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
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LAS VEGAS — Once again the marathon that is CES is drawing to a close. Four days of trade show plus two days of media events. All sprawled across five miles of Las Vegas in some insane number of hotels and conference venues. As usual, I stuck it out so you don’t have to. Here are some of the images that struck me as interesting, weird, or just plain worth remembering:

Extreme Tech
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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
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宜普电源转换公司首席执行官兼共同创办人Alex Lidow展示大面积无线充电技术如何传送电源。

Digital Journal
2017年9月18日
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NextbigFuture访问了EPC公司的首席执行官Alex Lidow。 EPC公司是制造氮化镓晶体管的领导厂商，目前带领业界开启无线充电新时代。在5至10年内，我们将有可能看到全屋或写字楼从采用昂贵的电源线改为在广泛地方采用无线充电解决方案供电。

NextBigFuture
2017年9月9日
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With the current maturity of Class-D audio amplifier architectures, amplifier fidelity and efficiency limitations are primarily at the device level. Silicon MOSFETs have been evolving for almost forty years, and their progress towards a perfect switch has slowed dramatically. There are some fundamental characteristics of MOSFETs that degrade sound quality and efficiency. In 2010, the enhancement mode Gallium nitride (GaN) power FET was introduced by Efficient Power Conversion (EPC), providing a large step towards the perfect switch.

Audio Engineering Society
May 11, 2017
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During last week's PCIM Europe event in Nuremberg, Germany, direct 48V-to-1V power conversion architectures were a significant topic. “The use of GaN switches in 48V-to-1V direct dc-dc converters can improve system performance by 30%, compared with today’s best silicon-based designs,” commented Alex Lidow, CEO of Efficient Power Conversion.

PowerPulse
May 31, 2017
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Light detection and ranging (lidar) is a versatile light-based remote sensing technology that recently has been the subject of great attention. It has shown up in a number of media venues and has even led to public debate about the engineering choices of a well-known electric car company, Tesla Motors. While this article is not going to enter the fray, it will provide some background on lidar and discuss its strong connection to power electronics technologies.

Published in: IEEE Power Electronics Magazine ( Volume: 4, Issue: 1, March 2017 )
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宜普电源转换公司（EPC）的第五代（Gen5）产品改善了工艺、性能而同时降低可买到的氮化镓晶体管的成本，以及缩小其芯片和电路板的尺寸。

EPC首席执行官及共同创办人Alex Lidow与他的团队再次发挥专业精神，为设计师提供面向全新市场的独特、可选的、需要比基于硅基器件更高效的功率解决方案。 团队不仅仅在技术方面各有所长，并深入地了解制造工艺的量子力学，从而提高产品性能而同时缩小EPC解决方案的尺寸及降低其成本。

EDN
2017年3月15日
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3300亿美元的硅晶片市场是所有电力电子行业的发展基础。但成熟技术引发一轮购并后，该业界的发展步伐缓慢下来。

这就是为什么创新者和主力推动利用氮化镓替代硅材料的Alex Lidow认为目前是氮化镓时代。他的宜普电源转换公司(EPC)推出新一代eGaN晶片，比之前的晶片的尺寸小50%和性能高出很多倍。

VentureBeat
2017年3月15日
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电视机可以无线方式来取得电视内容，但它必需配备一组电源线来供电。消费电子行业一直在构想电视机如何不用电源线，但这个目标无从实现。原因有多个，例如很难符合大屏幕电视机所要求的高功率和需要找出更经济的技术。但是，eGaN FET晶体管可以使得电视机真正不需要使用电源线来供电。

Power Electronic Tips
2017年2月23日
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在深度学习盛行下，数据中心的功率密度再次备受关注，并且产生了全新的商业机遇，包括支持30 kW/rack 以上的设备内的专有云端服务，以及为提高系统能效以解决功率密度问题的功率转换公司提供机遇 。氮化镓是功率转换晶片的全新半导体材料，可替代硅器件、实现体积小很多、能效更高及开关速度快速很多的器件。

Data Center Knowledge
2017年2月
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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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半导体与微型发动机的新颖结合将使得世界很快被机器吞没而影响到我们的生活空间、身体，以至对光和声音的体验。简单如对智能手机充电或煮蛋，以至复杂如检查大肠癌或对长征的无人机供电，完成这些任务的方式都将会改变。

Barron’s
2016年10月22日
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