Semiconductor Conferences 2026 — Industry Events Calendar

The semiconductor industry conference calendar serves two distinct functions. For engineers and researchers, conferences are the publication and peer review mechanism for new device results, process innovations, and system architectures - ISSCC, IEDM, and VLSI Technology and Circuits are where transistor scaling milestones, memory density records, and chip architecture breakthroughs are first disclosed to the public. For supply chain analysts, strategists, and procurement professionals, the same conferences are where roadmaps are revealed, acquisition intentions are signaled, and competitive positioning shifts become legible - NVIDIA GTC, SEMICON West, and Computex are where company product and investment announcements shape the near-term supply chain landscape. Both functions are covered in this calendar. Events already completed as of April 2026 are noted.

The 2026 conference calendar is notable for several structural shifts. NVIDIA GTC 2026 (March 16, San Jose) was the most commercially significant single-day event in semiconductor history by capital commitment disclosed - Jensen Huang announced $1 trillion in combined Blackwell and Vera Rubin order backlog through 2027, unveiled the seven-chip Vera Rubin platform including the Groq 3 LPU, and announced the Space-1 Vera Rubin orbital compute module. The Terafab announcement (March 21, Austin - separate from GTC but immediately following it) added Tesla/SpaceX/xAI's $20-25B semiconductor manufacturing JV to the landscape. Intel joining Terafab (April 7) added a further dimension. Q2-Q4 2026 conferences will absorb and respond to these announcements through technical disclosure, competitive positioning, and investment signaling.

Q1 2026 — Completed

Conference	Dates	Location	Focus / SX relevance	Website
CES 2026	Jan 6-9, 2026	Las Vegas, NV	Consumer electronics product launches; AI PC announcements (Intel Lunar Lake, AMD Ryzen AI 300 follow-on products); NVIDIA CES announcements including Vera Rubin platform preview; automotive chip platform reveals; gaming GPU launches (RTX 50 series Blackwell desktop)	ces.tech
ISS 2026 (Industry Strategy Symposium)	Jan 11-14, 2026	Half Moon Bay, CA	SEMI executive-level semiconductor industry strategy; supply chain, geopolitics, and market outlook; CHIPS Act implementation status; private sessions with foundry, equipment, and materials executives; primary venue for US semiconductor policy discussion outside Washington DC	semi.org
SPIE Photonics West 2026	Jan 17-22, 2026	San Francisco, CA	Photonics, lasers, optoelectronics, and biophotonics; relevant for SX: silicon photonics for datacenter interconnect, co-packaged optics (CPO) development, LiDAR sensor technology for automotive and robotics, EUV light source research	spie.org/photonics-west
Hybrid Bonding Symposium 2026	Jan 22-23, 2026	Silicon Valley, CA	Hybrid bonding for 3D IC and advanced packaging; directly relevant to SoIC (TSMC), Foveros Direct (Intel), and HBM TSV bonding supply chain; Cu-Cu thermocompression bonding yield and throughput advances	hdpug.org
ISSCC 2026 (IEEE International Solid-State Circuits Conference)	Feb 15-19, 2026	San Francisco Marriott Marquis, CA	The premier academic and industry conference for IC design - where cutting-edge chip results are first published. 2026 sessions expected to cover: AI accelerator architectures, HBM4 memory interface circuits, GAA transistor circuit demonstrations, advanced packaging I/O, power management for AI clusters, edge inference silicon. NVIDIA, Apple, Google, AMD, TSMC, Samsung all typically present at ISSCC.	isscc.org
SEMICON Korea 2026	Feb 11-13, 2026	Seoul, South Korea (COEX)	~70,000 attendees; 550 exhibitors; primary Korean semiconductor industry event; SK Hynix HBM roadmap; Samsung Foundry SF2 and SF3 yield updates; Korean government semiconductor policy; equipment and materials supply chain for Korean fabs; memory market outlook. 2026 edition focused on AI-era semiconductor strategies.	semiconkorea.org
Chiplet Summit 2026	Feb 17-19, 2026	Santa Clara, CA	Chiplet ecosystem: UCIe interconnect standard, chiplet design methodologies, advanced packaging for heterogeneous integration, die-to-die interface IP; directly relevant to AMD chiplet CPU architecture, Intel Foveros/EMIB, NVIDIA NVLink, and the broader move from monolithic to multi-die chip architectures	chiplet-summit.com
SPIE Advanced Lithography + Patterning 2026	Feb 22-27, 2026	San Jose, CA	The primary technical conference for lithography research: EUV process optimization, High-NA EUV first results, multipatterning advances, photomask technology, metrology for sub-3nm nodes. ASML, TSMC, Intel, imec all present new process data here. Critical for understanding the technical roadmap of leading-edge node advancement.	spie.org/advanced-lithography
DesignCon 2026	Feb-Mar 2026	San Jose, CA	High-speed chip, board, and systems design; SerDes technology for AI cluster interconnect; PCIe 6.0 and CXL 3.0 signal integrity; optical interconnect SI; relevant to datacenter networking silicon and the transition to higher-bandwidth chip-to-chip and rack-to-rack connectivity	designcon.com
NVIDIA GTC 2026	Mar 16-20, 2026	SAP Center, San Jose, CA (keynote); San Jose Convention Center (sessions)	The defining semiconductor industry event of Q1 2026. Jensen Huang keynote (March 16) disclosed: $1 trillion in Blackwell + Vera Rubin orders through 2027; Vera Rubin platform (7 chips: Rubin GPU, Vera CPU, NVLink 6, ConnectX-9, BlueField-4, Groq 3 LPU, Spectrum-X CPO); Groq 3 LPU ($20B NVIDIA-Groq deal); Space-1 Vera Rubin orbital compute module; Rubin Ultra NVL576 preview; Feynman architecture (2028) teaser; DLSS 5 neural rendering. 30,000+ attendees.	nvidia.com/gtc
Tesla Terafab Announcement	Mar 21, 2026	Seaholm Power Plant, Austin, TX	Elon Musk unveiled Terafab - joint Tesla/SpaceX/xAI semiconductor fab JV targeting $20-25B investment at Giga Texas North Campus; 2nm process target; 100,000 wafer starts/month initial; 80% orbital AI compute output (D3/AI7 space chips); 20% terrestrial (FSD, Cybercab, Optimus); Intel joined project April 7, 2026. Not a traditional conference but the most supply-chain-significant single announcement of Q1 2026 after GTC.	tesla.com

