The latest gallium nitride technology has been propelling the development of wireless power transfer application. This is especially of interest to engineers at the time just after the merger of A4WP and PMA. The interview extensively covers various areas of interests in answering the question of wider adoption of GaN devices by the semiconductor industry including differentiations of GaN devices, lowering of costs, latest device innovations, high-frequency plus small-size device operations, heat management, how GaN’s markets would surpass silicon’s markets and the future development of gallium nitride technology.

Power System Design China
June 24, 2015
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If expanding industries typically indicate vibrancy, a race to acquire and consolidate is generally reflective of the opposite – a period of slowed growth in mature, often once high-flying categories. And while many industries experience a period of stardom, followed by a sharp and steady decline, we should be extremely worried when they occur in industries that are fundamentally central to our socio-economic vitality.

Forbes
June 26, 2015
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The effort to take advantage of gallium nitride is partly a response to technical and economic factors that have slowed improvement in silicon-based chips.  While companies are still finding ways to fabricate smaller transistors in silicon, reductions in cost and power consumption have been more difficult to achieve. But gallium-nitride circuits can switch on and off much more quickly than silicon and handle higher voltages, said Alex Lidow, EPC’s chief executive. That makes the material particularly good for chores that involve power conversion.

Wall Street Journal
June 22, 2015
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Power conversion involves creating tiny devices that convert electricity from one form to another, enabling all manner of electrical gadgets to function. Till now, silicon had been the preferred medium for power conversion processors, but as that element reaches the limits of its efficiency, attention has focused on new materials.

Los Angeles Business Journal
June 21, 2015
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Alex Lidow of EPC shows an X-ray pill and other GaN-enabled devices at PCIM 2015.

Power Systems Design
March 19, 2015
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Alex Lidow of EPC shows the latest GaN-enabled wireless power tech at APEC 2015.

Power Systems Design
March 19, 2015
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eGaN^® FETs have previously demonstrated higher efficiency in loosely coupled wireless power transfer solutions when operating on-resonance using either ZVS Class D or Class E amplifiers. Practical Wireless Power systems however need to address the convenience factor of such systems, which results in reflected coil impedances that can significantly deviate from resonance as load and coupling vary. These systems still need to deliver power to the load and hence the amplifier needs to drive the coils over a wide impedance range. Standards such as the A4WP class 3 have defined a broad coil impedance range that address the convenience factor and can be used as a starting point to compare the performance of the amplifiers. In this installment both the ZVS Class D and Class E amplifiers will be tested at 6.78 MHz to the A4WP class 3 standard with a reduced impedance range to determine the inherent operating range limits. Factors such as device temperature and voltage limits will determine the bounds of the load impedance range each amplifier is capable of driving.

Bodos China
June, 2015
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eGaN^®power transistors continue to raise the bar for power conversion performance. Lower on-resistance, lower capacitance, higher current, and superior thermal performance enable high power density converters.

EL SEGUNDO, Calif.—May 2015 — Efficient Power Conversion Corporation (EPC) announces the introduction of two eGaN FETs that raise the bar for power conversion performance. These products have a maximum operating temperature of 150°C and pulsed currents capabilities of 260 A (150 V EPC2033) and 140 A (EPC2034). Applications include DC-DC converters, synchronous rectification in DC/DC and AC/DC converters, motor drives, LED lighting, and industrial automation.

Integrated Device Technology, Inc. (IDT^®) (NASDAQ: IDTI) today announced its collaboration with Efficient Power Conversion (EPC) to develop technology based on Gallium nitride (GaN), a semiconductor material widely recognized for its speed and efficiency. Under their collaboration, the companies will explore integrating EPC’s eGaN^® technology with leading IDT solutions.

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New eGaN^® power transistors extend EPC’s power transistor portfolio with high performance, wider pitch chip-scale package for ease of high volume manufacturing and enhanced compatibility with mature manufacturing processes and assembly lines

EL SEGUNDO, Calif.—May 2015 — Efficient Power Conversion Corporation (EPC) announces the introduction of three eGaN FETs designed with a wider pitch connection layout. These products expand EPC’s family of “Relaxed Pitch” devices featuring a 1 mm ball pitch. The wider pitch allows for placement of additional and larger vias under the device to enable high current carrying capability despite the extremely small 2.6 mm x 4.6 mm footprint.

Last week, El Segundo, Calif.-based Efficient Power Conversion, announced that its offering two types of power transistors made from gallium nitride that it has priced cheaper than their silicon counterparts. “This is the first time that something has really been higher performance and lower cost than silicon,” CEO Alex Lidow says. “Gallium nitride has taken the torch and is now running with it.”

