– Fox Business, March 18, 2016 – Alex Lidow is a man on a mission. His Southern California company, Efficient Power Conversion or EPC, is using Gallium Nitride (GaN) chips instead of silicon for exciting applications, from wireless power charging and 4G LTE to augmented reality and autonomous vehicles.
News
Look Out Silicon Valley, Here Comes Gallium Beach
How This Entrepreneur Rose From the Ashes to Challenge Silicon Valley
After getting his PhD in applied physics at Stanford, Alex Lidow spent 30 years at International Rectifier (IR), a publicly traded chip company founded by his father Eric Lidow back in the 1940s.
Alex pioneered IR’s power management technology, co-authored the core-patents on which its business was built, became co-CEO with his brother, Derek, in 1995, and ran the company solo after Derek left to found market research firm iSupply in 1999.
Founder & CEO of Efficient Power Conversion Co.
Alex joined International Rectifier (NYSE:IRF) as an R&D engineer and is the co-inventor of the HEXFET power MOSFET, a power transistor that displaced the bipolar transistor and launched modern power conversion. Over the 30 years Dr. Lidow was at International Rectifier, his responsibilities grew from engineer to head of R&D, head of manufacturing, head of sales and marketing, and finally CEO for 12 years. In addition to holding many power MOSFET and GaN FET patents, Alex has authored numerous publications; most recently he co-authored the first textbook on Gallium Nitride (GaN) transistors, GaN Transistors for Efficient Power Conversion. In 2004 he was elected to the Engineering Hall of Fame, and in 2005 International Rectifier, under his leadership was named one of the best managed companies in America by Forbes magazine. Dr. Lidow earned a Bachelor of Science in Applied Physics from the California Institute of Technology and a doctorate in Applied Physics from Stanford University. Since 1998 Alex has been a member of the Board of Trustees of the California Institute of Technology.
Alex is widely considered the foremost thought leader in GaN technology today.
UPDATE 19.Dec.2016: Alex has been chosen as one of the “60 People Steering Autonomous Vehicles” by Automotive New
Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Lidow