Q2 2026 — April through June

Conference	Dates	Location	Focus / SX relevance	Website
DATE 2026 (Design, Automation and Test in Europe)	Apr 20-22, 2026	Verona, Italy	Europe's premier EDA and design automation conference; chip design methodologies, verification, automotive functional safety (ISO 26262 design tools), chiplet design flows, AI-assisted EDA; relevant to Synopsys, Cadence, Siemens EDA product roadmaps and the EDA supply chain that enables chip design at all foundry nodes	date-conference.com
SEMICON Southeast Asia 2026	May 5-7, 2026	Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia	Southeast Asia OSAT and back-end manufacturing supply chain; Malaysia, Vietnam, and Thailand as the dominant OSAT and assembly geography; supply chain diversification from Taiwan and South Korea; relevant to CHIPS Act supply chain resilience efforts and the alternative-to-China assembly ecosystem	semi.org/en/connect/events/semicon-southeast-asia
IEEE International Memory Workshop 2026	May 10-13, 2026	Leuven, Belgium (imec)	Emerging memory technologies: MRAM, ReRAM, PCM, FeRAM, DRAM scaling beyond 1-gamma node, 3D NAND beyond 300 layers, HBM4 and HBM4e development, CXL memory; hosted at imec - the world's leading semiconductor research center; key venue for pre-commercial memory technology that will define 2028-2032 supply chains	ewh.ieee.org/soc/eds/imw
ASMC 2026 (Advanced Semiconductor Manufacturing Conference)	May 11-14, 2026	Hilton Albany, New York	Manufacturing yield, process control, defect reduction, and fab efficiency; directly relevant to the economics of leading-edge node ramp (yield determines effective die cost at new nodes); AI in fab manufacturing quality control; held in Albany NY - near GlobalFoundries Fab 8/9 in Malta and the Micron New York greenfield site	asmc.semi.org
CS MANTECH 2026 (Compound Semiconductor Manufacturing Technology)	May 18-21, 2026	Portland, OR	GaAs, GaN, InP, SiC, and other compound semiconductor manufacturing; primary technical conference for the compound semiconductor fab supply chain; directly relevant to 5G RF front-end (GaAs PA, GaN base station), EV SiC power (SiC MOSFET), and defense radar (GaN-on-SiC T/R module) supply chains	csmantech.org
VOICE 2026 Developer Conference	May 18-20, 2026	Scottsdale, AZ	Semiconductor EDA software, verification, and AI-assisted chip design tools; Siemens EDA user conference; relevant to the EDA supply chain that underpins all chip design across foundry nodes	voiceconference.org
ECTC 2026 (IEEE Electronic Components and Technology Conference)	May 26-29, 2026	JW Marriott Grande Lakes, Orlando, FL	The premier advanced packaging and electronic assembly conference; CoWoS, InFO, Foveros, HBM TSV bonding, substrate technology, thermal management for AI cluster compute density; directly addresses the packaging supply chain constraints that were the primary AI GPU bottleneck in 2023-2024. Key venue for CoWoS capacity expansion disclosures and next-generation packaging roadmap.	ectc.net
COMPUTEX Taipei 2026	Jun 2-5, 2026	Taipei, Taiwan (TWTC / Nangang)	Asia's largest PC, components, and AI hardware trade show; AMD, NVIDIA, Intel, TSMC, Qualcomm, MediaTek all present; Taiwanese supply chain (motherboard, GPU board, server ODMs, power supply, cooling) on full display; AI server hardware, gaming PC components, ARM Windows PC ecosystem; supply chain context for the global PC and server electronics value chain	computex.biz
VLSI Technology and Circuits 2026 (IEEE/JSAP Symposium)	Jun 14-18, 2026	Honolulu, Hawaii	Co-located technology and circuits symposia; process technology track covers transistor device results at N2 and beyond, new memory cell architectures, and advanced packaging innovations; circuit design track covers analog and digital implementations. Key venue for TSMC, Samsung, Intel, and imec process technology disclosures between ISSCC and IEDM. GAA transistor results at N2 expected from TSMC and Samsung.	vlsisymposium.org
Automotive Electronics Congress 2026	Jun 16-17, 2026	Ludwigsburg, Germany	European automotive semiconductor ecosystem; SiC power for EV traction and OBC; ADAS SoC platforms; automotive Ethernet networking; AEC-Q100 qualification practices; vehicle electrical architecture (zonal vs domain); directly relevant to SX automotive sector supply chain analysis	automotive-electronics-congress.de
3D and Systems Summit 2026	Jun 17-19, 2026	Dresden, Germany	3D IC stacking, heterogeneous integration, and chiplet ecosystem in the European context; hosted in Dresden - site of TSMC ESMC, GF Dresden, Infineon Dresden, and Bosch Dresden; Silicon Saxony cluster context; European advanced packaging supply chain development	3d-systems-summit.com
ISCA 2026 (International Symposium on Computer Architecture)	Jun 27-Jul 1, 2026	Raleigh, NC	Computer architecture research: CPU microarchitecture, GPU architecture, AI accelerator design, memory systems, interconnect; academic papers that define the architectural roadmap for chips 5-10 years out; relevant to understanding why future chips will place specific demands on process nodes, memory bandwidth, and packaging	iscaconf.org

