Slidecast: Rethinking Server Power Architecture in the Post-Silicon World

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Alexander Lidow, CEO & Co-Founder of EPS

Alexander Lidow, CEO & Co-Founder of EPS

In this slidecast, Alexander Lidow from EPC describes how the company is leading a technological revolution with Gallium Nitride (GaN). More efficient than silicon as a basis for electronics, GaN could save huge amounts of energy in the datacenter and has the potential to fuel the computer industry beyond Moore’s Law.

“With the amount of digital data exploding, the data center requires improved power management. As major server manufacturers such as Google reexamine the on-board power architecture, the prime candidate for improving efficiency, reducing board space, and lowering cost is to go directly from 48 V to load voltage (1.8 or 1V). This can be accomplished with silicon technology but with great complexity and high cost. That’s where GaN comes in. Due to its superior switching speeds and smaller footprint, working with EPC, Texas Instruments is building a simpler topology that achieves better efficiency with smaller footprints and significantly lower cost.”

Alex Lidow joined International Rectifier 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 IRF, 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 GaN transistors, GaN Transistors for Efficient Power Conversion. In 2004 he was elected to the Engineering Hall of Fame, and in 2005 IRF, his leadership, International Rectifier 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.

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Comments

  1. Robert W Ferran says

    Congratulations on your superb presentation. Clarifies your mission equally well to engineers and laypersons.