Day 1 - December 12th, 2023

Bodo's WBG - Opening

My WBG event returns to the Hilton Munich Airport on December 12 and 13, and I am more than excited to have it as an in-person event again!

On this first day, I want to kick off the event with a keynote roundtable starting at 4pm. After a brief welcome, I would like to discuss with you and our guests from top technology leaders, the hurdles that were to overcome on the road to WBG materials adoption today, and where you still see challenges on the horizon.

Since their challenges are fundamentally similar, I will welcome experts on both SiC and GaN on stage together. The talk is scheduled for about 90 minutes and will be followed by an informal come-together with finger food and drinks in the foyer, just like at my last event in 2019.

A huge Thank You goes out to Navitas for sponsoring the evening event!

(sponsor navitas)
floorplan
Bodo during the opening keynote 2019

4pm - Keynote

Overcome Barriers

Wide Bandgap devices have reached a point that we have to bring the expertise to the broad community of our engineers.

Functionality has been the first step for SiC and GaN devices followed by reliability to be confident in new design approach.

We have to overcome the barrier that is popping up with any new technology. It is our task to bring engineers in industry the technology and have the world class experts from GaN and SiC on stage to answer critical questions to the audience.

My guests at the keynote roudtable will be:

(portrait Alex Lidow)

Alex Lidow, Ph.D., CEO and Co-founder at Efficient Power Conversion (EPC), 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, under 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.

epc-co.com

(portrait Guy Moxey)

Guy Moxey, Senior Director of Power Marketing at Wolfspeed, has spent his entire career in the power semiconductor industry with roles in applications, product marketing, product line management and business unit leadership. His career has included employment at International Rectifier, Siliconix and Fairchild Semiconductor.

He received his B.Eng (Hons) in electrical/electronic engineering from the University of Brighton and his MSc in power electronics from the University of Birmingham.

wolfspeed.com

(portrait Philip Zuk)

Philip Zuk, Senior Vice President, Business Development and Marketing, leads technical marketing effort for Transphorm's high voltage GaN FET technology in high power applications. He worked previously for Vishay (Siliconix) heading up their high voltage superjunction technology, Microsemi PPG running marketing efforts on their high voltage MOSFET, FRED diodes, IGBTs, and SiC efforts, Medallion Instrumentation Systems and Fairchild Semiconductor. He has expertise in power supply designed systems and applications, high power semiconductor devices, micro-controller based systems, RFID, and project management.

He holds a MBA (Hons) from I.H. Asper School of Business, University of Manitoba, a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering, University of Manitoba, and an Electronic Engineering Technology Associate Degree, Red River College. He holds 2 US patents a trade secret and has authored many technical and application papers.

transphormusa.com

(portrait Johannes Schoiswohl)

Johannes Schoiswohl, Ph.D., Senior Vice President & General Manager at Infineon Technologies Austria AG, since 1st July 2023 Business Line Head of Power & Sensor Systems (PSS) GaN Systems. He started his career as technology development engineer at Infineon Austria and held multiple management positions at Infineon over the past years. He spent several years at Infineon Technologies North America Corporation where he was leading product lines for Power Management products. Back in Europe, he deepened his experience in the fields of Chips & Discretes and led the Business Line for Efficient Power Supplies, Isolation & Connectivity.

Dr. Schoiswohl holds an Ph.D. in Physics from the Karl Franzens University Graz and a Master of Science in Technical Physics from the University of Technology Graz.

infineon.com

(portrait Ranbir Singh)

Ranbir Singh joined Navitas with the acquisition on GeneSiC Semiconductor, which he founded in 2014. Ranbir has dedicated his life to the mission of high-performance, high-reliability semiconductors, and is highly respected in the power electronics community, with several awards, over 200 journal and conference papers, plus over 30 US patents.

Ranbir holds a Bachelor of Technology, Electrical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, and both Master’s and PhD in Electrical Engineering – Power Semiconductors, from North Carolina State University, Raleigh.

navitassemi.com

(portrait Aly Mashaly)

Aly Mashaly is the Director of ROHM's European Application and Technical Solution Center (ATSC). He is an expert in power electronics, especially in automotive applications, and has worked for many years as a development engineer and project manager in the fields of e-mobility and aerospace applications. He is also a regular speaker at various conferences, including PCIM, ECPE, EPE and CS International.

rohm.com