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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宜普電源轉換公司首席執行官兼共同創辦人Alex Lidow展示大面積無線充電技術如何傳送電源。

Digital Journal
2017年9月18日
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Nextbigfuture訪問了EPC公司的首席執行長Alex Lidow。 EPC公司是製造氮化鎵電晶體的領導廠商，目前帶領業界開啟無線充電新時代。在5至10年內，我們將有可能看到全屋或辦公大樓從採用昂貴的電源線改為在廣泛地方採用無線充電解決方案。

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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宜普電源轉換公司（EPC）的第五代（Gen5）產品改善了製程、性能而同時降低可買到的氮化鎵電晶體的成本，以及縮小其晶片和電路板的尺寸。

EPC首席執行長及共同創辦人Alex Lidow與他的團隊再次發揮專業精神，為設計師提供面向全新市場的獨特、可選的、需要比基於矽基元件更高效的功率解決方案。 團隊不僅僅在技術方面各有所長，並深入地瞭解製造工藝的量子力學，從而提高產品性能而同時縮小EPC解決方案的尺寸及降低其成本。

EDN
2017年3月15日
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3300億美元的矽晶片市場是所有電力電子行業的發展基礎。但成熟技術引發一輪併購後，該業界的發展步伐緩慢下來。

這就是為什麼創新者和主力推動利用氮化鎵替代矽材料的Alex Lidow認為目前是氮化鎵時代。他的宜普電源轉換公司(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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電視機可以無線方式來取得電視內容，但它必需配備一組電源線來供電。消費電子行業一直在構想電視機如何不用電源線，但這個目標無從實現。原因有多個，例如很難符合大螢幕電視機所要求的高功率和需要找出更經濟的技術。但是，eGaN FET電晶體可以使得電視機真正不需要使用電源線來供電。

Power Electronic Tips
2017年2月23日
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在深度學習盛行下，數據中心的功率密度再次備受關注，並且產生了全新的商業機遇，包括支援30 kW/rack 以上的設備內的專有雲端服務，以及為提高系統能效以解決功率密度問題的功率轉換公司提供機遇 。氮化鎵是電源轉換晶片的全新半導體材料，可替代矽元件、實現體積小很多、能效更高及開關速度快速很多的元件。

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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