We are seeing a shift in electronic technology from centralized and high-touch to ubiquitous and low-touch. Semiconductors are enabling intelligent systems to be developed that enable a more immersive environment expanding the role and applications of electronic technology. Driving this change is the availability of low-power electronics for wireless connectivity and performance processing. In the next decade, our ability to develop system-level solutions for energy management, delivery and consumption, will determine the extent to which the application space for electronic technology will grow. Power management techniques developed in the last decade have focused on process technology and circuit design techniques. As we move to distributed intelligent systems, power reductions of another few orders of magnitude are required. This talk looks at some of the key areas for innovation ranging from ultra-low power chips for personal and health technology to solutions for energy generation and delivery for autonomous systems.

Several aspects of ESD are described from the point of view of the test, design, product, and reliability engineering. A review of the ESD phenomena along with the test methods, the appropriate on-chip protection techniques, and the impact of process technology advances from CMOS to BiCMOS on the ESD sensitivity of IC protection circuits are presented. The status of understanding in the field of ESD failure physics and the current approaches for modeling are discussed.>