Q3 2026 — July through September

Conference	Dates	Location	Focus / SX relevance	Website
DAC 2026 (Design Automation Conference)	Jul 25-29, 2026	Long Beach, CA	The flagship EDA and design automation conference; chip design tools, AI-assisted RTL synthesis, physical design for advanced nodes, verification of complex SoCs; Synopsys, Cadence, Siemens EDA all present major announcements; increasingly covering AI accelerator design methodology and chiplet design flows; design tool supply chain context for all foundry node programs	dac.com
Hot Chips 38 (IEEE Symposium on High Performance Chips)	Aug 23-25, 2026	Memorial Auditorium, Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA (hybrid)	The premier venue for high-performance chip architecture disclosure; companies present their latest AI accelerators, CPUs, GPUs, and custom ASICs in technical detail for the first time. Vera Rubin GPU architectural details, AMD MI350X/MI400 CDNA4 architecture, Google TPU v6, Amazon Trainium2 successor, Apple M4/M5 silicon details, and hyperscaler custom ASIC architectures typically disclosed here. The best single-day snapshot of where AI chip architecture is heading.	hotchips.org
SPIE Photomask Technology + EUV Lithography 2026	Sep 8-11, 2026	Monterey, CA	Photomask manufacturing and EUV lithography process integration; critical for understanding the mask supply chain (Toppan, DNP, Hoya, photomask blanks from AGC and Shin-Etsu) that is an upstream dependency for all EUV-manufactured chips at N7 and below; EUV resist and pellicle supply chain; High-NA EUV first mask results	spie.org/photomask
AI Infra Summit 2026	Sep 15-17, 2026	Santa Clara, CA	AI datacenter infrastructure: GPU cluster architecture, networking (InfiniBand vs Ultra Ethernet), power delivery (48V rack power, GaN PSU), cooling (liquid cooling, immersion), datacenter AI software stack; Rubin CPX cancellation confirmation was disclosed by NVIDIA VP Ian Buck at AI Infra Summit September 2025 - the 2026 edition will contextualize the Groq LPU replacement and Vera Rubin NVL72 deployment economics	aiinfrasummit.com
IMAPS Symposium 2026	Sep 28-Oct 1, 2026	Boston, MA	International Microelectronics and Packaging Society annual symposium; advanced packaging materials, substrate technology, thermal interface materials, reliability testing for advanced packages; complements ECTC with stronger materials and reliability focus; covers SiP packaging for wearables and IoT alongside leading-edge AI chip packaging	imaps.org

