.org.