I attended the HiTEC 2012 (High Temperature Electronics Conference) in May. The conference alternates every other year between the UK and Albuquerque. While listening to the paper presentations is always educational, the real value in conferences is the opportunity to talk with prospective customers, and to visit the exhibit area and see which companies are exhibiting and what products they are featuring.
The amount of Federal R&D support has been dramatically reduced over the past few years, and that was reflected in a reduction in the amount of research papers. This was partially made up with an increase in papers from the larger semiconductor companies. Both TI and Analog Devices are making a renewed effort to offer high temperature products. There were more companies exhibiting than two years ago, and there were more semiconductor products available.
We must always question how Tekmos compares to the competition in our high temperature offerings, and I think that we are doing well. It appears that most >200C chips are still produced internally by the users themselves, and that we are the only ones offering high temperature ASICs to run at 250°. Tekmos has achieved "tape out" on a high temperature ASIC designed to run at 250° C.
I also note that our internal developmental work is on a par with the published papers. And I think we should expand our efforts and publish our own results in a future conference.
Albuquerque is a nice city, and I always enjoy visiting there. The presence of Sandia Peak over looking the city adds a natural backdrop that is missing from many other cities.