IEEE Spectrum
May 8, 2015
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Alex Lidow, CEO and co-founder of EPC, talks with Alix Palutre of Power Systems Design on a new family of eGaN FETs that has superior performance, smaller size, high reliability, and a low price point. With this announcement, the last barrier to the widespread adoption of GaN transistors as silicon MOSFET replacements has fallen.

Power Systems Design
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New family of eGaN power transistors offer superior performance, smaller size, and high reliability…at the price of a MOSFET.

EL SEGUNDO, Calif.— April 2015 — Efficient Power Conversion Corporation (EPC) announces the 60 V EPC2035 and 100 V EPC2036 eGaN power transistors designed to compete in price, while outperforming silicon. Price, the last barrier to widespread adoption of GaN transistors as silicon MOSFET replacements, has fallen. These products demonstrate that gallium nitride can displace silicon semiconductors and drive the industry back onto the Moore’s Law growth curve.

Alex Lidow, the CEO of Efficient Power Conversion has made it his life’s work to prolong the lifespan of Moore’s Law. How? As Intel and others have found, traditional chip technology which relies on silicon is approaching a ceiling — pretty soon, somebody is going to make a silicon chip that is as cheap and powerful as that material allows. Lidow says he’s found a semiconducting material that is superior to silicon in many ways: gallium nitride (GaN). Both in laboratories and in practice, GaN chips have outperformed silicon in a number of use cases and are also cheaper to manufacture, building on the infrastructure required to make silicon chips while being more resilient and requiring fewer protective elements.

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PandoDaily
April 21, 2015

“Moore’s Law is morphing into something that is about new materials,” said Alex Lidow, a semiconductor industry veteran and CEO of Efficient Power Conversion (EPC). EPC is making a possible silicon replacement, gallium nitride (GAN), which is a better conductor of electrons, giving it performance and power-efficiency advantages over silicon, Lidow said. GAN is already being used for power conversion and wireless communications, and could make its way to digital chips someday. “For the first time in 60 years there are valid candidates where it’s about superior material rather than smaller feature size,” Lidow said.

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Network World
April 17, 2015

Moore’s predictions became a self-fulfilling prophecy. The computing power of chips not only did double every 24 months, they had to double every 24 months or the tech industry — and the economy at large — would suffer dire consequences, stifling innovation and economic advancement.

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re/code
Alex Lidow
April 17, 2015

Chip advances have powered one technology revolution after another: PCs, the Internet, smartphones, smartwatches and, soon, self-driving cars. One company betting its future on III-V materials is Efficient Power Conversion, a 34-person startup led by Chief Executive Alex Lidow. EPC already is seeing steady revenue growth from devices that incorporate a III-V layer made of gallium nitride (GaN). In 2016 or 2017 he expects to adapt the gallium nitride manufacturing process to work for the logic circuits that do the thinking in computer processors. Because of gallium nitride's electrical properties, "you immediately get a thousand times potential in improvement" over conventional silicon, he said.

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CNET.com
April 17, 2015

With the new 100 V EPC2104 eGaN^®half bridge, a system efficiency of a complete buck converter using the EPC2104 is greater than 97% at 22 A switching at 300 kHz, and approaching 97% at 22 A when switching at 500 kHz, achieved when converting from 48 V to 12 V.

EL SEGUNDO, Calif. — April 2015 — EPC announces the EPC2104, 100 V enhancement-mode monolithic GaN transistor half bridge. By integrating two eGaN® power FETs into a single device, interconnect inductances and the interstitial space needed on the PCB are eliminated, resulting in a 50% reduction in board area occupied by the transistors. This increases both efficiency (especially at higher frequencies) and power density, while reducing assembly costs to the end user’s power conversion system.

New EPC2029 eGaN^® power transistor extends EPC’s power transistor portfolio with high performance, wider pitch chip-scale package for ease of high volume manufacturing and enhanced compatibility with mature manufacturing processes and assembly lines.

EL SEGUNDO, Calif.—April 2015 — Efficient Power Conversion Corporation (EPC) announces the introduction of an eGaN FET designed with a wider pitch connection layout. The first in a new family of “Relaxed Pitch” devices, the EPC2029 80 V, 31 A eGaN FET features a 1 mm ball pitch. The wider pitch allows for placement of additional and larger vias under the device to enable high current carrying capability despite the extremely small 2.6 mm x 4.6 mm footprint.

Dean Takahashi at VentureBeat profiles Alex Lidow. Silicon chips have had a decades-long run as the foundation for modern electronics. But a new kind of chip, based on the compound material gallium nitride (GaN), promises to unseat silicon because it has higher performance, less power consumption, and lower cost.

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VentureBeat
April 2, 2015