Power semiconductors are used across many areas of e-mobility, with different technologies suitable for each part of a vehicle, depending on the voltage and current requirements, while emerging tech is allowing smaller systems to be implemented. With GaN and SiC technologies maturing and coming down in price, adoption is growing, and the technologies are increasingly dominating the design and development of e-mobility powertrain and power systems.

E-Mobility Engineering
March 2024
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Gallium Nitride (GaN) FETs have revolutionized the power electronics industry, offering advantages such as smaller size, faster switching, higher efficiency, and lower costs compared to traditional silicon MOSFETs. However, the rapid evolution of GaN technology has sometimes outpaced the development of dedicated GaN-specific gate drivers and controllers. Consequently, circuit designers often turn to generic gate drivers designed for silicon MOSFETs, necessitating careful consideration of various factors to ensure optimal performance.

Bodo’s Power Systems
February, 2024
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Efficient Power Conversion (EPC) is optimistic about GaN despite geopolitical challenges and the changing landscape in the compound semiconductor sector.

DIGITIMES
September, 2023
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Gallium Nitride (GaN) semiconductor company Efficient Power Conversion (EPC) is taking a fresh stab at the power component landscape, challenging the longstanding silicon hegemony.

DIGITIMES
September, 2023
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Gallium Nitride (GaN) heterojunction field effect power transistors in the 15 V to 350 V range have shown to give significant advantages over silicon in efficiency, size, speed, and cost in applications such as power conversion, motor drive, and pulsed light for lidar. GaN integration provides numerous system benefits for many high frequency applications. GaN integration is just beginning, and the benefits are assured to increase over time.

Bodo’s Power Systems
June, 2023
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Case Spotlights Next-Gen Tech Replacing Silicon

(El Segundo, California)—Efficient Power Conversion Corporation (EPC), the global leader in gallium nitride (GaN) technology, today filed complaints in federal court and in the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) asserting four patents of its foundational patent portfolio against Innoscience (Zhuhai) Technology Company, Ltd. and its affiliates (collectively, Innoscience).  These patents cover core aspects of the design and manufacturing process of EPC’s proprietary enhancement-mode gallium nitride power semiconductor devices.  These patents encompass innovations that enabled GaN-based power devices to mature from a research project to a mass-producible high-volume alternative to silicon-based transistors and integrated circuits with GaN devices having higher efficiency, smaller size, and lower cost. 

Since the launch of GaN-on-Si enhancement mode power transistors in March 2010 there has been a slow but monotonic shift towards adoption and replacement of silicon-based power MOSFETs. Initial adoption came from risk-taker visionaries in applications such as lidar, high-end audio amplifiers, robots, vehicle headlamps, and high-performance DC-DC converters. For the expansion of GaN for power conversion to get beyond the early adopters, a more user-friendly format than the WLCP needed to be developed. This format, however, needed to preserve the key attributes of small size, low RDS(on), high speed, excellent thermal conductivity, and low cost. In other words, the best package would be the least amount of package technically possible. Enter the PQFN…

Bodo’s Power Systems
March, 2023
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Five times smaller than an equivalent silicon MOSFET and twice as powerful as the previous generation of eGaN devices is the new sixth generation of devices introduced by Efficient Power Conversion (EPC). We asked CEO Alex Lidow in the video.

Electroniknet.de
November 29, 2022
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This panel discussion from Electronica 2022 discusses the benefits and challenges for SiC and GaN in multiple application contexts, as well as the last barriers to overcome for widespread adoption, such as large-volume capabilities and prices.

Power Electronic News
January, 2023
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EPC introduces the 80 V, AEC-Q101-qualified EPC2252 GaN FET, offering designers significantly smaller and more efficient solutions than silicon MOSFETs for automotive-grade lidar, 48 V – 12 V DC-DC conversion, and low inductance motor drives.

EL SEGUNDO, Calif. — January 2023 — Efficient Power Conversion Corporation, the world’s leader in enhancement-mode gallium nitride (eGaN^®) FETs and ICs, expands the selection of automotive, off-the-shelf gallium nitride transistors with the introduction of the 80 V, 11 mΩ EPC2252 that delivers 75 A pulsed current in a 1.5 mm x 1.5 mm footprint. The EPC2252 offers power system designers significantly smaller and more efficient devices than silicon MOSFETs for automotive-grade lidar found in autonomous driving and other ADAS applications, 48  V – 12 V DC-DC conversion, and low inductance motor drives.

