The 2026 IEEE International MTT Symposia (IMS2026) will take place from June 7-12, 2026 at the Thomas M. Menino Convention and Exhibition Center (MCEC) in Boston, bringing together the global RF and microwave community under a newly structured technical program designed to better address RF systems, as well as emerging RF applications, technologies, and techniques.
The new IMS structure comes to fruition as RF and microwave engineering confronts a new set of demands and challenges. IMS2026 is the forum where those demands and their solutions are examined directly.
“RF and microwave engineering is an interdisciplinary endeavor more than it has ever been in the past. From components to RFICs to systems and even critical signal-processing aspects that influence hardware design, the IMS2026 program reflects this reality giving engineers a single event to share, network, and work through all of these engineering elements,” said Gregory Lyons, IMS2026 General Co-Chair.
IMS has formally reorganized its technical content across three coordinated symposia, each focused on a distinct stage of RF and microwave development:
- IEEE MTT-S RF Integrated Circuits (RFIC) Symposium: The premier forum dedicated to presenting the latest advances in RF, millimeter-wave, and THz integrated circuits and systems. RFIC 2026 continues to cover a broad spectrum of topics ranging from individual circuit blocks to fully integrated systems operating from sub-GHz to THz frequencies.
- IEEE MTT-S RF Systems & Applications (RFSA) Symposium: RF system architectures focusing innovation on integrating components and subsystems to achieve application goals within constraints of available signal-processing techniques and digital processing hardware, including novel applications contexts in communication and sensing. RFSA 2026 will have a special emphasis on integrated sensing and communications (ISAC), a key part of 6G communications. As part of RFSA, there will be a new RF Systems Dialogue which, this year, will focus on ISAC. The format will include a session of invited talks as well as an evening panel session.
- IEEE MTT-S RF Technology & Techniques (RFTT) Symposium: Advanced technology and techniques covering emerging RF and microwave research and development directions, and spanning RF passive components, packaging, active devices, discrete RF circuits, computer-aided design, and computational EM. RFTT 2026 will have a special emphasis on RF quantum technology.
IMS2026 is the forum for engineers, researchers, and industry decision-makers to examine trade-offs, compare approaches, and define priorities across the full RF and microwave development path.
Boston is the ideal location for such symposia. The city’s research universities, academic institutions, defense technology firms, and RF and microwave companies make it a natural gathering point for the cross-disciplinary work IMS2026 is built around.
“RF and microwave engineering is at a point where the decisions being made right now will define the next decade of wireless infrastructure, sensing, and semiconductor design. IMS2026 exists to enable those decisions to be made with the full weight of the global community behind them,” Lyons added.
For more than 70 years, IMS has served as the global meeting place where RF and microwave professionals share research, evaluate emerging technologies, and align on the engineering priorities defining the field. IMS2026 builds on that legacy with a program designed for what the field now requires.