Best design practices utilize the advantages offered by eGaN FETs, including printed circuit board (PCB) layout and thermal management. As GaN transistor switching charges continue to decrease, system parasitics must also be reduced to achieve maximum switching speeds and minimize parasitic ringing typical of power converters.

Power Electronics
Read article

Developers are hard at work on the machine learning necessary for safer and more-autonomous vehicles. But all the AI in the world won’t be enough if the car relies on inadequate sensors. That was clearly demonstrated in one fatal Tesla crash that occurred in part because the car’s camera didn’t correctly identify an oncoming truck. To ensure smart vehicles have a reliable model of surrounding objects — particularly the ones the cars identify as “threats” — most rely on one or more lidars, or laser-based remote sensors.

Extreme Tech
Read article

Wireless power, the ability to deliver electricity to gadgets without plugging those gadgets into a cable, is a hotbed of innovation at the moment. The dominant standard, called “Qi,” is ever under attack from other efforts.

This week saw interesting developments from Energous (WATT), which aims to transfer power via radio frequency transceivers, with limited results so far, and some controversy about its business.

There are other contenders. On Wednesday in Las Vegas, during the Consumer Electronics Show, I met with Alex Lidow, who is founder of a privately held chip company EPC of El Segundo, California.

Barron's
Read article

This article takes a deep dive into lidar technology. It explains how the technology works and the challenges technologists face as they try to build lidar sensors that meet the demanding requirements for commercial self-driving cars.

The bottom line is that while bringing lidar costs down will take a significant amount of difficult engineering work, there don't seem to be any fundamental barriers to bringing the cost of high-quality lidar down below $1,000—and eventually below $100. That means the technology—and ultimately, self-driving vehicles that depend on lidar—should be well within reach for ordinary consumers.

Ars Techinca
Read article

Within the AirFuel^TM Alliance booth at CES 2018, EPC will show how gallium nitride (GaN) semiconductors are at the core of large surface area wireless power. In the EPC hospitality suite, wirelessly powered systems for the home and GaN based, industry-leading LiDAR systems used in autonomous vehicles will be on display.

EL SEGUNDO, Calif. — December 2017 — Efficient Power Conversion (EPC) will be demonstrating the power of eGaN^® technology to enhance two game-changing consumer applications – wireless power and LiDAR for self-driving cars – at the 2018 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, January 9^th through the 12^th.

To ensure widespread adoption, wireless power systems need to move beyond small charging pads and become active power sources over large surface areas. For magnetic resonant systems, this demands fundamental changes in coil technology, system architecture, and power amplifiers. Gallium nitride based amplifiers have proven capable of delivering 60 W with greater than 90 percent efficiency into the transmit coil over a wide load range.

By: Yuanzhe Zhang and Michael A. de Rooij
Power Electronics Europe
November/December 2017
View article

Ultra-fast transition eGaN FETs used on the EPC9126HC can drive high current pulses up to 150 A and pulse widths as low as 5 ns, thus enhancing the quality of information a LiDAR system will detect, including the accuracy, precision, and processing speed.

EL SEGUNDO, Calif. — November 2017 — Efficient Power Conversion Corporation (EPC) announces the availability of the EPC9126HCa 100 V, 150 A high current pulsed laser diode driver evaluation board. In a LiDAR system, used to create 3-D maps for autonomous vehicle applications, speed and accuracy of object detection is critical. As demonstrated by this board, the rapid transition capability of eGaN FETs provide power pulses to drive the laser up to ten times faster than an equivalent MOSFET, thus enhancing the overall performance of a LiDAR system.

EPC2040, an eGaN^® power transistor optimized for LiDAR applications, placed first in the Passive Components & Discrete Semiconductors category of ECN magazine’s prestigious 2017 Impact Award.

EL SEGUNDO, Calif — November  2017 — Efficient Power Conversion Corporation’s (EPC) is proud to announce that Electronic Component News (ECN) — a leading trade publication for electronic design engineers — has awarded the EPC2040, enhancement mode gallium nitride (eGaN) transistor its ECN Impact Award for 2017 in the Passive Components and Discrete Semiconductors category.

Alex Lidow, CEO of Efficient Power Conversion, talks to Leo Laporte about Gallium Nitride, and how it is being used to create the next generation of microchips and wirelessly power the world.

This Week in Technology
View video

The EPC9086 high efficiency half-bridge development board can operate up to 10 MHz featuring a 30 V EPC2111 eGaN^® half bridge in combination with the recently introduced high speed Peregrine Semiconductor PE29102 gate driver.

EL SEGUNDO, Calif.—October 2017 — Efficient Power Conversion Corporation (EPC) today announces the availability of The EPC9086 development board, a high efficiency half-bridge development board that can operate up to 10 MHz.  The EPC9086 board measures 2” x 2” and contains a 30 V, 15 A EPC2111 enhancement-mode gallium nitride half bridge in combination with the recently introduced PE29102 gate driver from Peregrine Semiconductor.