Power-conversion technologies are experiencing the first tectonic shift since the move from bipolar to MOS. That shift, of course, is due to the viral adoption of wide-bandgap power devices. At this point, GaN is more than a specialty technology; it is a broad-scale replacement for silicon MOSFETs in applications ranging from 30 V up to 650 V — a multibillion-dollar market.

Power Electronics News
December, 2022
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Despite the continued progress in traditional transistor scaling, the semiconductor industry has reached an inflection point. The demand for faster, smaller, smarter, and more energy-efficient chips calls for new design and manufacturing paradigms. This eBook includes contributions from technology and market experts Malcolm Penn, Future Horizons; Tim Burgess and Bernd Westhoff, Renesas Electronics; Jean-Christophe Eloy, Yole Group; Luc Van den hove, imec; Ezgi Dogmus, Poshun Chiu, and Taha Ayari, Yole Intelligence; Alex Lidow, Efficient Power Conversion; Victor Veliadis, PowerAmerica; Richard Collins and Yu-Han Chang, IDTechEx; and Jean-René Lèquepeys, CEA-Leti.

EETimes
December, 2022
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Continue the conversation with Guy Moxey and EPC CEO and Co-Founder Alex Lidow as they explore how GaN and Wolfspeed Silicon Carbide are changing the way we live, and where the future of these technologies could take us.

Wolfspeed
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In this interview from electronica 2022, Alex Lidow talks about technology during these 50 years of EE Times, the next challenges for our industry, and the growth of GaN. “Below 650 volts, where the MOSFET is dominant that will be written over by GaN”.

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GaN power devices should be the ideal choice for power conversion applications in space because they are more robust than rad hard MOSFETs when exposed to various forms of radiation. The electrical and thermal performance of GaN has also demonstrated superior operation in a space environment. In this podcast, Bel Lazar, Chief Executive Officer of EPC Space, will analyze the importance of GaN for the space industry. In addition to his role as CEO of EPC Space, Bel currently serves as COO of Efficient Power Conversion (EPC).

EETimes
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Efficient Power Conversion (EPC) introduces the 80 V, 4 mOhm EPC2619 GaN FET in tiny 1.5 mm x 2.5 mm footprint, offering higher performance and smaller solution size than traditional MOSFETs for high power density applications, including DC-DC conversion, motor drives, and synchronous rectification for 12 V – 20 V.

EL SEGUNDO, Calif.— November 2022 — EPC, the world’s leader in enhancement-mode gallium nitride (GaN) power FETs and ICs, launches the 80 V, 4 mOhm EPC2619. This is the lead product for a new generation of eGaN devices that have double the power density compared to EPC’s prior-generation products.

As energy efficiency standards increase, high-voltage Silicon Carbide and low-voltage GaN are replacing traditional silicon, enabling cooler, lighter, and more powerful electronics. Join Guy Moxey and Alex Lidow, EPC CEO and Co-founder, and explore how Wolfspeed and EPC technologies complement one another in the race towards a more sustainable future.

Wolfspeed
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From Nov. 15 to 18, electronica 2022 will bring the international electronics industry together at the Munich exhibition grounds. Wide Bandgap Semiconductors, Renewable Energies, Smart Grid, and Energy Storage will be the major topics covered by the Power Electronics Forum at electronica 2022. In this podcast, onsemi president and CEO Hassane El-Khoury, Silanna Semiconductor North America CEO Mark Drucker, and of Efficient Power Conversion (EPC) CEO Alex Lidow will introduce the Power Electronics Forum. Interview with Alex Lidow starts at 31:55

EETimes
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Alex Lidow, former CEO of International Rectifier and CEO of Efficient Power Conversion, is one of the few individuals to have pioneered two revolutionary power semiconductor technologies – the silicon power MOSFET and the gallium nitride HEMT. How did he come to have these two unique opportunities?

elektroniknet.de
September, 2022
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There is a commonly held belief in the industry that GaN devices are wasted on inverters for electric motors. After all, if the performance of the system is restricted by the use of a 20KHz PWM, then there can be little benefit in using a material that gains the majority of its advantages from faster switching speeds. However, according to Marco Palma, Director of Motor Drives Systems and Applications at EPC, there are some ways that GaN can still prove effective in that role.

Power Systems Design
September, 2022
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