by James Montgomery, News Editor, Solid State Technology

After bouncing around on the calendar and in venue, Semicon Europa, formerly a springtime event in Munich, Germany, is ready to open its doors next week in Stuttgart (conveniently at the same time as Germany’s second-biggest beer festival, Cannstatter Volksfest…complete with multistory fruit tower). Here follows a quick scan of highlights from Europa’s program schedule, and sessions you’ll want to bookmark.

A special Tuesday executive summit, “Enforcing Competitiveness of the European Semiconductor Industry,” will discuss the future of Europe’s microelectronics industry, discussing topics including maintaining regional competitiveness while manufacturing continues to shift to Asia, and how equipment/materials suppliers can leverage Europe’s strength and expansion in photovoltaics and other emerging markets. Panelists include CEOs from Infineon (Wolfgang Ziebart), Soitec (Andr