Adding to its breadth of applications research and support for EPC customer evaluation and use of GaN^® FETs and ICs, the company announces the opening of an applications center and the appointment of Suvankar Biswas, Ph.D. as senior applications engineer.

EL SEGUNDO, Calif.— January 2017 — Efficient Power Conversion Corporation (EPC) is proud to announce the opening of an Applications Center in Blacksburg, Virginia.  This center will increase the reach of EPC to support research and development for the applications of enhancement-mode gallium nitride transistors and ICs.  In addition to traditional FET and IC power conversion applications, GaN technology has enabled emerging applications such as wireless power transfer, LiDAR for autonomous vehicles, and envelope tracking for high bandwidth 4G and 5G communications.

EPC CEO and Co-Founder, Alex Lidow, discusses the life changing applications on display at CES with Bloomberg Radio. Applications such as LiDAR for autonomous cars with the potential to disrupt the transportation industry and wireless power with the potential to eliminate power cords are highlighted as well as how GaN enables these new technologies.

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Bloomberg
January, 2017

Ultra fast transition eGaN^® FETs used on the EPC9126 can drive laser diodes with high current pulses and total 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. — January 2017 — Efficient Power Conversion Corporation (EPC) announces the availability of the EPC9126, a 100 V high current pulsed laser diode driver evaluation board. In a LiDAR system, used for detecting objects in autonomous vehicle applications, speed and accuracy of 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.

In a dedicated hospitality suite at CES, the premier global event in consumer electronics, EPC will show how GaN is a core technology behind autonomous vehicles, the house of the future without power cords, the connected car, and non-invasive colonoscopies with an x-ray system within a pill.

EL SEGUNDO, Calif. — December 2016 — Efficient Power Conversion (EPC) will be hosting a hospitality suite in the Mandalay Bay hotel at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, January 5^th through the 8^th.

Wireless charging systems resulting from the WiTricity, ASD, and EPC collaboration will be on display at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2017, January 5th – 8th, 2017 in Las Vegas, Nevada.

EL SEGUNDO, Calif. - Efficient Power Conversion Corporation (EPC) announces accelerated efforts to build magnetic resonance based wireless charging systems based on WiTricity’s reference designs that feature gallium nitride (GaN)-based solutions with ASD Technology Limited (ASD). This ramp-up in activity is in response to recently rising customer and end-system manufacturer interests in wireless charging products using gallium nitride technology.

Velodyne LiDAR Inc., the recognized global leader in Light, Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) technology, today announced a groundbreaking design for a solid-state LiDAR sensor that can deliver a subsystem cost of under $50 U.S. when sold in high-volume manufacturing scale.

Venture Beat
December, 13, 2016
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Lidar is a fantastic sensor for autonomous cars. Most companies developing self-driving vehicles seem to agree that the massive amount of long range, high accuracy data that you get from lidar is necessary, especially for complicated and variable urban environments. Really, the only reason why there's been so much focus on getting autonomy to work with just cameras and radar is that cameras and radar are cheap, and lidar is ridiculously expensive.

IEEE Spectrum
December, 13, 2016
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Carmakers and tech firms competing to develop automated vehicles seek a combination of sensors and cameras that provide maximum perception and visibility of surroundings at a cost that’s manageable for mass production.

Forbes
December, 13, 2016
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The AirFuel™ Alliance, a global consortium of industry leaders focused on enabling and accelerating the adoption of wireless power technology, signed a Letter of Intent today with the Taiwan Association of Information and Communication Standards (TAICS), to establish a wireless charging ecosystem in Taiwan by introduction of AirFuel's resonant technology standard.

The AirFuel-driven ecosystem will be capable of supporting consumers and businesses with interoperable wireless charging options in a variety of public places – from coffee shops to airports to hotels – thanks to the AirFuel resonant standard and integrated network. AirFuel Alliance chairman, Ron Resnick said, "By introducing AirFuel's resonant technology into Taiwan's wireless charging ecosystem, TAICS is further establishing Taiwan as a global innovator and leader in wirelessly powered deployments."

The previous installment in this series focused on the physics of failure surrounding thermo-mechanical reliability of EPC eGaN wafer level chip-scale packages. A fundamental understanding of the potential failure modes under voltage bias is also important. This installment will provide an overview of the physics of failure associated with voltage bias at the gate electrode of gallium nitride (GaN) field effect transistors (FETs). Here we look at the case of taking the gate control voltage to the specified limit and beyond to investigate how eGaN FETs behave over a projected lifetime.

