January 27th, 2006

VIth INTERNATIONAL MEETING ON FRONT END ELECTRONICS

for High Energy, Nuclear, Medical and Space Applications

May 17th to May 20^th, 2006

Perugia, Italy

First Announcement and Invitation

Dear Colleague,

In the past, there have been five very successful meetings that focused on advanced front-end electronics for high energy physics applications. The first meeting was held in Yellowstone in 1992 and since then the meeting has gone back and forth between the US and Europe every 2 or 3 years, with the last one held in Snowmass in 2003. Designers of front end integrated circuits and systems have found these meetings of particular interest.

Much has happened in the international High-Energy Physics and Astrophysics community over the past three years relating to detector front-end electronics. Based on this widespread activity there also exists now an increasing number of efforts to develop front-end electronics for other applications, such as Nuclear Medicine, X-ray imaging and radiography. It is therefore appropriate to hold another FEE meeting this year: the meeting will take place in Perugia, Italy, from May 17^th to May 20^th. The FEE meetings have all been relatively small and by invitation to ensure close interactions between all participants. Most participants are supposed to actively contribute to the meeting with an oral presentation. Participants of previous FEE meetings have appreciated this formula and found the informal atmosphere fruitful for discussion.

As organizers of the 6^th International Meeting on Front End Electronics, we have the pleasure to invite you to attend this meeting and to contribute to the program.

This year’s meeting will provide an opportunity to discuss the front end electronics for proposed HEP experiments at future facilities, such as the International Linear Collider, the Super LHC, and T2K as well as for upgrades to existing experiments. Talks are also solicited on front end electronics for astrophysics and medical applications and in the field of CMOS Monolithic Pixel Sensors. Radiation tolerance will continue to be an area of general interest.

The meeting topics will include circuit designs for, but not limited to the following:

Pixel and silicon strip readout devices

Calorimeter front-end

Monolithic readout devices (MAPS)

Nuclear, medical, and space applications

Deep submicron circuit design and radiation tolerance

New ideas for front end designs

We plan to have about 45 talks of 20 or 30 minutes plus discussion. The shorter talks are meant to present specific new results while the longer talks can cover a broader area. It is planned to have morning and afternoon sessions on the first and third meeting day. The second day we propose a morning session with the afternoon free to explore the surrounding areas. The fourth day will have only a morning session. Formal proceedings are not planned, however we expect to provide participants with a CD ROM containing copies of all presentations. Electronic copies of all presentations will also be available on the meeting web page. We ask all speakers to submit ahead of time an electronic copy of their talk or bring an electronic copy of their talk to the meeting. More information regarding the format of the talk will be provided in a later notice.

Two prior FEE meetings have been held in the historical city of Perugia in the beautiful Umbria region of Italy. We believe that you will find Perugia in May to be particularly beautiful. You can find a map of Perugia and other useful information at http://www.perugiaonline.com/

The meeting will be held at the Hotel Gio` “Arte e Vini” (http://www.hotelgio.it), a nice and calm environment, well known for its hospitality and good food, close to the beautiful old part of the city. The hotel provides two large meeting rooms plus several small rooms for working session and discussions. Wireless network access is available in the meeting rooms and in the hotel lobby.

Accommodation and meals will be provided at the Hotel Gio`, with a block of rooms already reserved for the participants to the meeting. We are preparing a package that includes four nights accommodation, breakfast and lunch of the next day for a total of about 350 Euro for a single room accommodation and 235 Euro for accompanying person. Participants will be free to have dinner at the Hotel Gio (a special rate will be agreed) or in different restaurants in the area.

Although the conference fee has not been finalized, it is expected to be about 110 Euro per person. More details and the final costs will be provided in the next notice.

Perugia can be reached by plane directly, at the Sant Egidio Airport only coming from Milano with Alitalia flight (http://www.airport.umbria.it/). Shuttle service to the Hotel Gio is available at the airport in connection with the incoming flights. A second option is to fly to Roma and then reach Perugia by bus, by train or renting a car. Detailed instruction will be given in the next notice.

This year FEE meeting will be held the week before the 10^th Pisa Meeting on Advanced Detectors. The proximity of these two meetings should provide easy access for international as well as local participants wishing to attend both meetings. For those who do not want to arrange for a private travel plan to continue on to La Biodola, we will organize a group travel with one night stop in the beautiful Valdarno or Val d’Orcia area as to reach La Biodola on Sunday 21^st.

Because of the large amount of planning and work that needs to be done in the next few months, we ask the favor of your reply as soon as possible even if you do not plan to attend. Please send your reply by filling out the attached registration form to our conference secretary by March 15, 2006. You may FAX the form to +39 075 5847296 or send it via e-mail at fee2006@pg.infn.it.

With your participation and contribution we hope to have another successful meeting. After we have received your reply, the second bulletin will be sent covering a program outline, and speaker details. Please download the conference poster from our conference website (fee2006.pg.infn.it) and post it where others who may be interested can see it.

With best regards,

Giovanni Ambrosi for the Organizing Committee

The Organizing Committee:

Giovanni Ambrosi, Chairman

Roberto Battiston

Marcus French

Paul O'Connor

Peter Weilhammer

Ray Yarema