A Roundtable on the Top Trends at APEC 2026
What you'll learn:
- Thoughts about the APEC 2026 event.
- Trends and technologies seen at the show.
- Predictions about the market going forward.
The IEEE Applied Power Electronics Conference (APEC) 2026 was held this year in beautiful San Antonio, Texas, bringing together people from around the world to learn from, network, and do business with one another. Presenting a world-class exhibition of the latest in power electronics solutions, APEC also hosted a number of other activities well worth looking into, such as Plenary Session talks, Technical Sessions, and Professional Education Seminars.
This year, there were 5,452 registrations — a record — with exhibitors increasing to 319 versus 314 in 2025. In this podcast, a group of editors who attended the event, Alix Paultre, Lee Goldberg, and James Morra, give their insights on the show and the technology trends they saw there.
SHOW NOTES
00:56 – Power is Power
06:47 – Solid-State Transformers in Data Centers
14:50 – Silicon Advancements
19:20 – GaN
23:49 – Power Efficiency Challenges
>>Check out more of our APEC 2026 coverage
About the Author
Alix Paultre
Editor-at-Large, Electronic Design
An Army veteran, Alix Paultre was a signals intelligence soldier on the East/West German border in the early ‘80s, and eventually wound up helping launch and run a publication on consumer electronics for the US military stationed in Europe. Alix first began in this industry in 1998 at Electronic Products magazine, and since then has worked for a variety of publications in the embedded electronic engineering space. Alix currently lives in Wiesbaden, Germany.
Also check out his YouTube watch-collecting channel, Talking Timepieces.
James Morra
Senior Editor
James Morra is the senior editor for Electronic Design, covering the semiconductor industry and new technology trends, with a focus on power electronics and power management. He also reports on the business behind electrical engineering, including the electronics supply chain. He joined Electronic Design in 2015 and is based in Chicago, Illinois.
Lee Goldberg
Contributing Editor
Lee Goldberg is a self-identified “Recovering Engineer,” Maker/Hacker, Green-Tech Maven, Aviator, Gadfly, and Geek Dad. He spent the first 18 years of his career helping design microprocessors, embedded systems, renewable energy applications, and the occasional interplanetary spacecraft. After trading his ‘scope and soldering iron for a keyboard and a second career as a tech journalist, he’s spent the next two decades at several print and online engineering publications.
Lee’s current focus is power electronics, especially the technologies involved with energy efficiency, energy management, and renewable energy. This dovetails with his coverage of sustainable technologies and various environmental and social issues within the engineering community that he began in 1996. Lee also covers 3D printers, open-source hardware, and other Maker/Hacker technologies.
Lee holds a BSEE in Electrical Engineering from Thomas Edison College, and participated in a colloquium on technology, society, and the environment at Goddard College’s Institute for Social Ecology. His book, “Green Electronics/Green Bottom Line - A Commonsense Guide To Environmentally Responsible Engineering and Management,” was published by Newnes Press.
Lee, his wife Catherine, and his daughter Anwyn currently reside in the outskirts of Princeton N.J., where they masquerade as a typical suburban family.
Lee also writes the regular PowerBites series.
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