Planet Analog
Chris Jakubiec
November 29, 2016
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Semiconductor revolutionary Dr. Alex Lidow, CEO & CO-Founder of Efficient Power Conversion (EPC), on why the QCOM-NXP acquisition could be a culture clash.

Bloomberg
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The world around us will soon be engulfed by machines that affect our living spaces, our bodies, and our experience of light and sound, powered by a novel combination of semiconductors and miniature engines. Tasks as basic as charging a smartphone or cooking an egg—and as complex as scanning for colon cancer or powering flying drones on long journeys—stand to be transformed.

Barron's
October 22, 2016
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On November 3rd, IEEE PELS will offer a webinar by Alex Lidow and Michael de Rooij discussing the design and PCB manufacturing methods for using chip-scale packaged GaN power devices.

EL SEGUNDO, Calif.— October 2016 — Efficient Power Conversion Corporation (EPC) experts on the design and use of gallium nitride transistors will conduct a one-hour webinar sponsored by the IEEE Power Electronics Society (PELS) on November 3rd from 11:00 AM to 12:00 PM (EDT).

Tesla Motors is releasing a new version of Autopilot overnight, adding features the company says will make it safer and more reliable. Investigators are probing what role the self-driving system played in a pair of fatal crashes in Florida and China.

Silicon Beat
September 21, 2016
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Class A has been the serious audiophile's gold standard for decades. Today however, we are at the early stages of a seismic shift towards widespread Class D audiophile adoption. Why? Because a new type of Class D audio is quickly approaching the performance of Class A, with benefits not enjoyed by the reigning incumbent. A new transistor technology called Gallium Nitride (GaN) is poised to uproot the high-end audio world. In fact, GaN-based Class D is much more power-efficient than traditional, MOSFET-based Class D and offers orders of magnitude better performance.

Audiophile Review
September 17, 2016
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The chief technology officer of a technology supplier that enables Tesla's semi-autonomous Autopilot driving technology believes the carmaker is pushing the safety envelope too far.

"It is not designed to cover all possible crash situations in a safe manner," Amnon Shashua, CTO and executive chairman at Israel-based Mobileye NV, told Reuters Wednesday.

Computerworld
September 15, 2016
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The superior characteristics of eGaN ^® FETs and ICs enable a lower cost single transmit amplifier solution that can wirelessly charge devices regardless of the standard used in the receiving device.

EL SEGUNDO, Calif — September 2016 — Efficient Power Conversion Corporation’s (EPC) EPC9121 multi-mode wireless charging demonstration system has been honored with an Electronic Products China’s “Top 10 Power Product – Breakthrough Technology Award.” The award is a benchmark for recognizing a significant advancement in a technology or its application that leads the industry trend. The award presentation was announced on September 8^th, 2016 in Beijing, China during its Power Conference.

In the future, self-driving cars will require laser-based sensing tech, and these systems will need new types of high-speed transistors and chips that can beat out silicon.

That’s the assertion of Alex Lidow, a Stanford PhD physicist, entrepreneur, and CEO and founder of Efficient Power Conversion (commonly called EPC), a company based in El Segundo, Calif. that makes transistors and chips out of a material that operates more quickly and efficiently—and costs less than silicon.

Fortune
September 8, 2016
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The first three installments in this series covered field reliability experience and stress test qualification of EPC’s enhancement-mode gallium nitride (eGaN) field effect transistors (FETs) and integrated circuits (ICs). Excellent field reliability that was documented is the result of applying stress tests covering the intended operating conditions the devices will experience within applications. Of equal importance is understanding the underlying physics of how eGaN devices will fail when stressed beyond intended operating conditions (e.g. datasheet parameters and safe operating area). This installment will take a deeper dive into the physics of failure centered around thermo-mechanical reliability of eGaN wafer level chip-scale packages (WLCSP).

Planet Analog
Chris Jakubiec
September 7, 2016
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EPC Phase Eight Reliability Report documents a combined total of over 8 million GaN device-hours with zero failures. The report examines, in detail, the stress tests that EPC devices are subjected to prior to release as qualified products and analyzes the physics of failure.

Bodo’s Power Systems
September 1, 2016
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