Ahead of December’s Power Conference in Munich, Bodo Arlt took the opportunity to get an insight into Alex Lidow’s thoughts on where the GaN market is now and where he sees the potential applications for the future. Dr. Lidow is the CEO and Co-founder of Efficient Power Conversion (EPC).

Bodo’s Power Systems
November, 2019
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In support of a widening customer base in Europe, Efficient Power Conversion Corporation has expanded its technical leadership team to assist customers in the adoption of eGaN^® FETs and Integrated circuits for applications including DC-DC, Lidar, motor control, and beyond.

EL SEGUNDO, Calif. — October, 2019 — To support its accelerating design activity, and to provide local technical support to EPC’s customers in Europe, Efficient Power Conversion Corporation (EPC) is proud to announce that Marco Palma, a seasoned expert, has joined the EPC technical leadership team as Senior FAE Manager for Europe. 

Efficient Power Conversion (EPC) expands AEC Q101 product family with the addition of the EPC2216, 15 V gallium nitride transistor optimized for affordable, high performance lidar systems.

EL SEGUNDO, Calif.— October 2019 — EPC announces successful AEC Q101 qualification of the 15 V EPC2216 designed for lidar applications where increased accuracy is vital such as in self-driving cars and other time-of-flight (TOF) applications including facial recognition, warehouse automation, drones and mapping.

This year’s PCIM Europe was attended by a record number of visitors, over 12,000. Over half (54%) were from outside Germany. They came to see over 500 exhibitors and while the subject matter was diverse and wide-ranging, there were some themes that emerged. GaN and SiC jostled for attention at this year’s PCIM Europe. Showing the potential that GaN has already realised, Efficient Power Conversion (EPC) had a stand that was well-stocked with examples of the eGaN FET technology that the company introduced in 2009.

Electronic Specifier
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Efficient Power Conversion (EPC) will exhibit live demonstrations at PCIM Europe 2019 showing how GaN technology’s superior performance is transforming power delivery for entire industries including computing, communications, and transportation.

EL SEGUNDO, Calif.— April 2019 — The EPC team will be delivering seven technical presentations on gallium nitride (GaN) technology and applications at PCIM Europe 2019 in Nuremberg, Germany from May 7^th through the 9th. In addition, in Hall 7, Stand 335, the company will exhibit its latest eGaN^® FETs and ICs in customers’ end products that are rapidly adopting eGaN technology.

Efficient Power Conversion (EPC) expands AEC Q101 product family with the addition of the EPC2214, 80 V gallium nitride transistor optimized for high resolution lidar systems.

EL SEGUNDO, Calif.— April 2019 — EPC announces successful AEC Q101 qualification of the 80 V EPC2214 designed for lidar systems in the automotive industry and other harsh environments. 

The EPC2052 offers power systems designers a 100 V, 13.5 mΩ, power transistor capable of 74 A pulsed in an extremely small chip-scale package.  In a 48 V – 12 V DC-DC Power Converters these new generation eGaN FETs achieved greater than 97% efficiency at 500 kHz and greater than 96% Efficiency at 1 MHz

EL SEGUNDO, Calif. — March 2019 — Efficient Power Conversion (EPC) announces the EPC2052, a 100 V GaN transistor with a maximum R_DS(on) of 13.5mΩ and a 74 A pulsed output current for high efficiency power conversion in a tiny 2.25mm² footprint.

In the final installment of this series, how GaN has met the requirements to displace silicon is explored. As the adoption rate of GaN explodes, it is important to remember that, while GaN has made many advancements in just a few short years, it is still far from its theoretical performance limitations and thus there are profound improvements that can continue to be achieved. In time, the performance and cost advantages of GaN-on-silicon will result in a majority of applications currently using silicon-based devices converting to the smaller, faster, cheaper, and more reliable GaN technology.

Power Systems Design
February, 2019
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EPC’s Phase Ten Reliability Report adds to the growing knowledge base published in the first nine reports. With this report, EPC has stress-tested over 30,000 parts for a total of over 18 million hours without failure.  There have been no field failures in over two years despite shipping millions of parts.