Q4 2026 — October through December

Conference	Dates	Location	Focus / SX relevance	Website
SEMICON West 2026	Oct 13-15, 2026	Moscone Center, San Francisco, CA	North America's flagship semiconductor equipment, materials, and supply chain trade show; 650+ exhibitors; 16,000+ attendees; SEMI Global organizer. 2026 themes: CHIPS Act implementation, AI-era supply chain resilience, sustainability and decarbonization, 1-trillion-dollar semiconductor market path. Key venue for equipment suppliers (ASML, Applied Materials, Lam Research, KLA, Tokyo Electron) to present technology roadmaps and fab investment updates.	semiconwest.org
IEEE ICCAD 2026 (International Conference on Computer-Aided Design)	Oct-Nov 2026 (TBC)	TBD (typically San Francisco area)	EDA research: physical design algorithms for advanced nodes, machine learning for chip design (AI-EDA), power and thermal analysis, verification scalability for billion-gate designs; academic predecessor to commercial EDA tool features; complements DAC with stronger research focus	iccad.com
WiPDA 2026 (Wide Bandgap Power Devices and Applications)	Nov 9-12, 2026	Burlington, VT	SiC and GaN power device technology: new device results, reliability, applications in EV inverters, solar inverters, BESS PCS, and industrial drives; directly relevant to SX nine-market SiC convergence analysis; Wolfspeed, Infineon, STMicro, Onsemi, ROHM, and Chinese domestic SiC suppliers all present technical papers; primary technical conference for the SiC supply chain sector	wipda.org
IWN 2026 (International Workshop on Nitride Semiconductors)	Nov 8-13, 2026	Kumamoto, Japan	GaN, InN, AlN and nitride semiconductor device and materials research; relevant to GaN power device supply chain (GaN-on-Si for EV OBC and solar; GaN-on-SiC for 5G base station and defense); held in Kumamoto - the same city as Sony Semiconductor and TSMC JASM, reflecting the region's semiconductor manufacturing concentration	iwn2026.jp
IEDM 2026 (IEEE International Electron Devices Meeting)	Dec 6-10, 2026	San Francisco, CA	The most prestigious semiconductor device research conference globally; where TSMC, Samsung, Intel, IBM, imec, and leading universities present their most advanced transistor, memory, and packaging results. IEDM 2026 expected to cover: TSMC N2 GAA NanoFlex production results; Samsung SF2 GAA device data; Intel 18A RibbonFET + PowerVia first silicon data; sub-2nm research device demonstrations; HBM4 memory cell results; 3D sequential integration; neuromorphic and quantum device results. The definitive end-of-year technology benchmark for where the process node roadmap actually stands.	ieee-iedm.org
SEMICON Japan 2026	Dec 9-11, 2026	Tokyo Big Sight, Tokyo, Japan	Japan's flagship semiconductor equipment, materials, and manufacturing event; primary venue for Japanese semiconductor ecosystem (Tokyo Electron, Shin-Etsu, Sumco, JSR, Fujifilm, Murata, TDK) to present roadmaps; TSMC JASM Japan fab updates; Japan semiconductor policy; silicon wafer and specialty chemical supply chain; Japanese SiC suppliers (Rohm SiCrystal, Sumitomo Electric) present device roadmaps	semiconjapan.org

Specialty and Domain Conferences

The following conferences serve specific technical or sector communities within the broader semiconductor ecosystem. They are typically smaller than the flagship events above but carry concentrated supply chain relevance for the domains they cover.

