Professors Shoji Tanaka and Walter Kosonocky, founders of the Symposia, first organized the VLSI Technology Symposium in 1981 with the hope of offering an opportunity for world's top technologists to engage in an open exchange of ideas on what was quickly becoming a revolution in the world's industrial capability. Since then, the Symposium has been held annually and has grown to be an important and valuable event for people working in the VLSI business. The presentation of high-quality papers has made it possible for attendees to learn about new directions in the development of VLSI technology. The friendly atmosphere has made this an enjoyable learning experience.

The Symposium on VLSI Technology has alternated each year between sites in US and Japan. In 1987, the first Symposium on VLSI Circuits was held in conjunction with the Technology Symposium in recognition of the growing interest to provide the same small but intense and open forum for discussing circuit and system implementations. Since then, this annual meeting has increased its value over the past 30 years. We are confident that so many new technologies and circuits were introduced in the past Symposia and thus have contributed to the prosperity of the world. Its sponsors continue to be the IEEE Electron Devices Society and Solid-State Circuits Society, and the Japan Society of Applied Physics in cooperation with the Institute of Electronics, Information and Communication Engineers.

For many reasons, these meetings have remained linked for the past years to provide opportunities for technology people and circuit and system designers to interact with each other. These interactions are augmented with short courses, invited speakers and several evening rump sessions. In recognition of the efforts of organizers, authors and participants to make the Symposia successful, there is ample banquet and entertainment prearranged.

The 2016 meeting was held in Honolulu, Hawaii. This year it will be returning to the RIHGA Royal Hotel in Kyoto, Japan in June of 2017.