About Featured Expert: Efficient Power Conversion (EPC)

EPC are global industry experts in enhancement-mode gallium-nitride power transistors, integrated circuits and GaN-based power-conversion technologies. The company develops and commercializes eGaN devices for applications where switching performance, power density, thermal behavior and available space are central to finished designs. Its portfolio spans discrete transistors, integrated power stages and application-specific devices across voltage classes ranging from 15 to 350 volts.

EPC was the first known company to introduce commercial enhancement-mode GaN-on-silicon power transistors. Their normally-off operation allowed the devices to be incorporated into familiar power-system architectures while providing a path beyond the switching and size limitations of established silicon MOSFET technologies. That work has continued through successive generations of eGaN FETs, with device development focused on lower resistance, reduced capacitance, smaller die area and greater current capability. EPC offers both chip-scale and packaged products, allowing engineers to select between minimum device footprint and more conventional assembly requirements according to the application.

Efficient Power Conversion - EPC - Featured Expert Logo - Electronics Industry Monthly Integration represents another important part of the company’s technology strategy. Selected EPC GaN integrated circuits combine power transistors with gate-drive, level-shifting and related control functions on the same semiconductor platform. Its ePower Stage devices incorporate high-side and low-side eGaN FETs with the driver circuitry required for compact half-bridge and motor-drive implementations. These technologies are increasingly applied within compact electric-motion systems. EPC supports three-phase brushless DC motor drives for robotics, drones, industrial automation, power tools and electric mobility, including integrated devices and reference platforms developed around demanding size, weight and control requirements.

Power delivery for data centers and AI infrastructure forms another major area of company expertise. EPC devices support high-frequency DC-DC conversion, intermediate-bus architectures and point-of-load power stages for servers, accelerator hardware and other high-current computing platforms. The company is also extending its GaN technologies into emerging higher-voltage data-center distribution architectures.

In lidar and pulsed-power applications, EPC devices are used to generate the fast, high-current pulses required to drive laser diodes. This work supports automotive, robotic, mapping and other remote-sensing systems where pulse width, current amplitude and repeatability directly influence measurement performance. The wider application base includes solar power conversion, battery systems, Class-D audio, wireless power, communications equipment, medical imaging and aerospace electronics. Automotive-qualified and radiation-hardened product families extend the technology into vehicle, satellite and other environments requiring additional reliability or qualification controls.

EPC also supports adoption through evaluation boards, reference designs, design guides, device models, reliability reports and application engineering resources. These materials address the practical work of gate-drive selection, layout, thermal management, assembly and qualification as GaN devices move from evaluation into production. The company’s role therefore extends beyond the development of individual power transistors. EPC has built a broader engineering environment around enhancement-mode GaN, allowing device performance, circuit architecture, integration and application requirements to be considered together.

Typical applications for EPC technologies include AI and data-center power, robotics, drones, industrial motor drives, automotive systems, lidar, electric mobility, solar power, telecommunications, medical equipment, satellites and other aerospace and defense platforms. Founded in 2007 and headquartered in El Segundo, California, Efficient Power Conversion Corporation supports customers through global sales, technical and applications-engineering resources. To learn more about EPC and its enhancement-mode gallium-nitride technologies, please click here.

(Editor’s Note: All trademarks mentioned in this article, including company names, product names, and logos, are the property of their respective owners. Use of these trademarks is for informational purposes only and does not imply any endorsement.)

Molly Bakewell Chamberlin
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