Conference	Typical timing	Focus domain	SX supply chain relevance
APEC (Applied Power Electronics Conference)	February-March (APEC 2026: Mar 9-13, Dallas TX)	Power electronics: SiC and GaN device applications, motor drives, EV power systems, grid power conversion, wireless charging, solar inverters	Primary applications conference for SiC and GaN power devices; where EV inverter, BESS PCS, solar inverter, and EVSE design engineers present system-level results using SiC and GaN; demand-side visibility for the nine-market SiC convergence
PCIM Europe	May (Nuremberg, Germany)	Power electronics, intelligent motion, renewable energy, energy management; European counterpart to APEC	European SiC and GaN power semiconductor market; Infineon, STMicro, Onsemi, Rohm present European market SiC roadmaps; solar inverter and BESS semiconductor demand from European IRA-equivalent programs
ISPSD (International Symposium on Power Semiconductor Devices and ICs)	June	Power semiconductor device physics and technology: SiC MOSFET, GaN HEMT, IGBT, power diodes, gate drivers	Technical papers from Wolfspeed, Infineon, STMicro, Onsemi, ROHM on SiC device advances; 200mm SiC wafer transition results; new SiC device architectures targeting automotive and energy markets; directly informs SiC supply chain roadmap
IMS (International Microwave Symposium)	June	Microwave and RF technology: GaAs, GaN, InP, SiGe BiCMOS; 5G/6G components; satellite and defense RF	GaN base station PA technology from Wolfspeed, MACOM, Qorvo; GaAs handset PA advances; mmWave for 5G FR2; SiGe BiCMOS for radar; 6G sub-THz device research; compound semiconductor supply chain technology developments
CMSE (Components for Military and Space Electronics)	April-May (Los Angeles)	Defense and space electronics: rad-hard ICs, military-grade power semiconductors, harsh-environment components, ITAR supply chain	BAE Systems RAD5545 and next-generation rad-hard processor roadmap; Microchip RTG4 FPGA updates; military SiC power device qualification status; SpaceX D3 / NVIDIA Space-1 implications for the rad-tolerant vs rad-hard market split; defense SiC GaN qualification standards
IRPS (International Reliability Physics Symposium)	March-April	Semiconductor reliability physics: device degradation, electromigration, time-dependent dielectric breakdown, hot carrier injection, radiation effects	Reliability data for new process nodes critical for automotive qualification (AEC-Q100 requires reliability physics validation at each new node); space radiation effects on commercial foundry silicon (rad-tolerant design validation); HBM reliability under AI workload stress
CSTIC (China Semiconductor Technology International Conference)	March (Shanghai)	Chinese domestic semiconductor technology: SMIC process advances, Chinese EDA tools, domestic equipment development, Chinese memory (YMTC, CXMT)	China bifurcation supply chain assessment; SMIC N+1 and N+2 process development status; Chinese domestic EDA (Empyrean) capability assessment; CXMT HBM development progress; YMTC 3D NAND layer count advances; domestic equipment (NAURA, AMEC, SMEE) capability gap vs Western tools
IITC (International Interconnect Technology Conference)	June	Back-end-of-line (BEOL) metallization: copper interconnects, low-k dielectrics, ruthenium wiring, cobalt liner, air gap technology	BEOL process developments that determine resistivity and reliability of on-chip wiring at sub-5nm nodes; new metal materials (ruthenium, molybdenum as copper alternatives at narrow linewidths) affecting chemical supply chains; direct relevance to semiconductor critical materials and process chemicals supply

Conference Calendar by Supply Chain Domain

For readers focused on specific supply chain domains, the following index cross-references conferences to their primary SX topic areas.

Leading-edge process technology (N3/N2/18A/beyond): ISSCC (Feb) | SPIE Advanced Lithography (Feb) | VLSI Technology and Circuits (Jun) | Hot Chips 38 (Aug) | IEDM (Dec)

Advanced packaging (CoWoS, HBM, 3D IC, chiplets): Hybrid Bonding Symposium (Jan) | Chiplet Summit (Feb) | ECTC (May) | IMAPS (Sep)

AI and compute silicon (GPU, accelerator, AI cluster): NVIDIA GTC (Mar - completed) | Hot Chips 38 (Aug) | AI Infra Summit (Sep) | ISSCC (Feb) | IEDM (Dec)

Semiconductor manufacturing and supply chain (equipment, materials, fab operations): ISS (Jan) | ASMC (May) | SEMICON West (Oct) | SEMICON Japan (Dec) | SEMICON Korea (Feb - completed)

Automotive semiconductor (ADAS, SiC, MCU, functional safety): Automotive Electronics Congress (Jun) | APEC (Mar) | ISPSD (Jun) | DATE (Apr) | IEDM (Dec)

RF and wireless (5G/6G, GaAs, GaN, mmWave): IMS (Jun) | CS MANTECH (May) | WiPDA (Nov) | IWN (Nov) | SPIE Advanced Lithography (Feb - for EUV in RF process context)

Space and defense: CMSE (Apr-May) | IRPS (Mar-Apr) | IWN (Nov) | ISPSD (Jun)

EDA and chip design: DesignCon (Feb-Mar - completed) | DATE (Apr) | DAC (Jul) | VOICE (May) | ICCAD (Oct-Nov)

China semiconductor / bifurcation: CSTIC (Mar) | SEMICON Korea (Feb - completed) | SEMICON Japan (Dec)

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