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>It is absolutely stupid to talk about this as edisons revenge. If Tesla had the modern high power transistors needed to get high voltage dc out of the ac produ

>It is absolutely stupid to talk about this as edisons revenge. If Tesla had the modern high power transistors needed to get high voltage dc out of the ac produced from a spinning turbine he would be all for high voltage dc too. This! The soon people realized these facts the better. The pervasive high rise buildings did not happen before the invention of modern cranes. Exactly twenty years ago I was doing a novel research on GaN characterization, and my supervisors made a lot money with consulations around the world, and succesfully founded govt funded start-up company around the technology. Together with SiC, these are the two game changing power devices with wideband semiconductor technology that only maturing recently. Heck, even the Nobel price winning blue LED discovery was only made feasible by GaN. Watch the excellent video made by Veritasium for this back story [1]. [1] Why It Was Almost Impossible to Make the Blue LED: https://youtu.be/AF8d72mA41M https://youtu.be/AF8d72mA41M

mcbishop 7mo ago
I've heard the EV charging has played a big role in the maturation of GaN / SiC.
- teleforce 7mo ago
  Yes, EV and high frequency electronics (microwave, mmWave, photonics) that require very fast switching capability.
  - UltraSane 7mo ago
    And military radars love GaN
jibal 7mo ago
https://shrunk.ai/research-journals/f/cranes-skyhooks-and-iterative-design https://shrunk.ai/research-journals/f/cranes-skyhooks-and-it...
ta9000 7mo ago
Does that mean when we run out of Ga there are no more LED TVs?
- AndrewDucker 7mo ago
  Why would we run out of Ga?
  - mikkupikku 7mo ago
    There's a component of modern culture that trains and expects people to be extremely pessimistic about long term human development. It results in situations above, where without any further information people just assume by default that were going to run out of a thing and are on some collision course with not just a disaster, but every single conceivable one. (Gallium is a byproduct of aluminum production. We aren't going to run out.)
    - ta9000 7mo ago
      [flagged]
      - jcattle 7mo ago
        From your earlier comment, your curiosity was more about what happens after we run out. In your question you stated the running out as a given fact ("When" we run out, not "if"). If that was what you wanted to say I can't tell you, but that's definitely how it was received and thus you also got the harsh response. Since it reads a lot like doomsday thinking. (Example: Does that mean when we run out of oxygen there are no more humans? Why would we run out?)
        pixl97 7mo ago
        ?Why would we run out?) Of oxygen, because of rising temperatures interacting with rock weathering binding all the oxygen. Now, that's more of something to worry about at geological time scales, but Earth in fact, is not infinite.
da02 7mo ago
What are some novel processes or technologies you see becoming more important in the next 5-10 years?
asah 7mo ago
> The pervasive high rise buildings did not happen before the invention of modern cranes. yyy! if we're going to wander off-topic :-) then I should mention elevators, water pumps, fire suppression including fire truck ladders and more! :-)

mcbishop 7mo ago

I've heard the EV charging has played a big role in the maturation of GaN / SiC.

teleforce 7mo ago
Yes, EV and high frequency electronics (microwave, mmWave, photonics) that require very fast switching capability.
- UltraSane 7mo ago
  And military radars love GaN

jibal 7mo ago

https://shrunk.ai/research-journals/f/cranes-skyhooks-and-iterative-design https://shrunk.ai/research-journals/f/cranes-skyhooks-and-it...

ta9000 7mo ago

Does that mean when we run out of Ga there are no more LED TVs?

AndrewDucker 7mo ago
Why would we run out of Ga?
- mikkupikku 7mo ago
  There's a component of modern culture that trains and expects people to be extremely pessimistic about long term human development. It results in situations above, where without any further information people just assume by default that were going to run out of a thing and are on some collision course with not just a disaster, but every single conceivable one. (Gallium is a byproduct of aluminum production. We aren't going to run out.)
  - ta9000 7mo ago
    [flagged]
    - jcattle 7mo ago
      From your earlier comment, your curiosity was more about what happens after we run out. In your question you stated the running out as a given fact ("When" we run out, not "if"). If that was what you wanted to say I can't tell you, but that's definitely how it was received and thus you also got the harsh response. Since it reads a lot like doomsday thinking. (Example: Does that mean when we run out of oxygen there are no more humans? Why would we run out?)
      - pixl97 7mo ago
        ?Why would we run out?) Of oxygen, because of rising temperatures interacting with rock weathering binding all the oxygen. Now, that's more of something to worry about at geological time scales, but Earth in fact, is not infinite.

da02 7mo ago

What are some novel processes or technologies you see becoming more important in the next 5-10 years?

asah 7mo ago

> The pervasive high rise buildings did not happen before the invention of modern cranes. yyy! if we're going to wander off-topic :-) then I should mention elevators, water pumps, fire suppression including fire truck ladders and more! :-)