EL SEGUNDO, Calif.— February 2019 — EPC announces its Phase Ten Reliability Report, documenting the test results leading to the successful completion of automotive AEC-Q101 qualification. AEC-Q101 demands the highest level of reliability standards for power FETs, requiring not only zero datasheet failures, but also low parametric drift during stress testing.  Of note is that EPC’s WLCS packaging passed all the same testing standards created for conventional packaged parts, demonstrating that the superior performance of chip-scale packaging does not compromise ruggedness or reliability.

In this conference GaN market and technology status will be addressed and its future evolution will be debated by mixing visions from designers, manufacturers, and end users.

EL SEGUNDO, Calif. — January 2019 — Efficient Power Conversion (EPC) is joining forces with Yole Développement (Yole) and SEMI to sponsor the first ever ‘GaN Con,’ an industry networking event covering the entire power GaN industry from manufacturers to end users. The theme of GaN Con is “Power GaN: From promises to possible market explosion” and is focused on the emerging GaN market and the state-of-the-art for its underlying technology.

Efficient Power Conversion (EPC) expands AEC Q101 product family with the addition of two new gallium nitride devices.

EL SEGUNDO, Calif.— January 2019 — EPC announces successful AEC Q101 qualification of two additional eGaN devices, addressing a range of applications in the automotive industry and other harsh environments.  The new products, EPC2206, and EPC2212 are both discrete transistors in wafer level chip-scale packaging (WLCS) with 80 V_DS and 100 V_DS ratings respectively.

Within 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 2018 — 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 8^th through the 11^th.

In the first article in this series, how gallium nitride (GaN)-on-silicon low voltage power devices have enabled many new applications, such as light detection and ranging (LiDAR), envelope tracking, and wireless power was discussed. In this article, more detail on one of these leading applications, LiDAR, will be explored. How GaN is being used to make LiDAR systems that see farther, with higher resolution, and at lower cost will be shown.

Power Systems Design
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As part of its expansion to support a widening customer base for DC-DC, LiDAR, wireless power applications and beyond, Efficient Power Conversion Corporation has expanded its Asia-based team with new members who are in close proximity to customers in 21 regions throughout Asia Pacific.

EL SEGUNDO, Calif. — November 28, 2018 — To support its accelerating sales growth in Asia, Efficient Power Conversion Corporation (EPC) is proud to announce the expansion of the sales and FAE team in Asia Pacific to support its expanding customer base, maximize new business acquisition and capture new market opportunities.

With the rise of autonomous cars and electric propulsion as driving forces in automotive applications, a huge new market for power devices based on gallium nitride grown on a silicon substrate (GaN-on-Si) is emerging.

Design World
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Gallium nitride(GaN)-on-silicon low voltage power devices have enabled many new applications since commercial availability began in 2010. New markets, such as light detection and ranging (LiDAR), envelope tracking, and wireless power, emerged due to the superior switching speed of GaN. These new applications have helped develop a strong supply chain, low production costs, and an enviable reliability record. 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. In this series, a few of the many, high volume applications taking advantage of GaN to achieve new levels of end-product differentiation will be discussed. First, it is useful to explore the factors attributing to the rapid acceleration of the adoption rate.

Power Systems Design
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The EPC2051 offers power systems designers a 100 V, 25 mΩ, power transistor capable of 37 A pulsed in an extremely small chip-scale package.  These new devices are ideal for applications such as 48V power converters, LiDAR, and LED lighting.

EL SEGUNDO, Calif. — July 2018 — Efficient Power Conversion (EPC) announces the EPC2051, a 100 V GaN transistor with a maximum R_DS(on) of 25 mΩ and a 37 A pulsed output current for high efficiency power conversion in a tiny 1.1mm² footprint.

The reason eGaN FETs (and now ICs) are used in all the LiDAR systems for autonomous cars, and now autonomous race cars, is that they enable much higher resolution (due to extremely short laser pulses), faster image speed (due to short laser pulses), and the ability to see greater distances with high accuracy (due to fast laser pulses at very high current).

Planet Analog
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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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