LIDAR is presently a subject of great interest, primarily due to its widespread adoption in autonomous navigation systems for vehicles, robots, drones, and other mobile machines. eGaN devices are one of the main factors in making affordable, high performance LIDAR possible in a small form factor thus further fueling the LIDAR revolution.

EDN
By John Glaser
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EPC CEO & Co-Founder, Alex Lidow gives Lee Teschler from EE World Online a tour of the EPC booth at APEC 2018 where EPC demonstrations included a high-power density 48 V – 12 V non-isolated converter capable of delivering over 700 W. In addition, a range of 3-D real-time LiDAR imaging sensors used in autonomous vehicles were displayed. Also, a single desktop implementing a high power resonant wireless charging solution capable of generating 300 W to wirelessly power a wide range of devices including cell phones, notebook computers, monitors, wireless speakers, smart watches, and table lamps.

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In this video Alex Lidow, Founder and CEO of EPC, talks to Alix Paultre, Editor-in-Chief of Power Electronics News, about the various demonstrations of GaN-based solutions at the EPC booth at APEC 2018 in San Antonio, Texas. The high-frequency operation and other advanced performance advantages over Silicon enables GaN to empower applications from LIDAR to wireless power transmission. The booth exhibits include examples of these, from a real-time LIDAR demonstration to a running "wireless desk".

Power Electronics News
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LIDAR is made up of a laser (or arrays) capable of transmitting pulsed light over the required range of interest, and a high-speed, low-noise receiver for reflected signal analysis. A portion of this light is reflected or scattered back to the receiver according to the reflectivity of the target.

EDN Network
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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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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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參看EPC公司於APEC 2017展出基於氮化鎵技術的各種應用。

EDN Network
2017年4月3日
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於2017年APEC研討會上，宜普電源轉換公司（EPC）展示出採用氮化鎵(eGaN)技術的各種應用以證明它即將改變我們的生活方式。

Electronics360
2017年3月29日
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宜普電源轉換公司（EPC）首席執行長Alex Lidow分析無人駕駛汽車行業的前景及實現該行業潛能的相關技術。

The Stack
2017年3月17日
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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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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

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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半導體與微型發動機的新穎結合將使得世界很快被機器吞沒而影響到我們的生活空間、身體，以至對光和聲音的體驗。簡單如對智慧手機充電或煮蛋，以至複雜如檢查大腸癌或對長征的無人機供電，完成這些任務的方式都將會改變。

Barron’s
2016年10月22日
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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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提供驅動Tesla半自動Autopilot駕駛技術的供應商的首席技術官相信，汽車製造商的設計超過了安全極限。

總部設於以色列的Mobileye NV公司首席技術官及執行主席Amnon Shashua在星期三跟Reuters說“目前汽車設計並沒有預計所有會導致車禍的情況，確保其安全性”。

Computerworld
2016年9月15日
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自動駕駛汽車將來需要基於鐳射感應技術，而這些系統則需要比矽基元件的性能更優越的全新並具備高速開關的電晶體及晶片。

以上是Alex Lidow所聲稱的技術發展進程。Lidow是史丹福大學的物理學家並擁有物理學博士學位、創業家、宜普電源轉換公司（EPC）首席執行長及共同創辦人。該公司的總部位於加州的El Segundo市，是一家利用一種全新材料來製造電晶體及晶片的公司，該材料比矽材料具備更快速開關、更高效及成本更低等優勢。

《財富》雜誌
2016年9月8日
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In this short video, EPC's Alex Lidow explains why GaN FETs can comprise circuits able to deliver Lidar resolutions down to a couple inches. Conventional silicon FETs performing the same tasks would be able to resolve images only down to a few feet. The secret is in the super-fast rise and fall times made possible by the GaN FETs.

Design World
April 11, 2016
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