In Focus offers engineers and technical management an opportunity to contribute a technical bylined article to EE Times. Contributions are written "by engineers for engineers."

Each week EE Times editors, under the guidance of In Focus editor Patrick Mannion, take an in-depth look into one of four hot design areas.

Communication Design
Despite the downturn in the latest business cycle, communications design continues to flourish as one of the hottest areas in electronic design. From high-speed silicon switch fabrics to mixed - signal wireless chips and the latest building blocks for more efficient processors and networks, communications engineers are in a constant battle for speed, challenged to create the next generation architecture or killer application. Written by engineers in the industry, the Communications Design series tracks this revolutionary process as the latest developments in next-generation networks, optical components and networked multimedia transform the world.

Embedded Systems
The rapid expansion of the Internet and equally explosive advances in silicon VLSI technology place embedded developers at the forefront of system design. Addressing the leading edge of this multifaceted area, the Embedded Systems section represents a widely read compendium of design articles authored by the leading embedded developers and software engineers. Technical topics range from reconfigurability and VoIP to microcontrollers and the latest in Java programming, with industry experts offering their take on critical areas of design and major hardware and software trends to watch in this dynamically changing segment of electronics design.

Silicon Engineering
The newest addition to the In Focus section, Silicon Engineering brings contributed articles from industry experts on the subject of designing system-level integrated circuits. Complementing the weekly Silicon Engineering news section, this series accepts articles written by and for practicing engineers engaged in the process of SoC design. Articles will address the concerns of SoC designers covering all aspects of design from tools to test and verification strategies.

Signals
The Signals section provides a forum for both digital and analog engineers working at the leading edge of VLSI design. Whether it be the study of clock skew in the global interconnects of a chip, designing a module for power management or building a product for traffic management in a wireless network, signal issues play a crucial role in the success of every electronic system. Technical contributions to this series fall under several topics throughout the year, including packaging and signal integrity, high-speed design, next generation wireless platforms, DSPs in portable design, analog components and fiber optic networks.

One design area is spotlighted each week with bylined technical articles focused on a specific topic. Contributions from experts in the field discuss issues related to the In Focus topic.

As the collection of stories that make up these In Focus sections are prepared for the print edition of EE Times, they are also made available here online.

For the latest details on In Focus coverage and contact information on the EE Times editors who will be heading up the sections, please consult the 2004 In Focus Schedule.

If you are interested in submitting a technical article to an EE Times In Focus section, please consult the In Focus author guidelines. The guidelines provide basic information about writing a technical article and requirements for publication in EE Times. And, for more specifics on the monthly editorial plans for upcoming In Focus sections see the monthly editorial highlights.

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