MIGVAN now represents EPC’s Israel sales, marketing, and technical support to assist customers in adopting eGaN^® FETs and ICs for leading-edge power conversion systems using gallium nitride

EL SEGUNDO, Calif.— October 2017 — To support its accelerating growth throughout Israel, Efficient Power Conversion Corporation (EPC) is proud to announce the appointment of MIGVAN as its sales, marketing, and technical support representative.  MIGVAN Technologies & Engineering Ltd, founded in 1988, is devoted to promoting and selling advanced technology electronic components and subsystems to the Israeli electronics industry.

Superior characteristics of eGaN^® FETs and ICs, such as low output capacitance, low input capacitance, low parasitic inductances, and small size used in these demonstration kits show that GaN FETs and ICs are ideal for increasing efficiency in highly resonant, AirFuel™ Alliance compatible wireless power transfer systems.

EL SEGUNDO, Calif.—October 2017 — Efficient Power Conversion Corporation (EPC) today announces the availability of two new demonstration kits -- the EPC9127, a complete wireless power kit including a 10 W, class 2 amplifier, category 3 receiver device and the EPC9128, consisting of a 16 W, class 3 amplifier and two receiver devices (categories 3 and 4). These systems, coupled with previously announced EPC9120, 33 W class 4 and the EPC9121 multi-mode kit capable of operating to either an AirFuel Class 2 standard with a category 3 device or a Qi (A6)/PMA standard with a compatible receiving device provide a full range of wireless power demonstration kits to allow for complete, wide-spread implementation.

EPC will exhibit an innovative wireless power tabletop at 2017 Wireless Power Summit highlighting the capability of GaN-based semiconductor magnetic resonance technology to provide wireless power over a large surface area to many receiving devices such as cell phones, laptop computers, and table lamps – at the same time!

EL SEGUNDO, Calif. — September 2017 — The future of wireless power and its eventual ubiquitous adoption is dependent upon the ability of end users to place any electrical item on a surface and have it powered without having to “plug in.” It is this ability that EPC will demonstrate at the Wireless Power Summit 2017 being held in Denver, Colorado October 5th and 6th at the Embassy Suites Hotel Downtown.

Alex Lidow, CEO and co-founder of Efficient Power Conversion Corporation, has demonstrated the ability to transmit power from large surfaces.

Digital Journal
September 18, 2017
Read article

EPC’s latest family of eGaN^® transistors and ICs takes a quantum leap in increasing Performance while reducing costs for new and existing applications currently served by MOSFETs 

EL SEGUNDO, Calif — September 2017 Efficient Power Conversion Corporation’s Gen 5 eGaN^® transistor and IC family has been honored with an Electronic Products China / 21iC Media’s “Top 10 Power Products – Best Application Award.” The award presentation was announced on September 15^th, 2017 in Beijing, China during 21iC Power Conference 2017.

EPC CEO & Co-Founder, Alex Lidow was a featured guest on Cheddar TV sharing how GaN technology is enabling new and disruptive technologies, such as LiDAR for self-driving cars and power conversion transistors and ICs for wide-area wireless power and medtech.

Cheddar
September 11, 2017
View video

Nextbigfuture interviewed Alex Lidow, CEO of EPC. EPC is a leader in Gallium Nitride electronics and now is leading the charge to a new age of wireless power. In 5 to 10 years, we could begin to see entire houses or office buildings switching from costly wiring of buildings to a complete large area wireless solution.

NextBigFuture
September 9, 2017
Read article

Superior characteristics of eGaN^® FETs, 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.—August 2017 — Efficient Power Conversion Corporation (EPC) today announces the availability of a complete class 4 wireless power charging kit, the EPC9120. The system can transmit up to 33 W while operating at 6.78 MHz (the lowest ISM band).  The purpose of this demonstration kit is to simplify the evaluation process of using eGaN FETs for highly efficient wireless power transfer.  The EPC9120 utilizes the high frequency switching capability of EPC gallium nitride transistors to facilitate wireless power systems with full power efficiency between 80% and 90% under various operating conditions.

This scientist got his Ph.D 40 years ago who saved the world's 15% energy consumption at one time. He is continuing his journey of innovations now in discovering silicon's replacement material for humankind.

My father always taught me that the true worth of an individual is measured based on their contribution to society. As I entered graduate school in 1975 I knew my passion was in the field of semiconductors, and I felt my best contribution to society would come from finding a successor to silicon. I did my graduate work in Gallium Arsenide, but realized by the time I received my PhD in 1977 that Gallium Arsenide’s prospects were limited as a semiconductor due to the basic materials properties, I went to work applying everything I learned to making better devices in silicon.

Fortune China
June 15, 2017
Read article

EL SEGUNDO, Calif. — June 21st, 2017 -- Efficient Power Conversion Corporation, the world’s leader in enhancement-mode gallium nitride on silicon (eGaN^®) power FETs and ICs, enables a lower-cost, single transmit amplifier solution that can wirelessly charge devices, regardless of the standard used in the receiving device.

Meet EPC experts on power management at PCIM Asia Exhibition and Conference on June 28th, 2017 at 11 a.m. at Meeting Room 2, B2 of Shanghai World Expo Exhibition and Convention Center in China. Dr. Michael de Rooij, Vice President of Application Engineering, EPC, will share with engineers about a choice among topologies to achieve customer-oriented designs for high power, highly resonant wireless charging applications.