Physical Sciences & Engineering
Electrical, Electronics & Semiconductors Research: Societies, Funders, Standards
Electrical, electronics and semiconductor research is organised around a few large institutions that set its norms. The IEEE, formed in 1963 from the AIEE and the Institute of Radio Engineers, reports 39 technical societies, from Electron Devices and Solid-State Circuits to Power & Energy, Signal Processing and Control Systems, plus technical councils for electronic design automation, nanotechnology and sensors. Its Xplore database carries most of the field's journals, conference papers and standards, and the UK's Institution of Engineering and Technology publishes alongside it.
In the United States the National Science Foundation funds the academic side through its Electrical, Communications and Computing Systems area, which runs three programmes: Electronic, Photonic, Magnetic and Quantum Devices; Circuits and Systems for Communications and Sensing; and Energy, Power, Control and Learning. The CHIPS and Science Act of August 2022 added a semiconductor research layer, including the National Semiconductor Technology Center and the NIST Advanced Packaging Manufacturing Program, and DARPA's Electronics Resurgence Initiative funds microelectronics work with university partners. Which programme a project fits decides the funding route and the review panel.
Several practices recur across the whole discipline. Standards from the IEC, IEEE Standards Association, JEDEC, ITU-R and 3GPP define how devices, equipment and radio systems are tested and described. Measurements are supported by calibration under ISO/IEC 17025. Circuit simulation descends from SPICE, and chip design runs on electronic design automation software. New results often appear first on arXiv's eess archive. The specializations linked from this hub cover devices, chip design, power, radio frequency, photonics, signal processing, control, communications, instrumentation and packaging. This hub lists research-practice resources, not course or career material.
New to the field? What is Electrical, Electronics & Semiconductors? →
Reviewed 5 November 2026 by CASRAI Editorial Board
- NSF Electrical, Communications and Computing Systems (ECCS)(read 5 November 2026)
- arXiv Electrical Engineering and Systems Science(read 5 November 2026)
- List of IEEE societies (Wikipedia)(read 5 November 2026)
- IEEE Xplore (Wikipedia)(read 5 November 2026)
- IEEE Standards Association (Wikipedia)(read 5 November 2026)
- CHIPS and Science Act (Wikipedia)(read 5 November 2026)
- International Electrotechnical Commission (Wikipedia)(read 5 November 2026)
- IEEE (Wikipedia)(read 5 November 2026)
- JEDEC (Wikipedia)(read 5 November 2026)
- ISO/IEC 17025 (Wikipedia)(read 5 November 2026)
- IRDS (Wikipedia)(read 5 November 2026)
- DARPA (Wikipedia)(read 5 November 2026)
- SPICE (Wikipedia)(read 5 November 2026)
- Electronic design automation (Wikipedia)(read 5 November 2026)
- ITU-R (Wikipedia)(read 5 November 2026)
- 3GPP (Wikipedia)(read 5 November 2026)
- Institution of Engineering and Technology (Wikipedia)(read 5 November 2026)
- Proceedings of the IEEE (Wikipedia)(read 5 November 2026)
- Nature Electronics (Wikipedia)(read 5 November 2026)
Field at a glance
Journals
Societies
- IEEE
- Formed 1 January 1963 from the AIEE and IRE; reports over 486,000 members, 39 technical societies and roughly 200 journals and magazines.Website ↗ · Our guide →
- IEEE technical societies and councils
- Lists 39 societies (Electron Devices, Solid-State Circuits, Power & Energy, Signal Processing, Control Systems and more) and seven councils.Website ↗
- Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET)
- UK professional body formed in 2006 from the IEE and IIE; publishes the fortnightly letters journal Electronics Letters.Website ↗
Funders and programmes
- NSF Electrical, Communications and Computing Systems (ECCS)
- NSF Engineering area with three programmes: EPMQD (devices), CSCS (circuits and systems for communications and sensing), EPCL (energy, power, control, learning).Website ↗
- CHIPS and Science Act
- Signed 9 August 2022; provides about 11 billion dollars for semiconductor R&D including the NSTC and the NIST Advanced Packaging Manufacturing Program.Website ↗
- DARPA Electronics Resurgence Initiative (ERI)
- DARPA microelectronics programme started in 2019 with industry and university partners; ERI 2.0 was announced in 2023.Website ↗
Archives, facilities and data
- SPICE circuit simulator
- Open-source analog simulator from UC Berkeley (SPICE1 1973, SPICE3 1989); descendants include Ngspice, HSPICE and LTspice.Website ↗
- Electronic design automation (EDA) tools
- Software for designing chips and circuit boards; vendors include Synopsys, Cadence and Siemens EDA; OpenROAD and KiCad are open-source examples.Website ↗
Standards and formats
- IEC (International Electrotechnical Commission)
- Geneva-based body founded 1906 that publishes electrical and electronic standards numbered 60000-79999 and founded CISPR for radio interference.Website ↗
- IEEE Standards Association
- Develops consensus standards such as IEEE 802 (Ethernet, Wi-Fi), IEEE 1547 (distributed energy interconnection) and IEEE 1149.1 (JTAG).Website ↗
- JEDEC
- Semiconductor standards body tracing to 1944; publishes the JESD22 test-method series and DDR memory standards, free after registration.Website ↗
- ISO/IEC 17025
- General requirements for testing and calibration laboratory competence; first issued 1999, current edition 2017, applied through accreditation.Website ↗ · Our guide →
- ITU-R
- The ITU Radiocommunication Sector manages international spectrum and satellite orbit resources and publishes radiocommunication standards.Website ↗
- 3GPP
- Partnership formed December 1998 that specifies mobile systems from GSM to 5G NR and 5G-Advanced; specifications are freely available.Website ↗
- International Roadmap for Devices and Systems (IRDS)
- IEEE-backed 15-year roadmap established in 2016 to replace the ITRS; focus teams cover More Moore, Beyond CMOS, lithography and metrology.Website ↗
Preprints and indexes
- arXiv eess (Electrical Engineering and Systems Science)
- Four subject classes: eess.AS audio and speech, eess.IV image and video, eess.SP signal processing, eess.SY systems and control.Website ↗
- IEEE Xplore
- Database of IEEE and partner content: over 300 journals, 1,900 conferences and 11,000 standards; abstracts are public, full text usually needs a subscription.Website ↗
34 pages across 9 topic areas
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