Last week, Anker debuted a tiny new power brick, crediting its small size with the component it uses instead of silicon: gallium nitride (GaN). It’s the latest example of the growing popularity of this transparent, glass-like material that could one day unseat silicon and cut energy use worldwide.

The Verge
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Gallium nitride (GaN) power transistors designed for efficient power conversion have been in production for seven years. New markets, such as light detection and ranging, envelope tracking, and wireless charging, have emerged due to the superior switching speed of GaN. These markets have enabled GaN products to achieve significant volumes, low production costs, and an enviable reliability reputation. All of this provides adequate incentive for the more conservative design engineers in applications such as dc-dc converters, ac-dc converters, and automotive to start their evaluation process. So what are the remaining barriers to the conversion of the US$12 billion silicon power metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistor (MOSFET) market? In a word: confidence. Design engineers, manufacturing engineers, purchasing managers, and senior management all need to be confident that GaN will provide benefits that more than offset the risk of adopting a new technology. Let's look at three key risk factors: supply chain risk, cost risk, and reliability risk.

IEEE Spectrum
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Efficient Power Conversion (EPC) has successfully completed automotive AEC Q101 qualification for EPC2202 and EPC2203 gallium nitride devices, opening a range of applications in automotive and other harsh environments.

EL SEGUNDO, Calif — September 13th, 2018 — Efficient Power Conversion Corporation’s AEC Q101-qualified EPC2202 and EPC2203 have been honored with an Electronic Products China / 21iC Media’s “Top 10 Power Products – Technology Breakthrough Award.” The award presentation was announced on September 13^th, 2018 in Beijing, China during 21iC Power Conference 2018.

Spirit's Marti McCurdy and EPC's CEO Alex Lidow discuss the performance and cost benefits of gallium nitride over silicon and how leading companies the world over work with EPC to develop their next gen technologies with the power of GaN.

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EL SEGUNDO, Calif. — June 22, 2018 -- Efficient Power Conversion Corporation, the world’s leader in enhancement-mode gallium nitride on silicon (eGaN^®) power FETs and ICs, will meet with design engineers in power management in Shanghai, China, for knowledge exchanges on solutions using a synchronous FET Class E rectifier for over 30 W highly-resonant wireless power receivers, and a kilowatt laser driver with 120 A, sub-10 nanosecond pulses in < 3 cm² using eGaN FET.

Meet EPC experts on power management at PCIM Asia Exhibition and Conference on June 26th, 2018 (Tuesday) at 10 a.m. – 10.50 a.m. at Exhibition Hall No. 2, 1/F of Shanghai World Expo Exhibition and Convention Center, 1099 Guozhan Road, Shanghai, China.

For LiDAR systems to meet ever-higher performance specs, they must perform fast switching of high-current pulses, which is where a gallium-nitride power switch can step in to help.

Electronic Design
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LIDAR is presently a subject of great interest, primarily due to its widespread adoption in autonomous navigation systems for vehicles, robots, drones, and other mobile machines. eGaN devices are one of the main factors in making affordable, high performance LIDAR possible in a small form factor thus further fueling the LIDAR revolution.

EDN
By John Glaser
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In recent years, GaN-based power conversion has increased in popularity due to the inherent benefits of eGaN FETs over conventional Si transistors. Migrating a converter design from Si to GaN offers many system-level improvements, which require consideration of all the components in that system. This trend has subsequently spurred a growth in the ecosystem of power electronics that support GaN-based designs.

Power Systems Designs
By Edward A. Jones, Michael de Rooij, and David Reusch
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Superior characteristics of eGaN^® FETs and integrated circuits, such as low output capacitance, low input capacitance, low parasitic inductances, and small size make them ideal for increasing efficiency in highly resonant, AirFuel™ wireless power transfer systems.

EL SEGUNDO, Calif.— May 2018 — Efficient Power Conversion Corporation (EPC) today announces the availability of a complete class 4 wireless power kit, the EPC9129. The system can transmit up to 33 W while operating at 6.78 MHz (the lowest ISM band). The kit comes complete with two receivers, each with a regulated output − one capable of 5 W capable and a second capable of delivering 27 W at 19 V.

Spirit Electronics now provides distribution support to assist customers in adopting eGaN^® FETs and ICs for leading-edge power conversion systems in the defense and aerospace market.

EL SEGUNDO, Calif.— May 2018 — To support its accelerating growth in the defense and aerospace markets, Efficient Power Conversion Corporation (EPC) is proud to announce the appointment of Spirit Electronics as a distribution partner focusing on these key market segments.  Spirit Electronics, in operation since 1979 and located in Phoenix, Arizona and Irvine, California, supplies products and services to the Department of Defense, aerospace, and telecommunication industries.  

