The 2024 SPIE Advanced Lithography and Patterning Symposium is 6 conferences, 3 plenary talks, 1 special session, 2 panel sessions, 15 short courses, and 1 poster session, and it starts Monday in San Jose, California. Abstract submittals were 215, about the same as last year, and registration is up about 15% from last year, to 2,200. That is right at the historical average for the ten years prior to Covid. It is good to be back!
I am beginning the week relaxed, for a change. For more than 30 years I have spent the Sunday before the start of the conference teaching an eight-hour short course (and for some of those years, 12 hours). I love to teach, but I am not as young and energetic as I used to be. Standing and talking all day is exhausting, so finally I decided that is not how I wanted to start my week. Instead, I took a class! (Thank you, Ofer Adan, for a great course on metrology tool matching.) So as Sunday comes to a close, I am relaxed and ready for any exciting week discovering what is new in lithography, patterning, metrology, and more.