EPC continues its 2018 GaN China Roadshow with participation in the upcoming WiPDA 2018 conference in Xian May 17^th through 18^th

EL SEGUNDO, Calif.— May 2018 — Efficient Power Conversion Corporation (EPC) started a GaN China Roadshow 2018 beginning in Shenzhen in March with technical presentations at the AirFuel Developers Forum. The second event in the roadshow was participation in SEMI China’s Power and Compound Semiconductor International Forum held in Shanghai, where Alex Lidow, CEO gave a keynote speech. Soon, from May 17 to 19, EPC will be meeting with engineers to share knowledge and demonstrations of eGaN^® devices, at WiPDA Asia IEEE workshop to be held at the Cullinan Huicheng Hotel in Xi’an.  Beyond WiPDA, the next stop for the EPC roadshow will be PCIM Asia, to be held in Shanghai, June 26^th through 28^th.  At this conference, EPC experts will be giving technical presentations on the use of GaN devices in wireless power transfer and LiDAR for autonomous cars.

Wireless power charging was a big point of discussion with a number of different solutions on the APEC 2018 exhibit floor. The following wireless charging solutions had unique aspects in their strategies; let’s take a look at what I saw over the last few days.

EDN Network
By Steve Taranovich
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In this video Alex Lidow, Founder and CEO of EPC, talks to Alix Paultre, Editor-in-Chief of Power Electronics News, about the various demonstrations of GaN-based solutions at the EPC booth at APEC 2018 in San Antonio, Texas. The high-frequency operation and other advanced performance advantages over Silicon enables GaN to empower applications from LIDAR to wireless power transmission. The booth exhibits include examples of these, from a real-time LIDAR demonstration to a running "wireless desk".

Power Electronics News
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LIDAR is made up of a laser (or arrays) capable of transmitting pulsed light over the required range of interest, and a high-speed, low-noise receiver for reflected signal analysis. A portion of this light is reflected or scattered back to the receiver according to the reflectivity of the target.

EDN Network
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EPC will exhibit live demonstrations showing how GaN technology’s superior performance is transforming power delivery for entire industries including wireless charging, DC/DC, LiDAR and automotive.

EL SEGUNDO, Calif. — March 8, 2018 — The EPC executive and technical team will be engaged in three industry events in Shenzhen and Shanghai, China on March 14 – 16 in demonstrating and sharing with engineers on how to maximize GaN FET and IC performance in their innovative designs, to win their customers.

EPC2112 and EPC2115 GaN-based monolithic integrated solutions offer power systems designers the ability to increase efficiency in an extremely small size.

EL SEGUNDO, Calif. — March 2018 — Efficient Power Conversion Corporation (EPC) announces the EPC2112 and EPC2115 enhancement-mode monolithic GaN power transistor with integrated driver products. The EPC2112 is a 200 V, 40-mΩ eGaN^® FET plus integrated gate driver. In comparison, the EPC2115 is an integrated circuit with dual 150 V, 70-mΩ eGaN FETs plus gate drivers. Both products are capable of operating up to 7 MHz and are available in low inductance, extremely small, 2.9 mm x 1.1 mm BGA surface-mount passivated die.

Alex Lidow and his team of Michael de Rooij, David Reusch, and John Glaser gave an excellent technical tutorial this morning to a packed audience of Professional Engineers (PEs). The topic was a very timely ‘Maximizing GaN FET and IC performance: Not just a drop-in replacement of MOSFETs’.

Planet Analog
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Efficient Power Conversion’s EPC9204 and EPC9205 power modules demonstrate the efficiency enhancements and significant size reduction achieved in DC-DC power conversion using high frequency switching eGaN^® power transistors and integrated circuits.

EL SEGUNDO, Calif.— March 2018 — Efficient Power Conversion Corporation (EPC) introduces two new GaN power modules for DC-DC conversion, increasing efficiency across the 48 V to point-of-load power architecture. The EPC9205 is a high-power density PCB-based power module for 48 V – 12 V conversions while the EPC9204 address the 20 V – point-of-load conversion with an ultra-thin profile PCB-based power module.

Efficient Power Conversion’s EPC9130 five-phase development board demonstrates the extreme size reduction and efficiency enhancement for power conversion achieved using high frequency switching eGaN^® power transistors.

EL SEGUNDO, Calif.— March 2018 —Efficient Power Conversion Corporation (EPC) introduces EPC9130 48 V − 12 V non-isolated, fully regulated development board.  This five-phase board with 12 A per phase has a maximum output current of 60 amps, making the board capable of over 700 W. The EPC9130 provides extremely high-power density exceeding 1250 W per cubic inch, and over 96% efficiency.

Gamers may not care about the finer points of gallium nitride (eGaN) chips as evangelized by power pioneer Alex Lidow, CEO of Efficient Power Conversion (EPC). But they will care that those chips will enable a new generation of gaming laptops with much smaller power supplies than in the past.

Venture Beat
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